The New Porcupine

Winter Activities

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 09:45:42 -0400

I am in no way a snowbunny yet, but figured that part of enjoying my first snowy winter was taking advantage of that weird white stuff coming out of the sky with some outdoor activities.

Tubing

My sister came to visit over Christmas, and while I didn’t want inclement weather to interfere with her travel, I was hoping for some snow so we could experience a “winter wonderland” together. It worked out perfectly because a couple days after Christmas, and a couple days before sister went back to Oregon, we got our first real, accumulating, sticking snow of the season. And the next day the sky was bright blue, the sun was shining, and the snow was fresh and clean.

We bundled up and headed to McIntyre Ski Area, which is a little ski park right in Manchester. It’s about a 5-minute drive from my house. It’s really for beginning skiers and snowboarders only, but that’s okay cause that’s what I am. And they have tubing! Imagine those big metal wavy slides that you ride down on a burlap sack at the fair, except instead you are on an inner-tube sliding down a groomed snow path. It’s sledding for people who don’t have sleds/want to find a good sledding hill/want to trudge up said hill repeatedly.

The tubing area at McIntyre has a “magic carpet,” which is a long and very slow conveyor belt that moves you and your tube up to the top after each ride down. Kids as young as five were going down and it seemed like a great family activity. For the cost (I think it was $15 for two hours, which is plenty of time) and convenience, you can’t go wrong with tubing!

Snowshoeing

I got a Groupon to go snowshoeing at America’s Stonehenge in Salem, NH. When we went, the actual attraction of old and mysterious rocks was not accessible due to snow, but the snowshoe trails were perfect, and so were the alpacas!

We went snowshoeing once a few years ago in Lake Tahoe, and this was much more enjoyable. In Tahoe it just seemed like we were sinking into the snow despite the big paddles on our feet, and it was windy and snowy while we were out there.

Here in NH, the snow had been packed down enough that the snowshoes were doing what they were supposed to do, and we picked a great February day that was calm and not too cold. The trail markers were confusing but the whole area was small enough that we didn’t have to worry about getting lost. Snowshoeing seems like a great way to hike or walk outside in winter, and the forest was very peaceful and pretty. Like tubing, snowshoeing has pretty much no learning curve and doesn’t require much athleticism, so I recommend it for fellow snow noobs!

Skiing

I had only been skiing once before, about three years ago, and so I was pretty excited when our black diamond skiing friends invited us up to a day at Loon Mountain. Adam was excited too, but unfortunately couldn’t join us due to a last minute work trip. Next year! I opted for another beginner lesson package since I wasn’t sure what I’d retained since 2010, and it included all the rentals I needed.

Another friend joined us who was at my same level — had skied once before, a while ago — so I had a lesson and bunny slope buddy. We learned a lot in the lesson about turning and stopping and all that good stuff, and overall I felt much more comfortable on skis the second time around. I think I’m in better shape than I was three years ago, too. I didn’t get physically worn out all day and wasn’t sore the following day. Thanks, Crossfit!

After the lesson, we met back up with the expert-level friends who were kind enough to help us through the ski lift process and teach us down a couple of the mountain’s easiest runs. Even those made me feel like I was going super-fast and almost losing control at times! At this point I can’t imagine maintaining a safe speed on the steeper, more advanced runs. But I had a great time and really want to continue learning how to ski.

File away for future winters

There are other winter activities that I didn’t get around to this year but would love to try sometime! I love ice skating and would like to skate on a frozen lake at some point. I’d also try my hand at cross-country skiing or maybe even a biathlon! Ice fishing and ice climbing seem a little too intense for my California blood at this point, but it could happen someday.

If you’re wondering why snowboarding has been conspicuously omitted from this list, it’s because I am a separate-feet sport person, not a two-feet-glued-together-sideways sport person. As much as I’ve tried, I can’t stay up on a skateboard to save my life. Certain aspects of skiing mechanics felt intuitive based on what I know from ice skating and roller skating, both of which I’ve done proficiently since childhood. So no snowboarding for me, but it seems like a lot of fun if you’ve got a skateboard/surfing type of skillset. Plus, your boots look way cooler!

My Thoughts on Winter

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 10:54:19 -0400

As I’m sitting down to write this, we’re getting another big snow, and I don’t mind (although it would be even better if Adam wasn’t out of town, leaving me to do the shoveling)! Since the cold weather should be wrapping up soon, it’s time to post about my first winter, the preconceptions I had, and where they were proven right and wrong.

Winter Attire

When I’ve visited cold places in the past, I’ve usually put on a base layer of tights or long underwear under my jeans, layered up on top, and not gone outside without a heavy coat and the full suite of accessories — hat, gloves, and scarf. That’s kept me warm for full-day excursions on vacations, where I’ll be walking around outside much of the day, but made me hot and uncomfortable when popping into a store or restaurant, which always seem to be super-heated in the winter.

Here, I haven’t once used long underwear for a day out and about. I also have a couple of my heaviest sweaters that I thought I’d wear all the time here and haven’t worn at all. I’m much more willing to bear the cold with a jacket for the time it takes to get across the grocery store parking lot, in exchange for being the right temperature while inside. I’ve learned that nothing bad will happen to me if I’m outside for five minutes in just a sweatshirt in 20° weather.

On walks downtown or to work, I typically wear normal clothes (jeans or corduroys with a blouse or sweater), with boots, a wool coat, a hat, and gloves. I’ve found gloves to be the most vital accessory. Once my hands get cold, it’s hard to warm them back up, but if I keep them warm from the get-go they’re pretty good at retaining that heat.

Here I am bundled up to walk to work on one of the coldest days in Manchester, around 0° F.

Boots have been indispensable, too. I have a pair of snow boots and three pairs of regular boots that I rotate through, saving the snow boots only for days where I’m really going to have to tromp (today will be one of those days). The only time I’ve worn flats or wimpier shoes all winter was at Liberty Forum, when I was inside the whole day. Boots keep my feet warm and dry and protect them from slush, ice, salt, and leftover snow on the sidewalks. Adam and I each bought a few pairs of wool socks, which seem expensive for socks but keep your feet much warmer than cotton socks.

My Sorel boots and wool socks are an unstoppable combo!

The Weather Itself

I was imagining monotonous short, frigid, gray days with snow multiple times a week. And I’m very glad to have been proven wrong! Locals keep saying how snowy this winter has been, but I don’t think it’s that bad. We’ve gotten enough snow to need shoveling maybe twice a month, and it’s interspersed with warm spells that melt the snow down so the piles don’t get too huge. A few times we’ve seen weather up in the 50’s, and I finally understand how that can feel warm, like t-shirt weather, in relation to the previous weeks. In Los Angeles, winter lows are usually in the 50’s, and here it seems downright summery when it’s 55° in January!

The winter is a lot more sunny than I expected. Not a week goes by without a few beautiful sunny days (even if it’s freezing), and a sunny day with fresh snow on the ground is one of the most gorgeous things I’ve ever seen. People kept telling me it was going to get dark at 4 p.m. and I would hate it, and there were really only a few weeks around the winter solstice when it was dark before 5 p.m. The short days didn’t bother me, and their noticeable lengthening seemed to come quickly in January. It’s only now that Daylight Savings Time has started and the sun is still high in the sky at 6 p.m. that I’m beginning to yearn for warmer weather. Longer days at below-freezing temperatures feels pretty strange.

Even with the sun out a lot, its angle is supposedly too low in the winter this far north to get us the Vitamin D we need, especially when only my face is exposed when I am outside. So we got some 1000iu Vitamin D supplements and took one a day, when we remembered! I don’t know if I would have felt more sluggish or depressed without the supplements, but it can’t hurt to take them just in case!

Adam shovels our path in a t-shirt on a sunny February day after the biggest storm of the season. He says he enjoys shoveling!

Driving in Snow

I was really worried about this. A couple weeks ago I had to get on the freeway on a morning with heavy snow, and it had not been cleared well. It was a bit nervewracking but everyone seemed to be taking it slowly, so I just followed the car ahead of me and tried to avoid changing lanes (my car wobbled through the uncleared snow between the path of each cleared lane). City street driving in the snow is easy, even if it’s not perfectly clear, because the speeds are so low. I just stayed very focused and gave myself plenty of time to stop.

I was also concerned about hitting black ice, and it hasn’t ever happened for us, even if the conditions are right, I believe because we stick to frequently-traveled roads.

When we and our neighbors had to move out of the driveway for the plow guy to clear everything during last month’s big storm, we watched the two non-Subaru sedans spin their wheels and slip around, needing to be pushed to get over the snowbanks. When it was our turn, the Forester had no problem at all! And we ended up sticking with the regular all-season tires that were already on the car.

It helps that we don’t need to travel far or urgently for anything, ever. If it’s snowing like crazy, we stay in. If you’re nervous like I was about this, try to arrange your lifestyle to keep your commutes as close and non-essential as possible. Don’t live in Plymouth and work in Manchester, like one of my co-workers does. I imagine it would be quite stressful to go 40 mph on a snowy freeway for over an hour each way, just to get to work.

Walking on Ice

I walk to work and back every day. While clearing the streets for cars seems to be a priority, sidewalks are more of an afterthought. After the big storm, the sidewalks stayed covered by giant thigh-high snowbanks for a few days while the streets were perfectly clear, leaving me to walk to work in the street in an area where there’s two tight lanes and no room for pedestrians.

The only thing I despise about winters here is dealing with icy sidewalks. Sometimes they are the city’s fault for not clearing them well, but often they’re just nature’s doing. On days around a freezing temperature, of which there are many, the snow will melt into water while the sun is out, then freeze back up as soon as it’s in shade. Some days walking through our alley, which is completely shaded at 9 a.m., there were so many icy spots that I couldn’t avoid walking on ice. For the rest of my walk on icy sidewalks, I have to look down the whole time, carefully choosing where to place my foot for each step. Walking in this manner takes about twice as long as walking to work on dry sidewalks.

