After such a wonderful evening last night, it was hard to get motivated to leave my bed this morning. I still woke up at 0600 and did some reading before packing up. At 0800, I checked out of The Dagney and then walked (in some light rain) back to Two Financial Place so I could get my car out of the garage. The checkout process ended up being really easy and I was on my way out of Boston by 0830. It was quite rainy and wet as I drove north on I-93. Since I had some coupons I wanted to use at the Mall of New Hampshire in Manchester, I stopped there on the way (0915). The Mall wasn't open yet so I ended up driving a short distance to visit the BJs (for gas fillup at 0930) and Walmart (for supplies at 1010). Returning to the Mall, I walked around inside, waiting for everything to open (1100). Along the way, I got a lot of steps in and made up for my busted plans for a hike on the way home. Once the Eastern Mountain Sports opened, I got some socks there and was finished shopping by 1115. Driving across NH-28 (1130), I was able to enjoy a Veterans Day meal (I had the free voucher they gave me on November 11) at Texas Roadhouse. Done eating at 1210, I drove north on I-293, I-93 and US-3 to reach Shaws in Hooksett, where I picked up a free reward item (1235). Next, I continued on US-3 (and some back roads) and NH-3A until I reached I-89. During all of this time, the weather had simply been wet - unfortunately, the temperature dropped significantly as I continued north and was completely snow (accumulating) by the time I reached Warner. I actually encountered one person who had just careened off a steep cliff on the median - they somehow managed to get their car out of the mess (whew!). For the rest of the journey, the driving was obviously much slower - I had to carefully make my way up a frosty, slippery, snowy I-89 to reach home (arrived at 1345). The wintry conditions in northern New England were VERY different from the pleasant ones in the Bay State… Overall, though, this was an amazing weekend of fun, exercise, history, culture and camaraderie!
