Live free or die

The folk up here in NH are tremendously lovely, but don't forget it's moose country wilderness. Old men tend to cruise pass in their beat-up old utes and smile slowly, bearing yellowed teeth and a tatty old cowboy hat. We've done a fair bit of driving up through the countryside, (be assured you'll see some stunning highway-roadside-snaps)and it's guaranteed that you'll see old blokes sitting on their front porch, beer on hand, shotgun in the other, American flag proudly hung over the door, and a grin creepy enough to scar you for life. NH is also undoubtedly tough, as the state's slogan for all the licence plates is;

Now New York has "The Empire State", Florida "Sunshine State" and Massachusetts "The Spirit of America" But "Live free or die"? It sounds barbaric - as if you don't live free, the consequence is punishable by death. It's worrying. Wouldn't you much rather have a state known for something like "New Hampshire - Live free OR live-a-not-so-exciting-life" or "New Hampshire - Live free OR live-a-life-considerably-less-lively" ?? I know I would. But in the meantime, me and the girls are doing our best to "live free" and abide by the apparent state expectations.

So with that thought, we headed up Cannon Mountain, another great landmark in the White Mountains. This is what we hiked up;

Lol, good joke. We caught the cable-tram.

I just wanted to flag the fact that this is supposed to be a travel blog, and I am aware of the fact that I tend to throw up a truckload of photos, dropping a line or two about where it is, and then continue to ramble on about useless and senseless things, like the size of Target, my love of 'Merican accents, or in this case, about licence plates. I hope all you all don't mind too much, but I despise those people that feel the need to write a solid paragraph about every photo. Photos are worth a hundred words, right? I would estimate I have uploaded an approximate 35 photos each post about NH, times 4, equals 140. That means 1,140 words in photos PLUS all the useless garbage I ramble on about....You do the math, I'm too lazy. But in any case, if you spend half the time reading your uni textbooks than you did reading my blog, you'd probably be better off. But what do I know, I'm not even going to school.
...but please keep reading my blog. Pretty please :) 

Cannon Mountain photos as follows...

Random school bus for da lolz

Random toadstool for da lolz

We did a fair bit of trekking around in Toby today, stopping at highway gas stations to say howdy to the locals and have bikie gangs roar past us on the highway. We were hopeless at trying to put gas in and work the pumps and Bridge occasionally pulled out onto the left side of the highway.

After a trek around the mountain, we paused to be thoughtful and contemplative.

NH has more than 1,200 lakes and more than 1,500 miles of streams and rivers

Total serenity.

What I said had some truth to it the other day, more than 80% of the state is covered in forest terrain. Rock on.

We then took a 'scenic route' to attempt to get a kayak and do some water stuff, we arrived to late in the day. Next best thing was chair lifts and park fun-times, meeting locals and trying, oh trying so so hard to find a moose.

We were mucking around on a playground for a while when Bridge spotted this giraffe and everyone thought it was terribly funny to liken me to the creature mainly because of my physique and my innate clumsiness and awkwardness. Anyway this woman heard us laughing about it. So I had this bright idea to climb up, and this American woman (a rather sturdy looking one) came over and immediately started talking to us and nek minnit she's offering to lift me up onto the giraffe and my word it was the most ungraceful thing I've done in such a long time. I fell off and almost smacked her in the face with my elbows, knees and legs but in the end I got up and she was absolutely so proud of me for doing it. She watched our photos, wished us well and toddled off.

Bridge was insistent on making me look like an idiot. For some strange and odd reason I agreed.



Chairlifts to the top. Rock on.

These three.

R.E.P.R.E.S.E.N.T

YES!!! Favourite sign all round.

Toby having a highway rest. God love him.

The clouds came rolling in

Back at Lovetts Inn we amused ourselves by the pool, listened to music, chatted and headed back to The Common Man for tea. By the pool there was a rule that stated;

"Do not run or try stunts in the pool"

1. How exactly does one 'run' in a pool
2. 'Trying stunts' sounds rather exuberant for a simple backflip or dive. Don't you think? But in any case, I'll steer clear form any risky stunt business by the poolside.

Annie Darling in her favourite armchair, reading for tea

#meanttobeinamericaforcollege

We all ordered entrees so we'd have room for the dessert - tactical. I did get asked to try the mac 'n cheese pizza again by the toilet-tape voice though. She's rather pushy.