It was easier to walk in a small amount of snow than a slick layer of ice where the sidewalk had been completely cleared, but then covered in run-off water. Honestly, walking on ice is pretty much the only bad thing about winter.

A Couple More Things

It gets dry inside with the heat on. I have been using lots of lotion for my hands and face, and chapstick. We even got a humidifier to run in the bedroom overnight, which has been helping.

Toward the beginning of winter, I noticed that my wedding ring was much looser! Cold weather shrinks your fingers, I guess. I thought maybe I’d need to wear a spacer or something to keep it on, and while it’s stayed a little looser than I’d like for the last few months, I’ve just adapted to keeping my fingers closer together while gesturing so it won’t fly off.

Snow has a lot of really interesting properties. It can be dense, powdery, snow-coney, dusty. It can look like a topographic relief map.

It can feel like you’re walking on a sheet of paneer as it squeaks under your feet. I feel like a little kid cause I’m always stopping to touch it and learn from it as it changes through these phases. I’ll never tire of the amazing colors shadows make on fresh white snow.

Oh yeah, and icicles are super sweet, too!

The New Hampshire Liberty Forum

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 18:59:03 -0400

The very first time Adam and I visited New Hampshire, in 2009, it was to attend Liberty Forum. The annual conference in Nashua was where we got our first taste of the Free State Project and gave us a chance to imagine our lives here. In 2010, we traveled to Liberty Forum again. A couple weeks ago, we finally got to experience our first Liberty Forum as New Hampshire residents.

I had helped here and there with some aspects of Liberty Forum prep, including much of the imagery used to promote the event (see my post about branding on the 13 in 13 blog), and Adam and I had gotten Liberty Forum t-shirts made to vend there. Because we’d be working all weekend, we got a room in the hotel and had a “staycation” in Nashua, all of 30 minutes from our home in Manchester.

Adam and I saw both of the keynote speeches, by Jack Spirko and Tom Woods, but not as many of the daytimes talks and panels as we did in past years.

(Photo credit: Vanessa Vine)

One highlight was attending a Society of Libertarian Entrepreneurs meeting where Tom Woods was a guest. We got to have a round (okay, rectangular) table discussion with Mr. Woods in an intimate setting and his charisma and well-spokenness are evident even in casual conversation.

(Photo Credit: Vanessa Vine)

I spent much of my weekend at this table where people were constantly registering for PorcFest (hooray!), and, less frequently, purchasing Liberty Forum t-shirts for cash, credit, Bitcoin, or silver. As you can see, people were also invited to “Ask Me Anything” as a Free State Project Ambassador while I was sitting there. Not many people took me up on that challenge, but for some reason Adam got Asked Anything several times whenever he was stationed there. He must look like a friendly and approachable guy!

Claire Haus sporting a just-purchased Liberty Forum shirt.

The Liberty Forum t-shirts were pretty slick, with a simple front-and-back design printed on black American Apparels, and we got a lot of good feedback. But we couldn’t have sold nearly as many as we did without the work of 13-year-old Rebecca, a fellow Free Stater’s daughter who came over to the table on Saturday to announce she was going to help us, and proceeded to create and continually improve her sales techniques and negotiate a 20% commission on what she made. She worked tirelessly and enthusiastically and finished her day with over $200 in cash that she was saving to purchase a saddle for her new horse. Watch the Ridley Report about Rebecca’s entrepreneurship here!

Other memorable moments included introducing both Steve Cooksey, a blogger who cured his diabetes with a paleo diet and got in trouble with the law for helping others do the same, and my friend Peter Bosse, who gave a fascinating presentation on the what-how-why process of building his impressive home in Grafton.

Peter holding a chunk of the concrete-filled styrofoam blocks that make up the walls of his house!

One night we watched a screening of satirical presidential candidate Vermin Supreme’s mockumentary, Vote Jesus, and attended a Q&A with Mr. Supreme himself following the movie.

Liberty Forum is a very different experience when you live here. I knew or at least recognized probably half of the 500 attendees. I remember how it felt when Adam and I were visitors and barely knew anyone. It was kind of intimidating and tiring to force socialization with strangers, even though everyone is friendly and eager to meet new people. Now it’s great to be on the other side, helping those here for the first time feel comfortable and answering their questions.

It’s also a good annual dose of inspiration to hear the ideas of liberty being discussed by the great thinkers, writers, and doers of today. Liberty Forum brings so many wonderful people together and helps remind us of the strides the liberty movement has made and the exciting things in store for the future.

Liberty Forum is the perfect opportunity to visit New Hampshire if you’re considering or planning a move here, but if it’s your first time in New Hampshire, don’t judge the whole state by the sterile, office park-type neighborhood of the Nashua Crowne Plaza. I’m very glad that we scheduled time to visit other cities in New Hampshire during our first and second Liberty Forum vacations. In addition to all the natural beauty you’ll see just by getting out of any city, each region has its own distinct vibe, and even after a half-day’s visit to each you’ll have a better sense of where you belong. On our first Liberty Forum trip, we managed to visit Keene, Manchester, Concord, and Portsmouth. Coming from giant, spread-out California, we were amazed at how close together everything was, but also how different each region felt.

PorcFest is another great reason to visit New Hampshire, and for many it’s easier to plan summertime vacations. Roger’s Campground in the White Mountains is a gorgeous setting for the festival, but, again, make sure to take the time to visit other spots on your way up or back — the Lakes Region is especially nice in the summer. This year’s dates are June 17 through 23, and you can register here. I can’t wait for PorcFest this year!

New Hampshire is not a food wasteland!

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 10:06:39 -0500

(Adam on a snowy walk to Republic for brunch. I scoured my photos, but couldn’t find any food pics from these restaurants!)

People often diss New Hampshire’s or New England’s food selection or lack of flavor, but I have to say I’ve been impressed by my options. I know there’s great restaurants in all regions of New Hampshire, some I’ve been to and many that I haven’t yet — but for this post I’m focusing on Manchester’s restaurant selection only. Here are some favorites:

Hooked
Seafood is more prevalent in New Hampshire than what I’m used to, and Hooked does seafood right! Usually Adam and I just get a bunch of appetizers to share — wasabi tuna tartare, fried calamari and vinegary banana peppers, mussels in a garlicky tomato broth. It’s great. If you go for a weekday lunch you can get a generous bowl of moules pommes frites (shucked mussels over fresh hot french fries — I didn’t know either) for $5. Mixed drinks are good and the servers have discovered the perfect mix of personable and professional.

El Rincon Zacatecano Taqueria
I was sure that if any cuisine would disappoint me here, it would be Mexican. Not so! We haven’t ordered very adventurously at El Rincon because their tacos are so perfect. I can’t say if they’re authentic Mexican, but they are absolutely authentic Southern Californian. The carne asada and al pastor fill great little street tacos topped with onion and cilantro. Chips, salsa, and horchata also pass the test.

Republic
Of any restaurant I’ve been to in Manchester, Republic is the one that would fit in best in New York or Los Angeles. It has a trendy feel without being intimidating or crowded (awesome thing about Manchester: You almost never wait for a table, even on weekends). Republic focuses on sourcing fresh, seasonal foods from local farms, and a chalkboard at the front lists those farms and what comes from each one. The menu is small and leans toward Mediterranean/tapas influence. Brunch omelets filled with quality ham and cheddar or lamb sausage and feta and the pesto-y, creamy egg souffle are delicious.

KC’s Rib Shack
Okay, so their website hurts my eyes, but the bbq is really, really good. The place is large and would be perfect for group gatherings. The meats are tasty, especially the smoked sausage, the collard greens are flavorful, and they have portobello mushroom fries!

Cactus Jack’s
It’s kind of like if Applebee’s or Chili’s was a non-chain restaurant with good food. Cactus Jack’s has lots of seating and a menu full of choices. Adam has gotten the ribs more than once and says they’re excellent. I had a really good seafood gumbo and some of the richest, smoothest butternut squash of my life (and I eat a lot of squash). Cactus Jack’s may not be the most exciting restaurant on my favorites list, but it’s solid and a good spot to take your family or out-of-town guests.

India Palace
This, as far as I know, is the only Indian food in Manchester, so we are lucky it’s so good! India Palace is on par with our favorite San Francisco Indian take-out spot and better than anything we managed to find in our Los Angeles neighborhood. Chicken makhani is a favorite, as is the saag paneer. They have more lassi flavors than the usual — in addition to mango and plain, you can try coconut and strawberry lassi. Level of spiciness can be uneven from order to order, and the lunch buffet’s food quality doesn’t compare to evening takeout, but this place is still awesome!

Unique Cuisines
I really really wish there was an Ethiopian or Eritrean restaurant in New Hampshire. Oh well. But, in the midst of all the pizza joints and Dunkin’ Donuts, Manchester does boast some interesting — dare I say “exotic” — types of food. Cafe Momo serves Himalayan food including special little dumplings called momos. A Caribbean Affair has endless mix-and-match meat and vegetable possibilities, including goat curry, breadfruit, and callaloo, and the strongest, best homemade ginger beer ever. Bavaria German Restaurant covers all your schnitzel cravings (haven’t been yet but it’s on my list). And just this week we celebrated our anniversary at Gaucho’s Churrascaria with Brazilian-style endless meat skewers carved at your table.

A Note on Fast Food
New England doesn’t have any of the awesome regional fast food chains we had in California — In & Out, Carl’s Jr., Jack In the Box. And it doesn’t really have its own unique regional offerings to take pride in either. There’s no Skyline Chili or Runza or White Castle or anything comparable like we found in other areas during our travels. I guess fast food just isn’t that important here, which is probably a good thing. That being said, sometimes you just need something quick and cheap. Our go-tos are Chipotle, Five Guys (they do a good bunless burger with lots of veggies on top), and a place around the corner called Souvlaki that fulfills the quick-and-cheap requirement with their gyro salads.

No, nobody’s moving to New Hampshire FOR the food. But if you’ve heard horror stories and are concerned, don’t worry. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the variety and quality I’ve found in Manchester alone.

