On our way up to North Conway last
Wednesday, we took the 104-25-16 route off of
I-93. We found "the yellow store" in
Moultenborough that Sam told us about. The
actual name of it, if you were wondering, is
"The General Store at Moultenborough
Corner." Or something like that. Funny how
names of places like that are so forgettable,
isn't it? Well, I think I took a picture of the
storefront, so once I get the prints back I can
tell you for sure. We did check out the
museum upstairs, but it was starting to get
dark and they have no electric lighting up there
so we couldn't really see much other than hazy
outlines of really cool antiquated junk.

In North Conway we also visited Zeb's, which
as it turns out, is also yellow. Zeb's is cool,
and we somehow managed not to buy
anything there even though we wanted to.

On the way back to Windham we took the
Kancamagus Highway over to I-93. It wasn't
as well maintained as the other roads, but
passable. We passed by the entrance to Loon
Mountain, and I was mightily tempted to revisit
it, but my steely resolve held and we passed it
by. Upon reaching I-93, we went north, and
made three stops, all recommended by Sam.

What IS the Basin? I don't think we
actually saw The Basin, even though the stop
was plowed and open. The trail wasn't
plowed, but was trampled down with
snowmobile tracks. We walked down it a short
way, almost got run over by a snowmobile,
went under the overpass and around the bend
to a bridge. According to a sign, it was the
handicapped entrance to The Basin. My wife
was complaining that it was too cold, so we
looked at the stream running under the bridge
and then went back to our car.

Boise Rock was a bit of a disappointment...
the stop was plowed, but I couldn't actually get
to the rock. The morons of the NH highway
department who plowed the stop out piled all
the snow up in a huge five-foot bank RIGHT
ACROSS the entrance to the rock! So all I
could do was look at the rock over the
embankment; couldn't climb on it or even look
at the Sign That Leen Hates because it too
was covered with snow. I did take a picture or
two though, and I saw the spot where the
pioneer guy must have slept inside his horse.

Last but not least, we revisited the Old Man of
the Mountain. By that time we were anxious to
be heading back towards Windham, so we
didn't even get out of the car. He was kind of
difficult to see, because the sun was just
going behind the mountain at the time, but I
got him on videotape. Last time I got a really
crummy picture (linked to below) with our
cheap-o camera; this time I was able to
ZOOOM right in on his majestic stony face.

So, to sum up: The Yellow Store, cool; Zeb's,
cool; The Basin, probably cool; Boise Rock,
morons; Old Man, still cool.

Gri"and before I forget, Grandpa's Cheese
Barn is at exit 186 off of I-71 near Ashland,
Ohio"shny