I was working on “A Walpolean in Paris – 11-17 October 2016” Part I and Part II, but could sense that BLUE BELLE was “blue.” She was pining, “there is all that color out there, but no blue. I can change that.” It was not supposed to rain until early evening, and you know I cannot say no to my ladies, so off we went “leaf peeping.” But our 73 kilometers were shortened after 45 — the building clouds opened up with rain. So, we headed back home. In sprite of the rain, I arrived totally dry. You see, the windscreen (now operating as a rain screen) is aerodynamically designed to keep the cockpit dry above 35MPH (56KPH). A wonderfully dry environment is created. Only a few errant drops that accumulated at the top of the screen splatted back onto my forehead. So, here are some colors – sadly somewhat muted due to the overcast.

We started overlooking the village from North Road. A favorite spot of mine to see the village in various seasons. HINT – you may wish to click on my panoramas to open a larger view. Below is the first panorama.

Below you can see the Town Hall’s cupola (next to my house) in this image looking from a slightly different angle. I have almost the exact image from last year on The Walpole Clarion website – once there, just scroll down a tad.

We then headed up to Barnett Hill. One of the most expansive views in town looking west. Vermont mountains, dozens of miles distant, are in the background. Here is the second panorama.

A tad further up Barnett Hill Road heading east.

You know we love back dirt roads, and here were mostly yellows.

And a tad further, we had to back up to share this panoramic view with you.

I wandered around Marlow, which is always pretty to visit, and captured this bucolic image, albeit with few leaves.

Left turn onto Route 10 heading to Newport, and possibly Lake Sunapee, there walking along the side of the road was Andrea. I was going to stop and see her at the Marlow Post Office (she used to be my clerk in town here). We waved, I u-turned, pulled over, and we visited for awhile — she was on her lunch break, and walks for an hour plus. Lovely chat catching up, but some rain drops began hitting me. “Route 123A has recently been repaved,” she told me. Hating to cut my journey short, at least here was an option. Previously on 123A it was easy for light-weight BLUE BELLE to go airborne over the bumps, even at 30 MPH.

By the time I got to 123A, it was obvious I had to head home through Acworth and Alstead. A two plus hour tour, arriving home to start writing and then lose power — yes, I am on a battery laptop.  So, if we can get out again with nice sun, and get some more images, I will let you know and add them here. Power has been out over an hour or more, hopefully I will be able to get this to you today.  Bye — as always, yours, RAY