Fall: The best season of them all!

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 12:41:40 -0500

As I write this, it’s lightly snowing outside, the temperature is hovering around freezing, I’m drinking an eggnog latte, and Christmas decorations have been brought up from the basement and will be unpacked later today…and it’s still technically fall for almost a month! It always starts feeling like the next season around the 1st of the month, not the 21st or 22nd. I know you can’t change the solstices, but it sure feels like fall is on its way out right about now.

Just like everyone says, the autumn months here in New England are gorgeous! September and October’s weather was perfect — sunny, calm, warm, and increasingly crisp as the days went on. Once the leaves started to turn, it was exciting to look for the changes that were sometimes noticeable from one day to the next. I used a photo collage app called Diptic to show the transition over three weeks of a tree that’s right out my kitchen window.

In Southern CA, leaves just kind of turn and fall sporadically throughout the year, so there’s no “fall color” phenomenon. In Northern CA, where I grew up, trees do follow the seasons, and fall’s always been my favorite there, but the spectrum I’m used to observing pales in comparison to what I saw this year.

In early October, my brother and sister-in-law and their baby girl came to visit. The week started out rainy but cleared into a warm and sunny Friday, when we took a leaf-peeping drive along the Kancamagus Highway in the southern part of the White Mountains. This drive is famous for scenic autumn views, and did not disappoint. I was told that the rain earlier in the week made the colors on Friday even more vibrant, since it washed away all the dust and rehydrated everything.

I will absolutely be making that day trip a yearly tradition! I’ll end with one more photo, snapped while walking through a Manchester park one late afternoon in October. Where I live is really, really beautiful.

The New Hampshire Voting Experience

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 18:31:00 -0500

If you’re used to voting in California, here are some things you’ll find different the first time you vote in Manchester, New Hampshire.

1. Polling places are at schools, not random garages.
I am used to a voting location every couple blocks, so it makes sense to walk rather than drive. They are usually personal garages, churches, or community centers and they are usually pretty empty. In Manchester there is one polling location per Ward, and the Wards are not small, so we had to drive, navigate a full parking lot, and get in line with everyone else who lives in our swath of Manchester in an elementary school cafeteria.

2. All kids get the day off school.
Well this is just an obvious win for the kids! Leaving our house today, we saw some pre-teen neighborhood boys running around playing some elaborate game where they had to steal tree branches from each other. They were being happy and creative, and probably learning more than they would on a typical Tuesday morning.

3. You can register to vote when you get there.
In California you have to register at least 15 days before the election. I loved not worrying about any of that and just showing up today. The registration form was short and simple, and the lines moved quickly for the most part.

4. You will actually vote for people you like and trust.
Here’s the biggest difference by far! Just like always, I feel the presidential race is a joke and a waste of time. Normally I would only bother to vote in a California election if I felt strongly about any of the ballot propositions, and even then the population is so enormous that it’s pretty useless. Example: The 2010 CA Prop 19 Marijuana Legalization Initiative lost 53.5% to 46.5%. That seems really close, like Californians are pretty much split in half on the issue. But those few percentage points account for 689,638 voters. Your vote never counts in California. The state is way too big!

Here, I get to vote for accessible liberty candidates with whom I can have a face-to-face conversation and who will try and make real changes to the local government. Pretty much whatever region of NH you live in, there will be at least one real not-just-the-lesser-of-two-evils candidate to get excited over. The community is also strong and principled enough that I can turn to trustworthy sources for recommendations (thanks NHLA and New Hampshire Freedom) on those I don’t know personally.

I also voted to amend the constitution so the state legislature can never add an income tax down the line. That New Hampshire thrives without stealing its residents’ money through income and sales tax is one of the main things that makes this state so impressive!

Definitely a first for me: Sign-holding out in the cold this afternoon!

Weird Weather

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 21:22:29 -0400

I was not expecting to experience an earthquake and a hurricane here in New Hampshire this month! Last year, I believe on this day exactly, there was a big snowstorm here. No snow yet this October, and it hasn’t even been close to cold enough, but we are still getting our exciting share of “weather.”

Yes, the earthquake a couple weeks ago was minor and technically centered in Maine, but was still felt throughout NH. Adam and I spent a couple minutes trying to figure out what made the house shake, where in California we would have assumed it was an earthquake off the bat. While Adam was outside with a flashlight looking around, I got immediate confirmation that it was indeed a mild earthquake, thanks to Facebook and Twitter.

I hadn’t heard anything of Hurricane Sandy until everyone at work was emailed last Thursday, calling a staff meeting for Friday about how to deal with the hurricane. Even though the storm’s path was never predicted to go through New Hampshire, people here seem to be making a pretty big deal about it. The Governor declared a state of emergency (to grant himself extra authority to deal with the storm, says the article, and who wouldn’t want that?), schools were closed, the Currier closed early (so I had the day off), and people were asked to stay off the roads after 3 p.m. today.

I don’t want to minimize the serious damage Hurricane Sandy is doing on more southern areas of the country, but overall I’m surprised by the fear and overreactions here in Manchester. We’re not even inside the affected area on maps of the storm’s path. So far, this is no worse than rainy, windy, stormy days I’ve experienced in both Northern and Southern California. Intersections get a little flooded and it’s no fun to be outside, but people aren’t stocking up on supplies and cancelling everything.

Although I expected hardy, self-sufficient Yankees who are used to dealing with blizzards and ice storms to not get so worked up about Sandy, I can think of two reasons why people are taking this so seriously here. One, the storm has been getting so much attention in the areas it’s actually hitting that people can’t help but be caught up with stormwatching, even in the outskirts. In that way it’s different from a random couple-day rainy stormfront that has no reason to make the news. And two, evidently it doesn’t take much here to knock the power out.

Our electricity has flickered a few times, but is still on as of 9 p.m. on Monday. However, according to Facebook friends, there are outages in many other parts of Manchester as well as suburbs and surrounding towns. Every time I check Facebook, a new person has lost power, and some trees have been knocked over, too. I’m waiting for our power to go, but the apartment is in the very center of Manchester near two major roads, so maybe the grid is stronger here. They say that it can take days to get it back on again, too, once the power goes out. At least it’s not cold right now, so we wouldn’t have to worry about missing our heater. The worst thing about an extended power outage will be throwing out food from the fridge and freezer!

We didn’t do much of anything to prepare. Adam took our grill from the side yard and put it down in the basement, something he’d been meaning to do anyway. No buying of extra food or water, but we had to get lighters and matches, as we had candles in the house already but nothing with which to light them! Adam and I have been trying to make sure the laptops and phones stay charged all day so that if we’re caught without power, they’ll last as long as possible.

Stay safe out there if you are in NJ, New York City, or other places on the hurricane’s path that are getting hit hard. For the rest of us, enjoy your excuse to stay home from work, wear pajamas all day, listen to the wind and the rain, and eat lots of random things out of the fridge so they won’t go to waste!

The "Social Scene"

Sat, 20 Oct 2012 23:11:52 -0400

If you haven’t moved yet, you probably keep hearing about the superactive social scene, that there’s multiple events going on every night and you can’t help but make a ton of new friends right away. The people who say these things are not exaggerating to entice you here. They are telling the truth.

Shortly after moving here, I was added to all kinds of Facebook groups that I didn’t even know existed. Then the Facebook event invitations started. You really could go to one or two social events a day, if you wanted. I think most people find their niche and figure out which social events fit them best, but when you get here, you are expected to sample a little bit of everything and warmly welcomed by every group of new faces you encounter.

Connecting with the local Free State community on Facebook is essential. Other forums get a little action, sure, but Facebook has taken over as the way to get a hold of people you know, reach out to those you don’t know yet, plan events, rent a room, or ask a vetted group for advice. Facebook’s social importance probably isn’t news to anyone, but it does seem even more important here than back in California. Adam is a Facebook holdout (well, an early-adopter who shut down his account many years ago) and I asked him if, had he moved here alone and didn’t have me to keep him informed, he would have broken down and gotten an account by now, and he said yes.

Here’s some of the fun you can expect when you get here!

Strange Brew

Strange Brew is the default bar for Manchester Porcupine get-togethers. A large group, I’d say 20-ish people, is there every Friday evening for happy hour. I’ve noticed regulars but every time I go the group is different, so conversations are always fresh and new people fit right in. A smaller group heads over for Tuesday happy hour. Weekly Bitcoin meetups recently started at Strange Brew and are seeing great attendance. I wasn’t present in pre-Strange Brew days, but from what I’ve heard, several other venues have been tried and proven themselves inadequate. Strange Brew has friendly servers who take big groups in stride and are willing to ring up separate checks, and the happy hour deals are wonderful (huge beer list and ½ price on all their appetizers).

The Quill

A monthly new mover party is held at The Quill, a private club in Manchester run by Free Staters. We went in July, when we were some of the newest movers, and it was well-attended and fun. I’ve also been to two “Artsy-Fartsy Parties,” which are open-mic nights in a very supportive and enthusiastic setting. I haven’t performed yet but I’ve been happy to help out by filming (I am much more comfortable behind the camera than in front of it!).

Party Time, Excellent

There are also the big, one-off parties like backyard barbeques, birthdays, or holiday-centered get-togethers for 4th of July, Halloween, and the like. People seem to divide into subsets that stick together, which makes sense because honestly, it would be the rare home or bar that could accommodate all the Porcupines in the Manchester area! You’ll fall into one group or another or, like me, kind of jump around. Everyone is friendly and accepting, but naturally those with common interests or lifestyles will gravitate toward each other.

Events with a Purpose

Opportunities to fundraise, show up to support an activist in court, do outreach, or otherwise help a cause make up yet another section of social events. Most people here seem to be involved in one way or another in the upcoming elections. Somehow Adam and I have not gotten caught up in this, and while I would be happy to sign-wave or stamp envelopes (and may end up doing both of these things in the coming weeks), I don’t personally know any of the candidates and the campaign and election system is foreign enough to me that I feel somewhat overwhelmed. By the next election we’ll have the hang of it, I bet!

