Apart from the first couple of hours of our first day in the US we have had sun and warmth or heat and I have just worn sandals. This is today.

We’re sad and obviously the weather is expressing its sadness at our leaving. We are now less than 24 hours from leaving the US.

Last night we had a typical hamburger, but with sweet potato chips. Apparently that is good for you and much healthier than normal chips, said a neighbouring diner! We sort of packed for leaving this morning before I wrote the blog last night. We felt a little chilly during the night and this morning it was pouring with rain when we woke up. Thus the socks and shoes.

I mentioned yesterday that there was a definite difference to the colour of the trees. We had seen the colours reach their peak and start to deteriorate. Today, the colours were mostly dirty yellow and brown and the branches much more bare. Old Forge seemed like a typical small town on a typical damp Autumn day. It reminded me of living in the mountains in Norway – the dirty damp period between the glistening, bright colours of summer and the sparkling white of winter. It is a very short period – as is Spring, but it took us a little by surprise.

It eventually stopped raining although it remained cloudy and the colours remained very dull.

We drove across the Adirondack to the other side, passing Blue Mountain Lake again, but this time continuing East. The boundary of the Adirondacks coincides with the boundary between Vermont and New York State. We left it at the tip of Lake George which flows into the Hudson River. A beautiful area. By this time we had begun to come lower down towards sea level, so we started entering ‘leaf peeping’ areas again.

Someone had advised us that Ludlow in Vermont and Keene in New Hampshire were beautiful places and we had thought to spend our last night in a motel in this area. We couldn’t find an affordable motel. The area was obviously very expensive, indicated by quite a few elegant and coiffured women about town. We decided to move on and hope we found somewhere suitable before dark. By the way, Keene in particular was very attractive with the trees dressed in yellows, greens and a lot of red.

We were now only about 1 1/2 hours from Boston and stopped in Peterborough to ask directions to a reasonable place to stay the night. We found the only place in town. A very nice Inn. We are spending our last night in reasonable comfort. It is warmer here and the trees are peeping. I have just had my last Margarita. It was delicious. The cases are now repacked and ready to go and Robin is already asleep.

Tomorrow we will have a quick look around the town before we set off for Logan Airport. I’ve already spotted an art shop.