MacGougan at Large
Notes on New Hampshire - 4
Miscellaneous Observations
We pass a school with a big sign saying Josiah Bartlett Elementary. Isn’t Josiah (Jed) Bartlett the president from “The West Wing”? Do they name schools here after famous fictional New Hampshirites? If so, do the graduates of Josiah Bartlett Elementary go on to Dick Loudon Middle School? Dick Loudon being the New Hampshire innkeeper played by Bob Newhart.
Oops! A quick Google search tells me that Bob Newhart’s inn was in Vermont. Another search tells me that Josiah Bartlett can be either the president from “The West Wing” or the actual first governor of New Hampshire.
There are three U.S. states that are named “New” plus somewhere in England. New Hampshire is the only one of those three that’s in New England. Sorry, New York and New Jersey. You don’t get to be part of our region based on your name alone.
Driving from one hike to another, we pass a roadside drive-through strawberry stand. We pull in under a tent, roll down our window, buy a pint from a kid who’s presumably a member of the family that owns and runs the farm, and resume our drive. The strawberries are perfect.
We take a kayak trip on the Saco River. We’re transported several miles upriver in a bus and the drop-off point requires hauling the boats a surprising distance to get to the water. After that, it’s a peaceful and beautiful trip back. At least until the last mile or so, when the river becomes crowded with inner-tubers.
We take the cog railroad to the top of Mount Washington, a place which exists in a colder, windier parallel universe. There’s a visitors’ center and a weather station and a few outbuildings, including a shed that houses a souvenir shop. There are three big chains that are anchored on one side of the shed, pass over the top of the shed, and then are anchored on the other side. So far, they’ve managed to keep the shed from being blown off the mountain.
The White Mountains have some big resorts and some small B&Bs, but lots and lots of medium-sized inns. High season is the winter for skiing, but they also seem to do a good business in the summer for hiking.
On our last day, we stop at the Mount Washington Hotel, site of the Bretton Woods conference that created the post-World-War-Two international monetary system. It’s now a posh Omni Hotel, but they have a few exhibits about the history. While we’re there, a sunny day suddenly turns into a torrential downpour. As it happens, unless you’re a paying guest with a presidential suite, the parking is about a half mile from the hotel. I codger-sprint my way to the car, ineffectually holding a small, fold-up umbrella over my head to indicate to any onlookers that I’m not getting soaked to the bone on purpose.
Is “This is Darryl and my other brother Darryl” from the Vermont Inn show? The phrase comes to mind a surprising number of times in one’s life.
Being a recent reader of “MacGougan at Large” I may have missed some important geographical MacGougan milestones.
For example, I may be operating under the mistaken belief that you live in Connecticut. When I started reading MaL, the essays (or whatever they’re called) were about Hawaii. Now they’re about New Hampshire. There might even have been some reference in there to Norway.
In fact , when I started typing “MacGougan” the first time today, my phone unaccountably suggested the word “Harvard” (that’s gotta hurt, I’m thinking). Where are you exactly?
By the way, I grew up in Manchester (CT). AI tells me that 22 US states have a town called “Manchester” including, not surprisingly, all of the New England states except Rhode Island (for the record, I went to college in RI and there’s a lot of stuff it doesn’t have).*
*Originally I had a reason for this Manchester thing but that reason, which at the time felt like a pretty good one, seems gone now. My apologies.