Keeping our Eye on the Eye of Hurricane Lee (9/10 - 9/15/2023)

While our planned travels had moved us south along the coast, turns out Hurricane Lee was making its turn toward the east coast, tracking right up along the New England coastline. We were watching the track we drove to Wakeda Campground in Hampton Falls, NH.  We hit a few slow downs on our way around Boston but we were able to settle in before it rained, again.

We explored Hampton Beach and the Seabrook Beach areas via car as it was cloudy and spitting rain.  The beaches were massive.  Between it being post Labor Day and a dismal weather day there were very few people around and most of the boardwalk area shops seemed closed for the season.  We stopped at Markey's Lobster Pound for chowder. The lobster bisque was delicious and my last lobster meal.

Lobster Chowder in Styrofoam...Yes, please!

Another rainy day kept us inside, but Mike was able to work on our e-bikes a bit more to get them in good riding condition.  There was a nice picnic shelter near our campsite which provided a good place to work in the rain.  A local bike shop was able to realign my front tire and we were back in business.  My leg and knee had finally turned the corner on healing and I was ready to get back on the bike.

Fellow campers had suggested that Newburyport, MA was a nice day visit.  We strolled the town and waterfront on a sunny day.  We also drove out to Plum Island and found a quiet beach with a light breeze that proved to be a perfect spot for kite flying.  On our way home, conveniently around 5pm, we enjoyed a lovely cocktail and happy hour menu at Mission Oak restaurant in Newburyport. 

Our densely forested campground had over 400 camping site, almost all nestled in and among very tall pines.  They happened to have a very nice pickleball court which was perfect for me to test out my knee and make sure all was working as planned.

My birthday was on September 14th and we had planned to go to the Salem Witch Trails Museum and have lunch on the waterfront.  The museum and town of Salem has fully embraced this history of the trials and the occult in general.  The witch trails were a very strange atrocity in American history and mixed with this strange "tourist trap" vibe made this a very interesting stop.  We then enjoyed a lovely lunch at Sea Level Restaurant before heading back to Ruth.

Lee was taking a turn for the worse at this point, heading right up the coast.  We got a phone call from the camping office suggesting that we may want to leave early as there are many trees that may be impacted from the storm.  Yikes!

Luckily our next stop was inland about 200 miles near Poughkeepsie, NY.  We had been watching the weather and had already added an extra day in case of emergency.  Well, off we go to get out of Lee's path.  The campground did not offer us a refund for our early departure.