New Hampshire Trip Day 4
Imagine the most amazing steam bath you’ve ever taken. Now make the steam have a nearly overwhelming scent of maple syrup. That’s what we did this morning.
We went back to Windswept Maples Farm this morning to see the guys boiling sap. As we walked up they were finishing feeding the cows and had just started the boilers. The sap starts out clear and after 45-60 minutes of boiling they can start bottling the syrup. They showed us how they tell what grade syrup they are producing. I was surprised to learn they don’t have a lot of control over what grade syrup they will get when they’re done. Depending on conditions they can get anything from a ‘Grade A Light’ to a dark ‘Grade B’. I personally prefer the darker syrups as they have a bit stronger taste. We ended up buying over a gallon of fresh syrup in a few different grades. We also got maple candy and maple cream too. After an hour of talking about maple syrup and farming we hit the road.
On our way south we stopped by the Canterbury Shaker Village. A historical Shaker village north of Concord. It is closed this time of year so we could only look from the road. It was still quite beautiful and interesting.
We were supposed to make it to a meeting of the Free Staters in Manchester. It’s a group of libertarians dedicated to restoring freedom to the people of New Hampshire. It was nice to meet several people from New Hampshire and gain contacts in the state. They are very passionate about changing New Hampshire for the better. After a couple hours we decided to head south to Boston.
Boston is only about an hour south of Manchester so we arrived in Boston around 3:30. We figured it’d be a little quiet and we could look around a bit before finding a place to stay. As we pulled out of the tunnel onto the surface streets we were met by a solid wall of cars and people. After driving around for 10 minutes trying to get oriented I pulled back onto the freeway and left Boston. Too many people. Too many cars. Just too much.
We found a place to stay about 5 miles north of Boston tonite and will head back in early tomorrow, Easter Sunday, when we hope it’ll be less hectic.