6. Day 2 & 3 TOUR de FR (Friends and Relatives) !!

Our present travel concept is based on the famous 21-day bicycle Stage Race held annually in France: the Tour de France. We’ve accidentally invented the 5 day TOUR de FR (Friends and Relatives). Today is Day 2, where we spend the morning with Ashley, Micah and the boys in Hooksett, NH, then drive to visit with old friend Chris Conneighton and his wife Michelle in Hollis, NH on Day 3.  Let’s go!

First thing we did Sunday a.m. (DAY 3 of the Tour de FR) was play racecars and trucks on the kitchen floor. That's what all the cool kids dig! Next was breakfast, so we stopped into Robie's Country Store. It’s a little old general store with diner inside, in the shadow of an old highway bridge in Hooksett.

This place is nationally famous as the spot where every candidate holds a campaign meeting during Presidential Primary season in New Hampshire, every four years. The walls are packed with political memorabilia, photos, slogans, signs, buttons and who-knows what else. Some of the stuff dates back to campaigns from the mid-1900’s  or earlier. We loved the historic scenery, but also the awesome breakfast food…served fresh-made, locally sourced, and in huge amounts. We ate like royalty!

Next order of business after breakfast was visiting a local Pick-it-Yourself apple orchard. It was a riot…apparently this is a VERY big thing among every family with children in and around Hooksett. The place was packed with kids and parents and grannies and gramps, all running around with bags of apples or cavorting in the playground, or shopping in the gift store. The boys were full of energy and inventiveness with the swings, toy tractors and trucks, apple trees, and other kids. Whew, they tired me out after awhile!

Lynn and I climbed the observation deck, and sneaked past a group of avid bird watchers who were arrayed all over the deck with binoculars and telescopes. Another unbelievable view of far-off New Hampshire  mountain peaks, and the multi-color rolling hills in the distance. We all paid for our goodies, strapped ourselves in for the ride back home, and got away just before nap time!

We took some beautiful family pics and left Ashley, Micah, Joshua and Titus with huge thanks and many regrets. We don’t get to see these lovely folks often enough , and we so enjoyed their beautiful home and kindness. can’t wait to see them again when they visit us in North Carolina or Florida! We shoved off for Hollis.

Only an hour or so away, Hollis, NH was another quaint small New England town with a few locally owned shops and businesses. Just outside the town proper, we found the unique home of Cliff and Michelle. It’s an old farm house and connected barn that Cliff and Michelle restored and improved over the years. Now, it’s spacious, open and well-lit inside, with lots of exposed posts and beams from the old barn structure, and plenty of levels and hidden spaces. The perfect house for farm living, we decided.

Cliff and I went to high school together 50 years ago, and have stayed in touch some over the years, without ever having the chance to get together physically again until now. What a wonderful thing to find that we’re still friends, and that we both married ladies who are as gracious and fun to be with as Lynn and Michelle. We talked for hours catching up on the decades of experiences, and our families and whatever else popped up. Michelle and Cliff are also excellent chefs, so together they presented a fantastic supper we all inhaled, while still blabbering away…there was too much to say and hear, and only a little time!

Our time really flew by…we need more visits more frequently! This visit proved (again) to me that true friendships endure the passage of time away. It was such a joy to find that Cliff is still the guy I admired and appreciated as my friend all those years ago!

The next morning, Monday, we took some group  and house photos, packed the Casita, loaded Sheldon in the truck, and left for Brooklin, Maine, just as Cliff left to fly to Dallas! Day 4 of the TOUR de FR (Friends and Relatives) was about to begin. We’ll let you know what happens later.

All our photos from this trip are at this link, if you’d like to see:

TRIP PICS