Volunteering

Volunteering isn’t always about getting someone elected, sometimes it’s about providing private, voluntary charity. Shire Sharing started last year with a successful Thanksgiving Basket Brigade, followed up by handing out supply-filled backpacks to the local homeless population, organizing litter pick-ups, and committing various acts of kindness throughout the year. With Thanksgiving approaching, they are once again raising money to feed 600 impoverished people by delivering Thanksgiving dinner groceries to their homes. I will be out of town during their delivery, but I hope to help out with shopping and, of course, monetarily.

Last weekend Adam and I held a “campaign kick-off party” for our satirical Goldman Sachs 2012 campaign. We had fun designing a logo, materials, and a website and busting out our screenprinting equipment to make t-shirts and posters. The party was a way to show people the workspace, our office/studio in a historic millyard building (which deserves a future post of its own!) and to donate our revenue from t-shirt and poster sales to Shire Sharing’s Thanksgiving efforts. And, of course, to forward the cause of Goldman and Sachs, who thank you in advance for your vote this November. Doesn’t it feel good to support a winner?

The events I’ve touched on are just the beginning, and I’m sure there’s plenty going on that I don’t even know about yet! While you will have the opportunity to be as social as you want here in the Porcupine hub of Manchester, NH, it can be difficult to make the jump from social acquaintance to close friend and confidant. That’s true whenever you move to a new place, though, and the hard part — finding a large pool of like-minded people from which you develop your close friendships — has already been done just by moving here. I am working on ways to get to know people better and build lasting friendships, which will take time, and in the meantime I’m enjoying having great conversation with my fellow intelligent, interesting Manchester Porcupines!

The Job Hunt

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 12:36:00 -0400

I was very lucky that the pressure to find a job right away or before moving was non-existent, since Adam already worked remotely and we knew his job and its steady income was moving right along with us. However, I was still anxious to find a part-time job myself as soon as I could, for the extra money, to establish a routine, and to engage with my new community.

The obvious place to start a job search is Craigslist. Whereas Craigslist seems to be widely used in New Hampshire for apartment listings, unfortunately it lacks action in the jobs section. Still, though, it’s worth checking regularly. In larger metros the number of listings is overwhelming, so you pretty much have to use creative search terms and categories to pull up relevant jobs. If you check the New Hampshire Craigslist every day or two, you should be able to just scroll through everything, especially if you narrow it down with a location-based search term like “Manchester.”

Monster is a job search website that aggregates listings from other sites, and it can be helpful depending on your field. The FSP Job Alert facebook group is absolutely worth joining. People sometimes post leads that wouldn’t be found elsewhere, either because they know someone personally who is hiring or they saw a help wanted sign somewhere and are passing along the information.

Long before I moved, I sought out websites that listed jobs in my field, and regularly checked NH Center for Nonprofits and New England Museum Association. But the best thing I did was to research organizations near Manchester that interested me, and include their own websites’ employment pages in my regular job searching routine. I think many sought-after jobs never get posted anywhere else, because the organizations know they’ll get enough eyes on the listing by just posting it on their website. I wouldn’t have known about the job I ended up taking if I hadn’t checked the Currier Museum of Art’s employment page frequently.

I applied to only four jobs, and heard back from three (two to set up interviews and one emailed me a polite rejection). I was willing to apply to anything related to non-profits, marketing, development, events, or educational programming, and I preferred part-time and within the Manchester area, but the place I wanted to work ever since I visited in 2010 was the Currier Museum of Art. It’s a beautiful, intimate little museum with a great collection, and combining my museum experience with the opportunity to work surrounded by fine art seemed like a perfect fit. When we settled on an apartment three-tenths of a mile from the Currier, then I really wanted to work there! So when I saw a new listing on their website for a part-time position in the Museum Shop, I happily submitted my resume and cover letter, both in person and by email.

Then we headed north, to visit friends in Grafton and then spend nearly a week at PorcFest. I was already planning out the logistics of driving down for an interview should they call me during PorcFest, but I heard nothing. When we got back to Manchester and moved into our apartment at the beginning of July, it had been a few weeks already, but the job was still up on their website. It had the usual “No phone calls” request, but I figured I’d try being the persistent, eager type of applicant and drop in to try to talk to someone in the shop. I ended up speaking with the assistant manager, who told me they had received many applications and were just about to start calling people to schedule interviews, and she took down my name to note that I’d stopped by. About a week later I got a call, and after a first and second interview just two days apart, I had the job! I never know if doing something like dropping in to ask after a job application comes off as enthusiastic or pushy, but in this case I think it paid off, ensuring me an interview when otherwise my resume may have gotten lost in the shuffle. I was also offered the other job for which I interviewed, doing membership and development work at NH Audubon in Concord. It seemed like an excellent work environment, too, but I just couldn’t pass up the Currier!

I’ve heard from many people that it’s important to have a phone number with a 603 area code to show you’re local (the entire state of New Hampshire is 603, weird, right?) but I didn’t have a problem getting responses with my good old 415. Maybe it’s because I did wait to submit any job applications until after I had signed the lease to our apartment and updated my resume with my new local address at the top. I was also able to put in cover letters that I “recently moved to Manchester” and I’m sure that helped, too.

I think it is very hard to find a job in most fields if you do not actually live here yet. Example: Although I didn’t technically apply for any jobs before I was in-state, I was interested in teaching some art classes at the Currier Art Center, which is affiliated with the museum. Their website said they review applications for new faculty every spring, so I went ahead and wrote an elaborate, thoughtful cover letter last March or April explaining my situation, that I would be here in July and would be interested in working with their summer day camps and/or teaching beginning in the fall session. I didn’t want to wait until next spring to open up communication with them. I never heard anything at all in reply. In July, on a whim, after I stopped by to check in on my shop application, I walked over to the Art Center and talked to the receptionist there. I didn’t have a resume or anything to leave with her, only let her know that I had teaching experience and was interested in joining their faculty. She took down my name and email address and the following week I was emailed by their Program Manager. It certainly helps to be local and show up somewhere in person.

And that’s how I ended up selling fancy old ladies jewelry and scarves and boxed notecards! Come visit me in the shop if you’re local, it seriously is some of the best gift-shopping in Manchester and it’s not just for little old ladies.

Everyone’s path to employment is different, I know, so please let me know yours! Are there other good resources for New Hampshire job hunting that I didn’t mention?

Summer in New Hampshire

Sun, 02 Sep 2012 23:08:00 -0400

There’s a cool breeze in the mornings and evenings lately and the days are noticeably shorter. I’ve even seen a few trees that are starting to shift in color. I’m pretty sure summer is on its way out and that means Adam and I have experienced the first of four seasons in this new-to-us climate!

Summer is different here than in Southern California. Rain was a frequent occurrence, often just briefly drenching everything on an otherwise hot and sunny day. It’s not quite like the intense and surprising tropical storms I’ve experienced in Hawaii or French Polynesia, but the weather here is closer to that than to California summers, where it will be rain-free for months, and if a rainstorm does happen to pass over it will be raining for at least a full day or two and completely stop feeling summery. I liked the rain here because it cooled things down slightly, but not so much that I had to wear a jacket.

In fact, I don’t know the last time I wore a jacket or sweater! In both Southern and Northern CA (not counting San Francisco, which has no seasons and is pretty much always 60°), the daily high and low temperatures will usually span a 30 or 40-degree range in the summer. In my hometown near Sacramento, today’s high was 93° F and the low was 58° F. That’s completely normal, so just because you’re sweating in a tank top during the day, a sweatshirt gets regular summer use after dark. For most of July and August in Manchester, NH, the highs were from 85-90° F and the lows were 65-70° F — a much narrower daily range.

I’ve heard a few locals complain about the humidity this summer, but it was actually way better than I was afraid it would be. Although there were some muggy days, I usually didn’t notice any negative effects of humidity. I was worried I’d be very sensitive to it, coming from a dry region, and that it would be more on par with the icky-sticky summer afternoons I felt in the midwestern states.

On average, it was warmer here than in Los Angeles, but cooler than in the Sacramento Valley, and very doable sans air conditioning. Central air would be nice, of course, but our ceiling fans and windows made hot days here manageable. Shorts and sandals are the most comfortable summer uniform, rather than just being a seasonal fashion choice like in LA (where every December you see women wearing knit scarves and fleece boots in 65° sunshine because it’s winter, dang it!).

So what summery activities did we do?

Ate lots of ice cream
Ice cream seems to be an important part of New England summers! Probably because it’s unappealing to eat ice cream when it’s snowing, so they need to fill a yearly quota in a few short months. With ice cream stands everywhere, how could we resist? King Cone in Merrimack is highly recommended, along with Sunshine Scoops, dangerously located less than a block from our apartment.

Ate fried seafood

I don’t know if people eat fried clam strips, sea scallops, and oysters year round or not, but it feels like a summer tradition to me, especially if you’re at a coastal restaurant with outdoor seating. My new seafood experiences this summer really deserve their own post, since they included steamers, mussels, and lobster in addition to the fried specimens listed above.

Swam in a lake

There are tons of lake and river “swimming holes” to visit in New Hampshire, but this summer we stuck close to home and swam in Crystal Lake right here in Manchester. It was clean, cool, beautiful, and refreshing. Not having grown up doing it like many people, swimming in natural bodies of water will always be a novelty to me!

Watched a roller derby bout

Since this is an indoor sport, it’s only summer-specific in that the NH Roller Derby’s season is during the summer, and the arena transforms into an ice rink beginning this month. Neither Adam nor I had seen roller derby in person before, and we didn’t quite know what to expect, but it was definitely a fun and exciting spectator sport! I recommend checking out a derby bout if you get a chance, and kind of wish we’d been able to go to more than one.

Attended a concert in the park
Intown Manchester hosted a summer concert series every Thursday night in Veterans Park. We spread out a blanket for the first show of the series and saw Vaud and the Villains, who put on a fantastic performance.

