The New Hampshire Expedition of October 2001

PART ONE

Marie and I arrive on a Friday, direct flight from Chicago to Manchester, New Hampshire. We sit next to some non-descript old white people and a large, friendly-looking black man.

We pick up a rental car at the airport and immediately head south for our hotel in Merrimack. Marie has chosen a room at a Residence Inn (246 Daniel Webster Hwy, Merrimack NH 03054) that looks more like an apartment -- it even has a fireplace.

Our first outing is Mount Kearsage. We go to Rollins State Park (in the town of Warner), pay the man at the gate and park in the picnic area at the foot of the Rollins Trail.

Marie has sensitive ears. In fact, her L.A. blood runs too cold in Illinois as it is, so the wind-swept top of Mount Kearsarge is just a little too much to be withstood without her trusty hat.

Marie assures me that this platform is not a sniper tower, but rather a firestation where keen-eyed forest rangers watch their mountain woodlands. If you ask me, this looks like the perfect UFO rendezvous point.

This GOD PROTECT THE USA sign at the local McDonalds reminds us of the risk Americans take everytime they down a Big Mac. I think it's a nice touch though. More greasy spoons and habitually unhealthy eating establishments ought to warn their patrons (if not the entire country) accordingly, "Only God can save you from the culinary horrors that await within."

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Now go make your own collection of hideous memories!