May 04, 2002

New Hamshire Roadtrip

Lisa Carver's husband called Grant about a surprise baby shower he was throwing for her up in Dover, NH. When we realized that Tookie's family (aka - Isabella) had a getaway cabin in the woods nearby, we decided to make a weekend of it and roadtrip it on up.

New York, NY to West Ossipee, NH
Total Distance: 322.57 miles
Total Estimated Time: 5 hours, 56 minutes

me, tookie — Tookie totally tricked Grant into letting her have the front seat both ways by telling him that the backseat makes her feel carsick. HAHAHAHA! I can't believe he fell for that one. That's like the oldest "make you sit in the backseat" trick in the book. See what happens when you grow up without an older sibling?

grant — After seven hours on the road, the last of which was spend entirely on the 15 miles of backwoods dirt roads, we arrived at Tookie's family lakehouse.

grant — The house was on the edge of lake in middle of nowhere. There was no moon out that night and I don't think I've seen such pitch darkness in a really long time. Turns out that Grant is a big scaredy cat and Tookie and I took turns scaring the bejesus out of him. Look at him scurry up those stairs as I chase him in the darkness shuffling my feet and making "scary" noises. Run Grant, run!

tookie — When we got there, the house was still shut down for the winter. We managed to get the electricity on, but Tookie told us that there wasn't any running water...so she filled up a pitcher of water from the lake. (And after a night of drinking lake water and fearing that we'd contract "Beaver Fever," we realized the next morning that the water was on the whole time.)

grant — Grant strikes a manly, mountain-guy pose on the stairs.

grant — Grant gives the thumbs up to the fire he built. (Just for the record, the flame you see is actually just newspaper burning and his "fire" promptly died out like 10 seconds after the photo was taken).

grant, tookie — Turns out that Grant was too scared outside in the dark by himself to take the time to find some dry kindling. So after his "girlyfire" went out I had to go out and find some wood to get the real fire going (but I still let him pose in front of it like he had something to do with it).

grant, tookie — Morning. Grant and Tookie strike a pose for a photo that looks like it was lifted right out of the Mt. Airy Lodge brochure.

grant, me — Early mornin' mountain men. These were taken on the back porch. The house sits on sort of a penninsula and is surrounded by the lake on three sides.

grant, tookie — Tookie and G-money.

grant, tookie — There are these giant rocks all over the place surrounding the house.

My car at the top of the path that leads down to the house.

grant, tookie — We packed up at Tookie's and gathered up our stuff to head down to Lisa Carver's house in Dover, NH (about 80 miles south east of West Ossipee).

On the way out, we were going to pop into Tookie's uncle's cabin just down the road...but when we got there we found out that it was protected by the Pope!

West Ossipee in full-effect, boyee.

grant, me, tookie — Roadtripping Idgits.

Enroute to Lisa's we stopped to grab a bite at the Wakefield Diner...

...which is apparently where Santa eats when he's off duty.Grant makes eyes at the locals.

grant, me — Grant makes eyes at the locals.

I was planning on eating somthing late save room for the food at Lisa's house, but when I saw Chicken Fried Steak on the menu (served w/ 2 eggs and hashbrowns), I couldn't resist. In the words of the illustrious Brian Battjer, Sr. "Eating healthy doesn't make you live longer, it just makes it seem longer."

grant, tookie — Bellies full of diner grease, we hit the road again towards Lisa's...