Went to a Fisher Cats baseball game

We finally got around to this last week, at the end of the baseball season. The Fisher Cats beat the Sea Dogs 7-0 and scored all their runs early on, so the game wasn’t the most exciting, but the atmosphere was great, stands were clean, and fellow patrons were friendly. In addition to the expected pizza, nachos, and hot dogs, the stadium sells bbq, chowder, wraps and salads. There are more food options at the ballgame than in the entire rest of the city! They also have good beer on tap, Harpoon IPA and Smithwicks, not just boring domestics. Premium box seats, which aren’t box seats at all but are the only option if you want to be close to home plate, cost $12. After weekend games there’s a fireworks show. I’ll be back next year for sure.

Picked fruit at Sunnycrest Farm in Londonderry

Adam and I picked blueberries and raspberries one morning in July. I made a compote to top coconut flour pancakes, froze a bunch, and we ate the rest on yogurt. They were awesome. Last week I went back alone, and they still had raspberries, as well as peaches and apples. The raspberries and apples are good but the peaches are perfect, some of the best I’ve ever had. Sunnycrest has a little store where you can buy more produce, honey, jam, raw milk, and baked goods. I got some great corn, heirloom tomatoes, and eggs. It’s a pretty drive to the farm and picking fruit is a calm way to start the day off. For city folk like us, it’s interesting to see just how these fruits grow and are harvested. I plan to go back later in the fall for some more apples.

Manchester Blogs and Websites

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 12:44:57 -0400

When I move to a new place, I like to find and subscribe to websites that cover the local scene, events, news, business profiles, and so on. The number of local blogs in San Francisco or Los Angeles was overwhelming, and it was hard to know where to start. When I moved here, I was pleasantly surprised to come across a few sites that focus exclusively on Manchester. Although they aren’t all updated frequently, I found it fun and informative to read old articles, meander to other related posts, and end up with greater insight about my new home and the people who live here.

Intown Manchester
It may be less engaging than the other sites since it’s not in a blog format and it’s not the prettiest of websites, but this is a good place to start. You’ll find a comprehensive directory of downtown Manchester businesses, including some restaurants that never show up on Yelp. An event calendar, parking and transportation information, and a directory of realtors round out the site’s resources.

Goodgood Manchester
This blog is regularly kept up. In addition to the usual event listings and such, look for the infrequent but interesting job listings that are usually in marketing or creative fields and probably don’t show up on more typical job listing sites. There are some interesting Manchester-centric opinion articles (I have to agree with many of the suggestions in last year’s Improving the Manchester Dining Scene), and an amusing series capturing the local “Street Style.”

Fortress Manchester
Because it hasn’t been updated for over a year, I assume this blog has been abandoned. Yet, the articles are not time-specific and I include it here because they are still worth reading. The author is a “professional community organizer” so make of that what you will. Enjoy photo essays on Manchester’s best neon signs or the wide array of flags you can find around town (digging that Earth flag at the end, and the owner’s reasons for flying it!).

Manchester Oblique
The most recent post was a few months ago, but maybe they’ve been taking a summer break! Read about local history, architecture, even an Apartment Therapy-style house tour of a beautifully decorated apartment on the west side.

Livable MHT
Updated fairly recently, Livable MHT’s articles are well-written with a focus on city planning and urban development. Although the writers of Livable, Oblique, and Fortress all seem like they’re coming from a bureaucratic angle regarding how a city should be run, they are analyzing aspects that many people ignore — ways to make Manchester more livable, walkable, inviting. I think we can learn from their research and consider ways to implement these types of ideas through voluntary, peaceful means. The article about rebranding Manchester is a good read.

Hippo Press
Hippo Press is the website for the free weekly newspaper, The Hippo, which features arts and entertainment listings, local news and editorials, and human interest articles in the same vein as LA Weekly or the Village Voice. If you can’t get your hands on a paper copy or prefer to read digitally, you can access the entire current issue in an e-reader. Some articles are available on the website without opening the e-reader, too, but the interface is not the greatest.

Free Manch
I’ll finish off with the only Manchester blog I know of that’s run by liberty activists. The layout is beautiful and easy to navigate, and I highly recommend reading the Top Reasons to Move. The blog itself covers Manch-centered liberty news, and goes through flurries and lulls of activity. If you’re interested in writing for Free Manch, email editor@freemanch.com.

Happy reading!

The Neighborhoods of Manchester

Sun, 29 Jul 2012 17:27:17 -0400

Let’s say you know you want to live in Manchester, in the actual city rather than an outlying area like Hooksett or Bedford. But that’s all you know. What neighborhoods are pricey, what’s cheap, any areas that should avoided? This is where we started a couple months ago, looking at our options on Craigslist before we got here. I’ve been in this situation before; I remember researching online trying to learn about each San Francisco neighborhood’s traits, but it’s hard (for me, anyway) for things to really click until you’re there in person.

Adam and I had been to Manchester a couple times before, so we did have a vague idea of downtown’s scope and the feel of certain neighborhoods. But we did get some conflicting reports, particularly about the West Side. We had a waitress who, upon finding out we were new in Manchester and looking for a place, warned us about all the gangs and crime on the West Side. We also had Porcupines who live there talking up the West Side as the best place to be. When we toured apartments there it seemed fine, if a little run-down in parts.

I’ve also heard multiple warnings to stay away from street with tree names. If you look at the map of Manchester, you’ll find most tree-named streets are major thoroughfares running through the whole city, so that didn’t help much. I was recently told that warning specifically refers to the north-south tree streets between the major east-west streets of Bridge and Valley. Elm is the main downtown street and the westernmost big street in main Manchester. Beech and Maple are two central tree-named streets, and then Cypress is a more eastern tree street that runs alongside Elliot Hospital. So it seems that advice covers a very big swath of central Manchester, including all of downtown, the Verizon Wireless Arena, JFK Coliseum, high school, NH Institute of Art, the library, police station, courthouse. I think these are all the types of things that signal “city,” bringing crime but also business, events, and life to a community. I would advise to use discretion but stay open-minded, see the place for yourself no matter what rules you choose to follow. A street can change from block to block, and in Manchester you really can’t judge the inside of an apartment based on the outside. We had many surprises, both good and bad!

When trying to feel out different neighborhoods before we had the ability to be there in person, I found Walkscore to be very helpful, along with the old standards, Yelp and Google Maps. Together, these websites can help you figure out the nearby grocery stores, restaurants, shopping, parks — whatever’s most important to you. We wanted to be able to walk to restaurants, bars, and coffee shops, because that’s what we were used to, but that may not be a factor for some movers.

We ended up on a tree street, just south of Bridge, so we are technically inside that “bad area” but very close to the border. Our apartment is a half-mile from Elm St., and when we walk to get a meal or coffee there, which we do often, it seems like the perfect distance for a walk. Manchester, overall, feels more depressed than my previous neighborhoods in LA and SF. Dangerous is the wrong word, but there is plenty of graffiti (tags, not the cool kind) and the sort of people who seem prone to yelling at each other in the street. Junk in yards, a startling number of shirtless males, that sort of thing. We saw one apartment near Cedar and Lincoln that seemed like it might have actually been a bad area. For the most part, however, the apartment itself, not what was going on around it, informed our decision to live there.

If you look at a website like CrimeMapping, the crimes seem to be reported pretty evenly throughout Manchester, including the West Side, but with a noticeable drop in crime on the North End, once you get north of Salmon or so. The North End seems like a nice place to live, especially for families, but you will have to drive everywhere as the entire area is residential. When we were looking, there wasn’t much for rent up there as I think it’s mostly populated by homeowners. If something does come up though, I would recommend it as a quiet, safe, attractive area.

There are areas toward the east and south that also feel more quiet and residential. If you are set on renting a stand-alone, single-family home in Manchester but paying less than $1600-ish, these would be your go-to neighborhoods. We looked at a small house on Flint St. and Calef Rd., and another one at Rhode Island Ave. and Bridge St. The downside of these areas would be their distance from any restaurants or businesses. The west side of the West Side is also worth looking at for a calm vibe and getting more bang for your buck. We did see one apartment in the south part of the West side, near Manchester West High School, and the area felt shady to us.

Living downtown, adjacent to Elm, would be perfect for someone who wants to be close to everything. You may or may not get parking, probably won’t have a yard or any outdoor space, and in those neat old brick buildings you are paying a premium for location.

If you were to live near South Willow or the Mall of NH, keep in mind that your local businesses will be lots of chain stores in big strip malls, and even if they’re nearby, the area isn’t set up for walking. When we were staying at a hotel just south of the Mall, we tried to walk to Longhorn Steakhouse for dinner one night. Although the restaurant was right across the street, up on a small hill, we had to walk all the way to the Mall parking lot entrance and backtrack around on an embankment with no sidewalk, obviously not meant for pedestrians. Our hotel was diagonally across a big intersection from Barnes & Noble, but two sides of the intersection had no crosswalk or walk signal, so it was impossible to safely get there on foot.

I am not at all an expert on the neighborhoods of Manchester, but based on my observations, central Manch between Lake and Valley is the area I would stay out of due to safety concerns. Rental rates don’t seem to vary much from area to area, except maybe being higher on the North End or if you’re right downtown. Ultimately, no matter how much research is done in advance, there’s nothing like being here to see the area in person. Once we were here, it only took a few days for things to fall into place!

A Note on State Inspections

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 13:39:31 -0400

In New Hampshire, you have to get a state vehicle inspection every single year, within 10 days of your registration renewal. The closest thing to this in California is the smog check, which is only every other year and once your car is 6 years old. I only had to do it once, this past year, on my 2005 Corolla. Both inspections seem pretty easy for newer cars to pass. Both can be done at most mechanics but use a state-issued computer to test for whatever it’s testing for, which is good in a way because the shop can’t scam you for repairs as easily, but can be bad too because if the computer fails you, that’s it, you can’t reason with anyone.

