Second, they don't tax their liquor. Which means that the bottle of whiskey I bought was about half the price it would have been if I'd bought it here in Boston. This is a genius tactic for a state like New Hampshire, that generally doesn't have a ton to offer. I mean, while it was lovely yesterday, in about 2 weeks all those leaves are going to fall and the state will be frozen and miserable until spring. Why not lure Bostonians to your boring state by having a permanent happy hour?
Third, they have the best gas station food (at least at the gas station in Ashland) that I have ever had. Naturally after a nice long hike, food is the #1 priority. Well, it was priority 1B, 1A was finding a bathroom...some of my pre-hike carboloading didn't agree with me. TMI, sorry. Anyway, after that crisis was handled I was all about eating. And lucky for me, the gas station came through. I got a quinoa salad with roasted vegetables, and it was delicious. My friends got caesar chicken wraps, and by all accounts those were great too. I was expecting to have to settle for a soggy gas station sandwich, the ones where the tomatoes turn the bread into a pasty layer that coats some random low grade meat, but instead we were treated to a great lunch.
While the liquor and the lunch were nice discoveries, New Hampshire itself was clearly the best part of yesterday. If you close your eyes and imagine what a small New England town looks like in the fall, you probably see the same things that most people see: big trees with all different colored leaves, small shops selling maple syrup and lobsters, picket fences, pumpkins on porches...all that stuff. Well that was the town we drove through to get to the trail yesterday. It was the New Englandiest town ever, and it was great. I felt like a Kennedy.
The hike was great too. There is no doubt that I have been spoiled, living in Seattle, getting to enjoy all the natural beauty without realizing that not every place looks like that. At the old KJR studio at 351 Elliott, our studio was on the southwest corner of the building, and without doing anything but spinning in your chair you could see Puget Sound, Mt. Rainier, the Olympic Mountains and the downtown skyline. This was a sports radio studio, and it had a view that a postcard would envy. This is to say that in Seattle, you get so accustomed to being surrounded by this stuff that after a while you forget that you are so lucky. It didn't take long for me to realize that I missed these things after I got to Boston. So yesterday, getting out into the trails and the mountains was very therapeutic.
--Quick sidebar...in the last 3 paragraphs I have said nature is therapeutic, I romantically described a small New England town, and I admitted to eating a quinoa salad for lunch and loving it. The slow and painful transition into becoming a yuppie maybe complete. Somebody book my tickets to DMB at the Gorge next summer. Seriously though, that quinoa was awesome.--
One really funny thing that happened on the hike was the discovery of this piece of art work carved into a tree.
This is a photo of my buddy Justin and I, and some telepathic tree who know we were coming. What a coincidence. Serendipity perhaps. Whatever you want to call it, I felt like it was a good sign. The tree probably disagrees.
Oh yeah, one more thing about New Hammpshire. The state slogan is "Live free or die". That's 4 good things about New Hampshire.
-----Sports Time-----
I feel like I should probably say a word or two about living in Boston during the week of the Seahawks vs. Pats game. First off, no Patriots fan is afraid the Seahawks or of the 12th man. I have talked to tons of people out here, all of whom tell me the same thing about this afternoon's game. "The game might be close, but the Pats are gonna win." When I ask why, they almost all give me the same answer, "Cuz we're the Patriots." I guess 5 Super Bowl appearances in 11 years gives you right to some level of cockiness. Second, when you ask any fan of the Pats to explain how they will beat the Seahawks today, they can all give you the career numbers and highlights of every offensive player on the team..."Tawmy is supah sick, Gronk is a beast, Wes is healthy again, the run game is looking good," and on and on and on. They all fail to mention the same thing though...defense. Nobody has confidence in the Patriots D. And last I checked, defense is half of the game, and pretty important. Last, all anyone wants to bring up is the Seahawks vs. Packers game, and how lucky the Hawks are to be 3-2. Okay, we all agree that was a horrible call, no argument here. But, you can't ignore the fact that the Packers scored 12 points. TWELVE. That's a tiny number for such a prolific offense. It's also a fitting number considering what I think is among the biggest factors in today's game. The 12th Man. Tawmy maybe sick, but he's never heard a stadium like C-Link when it's rocking, and today it's going to be loud. I sure hope the Hawks can do something on offense, because the defense is going to keep them close. I'll take the Hawks 23-20.
Thanks for reading guys, it means a lot to me. Something like 600 page views on the first blog, which is insane. That's a lot of pressure, now I have to worry about being entertaining. Hope I came through here.
Follow me on twitter, @MrAndyBunker
Talk to you soon. Go Hawks.
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