R and J in the USA

Next stop, New Hampshire, where the “live free or die” motto sets some high stakes. And we learned that, in New Hampshire, they mean it. Good thing we entered the state living as freely as ever.

To that point, we were now in a state for which we had no pre-planned itinerary. We had run out of runway and not yet found time to catch up on formal itinerary planning. Julie had been stewing on a loose day-by-day itinerary for New Hampshire in her head. She had already done research on the possible New Hampshire 5Ks, but no reservations were made at campsites and no destinations were finalized. Everything was still fairly up in the air. We are good rolling with things, though we have found it takes much more of a toll and leaves us with significantly less time to spend on our other projects, so getting ahead on our itinerary was a top priority. On our way over the state line, we registered for the 5K and sent last minute texts to arrange our stay for that night.

Our first stop in New Hampshire after said texts were exchanged was for some surrogate parental love in the small town of Amherst at the house of John and Peggy Silva, the parents of Julie’s college bestie. They welcomed us warmly and looked at us strangely when we turned down a big comfy indoor bed for another night in the van. Laundry was done; toilets, garbage, compost, and recycling were emptied; batteries were recharged (electrical and human); and merriment was had by all. Being parents of another theater kid, they were a well-seasoned, enthusiastic, and encouraging audience that asked Julie to perform a handful of her state songs (check out Julie’s Odes to the 50 States) and a handful of songs from her musical – which, of course, Julie LOVED. John Silva, a history aficionado, gave us a fantastic walking tour of this small New Hampshire town, and we were all about it. It quickly felt like another home away from home. Though excited for the rest of our New Hampshire adventures, we were hard-pressed to leave.

Next stop, Concord, NH, to visit the state capitol. It was a beautiful capitol building. Like every one before it, it expressed state capitolhood in its own unique flavor that came out in both the little and big details alike. Located right on Main Street, it was the perfect location to express the citizen government that runs New Hampshire. The woman sitting at the desk in the Governor’s office, Dee, was a wonderful representative of the state and impressed us right away. (Check out more about her in our People Along the Way section.) She went out of her way to engage us in conversation and was clearly passionate and knowledgeable about New Hampshire as a state. Between our local history tour in Amherst and Dee’s welcoming enthusiasm, we could feel the state pride in a new kind of way, and we loved it. We walked Main Street, ate more Mexican food, bought more chocolate, and headed to a nearby state park where we’d managed to grab a last-minute campsite reservation.

The next morning, the 4th of July, we headed to Derry for our Run for Freedom 5K. (Check out more about the race in our 5K section.) Kicked off with a moving speech by a veteran and a local rendition of the Star Spangled Banner that was quite good, it was a great way to head into the 4th. We had a neat conversation after the race with a woman decked out in full July 4th garb, – skirt, shirt, earrings, and more.

Next stop, the Robert Frost museum, located at his one-time home and farm in Derry that inspired much of his poetry. We walked the woods and read poems and, of course, there was a gift shop. 

The next stop in our itinerary was lofty in aim and we were on it – drive up to Conway in time to catch the 1:00 PM July 4th parade. We hopped in the van after being in, how to put this delicately, a lovely but quite uninvited conversation with the museum’s tour guide that we couldn’t politely find our way out of. We tried, yet it carried on. And on. And on. At one point the woman even acknowledged herself, “Oh, I’m just going on and on”. And then, with barely a breath, continued the soliloquy. She was sweet and we didn’t have the heart to interrupt her, but the clock was ticking. In the end, it’s on us for not having the backbone to pull the plug. Despite our attempt to give various body language signals that we were ready to go, we lost twenty minutes on our intended leave time. The staff were lovely people, we just had neglected to give them a copy of our itinerary ahead of time, so they were innocently going rogue. It turns out those minutes “made all the difference”. We arrived JUST outside of Conway at 1:00 PM on the nose when the street officially closed down for the parade. We were stuck in a line of cars about 500 yards from the advancing parade with no way to get to it. There was a certain comic justice to it. We were reaping what we had sewn. With Ryan’s permission, Julie hopped out of the stationary van and ran up the shoulder of the highway in time to be an official parade onlooker. Ryan, still stuck in the halted line of cars, took the opportunity to climb onto the roof of the van and look on from a quarter mile away. We counted it as a win. 

We made our way to Dolly Copp Campground in the White Mountain National Forest with fingers crossed that there would be some campsites left as we arrived with no reservation, a few dollars, and a dream – a dream that we would have a place to stay for the night. We found an open site that we liked, flagged down a campsite host, and gave them our self-registration.

We had planned to stay in Conway two nights and hike Mount Washington in the intervening day. One of our state-by-state goals was to hike a mountain in each state where there was a mountain to hike. It doesn’t have to be the tallest one, though if it can be, great. So far, we had already given up our Berkshires hike in an itinerary redirect. With an itinerary and blog still to catch up on and a little more rest desired, we reached the point of no return and decided we were not going to make it to the bottom of Mount Washington, let alone the top. Not on this trip. Since we’ve both hiked it before, we considered it an acceptable skip.

If you are going to miss a hike, there’s really no more beautiful place to do it than New Hampshire. When evening rolled around, we headed to Gorham to catch the show. We walked around the local carnival, had dinner, and then ascended to the van’s deck for a rooftop fireworks show. Having recently been to Fort McHenry and the Statue of Liberty, and being on this 50 states tour feeling as free as ever, the fireworks had a little more flare and meaning then usual.

Back to enjoying New Hampshire, we walked the beautiful streets of Conway, including a quick stop into Zeb’s, the famed general store. We drove the stunning Kancamagus Highway. We stopped by Clark’s Bears for a Bear show, a classic and longtime New Hampshire staple with quite an impressive origin story. We made our way to Franconia Notch State Park, where we visited the viewing area for what used to be the Old Man of the Mountain, Julie jumped in the lake in the rain in her clothes, and we hiked the Flume Gorge. We considering this a check on our “hike in New Hampshire” list, which brings up one of the rumination themes of our trip – what exactly counts as a hike? (Check out our Ruminations section for our attempt to answer this question.) We drove past yet another Rochester (this was our third Rochester of the trip) and made our way to Portsmouth for a boat cruise past a former military prison and a factory where women made submarines during World War II. We learned about the important role New Hampshire played in keeping German U-boats at bay during the war. Ice cream was not had, but açaí bowls were. If Julie had to choose between the two, regardless of whatever scandal or controversy such words could start, she would go with the latter any day. 

The evening of July 6th we popped back down to northern Rhode Island for another night in the Bally’s Casino parking lot. (Unfortunately this one was NOT a peaceful night of sleep for Julie). We woke up tired to tackle our Rhode Island 5K, which is a story all in itself (check out our 5K section for more about the race). After a very hot, very sticky, very tiring race morning, we headed back to New Hampshire to finish our time in Portsmouth. This included a stop at one of the beaches along their eighteen miles of shoreline, a quick dip in the “ice bath” qualifying New Hampshire Ocean, and a short bike ride for Julie (still trying her darnedest to swim, bike, and run in each state). We loved our time in New Hampshire even more than anticipated. We were starting to see a pattern. Every state seems to have a lot to love, which is probably why each state is filled with people proud to call it their home. In New Hampshire, we wholeheartedly chose their motto’s option one – live free. And we learned that, in New Hampshire, having the choice to make all on your own is what it is all about.