I got a free magazine thing of local coupons called Spectrum Monthly, which included many coupons for state inspections. You will also see signs everywhere. It seems that dealerships charge more than smaller mechanics. Most of the coupons were for $20-30, and I believe the Subaru dealership charges $38 for theirs. Since they’re all supposedly using the exact same computerized test, and I was pretty sure I’d pass, I couldn’t see any benefit to using the dealership’s service this time. I have a tire pressure light on my dash that won’t turn off, even when the tires have just been filled. When I got my oil changed at Subaru, they told me it was a low battery on the sensor and assured me that it wouldn’t cause me to fail the state inspection. I think other lights, like a check engine light, might be an automatic failure.

When you get your registration at City Hall, they set the renewal schedule to your birth month. If there are two people on the registration, they let you choose which birth month you want. The cost is prorated for that first partial year. However, you need your state inspection within 10 days, and it is also linked to that birth month, but is not prorated. So if you show up in New Hampshire in, say, June and your birthday is in August, you’ll pay only a small amount for vehicle registration, but you’ll still pay your $30 state inspection, get a windshield sticker with an 8 on it, and have to turn around and do it over again two months later. Maybe if it’s really close, like within a month, they’d give you the next year’s sticker, but I’m not sure. To avoid this annoyingness, if you move three months or less before your birthday, and your registration sticker from your home state is still valid until then, I recommend waiting until your birth month to register your car in NH and then get the state inspection. Our car registration and inspection are set to reoccur in April, so getting it done in July wasn’t too bad for us. If we had chosen to get registration renewals in October instead (our other birth month option), I would have been a little irked.

I used Advanced Auto Repair in Manchester, with a $25 coupon, and was happy with the service. It took only about 20 minutes. There were some arbitrary state fees and parts fees that brought the total up to $30, and I am assuming every mechanic adds those same fees so you can plan to pay $5 more than the advertised price. And the guy let me know that my tire sensor light would have caused the car to fail the Massachusetts state inspection!

Introducing our apartment!

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 22:42:42 -0400

We found our apartment way back at the beginning of June and moved in on June 31. With the help of a few friendly Free Staters, we had everything out of the U-Pack cubes and into the house in about an hour. Because we sold and gave away so much furniture in Los Angeles, unpacking boxes and finding places for everything has been a slower process than what I’m accustomed to from prior moves. It’s hard to put away clothes when you don’t have a dresser! Things are coming along though, and we’re trying to focus on one room at a time, being choosy about what goes in and carefully selecting pieces that are right for the space. So far the living room, kitchen, and bathroom are close to being finished.

There are two bedrooms, the master (much bigger and has a ceiling fan) facing the street, so we’re actually getting more traffic noise at night than in LA or SF, which is kind of funny but not a problem.

The second bedroom is currently our storage for not-yet-unpacked things, but will eventually be a guest bedroom which will hopefully entice everyone to come and visit us!

The living room is in the center of the house, with a tv nook set into the wall. Our giant couch just barely fits along the longest wall. It ends a couple inches into the doorway but it doesn’t feel like you have to squeeze by or anything. Adam found a tv stand at Ikea that, along with our tv, fit absolutely perfectly into the nook. Those two pieces together look like they were made for the space. There’s an awkward wall outlet and cable hookups high up on the wall above the nook, because the owner, who lived here before, had mounted his tv to the wall instead of using the nook. I hung a collection of photos and art salon-style, which handily covered up those faceplates and allowed me to showcase lots of things at once.

Parking is off an alley, and so we enter through what is technically the back door into the dining room. Even when we leave the house to walk somewhere, it’s still more convenient to use the back door than the front door, which is off the living room and will very rarely get used. I’m really excited to have a dining room for the first time. We ordered a table and bench from Mill Stores, which will be stained with a teak finish and delivered here in a few weeks. I also snagged three mid-century Danish chairs off Craigslist, and they are amazing.

The bathroom’s features were what made us fall in love with the place when we saw it. A large step-in shower is equipped with two rainfall shower heads that are so near the ceiling that even the tallest of guys can wash his hair without ducking. Right next to the shower, tucked into a space meant just for them, are a stackable high-efficiency washer and dryer. The only negative about the bathroom is that there’s no linen closet or medicine cabinet, though there are a couple small shelves screwed into the wall and a metal towel rack. I found a red metal cabinet at MillCity Antiques that fit perfectly next to the sink.

The kitchen is also great. The apartment as a whole lacks storage and closet space, but the kitchen has more cabinets and cupboards than I can fill and a ton of counter space. It also has a gas stove with built-in microwave/hood above, a side-by-side fridge, and a dishwasher.

And that’s the tour! We love the bamboo floors, ceiling fans in three rooms, high ceilings, abundance of wall outlets, natural light, and cleanliness. But, there are only two closets in the whole house — one in each bedroom. No hall closet, no linen closet. It’s forcing us to get creative and thoughtful with storage solutions.

The other thing we don’t have is a garage. Yes, we can store things long-term in the basement, and there’s a paved driveway where we can fit two, maybe three cars tandem parked, but there’s no covered place to keep the mopeds. We’ve currently got them in a storage unit but are trying to figure out some garage space to rent in the neighborhood.

We’re on the first floor and there’s a currently-unrented studio apartment also on the first floor. One apartment each on the second and third floors makes four units total in the building. There’s a shared side yard with a paved area where we can grill. Lawn and snow maintenance are included, and so is electric. We pay for gas and I’m interested to see how high the bills get in the winter. The owner’s business is plumbing and heating, and he used to live in the unit, so I think he’s taken care to set everything up well. And if anything breaks, he’ll know how to fix it!

So we didn’t get a garage, and the place isn’t as private or quiet as some others we saw. It’s a central location on a main artery one-way street, and near another major street. This means that it’s very easy to get around by car or on foot, but it can be a little noisy. Overall I’m really happy here, and am reminded throughout the day that we made the right choice — this usually happens when showering, doing laundry, or cooking.

Registration, Licenses, and Insurance

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 09:30:58 -0400

After moving into our apartment on the weekend, we were eager to assimilate as New Hampshirites as soon as possible and get some of the more dreaded errands over with. We had a super productive Monday and although it wasn’t fun by any stretch of the imagination, I am glad to have gotten so much done.

Car Registration
When we bought our car in California in February, it happened to have August stickers, so we never had to renew it which worked out nicely. I would have been kind of sad if we had to renew in California, say in May, then pay New Hampshire registration again in July. Something tells me California doesn’t give refunds for that kind of thing, or if it does I bet you have to jump through hoops to get any money back.

We did start getting our CA renewal notices and I read that I need to send it back stating the date we left California and our new address to prevent further notices, collections, or even wage levies as they try to get our renewal fee. It also says I need to print out and mail an additional CA change of address form, but I think I’ll just send back the renewal notice and hope that’s enough for them. That’s one of the small tasks I still need to do this week.

Monday morning I headed to Manchester City Hall and was directed to the “Office of the Tax Collector,” where there was a line out the door and down the hall. I have no idea if that’s normal or if it was caused by the holiday week. At least parking near City Hall is easy to find and cheap. I’ve never had that experience in Los Angeles or San Francisco!

I waited in line for nearly an hour with my apartment lease agreement (to prove residency), photo ID, and car title and when I finally got to speak to someone, she told me Adam needed to be present to sign his own form since he’s on the CA title and will be on the NH title too. I was already there much longer than I’d expected, my car’s meter was about to run out, and I was pretty frustrated, but once she reassured me that Adam and I could come straight back to her and not wait in line again, I felt much better. The forms and payment were pretty straightforward once we were in front of her together.

Our registration plus a title fee, good through April because it’s my birthday month, was $261. It’s a 2009 Subaru Forester, for reference. I believe the title fee was $45, and the renewal rate does go down every year as the car gets older, so when I renew next April even though it will be for the entire year, it should cost less. I’m guessing around $200 a year for registration? My CA renewal notice was for $204, so it’s comparable. She handed us our new license plates right there over the counter, which was unexpected. I’ve seen so many paper temporary plates here, I thought that’s what we would get. They are already on the car, thanks to Adam, so nobody knows we’re “from away” now!

I do have to take the car for a state inspection within 10 days, so I’ll do that early next week. Then I’ll get a big ugly sticker smack in the center of my windshield and our car will really fit in. I’ll report on this process after it’s done. I’m not looking forward to getting an inspection every year.

Driver Licenses
We knew we’d both need to be present to transfer our driver licenses, so in the afternoon Adam and I headed to the Manchester DMV location which is upstairs in a strip mall. We brought our CA licenses, social security cards, and lease again, but when the lady who helped us saw our new temporary car registration from earlier in the day in our folder, she preferred to use that as a proof of residency. We filled out forms and got the eye test up front with some very helpful employees, then got a number and had to wait about 45 minutes to finish the process, get our photos taken, and pay. I was sad I had to give up my California license, because the new CA licenses have pretty illustrations and secret details. I would have liked them to punch a hole or something and let me keep it as a memento but she claimed they have to send it back to California.

Adam’s license was $80 because he has a motorcycle license, and it will be $55 to renew, and mine was $50 for a regular “Operator” license and renewals will also be $50. Renewals come up every five years. We also checked boxes on the form that said “ I wish to have my social security number removed from DMV Records, pursuant to RSA 263:40-a.” and “I do not wish to have my photograph retained in the records of the Department of Safety. (RSA 260:14).” Not sure what that all means, but the less I’m in their records, the better! We got our temporary paper cards and went on our way.

Switching Insurance
I was eager to get the registration and licenses done as soon as possible, because that meant I was ready to get New Hampshire car insurance and cancel the California insurance. We’d paid for a year of CA car insurance through AAA in March, so the sooner I cancelled, the bigger the refund would be. I considered trying to switch to AAA in NH, but the AAA branches are so autonomous that they even had to start from scratch to transfer us from Northern California to Southern California, so I figured it was easier to start fresh. I got a few Porcupine plugs for Geico, and their online quote process was pretty straightforward, so I went ahead with them. Keeping our coverage limits the same, a year of insurance here ended up being just under ⅓ our California rate. I also took the opportunity to cancel our AAA California home renters insurance (and earthquake insurance) and sign up for that through Geico, which gives a multi-line discount even though the renters coverage is technically through Liberty Mutual. Renters insurance was, again, about ⅓ of our California rate, not counting the earthquake add-on.

