10-10-2025 Bartlett, NH

There is not a whole lot to do in Bartlett, NH.  Let me rephrase that.  There is nothing to do in Bartlett, NH.  We had a small breakfast in our room at the Villager Motel, worked a bit on the computer and then, drove as far as North Conway in search of an interesting place to have an early dinner.  At last, we drove on back and found Matty B’s Bar and Grill.  It has big windows and lies directly across the street from the Attitash Ski Resort on White Mountain.  “Attitash” is an Indian word of the indigenous Abenaki tribe and it means, “blueberry,” or “huckleberry.”  The locals we talked to say that this area gets its share of snow in the winter.  In fact, Tandy, one of the waitresses at the Fireside Inn in Lebanon, told us that in one snowfall last year, they got 2 feet of snow.  Regularly, we see everyday old pick-up trucks with snowplows attached to the front end.  When you drive one of those, you know you have problems.  In fact, I saw one pick-up with a snowplow attachment and tracks instead of tires.  Not on my bucket list.

Just an amusing
sticker at
Matty B's.

 

Bartlett had an attraction that we found:  The Bartlett Bridge.  It was built in 1851 and was a transport across the Saco River for stagecoaches bearing travelers and mail.  During the Civil War, the bridge served as the quiet, somber walkway for boys who headed for the enlistment centers.  Later, a steel bridge was built nearby and the Bartlett Bridge became nonfunctional in 1939.  A clever entrepreneur woman bought the bridge for $30,000 to save it from turning into firewood.  She created a gift shop in the bridge and it lives on.

Driving on the steel bridge
next to Bartlett Bridge

Bartlett Bridge Gift Shoppe

 

The people here talk funny.  They do not live in New Hampshire.  The live in New Hamp-shah.  You do not go to the door and up the stairs.  You go to the doo-ah and up the stay-ahs.  And you pahk yo-ah cah in the pah-kin lot.  That’s how they too-wahk.

 

The drive to Old Orchard Beach was beautiful.  The yellow, orange, gold and red leaves have not quite called it a season, yet.  The other day, driving from Stowe to Bartlett, it was a 5-hour drive over 110 miles, stopping every few miles to visit, photograph and gasp at the beauty of it all.  Today was no different.  The distance was 75 miles but our drive was about 4 hours with stops and meandering slowly through the beauty of the mountains of the trees.  In the end, Rob said, “I’m all tree’d out.  Let’s go.” 

 

To the ocean we go for 5 days in Old Orchard Beach, ME.  The Edgewater Inn is right on the Atlantic and 20 steps from Joseph’s by the Sea restaurant.  Lindy says, “I think I’m going to love this.  Hey!  Lobster me!”

Spotted these two half-naked
hussies on the beach.
Just kidding.