Bethelhem, NH - Back Roads and Small Towns

Today we travelled along a scenic byway and an interstate to get to our next campsite. As we were rockin’ and rollin’ down the interstate, I remarked that it certainly is much easier to drive on an interstate than a state or county road. It’s faster, easier, you don’t have to watch every intersection for someone on their phone to jump out in front of you, there are no streetlights nor stop signs, traffic and, let’s face it, often times the roads are much smoother. You want to go somewhere - take the interstate.
However, you want to have an interesting trip - take the state and county roads. Here you get to meet people in their shops, on benches in the city park, in picnic areas alongside the roads. You get to see houses, shops, gardens, playgrounds, barns, an infinite variety of settings that people design for them selves. Every small town has its own history. Everyone you meet has their own story. You miss all of this when you speed your way down the interstate of life.

For instance, today we travelled through the small town of Bethlehem, NH. We stopped because it was time to replenish our coffee and Bethlehem had a small coffee shop. Small town, just a dot on the road map. But we found some cool benches all painted lining the main street. Benches to sit on and enjoy the day. So, we accepted the invitation and sat on one of the benches and just watched the town pass us by.

We first noticed that there were a lot of Hasidic Jewish people walking around. We also noticed that there were several groups that looked like tourists. Finally we noticed that there were large lots with terraces leading down to the main street. In fact we were sitting on one. As we were leaving, we stopped to talk to an older couple on the next bench who had lived in the town for a long time.
They told us that Bethlehem used to be quite a tourist destination - when the railroad was built, wealthy New Yorkers came up here for cooler air, the more relaxed atmosphere and the ‘country’ living. At one point there were 7 trains daily to Bethlehem and over 30 luxury hotels lining the street filled with these tourists, They all built terraces as part of their landscaping scheme. Here are pictures of two of these luxury hotels. Bethlehem was a gilded age resort for the rich and famous.

When automobiles came into style and roads were built, people travelled far and wide rather than continually returning to Bethlehem.

Funny thing, Bethlehem was founded and named ‘Lloyd’ after a guy named Lloyd but, when he became a Loyalist, they changed the name to Bethlehem, on the last Christmas day of the 1800’s. Today, the town is known for its special Christmas postal cancellation stamp. Every year, people from all over the world send Christmas cards to the Bethlehem post office to have them postmarked. In 2000, it handled 56,000 Christmas cards.

There are still lots of Hasidic Jews who return each year though there are fewer than there used to be.
Interesting little town with quite a history. We stopped for some coffee and got a social history lesson to boot.

We returned to our RV and journeyed on to our next campground.