I was on the phone for most of Monday evening signing up for car insurance, then renters insurance, then calling to cancel both through AAA, but it was so worth it to have it finished. Insurance here is roughly $500 vs $1600 in CA, and renters was about $200 vs $600. I’m pretty sure the refunds we’ll be getting soon in the mail will cover our entire next year’s insurance costs, plus the car registration and license fees that we paid on Monday. Pretty sweet! I guess New Hampshire car insurance rates are so low because it’s not required to have insurance here. Just like wearing a seatbelt, I’m glad I am not required to get insurance, and that people who choose not to do so aren’t forced to pay the government for their “mistake,” but I’m still going to make the prudent choice and insure my vehicle!

I realize posts like this are rather boring. The only thing worse than sitting in government offices, filling out forms, and spelling your address on the phone over and over again is reading a blog post about it! But hopefully my experience will provide helpful information for someone who is planning and budgeting a move to New Hampshire.

Our nomadic six weeks will soon be over

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 22:31:48 -0400

I haven’t been in my house, surrounded by my belongings, for six weeks. In mid-May when I was packing a suitcase of clothes, trying to figure out what I’d need to get me through until July 1, it seemed so far away. Even though we didn’t know where we would be living, I had guessed that we’d get there in early June, take a week at most to lock down a place, but that it was likely that place wouldn’t be available for move-in until July 1. And that’s exactly how it ended up happening. July 1 is almost here, and it could not come soon enough! Because I know that even when we physically move our boxes and furniture from the storage cubes into the apartment, it won’t feel like home right away. And making our house into a home will be my next big job.

So what have we been up to since we found our apartment? We ended up staying 9 nights total in Manchester at the TownePlace Suites. We drove up and down S. Willow St. way too many times, socialized with fellow Porcupines, and fell in love with the Waumbec Mill building (really want to rent a workspace there with windows facing the Merrimack River).

Then we stayed five nights in a house-in-progress with our generous hosts, the Bosses. We met them when they lived in the SF Bay Area, and since then they’ve moved to New Hampshire, bought property in the tiny town of Grafton, had an adorable baby boy, and are building what will soon be an amazingly sturdy, comfortable, and customized home. During our stay, I ate the most flavorful and moist turkey of my life, changed cloth diapers for the first time, and visited the baby cows at a small dairy down the road where we bought $3/gallon fresh raw milk.

Next up: PorcFest at Roger’s Campground in northern New Hampshire. We would have spent the money to travel to PF and get a motel room whether we were simultaneously paying rent on a home or not, so it was kind of nice, like we just lived at the campground for five nights! PorcFest is a huge annual Free State Project festival that draws about 1000 people each year. We built last year’s road trip around our first PorcFest. Last year it rained just about every day, but this year it was super hot and sunny, which made the pool feel extra-refreshing, until some heavy downpours on Saturday. We saw great talks, met new people (most of whom live in Manchester, it seems!), ate delicious primal-friendly food thanks to George’s Famous Baklava, and ate delicious but not-so-primal-friendly ice cream from Liberty Bell Ice Cream. Dr. Bob Murphy is still my favorite, and I hope he continues showing up at PorcFest. He’s equally at home hosting a totally silly and over-the-top roast of Chris Lawless as he is lecturing on banking in a stateless society. He makes me learn AND he makes me laugh! Whether you are young or not, read his book Lessons for the Young Economist for a great introduction to Austrian Economics — it’s the baby version of Man, Economy, and State for people like me who know they’re never going to get through Man, Economy, and State.

We decided to spend our last week of June on the Seacoast. We’d heard so many endorsements and it’s a NH region we’d barely explored. I got a room in Dover for four nights, and from that base we visited downtown Dover, downtown Portsmouth, the Redhook Brewery, and Newick’s Seafood. We met up with a Californian friend who has made his home in the Seacoast region. The weather was pretty icky, so the one thing we hadn’t really done yet on the Seacoast was spent time enjoying the sea or the coast. The rain was scheduled to clear up today, so yesterday I booked one night beachfront at Jonathan’s on the northern (quieter) end of the Hampton Beach strip. Sure enough, the weather has been beautiful and we’re loving our balcony view and walks along the sand. Although I see the Seacoast’s charm, especially that of Portsmouth, and I’m sure we’ll make frequent trips out here for various reasons, I am still glad that we’ll be living in Manchester.

Tomorrow and Saturday night we’ll be back in Manchester, this time at the Holiday Inn, which has a decent 24-hour diner attached. Tomorrow afternoon I’ll be hovering near our apartment even though it’s not technically ours yet, because I’m supervising the drop-off of our storage cubes in the driveway. U-Pack only schedules drop-offs and pick-ups on weekdays, and our landlord was kind enough to let us use the driveway beginning tomorrow.

Now I’m just hanging out in our room, listening to the waves crash below. I like this place! It sure is strange when the sun sets away from the ocean though!

Our apartment-hunting requirements

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 19:04:29 -0400

Before we found the apartment we’ll be living in beginning next month, we narrowed down hundreds of rentals on craigslist and ended up seeing about 12 units in person, in just three days. Here’s some of the criteria that were most important to Adam and I.

Kitchen
So many apartments in New Hampshire have, as the “kitchen,” a fridge and a stove sitting randomly in a large empty room. That is not a kitchen! So when we saw pictures like this on craigslist, that listing was an automatic do-not-consider.

My ideal rental kitchen does not have a galley-style sink; everything is in the same room. There is ample counter space, especially on one or both sides of the stove, at least one window, and a dishwasher. Bonus points if the cabinetry is attractive, if the window is above the sink, if the stovetop is gas instead of electric, if an imaginary line between the fridge/oven/sink makes a triangle, and if there’s a built-in microwave. Super-bonus if there’s a pantry. I’ve never had one, but someday I will.

Laundry
We knew having laundry in the building, and not coin-op, was a must. We were considering all the places that said there were either a washer and dryer or hookups in the basement, but once we saw a few dark, perilous basements with dark, perilous stairs, we changed our criteria to having in-unit hookups. Bonus if the washer and dryer are already included.

Bathroom
No free-standing claw-foot tubs with circular plastic shower curtains that will cling to you from all sides. That was pretty much our only bathroom requirement, other than cleanliness. Bonus if there’s more than one bathroom, but we’re used to only having one.

Bedrooms
At least two of them, decently sized. Hardwood floors preferred over carpet. Good lighting and ample closets. These desires are pretty normal, I think.

Location
We only looked at places in the north, central, slightly south of central, and west side of Manchester. Other than west of the river, we only considered renting inside the sort-of fenced in area of Manchester the freeways make. At least for now, we want to feel like we are living in a city. Bonus if downtown is walkable from our location.

Outdoor Space
We really wanted to have at least a small outside area to grill. Even better if there is a place to set up a small table and chairs, and best of all if I’m allowed to dig a small vegetable garden. I didn’t care so much about the garden, though, since the timing is wrong to plant anything this year, and who knows that we’ll even be in the same place longer than a year. We also wanted someone else to do lawn and snow maintenance (especially snow cause we wouldn’t even know where to start).

We also needed an off-street parking spot for our car. Bonus if it’s a garage, or if we have guest spots, or if there’s covered parking for the mopeds.

Other bonuses:

A nice view
First floor (easier to move furniture)
Heat or other utilities included
A glassed-in or screened-in sun porch
Big windows
A short walk to a good coffee or breakfast spot
Landlord seems normal, responsive, and easy to work with

We wanted someplace clean and well-maintained. If the floors are noticeably uneven or a cigarette-plus-cat smell greets you at the door even though the place has been vacant for months and repainted, or there’s a big sheet of styrofoam instead of a closet door (yes, we saw all these things), we are not going to consider living there.

So what do you think? Is this list normal, or were we being really picky? We ended up putting in applications at four different places, of which none were perfect, but we would have been happy in any of them. Once we’ve got our keys and can take photos, I’ll tell you all about the place we ended up choosing. It fulfills almost all of our criteria, and has some super-special bonuses I didn’t even know I wanted until I saw them!

The final costs of moving our stuff

Sat, 16 Jun 2012 16:41:00 -0400

Even though we were able to move ourselves and our car across the country fairly frugally, the costs to move our stuff definitely added up. This expense breakdown covers everything we spent to get our belongings boxed up, moved, and stored once in Manchester. Our cubes are currently in the storage facility in Manchester, and will be coming to our new place for unloading in about two weeks.

(Interior of our second cube holding the massive couch. The first cube was much more densely packed and held all the kitchen, books, and clothing boxes.)

The U-Pack bill was $3642. That includes drop-off and pick-up of two 6x7x8’ Relocubes and one month of storage. They start counting that month when the cubes actually land in Manchester, which is nice and means that we can get away with only one month of storage fees even though we haven’t seen our cubes since May 21.

We spent $249 on boxes and other packing materials. That seems crazy to me, to spend hundreds of dollars on something that is only used to hold other things of actual value. But I guess it’s normal, and I don’t know what our other choice was if we wanted uniformly-sized, sturdy, sealing boxes (ruling out scavenging at supermarkets and the like). We did shop around and ended up ordering a 2-room moving kit and 10 lbs of packing paper (which was plenty) from movingdayboxes.com. It was $110 including free and quick delivery, and seemed like a good deal compared to other sources. But when we got the boxes we discovered their small/medium/large were all skewed smaller than what we were expecting. Small boxes weren’t good for much except books, so we ended up with extra smalls at the end, but needed to go to Home Depot for a couple more large and extra-large boxes.

