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Barbara Fritchman Thompson Diary

Week of 30 September 2000 (Week 40)

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Saturday, 30 September 2000

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After a grueling ten hour drive, we made it to Princeton, NJ. We were making excellent time until we got to the other side of Washington, DC. We sat in traffic from there through Baltimore all the way into New Jersey. It cost us about an hour of time. 

We found a nice Courtyard Marriott Hotel very near where Caroline Llewellyn, our author friend lives. After getting checked in we walked to the only nearby restaurant, a Ruby Tuesdays, to eat. The main drag through Princeton is Route 1 and the traffic along there was horrible and they drove like idiots, so once we parked the car, we were not going back out. We reserved a table and walked back over to the hotel to wait.

At 7:40 we walked back over and our table was ready. We ate dinner and headed back to our room, about 8:30 and collapsed for the night.

We met Caroline for breakfast in the hotel (they only served breakfast). Afterwards she took us on a real nice walking tour of the University. We wished we had more time, but we needed to get on the road to NH.

We left at 11:00 and had a very nice drive up 287 and 87 through upper state New York. We then cut over to Vermont and New Hampshire and again did not arrive at our reserved cabin until 7:00. Another long drive, this time, because to get from Albany over to Vermont and New Hampshire was mostly via back roads and small towns until we could get on Route 93 going North to North Lincoln, where we were staying.

Every place was packed and we could not find any place to eat, so we finally stopped at a little Italian place right up the street and ordered food to go. We came back to the cabin and ate and then collapsed again.

Sunday, 1 October 2000

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We decided after two long days of driving to just take it easy today. I brought stuff for breakfast and we had snacks and stuff for lunch, so we sat around and read. I took a nice walk up the road and back. Around noon, we out to find a store to pick up some stuff we needed for the week. We were also scouting out nearby Lincoln to see what we could find for dinner.

We got back just as the NASCAR race in Martinsville, VA started, so Bob settled down with a book and I watched the race.

We then headed out to find some dinner. The best we could find was another Italian place, so we ordered subs and brought our salad back to eat in the room later.

I took another walk and then we settled in for the night. There was a Behind the Music special on VH1 at 9:00 on Cat Stevens, so we watched that and then went to sleep.

Monday, 2 October 2000

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The cabin is very nice. It is very small but clean and adequate for what we need. The bed takes up most of the space. There are two small chairs, a table with drawers, a small refrigerator and a small microwave. The bathroom has a shower and toilet and the sink is outside in the main room. We have a sliding glass door and a window. You enter through a little screened porch area, with two chairs.

The place is dead quiet at night. Once in awhile you can hear a truck going up I 93, but other than that, no sounds. 

Today we took off for our appointment with the realtor in Hanover. It took about an hour and half on the back roads as we drove through the White Mountains. We looked at listings she had pulled for us and then headed off to take a look at a very nice community just South of Hanover, in Grantham. It is a private community with woodsy lots and modern houses. We were very impressed with this area.

We then drove back through Hanover and over to Plymouth to take a look around that area. It was nice but may not be big enough to offer some of the services we need to the outlying communities at this time.

Back at the cabin around 4:30.

Tuesday, 3 October 2000

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We made good progress today. We drove back down south on I-93 to Concord, NH. After cruising around the city, we found a house with a sign out front for the NH Realty Board. We went in and talked with a couple of people in there that gave us some real good information on the Concord area, the market, and sent us over to the Chamber of Commerce about a block away.

We got some very good information from them and headed out North to several small towns that might be a possibility. After checking out two communities, one we did not like, we made our way to Loudon. There, we found a realtor who gave us the scoop on that area.

We took a break to eat lunch and decided to continue North back toward "home" to check on a couple of areas in Laconia. Going out of Loudon, we passed the race track where the Winston Cup and other races are run. Then headed on toward Laconia.

We drove through a couple of areas we thought were interested in and made notes to check on those when we get home rather than try to find realty companies.

It was getting pretty late in the day anyway, so we drove up to Conway and then across the Kankamangus? Parkway. This was a beautiful drive through the White Mountains. Lovely colors, lakes, streams, etc. 

We got back to the cabin right about 5:00 to decided what to do about dinner for the night. 

Wednesday, 4 October 2000

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We headed North toward Littleton to check out that small town. On the way we had one of the prettiest drives so far. After passing the geographical landmark, Old Man in the Mountain, we drove passed valleys and mountains bathed in color of reds and yellows. Littleton was a cute little town. We then headed Northeast toward Berlin, another good size town. This town is a lot like the town in Northern Exposure. A mill town, it was mostly row houses, bars and and dinky stores. 

We drove on toward Maine. Crossing the state line, we were in north west Maine woods. It is very poor area, hardly any nice areas, houses, or even resort areas. We drove over to Auburn and then headed back toward NH. The drive back we did go through some nicer areas but by and large Maine is not a place we would wish to live.

Once back in NH, we again came back along the Kancamagus Highway. Today was cool, cloudy, and raining, but it was still a nice drive.

We got back to Lincoln about 3:45 and decided to waste a little time and eat at a Chinese restaurant. We stopped a little shopping complex just to stretch out legs and check out one of the book stores. 

Our dinner was very good, one of the best Chinese meals I think I have every eaten. We got back to the cabin around 6:00. 

I was able to watch the season premier of West Wing which was two hours long. We also decided we would go home Friday if the hotel/cabin owners would refund our last night, which they did.

Thursday, 5 October 2000

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Since we now knew NH was out, we decided to take a tourist day and head to Portsmouth to check out the book stores and see the only remaining corner of NH that we had not seen.

Portsmouth was a pretty little town on the harbor. We had a nice two hour walk around the city and ate lunch at a cute little cafe on the square in downtown.

We started back to the cabin around 2:00 and drove back through Conway. We hit a massive traffic jam in Conway and finally made it back to the Kancamagus Highway to get back. Back at the cabin , I got started with the packing up and we loaded as much as we could in the car before the rain started.

I then went over to the little Italian place and ordered us a small pizza for dinner.

Friday, 6 October 2000

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