Thanksgiving during the pandemic was a quiet affair. We eschewed efforts to see family or friends and dined instead on Janet’s rendering of Julia Child’s Coq Au Vin recipe and mashed potatoes. It was as delicious as it sounds. In past years, we’ve always tried to drive to New Jersey to see Autumn and Jim, but even that had effort needed to be postponed due to quarantine restrictions effect on our jobs. It was sad, knowing this was to be the first year since living in New England that we would not make our annual pilgrimage to see the NYC department store windows. But I consider myself a true adventurer and decided not to let the virus hinder me from venturing out of the apartment and taking in some of the beauty of New England.

Covered bridges are abundant throughout the northeast. Vermont has more than one hundred. We met a couple in October that took an entire week to see all of them. New Hampshire has about a quarter that many. For years I thought it would be neat to take some time and see some of them, and it just so happened Black Friday was a perfect day to begin this New England adventure. I did some research and found that while many are scattered throughout the state, there are some clusters that make it easy to see many bridges in a short amount of time. I chose the cluster just south of Keene in the southwestern corner of the state as a place for our mini getaway.

Our first bridge was called the Ashuelot Covered bridge. Many of the bridges span the Ashuelot river and I suppose this one was named for the river. I was surprised to find that these bridges are all operational and allow for one lane traffic. As the sign says, there’s a $5 fine for driving faster than you can walk, so I took it pretty slow.

The GPS showed an alternate route to the second bridge, the Coombs bridge, that took us through a lot of backwoods areas. It kind of set the tone for the rustic look of the bridge. Janet commented that she liked it better because it looked more natural.

Venturing on we found the Slate Covered Bridge, the Denman Thompson Covered Bridge, the Sawyer’s Crossing Covered Bridge, and finally the Carleton Covered bridge. We both agreed that the Denman Thompson was our favorite of the day with its red paint and green roof.

These bridges appear to be maintained with pride as all were in excellent working order, nicely painted, and labeled with its own shingle. We have about 20 more throughout the state to see, but we’re happy to save those sites for another day. Meanwhile, we’re back to work and keeping ourselves socially distant.