The rest of the $249 was spent on mattress and couch covers, bubble wrap, packing tape, a $30 flat screen tv box, some big plastic tubs, and locks for the two Relocubes.

Our next payment went for something we probably should have foreseen, but didn’t. Adam was hoping his two mopeds would be able to fit in one of the cubes along with everything else. Once we got them and started loading everything up, it became clear that it wasn’t going to happen. The cubes are tall and skinny, so to use the space well, you have to be able to stack things high. The two mopeds, with their awkward size and inability to be stacked with anything else, were basically going to eat up about ¾ of a cube. We had the right amount of boxes and furniture to fill both cubes sans mopeds, so it was clear we’d need either a big, unexpected purge, or to sell the mopeds, or to figure out another way to get them to NH.

We had recently been told about uShip, where you can list what you need transported and drivers of all sorts bid to drive your belongings. Adam listed the mopeds and accepted a bid of $600 from a non-professional driver who was taking his giant RV and attached trailer to New Hampshire to visit his sister. The guy’s been paid and the mopeds are safely in storage near Manchester, so we’re happy to have that all finished!

The last cost associated with moving our stuff is one that was not completely necessary, but worth it to us. We paid two cleaners two hours (the maid service’s minimum for a job) for a move-out cleaning of our rental in Los Angeles. With a tip it was $130. They did all the floors and surfaces really well, swept out the fireplace, and most importantly to me, cleaned the oven and fridge so we didn’t have to. When you’re moving out, there are so many last minute errands to run and things you’ve forgotten about, it’s so nice to know you don’t have to schedule time in for a deep clean, too.

Total for all things moving/transportation related: $4621.

I had budgeted $5000 for this kind of stuff, so we ended up right in line with that. This is where those years of savings come into play! It is definitely not cheap, and we seriously considered taking nothing and starting from scratch when we got here. If you are willing to do that, you can save a lot in moving costs. However, if you have anything of size you want to bring with you, I believe U-Pack cubes are the most convenient and cost-effective option, especially when you need storage before you’re ready to unpack. We did give away and sell probably two-thirds of our furniture, saving ourselves from using a third Relocube and giving ourselves the opportunity to slowly acquire “special” pieces of furniture here — furniture that fits the space we have and the look we’re going for, that we love, are well-made, and that we’ll want to keep around forever.

On-the-road expenditures

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 09:12:58 -0400

This post breaks down our expenses during our seven days driving from Los Angeles to Manchester, based on our records kept on the Spentable iPhone app. We were both good about remembering to input each purchase, so I think it will be accurate. Once we got to Manchester, we stopped recording expenses. Everyone will do something different once they arrive in New Hampshire, but the costs of getting here will be somewhat more universal, I hope.

More budget-related posts to come include the breakdown for transporting our stuff, and an estimate for the month we’re currently spending bouncing around until we can move into our place(signed the rental agreement on Saturday and we move in July 1!). Of course, I also want to write about what we learned during our house hunt and more about the place we chose.

Okay, here goes…

Gas = $463.45
We came in under budget on gasoline! The average gas per gallon cost was probably around $3.60. Gas is pretty cheap in all the middle states. When we drove, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kentucky, and Ohio all averaged under $3.50/gallon. We didn’t pay above $4/gallon once we got out of California. The Subaru also liked the freeway driving, and the tripometer average mpg display, which may or may not be accurate, was steadily in the high 20’s and even hit 31 mpg at one point. A normal tank used for city driving reads around 22 mpg on our car.

Tolls = $30.05
Over half of that was what we paid to drive across New York state. The rest was in Oklahoma and Massachusetts. I think those were the only states where we ran into tolls. I know we could have changed our route to avoid these, but in the scheme of things, it’s not a big deal. If we were taking a route with tolls frequently, sure, but this is definitely a once-in-a-while trip. The worst thing about tolls is trying to figure out each state’s system. Do you toss coins (exact change, of course) in a big funnel and be on your way? Do you get a stub when you get on and pay at the end? In Oklahoma we paid twice on a road because I didn’t know that I needed to get in the line where they give receipts to show at the next toll booth and prove that we’d paid already.

Food = $209.78
That’s an average of $15/person/day. Not bad, I think! We did get a few meals provided by family, so I guess we would have come in around $300 total if that wasn’t the case. We usually ate two meals a day. Some days, we got up, drove a couple hours, then stopped for a late breakfast. This worked well to fill us up, then we could just worry about dinner when we got to our destination for the night. We had a bag of snacks in the car and ate only a couple “sit-down” meals. Mostly diner breakfasts and fast food type meals for under $10/person. Eating mostly primal on the road meant that our food stuck with us and gave us slow-burning energy, so we didn’t need to eat often. Felt much better than quick fixes of chips and candy from the gas station!

Lodging = $118.56
Now, this number is misleadingly low. We stayed three out of six nights with family members. I highly recommend building your route around visiting friends or family, if possible! One night, we used the hotels.com rewards program and our room’s total was only $10 instead of around $90. That leaves the first two nights of lodging, spent in quaint little Route 66 motels. One was $58 and one was $48. I also didn’t include our hotel costs after our arrival in Manchester. There are Free Staters who are happy to open their homes to new arrivals, but we chose to stay seven nights in a business hotel instead. We wanted to have a home base with a kitchen, reliable wifi, and a space to unwind without inconveniencing anyone else. For that, we paid $686.

Coffee = $17.07
This category and the next are somewhat menial, but I wanted to be careful and honest about finding an accurate expense total. So, we got coffee a few times. Seventeen dollars worth!

Retail = $20.00
We only bought one thing not directly related to our needs while on the road. When Adam’s cousins took us to the Maker’s Mark bourbon distillery in Kentucky, we bought a souvenir bottle which I dipped in red wax there at the store. I think that’s the right kind of souvenir, sentimental yet consumable.

Total = $858.91
I’m pleased that we stayed under $1000 in expenses to get ourselves here. That was my goal and we beat it by nearly $150! Getting our belongings here, that’s another story! The U-Pack cubes and other moving costs (to be itemized later) are definitely where the biggest chunk of our New Hampshire savings fund has gone so far.

The Spentable app was a good choice for tracking expenses in the way that we required. It’s very simple — you can customize category names, but that’s about it. You aren’t able to add notes or anything to remind yourself exactly where you bought that $30 worth of food. So for budgeting longer term, to see where you may be overspending, I would rather use a system that allows for more detail. For the road trip, though, Spentable was fast and easy.

Update from the road: We’re here!

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 20:54:17 -0400

Kinda dropped the ball on posting every night, I know. But first things first — at about 6:30 pm today, we rolled into Manchester and checked into our home for the next week! It’s a nice place and has everything we need, even a little but fully stocked kitchen. I’m looking forward to staying in one place and settling in a bit.

Saturday
We left Tulsa after an early breakfast with Adam’s aunt and uncle, and set out on our 12-hour day (11 hours of driving, and one hour crossing into the eastern time zone). We stopped for lunch in Sullivan, MO, a small town before St. Louis. I read a little about Homer’s Bar-B-Q in advance, but not enough to prepare me for the experience. Upon walking in, we felt like we were interrupting an old guy’s chatting session with friends in his living room. They all kind of stopped and stared when we walked in, then Homer got out of his easy chair, which was in the dining area, and asked how he could help us. It was an awkward start to what turned out to be a special, if strange, experience.

Once we were settled into a corner with some delicious barbequed meats and coleslaw, Homer came to talk with us. He asked us about our travels and reminisced about his 1985 trip to California, which he remembered in great detail. But mostly he talked to us about God, sin, and the Bible. Although it was a potentially uncomfortable situation, he didn’t put us on the spot or ask us much, and I think he was a truly kind, sincere, loving and honest old man. He wouldn’t let us pay for our lunch, and sent us on our way.

After a lot of road construction and detours, we made it to Shelbyville KY, where we stayed up late talking with Adam’s cousins, Dawn and David, and finally went to bed, excited to not drive anywhere the next day.

Sunday
We slept in and had a delicious homemade breakfast of bacon, eggs, and goat milk (eggs and goat milk bought that morning from a farm down the street, where later that day we visited two adorable week-and-a-half baby goats). Adam’s cousins drove us through the green hills and winding roads of Kentucky to the Makers Mark distillery for a tour. The free tour and tasting was great and I highly recommend it! We bought a small bottle in the gift shop where, after donning an apron, goggles, sleeves, and gloves, I very safely dipped the top into the signature hot red wax.

That afternoon we swam in the pool, got our photos taken by Dawn and David’s talented friend Eric, ate pulled pork that had been in the smoker all day, also thanks to Eric, and snacked on David’s amazing bacon-wrapped cream cheese-filled jalapenos. It was the perfect relaxing day with family.

Monday
We drove from Shelbyville to Buffalo NY yesterday, which meant most of the day was spent in Ohio. I drove a lot so Adam could work in the car. The only interesting stop we made was at Skyline Chili, which was really great. The cinnamony chili reminded me of Moroccan or middle eastern food, and the service was excellent. I’d go there all the time if I lived in Ohio.

Dinner was microwaved leftover pulled pork in the hotel, even better than the night before, and milkshakes from a nearby ice cream shop. We have now entered the Northeast, land of ice cream everywhere! We aren’t used to sweets anymore, though, so we both felt slightly sick after finishing the milkshakes. Then we watched the double-length season 5 premiere of Mad Men, and then I should have written this blog post but I decided to sleep instead.

Tuesday
Today’s drive was even less exciting because we even ate lunch somewhere boring. Being on a toll road means it’s way more convenient to eat at those “service plazas” rather than actually get off the freeway, so we had salads at some food court type place this afternoon. We were really just eager to get here so we powered through. Drivers in New York are much better than in Massachusetts. It threatened to rain all day but never really did, just a sprinkle here and there.

Now we’re in Manchester with Five Guys burgers in our bellies. Next on tonight’s agenda is to process all the Craigslist rental listings I’ve been marking as favorites on the iPad and start organizing them and setting up appointments.

It feels great to actually be here, but also very surreal!