Dateline August 27, 2021, New Hampshire
All the local news up on the Cape had been one long warning: Hurricane Henri was headed straight for it. The Mooncussers Tavern shut down that Saturday night, and since we had planned an early Sunday getaway anyway, we hit the road for Derry, New Hampshire. We met light traffic and a few bands of rain, but none of Henri's vengeance; by the time the storm reached the Cape it had eased to a tropical storm, and most of the heavy rain swung west. As we always say, a weatherman has one of the few jobs where you can be wrong better than half the time and keep it.
Connie and Lee. Connie had a wonderful New England boiled dinner waiting, ham with onions, cabbage, and carrots, and we settled in for the night.
Connie and Lee are serious car people; the garage runs from a winter plow truck to a daily-driver Stinger to a frame-off-restored 1963 Impala, the fourth one built that year, and they gave us the grand tour.
Around New Hampshire. Monday's lunch plan was the best lobster roll in the area, at a place off the beaten path called the Stumble Inn. The roll was terrific and full of lobster for sixteen dollars, a bargain next to the thirty-five-dollar one we had on the Cape, and the rest of the menu was every bit as good; if you are ever up around Londonderry, it is worth the stop. Lunch was dinner. Connie tends bar a few days a week at the local American Legion, so we dropped in that evening, a quiet night with a handful of members, and had a fine time visiting with them.
Tuesday morning Janice and Connie drove up to Lake Sunapee. Janice's parents are buried at the Sunapee Cemetery, and the sisters stopped to pay their respects before heading down to the village at Sunapee Harbor for lunch and to hunt for any new t-shirts. The restaurant and the penny candy store, both always must-stops, were closed on a Tuesday; like so many places, they cannot find help enough to open seven days. The t-shirt shop, an annual stop, was open, though we laugh that every year the quality slips, the prices climb, and the selection shrinks; it has changed hands, half of it is children's things now, and the shirts were few. So no new shirts for the clan this year. Dinner that night was the favorite of Janice and Connie's late father, Stanley: grilled flank steak with local sweet corn and potatoes, and not ordinary potatoes but "Stan potatoes," thinly sliced with thin-cut onions and plenty of butter, wrapped in foil and grilled a good long while until they come out a little crispy and melt in your mouth. With a few drinks, it was the perfect dinner.
Golf with Lee's friends. Wednesday was golf with Lee and his buddies at their nine-hole course, Hidden Creek Country Club in Litchfield. We played with two of Lee's friends, John and Don, and had a wonderful day, capped off with a beer and a bite to eat. Don had to head out right after the round.
The drive home. Thursday we said our goodbyes to Lee and Connie and started the three-day drive back to Florida. The first day's goal was Carlisle, Pennsylvania; Friday we made it to James's home in Raleigh; and we rolled in around five o'clock on Saturday. As everyone knows, there is nothing quite like getting home.
One more to share. James sent us a picture of Liza with her drawing pens, hard at work making things for her birthday party the next day. She and her friends from school had dreamed up the whole affair, the cake, the contests, even a plan to "pie" one of the girls' older sisters. She is a creative one, full of adventure, and the picture was just too cute not to pass along. Liza was only six in May.
It had been a long road, Mississippi to the Cape to the hills of New Hampshire and home again, with grief and joy and a great deal of golf folded into one summer. As always, the best of it was the people, and, as always, it was good to be home.
