Day 8 - Part 2

I am exhausted! I spent all day driving yesterday. It may not look like very much (262 miles), however the majority of it was mountain driving on smaller roads. Once I made it to the coast and checked into my hotel, I took a shower and went to bed. I wish I could afford to stay a second night so that I could just relax today. That's one thing about traveling that I always forget about - driving takes a lot of energy. I can't wait to meet up with some friends and park it for a couple days.

Anyway, it was a weird day yesterday. Most of the day I was super grateful and struck by the beauty surrounding me. But because I was so exhausted, I easily switched over to the annoyed bitchy Vega. Back and forth all day. One moment "ooohing" and "aaaahing" over some deep gorge, the next minute swearing at some douchebag in an SUV passing me again. Good thing I was by myself because I would have been embarrassed by my own mood swings had anyone been with me!

Everywhere I went yesterday was filled with skiers. The White Mountains have tons of slopes. For a while, I was aching to get back on a hill. I haven't been skiing in nearly 15 years. When I last dislocated my knee, I thought it was better to not chance another mishap. I know you're thinking I'm a geek for skiing - why would I not snowboard? Well, snowboards were very new and not very popular when I last was on the slopes, so I never actually tried it. (I'm totally admitting to you all what a big loser I am!) Oh well.
Just like all the other mood swings of the day, the reminiscing joy of youth was quickly replaced by rage for all the wankers with cargo boxes on top of their cars riding my ass. I thought for sure that things would be laid back on Easter Sunday... I was already going a little bit above the speed limit, but that wasn't good enough for these pricks that had to get to the next mountain. I don't know how many times I was passed yesterday by some douchebag on a DOUBLE YELLOW LINE! WTF? I mean really! Risking your life and the lives of others by passing in a no-passing zone (that's there, obviously, because it's dangerous to pass) just so you can get your stupid skis on. Urgh. Many of these lifts were just on the side of the roadway across from a parking area. There were no crosswalks or signs for motorists to be aware of pedestrians. At one point, these two guys who were standing at the side of the road watched me drive nearer, and blatantly stepped out in front of me - seeing that I wasn't slowing down. Do you have a freaking death wish??

Ok, enough of my rant.
There were a couple more signs that got me chuckling yesterday. The first was a road called "Bullocks Crossing."
There was another road marked as "Hooker Lane" with a big yellow sign above it reading "Private."
In a tiny town in New Hampshire, there was a carved wooden sign on the side of a hill that said "Fool on the Hill." I immediately looked to the top of the hill to see what was there - two huge carved bears stood waving. Cute.
I saw a Prince Edward Island license plate for the first time in my life.
The New Hampshire motto is "Live Free or Die" and is written on all of the license plates. I thought that was fairly dramatic, especially concerning the state of our nation...

I'm going to try to take it easy today. I'd like to see parts of the coast, as I'm told it looks similar to parts of the UK and Ireland. I am also going to try lobster for the first time (wish me luck). I don't care for seafood, but I figured this is a time where I'm reinventing myself, so I may as well try as many new things as possible. If I don't post later today, don't be alarmed. I'm just taking a break.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for your comments. Post as many as you can! They help to pull me back in from that crazed solitude that I've been living in my car.

P.S. Now the only states I haven't been to are Rhode Island, Louisiana, Alaska and Hawaii!