The breakfast at the B&B is more than we need but we can't resist Laurence's good cooking, so once our tummies are full, we bid our goodbyes and head out into the cold drizzly morning to cross into New Hampshire and wind our way through the White Mountains on the renowned picture perfect 34 mile long Kancamagus Highway. It doesn't disappoint us at all even though we heard that this foliage season isn't as good as it should be due to the wrong weather conditions. Apparently the best weather for good coloured foliage is a wet summer followed by a dry autumn but this year has been the opposite causing a lot of the foliage to drop before turning colour. Along the high mountain pass which is totally fog bound, we see patches of early snow which is a sign of things to come very soon, hopefully after we leave! We explore several little towns including the delighful college town of Hanover ....... Dartford College is here. It's a typical New England town of neat white two-storied houses spread out on lush green lawns with manicured gardens and most with stars and stripes flying somewhere. Even telegraph poles have them attached. Lunch is a Subway roll (as always dependable for a cheap nourishing lunch) and it is there where we come across the rudest person we have the displeasure to meet in the service industry. When he has trouble understanding my accent, he glares at me and snarls "Whaaa?" Brad looks like he is about to leap over the counter and bop this 6'2" 200lb moron, so I quickly ask him if he is doing me some sort of favour by serving me. That is a bit hard for him to compute and it turns out he has had a "long morning" (poor baby). If I could leave a negative tip, this would be the place!

By this time the sun is shining and makes the colours of the trees sparkle. We do our best to travel along roads other than freeways but it is hard to convince our GPS of this request. Somehow we manage to navigate down the eastern side of the Connecticut River in New Hampshire then over onto the other side (Vermont) for the final few miles to Brattleboro. Along here we see our first covered bridge of which there are 100 in Vermont alone. These bridges were covered as protection from the elements and a lot have been restored & are still in use today. Brattleboro is quite a stately old town and our hotel (The Latchis) was built in 1938 and has kept its original art deco appearance both internally and externally. We have been given the purple room which is lovely & roomy and overlooks the Connecticut River. Dinner tonight is at the attached pub which boasts good grub and good beer. Brad certainly isn't disappointed with the beer, his choice this time being Founders which we find out later has an alcohol content of 8.3%. No wonder it is good! A special for the day on the menu is Pot Roast so we order just one dinner and two plates. Very good choice both in quantity and quality.