10/19/08 Dartmouth in a Day

Gerald, my major professor from my doctoral days at UNT, was going to be at Dartmouth with his wife and oldest son visiting his youngest son who's a freshman. They invited me to come join them for lunch or dinner on Sunday and I took them up on the offer. Sure, it's a three and a half hour drive, one way, but that doesn't matter! So I left after church, drove 3.5 hours, got a quick tour of Dartmouth campus from Gerald (who also attended Dartmouth for his undergraduate days), visited with the family, had dinner with them, and drove 3.5 hours back. Fortunately, I had plenty of unheard podcasts on my iPhone to listen to on the way down. Plus, it was still autumn and though a lot of leaves had already fallen, it was still beautiful. The drive through western Maine's rolling hills is gorgeous. Then I drove across New Hampshire into Vermont and then drove south in Vermont right next to the Connecticut River. That was gorgeous, too. Then I took a left, crossed the river, and was back in New Hampshire to get to Dartmouth. I was able to easily stay awake on the drive home because I was listening to Game 7 of the American League Championship between the Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays. I heard 30 minutes of pre-game and 8.5 innings. I listened to the sad sad ending 1.5 innings in the apartment when I got home. It was rather a whirlwind but it was fun and it was so great to see Gerald and the family.

There are more details about the Maine portion of this trip in the Maine blog, but here's the highlights:

I stopped in Rumford, ME when I saw this giant lumberjack. What a hoot! I stopped for the lumberjack and then stumbled on this little park and the waterfall. Who knew Edmund Muskie was from Rumford, Maine?! Not me, though now I do.

I also drove through Bethel, ME, home of the world's largest snowwoman. In my Maine blog you can see the entry where we went to visit the site of the snowwoman on July 1 and there was still 10 feet of snow in a big pile. It wasn't much snow compared to what had been there, but on July 1 to find that much snow in one place was pretty remarkable. Needless to say, there wasn't any snow left on October 19. Here's the empty field where the snowwoman used to be:

The "Welcome to New Hampshire" and "Welcome to Vermont" signs were pretty unimpressive and it wouldn't have been safe to stop and take a photo of either. This moose sign in New Hampshire was more interesting:

Ah, Dartmouth. It was sooo New England, collegiate. I'd only been there once before and that was at night. It was fun to get to see it not only in the day, but in the autumn.