Throughout the years, some adventures have been big, some are small. My first adventures were quite small but in some ways they typified all adventures great and small. The first task is always to choose where you want to go and how much time you need.  Because the entire region was so new, I thought it best to start small and close. My first adventures included downtown Concord (pronounced con-cud), a park in Concord , and a walk through the neighborhood in Bow. Unlike the mid-west, towns and cities border each other with no “county space” between. Bow and Concord are neighboring towns, and Steve & Kim’s house is less than a mile from the town border.

One of the first things I noticed was that New England has many more trees than the mid-west. I have humorously noted that everyone lives in the woods. The only streets that do not appear to be canopied by trees are in the downtown areas of heavily populated cities like Manchester. Small towns, like Bow and Hampstead, the town I work in, are built right into the natural woodland area. White Park in Concord is half comprised of wooded area.

Concord-Concord is the capital of New Hampshire. The capitol is the 2nd smallest state house in the nation, with Vermont being the smallest. While the building may be small, the legislative body is quite large with over 200 members. That is extraordinary as New Hampshire has barely 2 million residents. The capitol is right on Main St. and reminds me of many of the county courthouses in Missouri. During the summer, the grounds are well kept with beautiful flower beds. I’ve never taken the time to tour the building, but you always have to leave something for another weekend.

 

 

 

I like Concord.  It has a wonderful downtown area with shops with actual window dressing.  At Christmas, many have decorative displays.  This adventure was on a Sunday which is much quieter than the weekdays.

Though not a culinary destination, there are many locally owned restaurants and eateries in this area.  Loudon street, across the river, contains most of the national branded retail stores, but Main Street has that home-town feel due to all the niche style, locally owned businesses.

 

White Park-I love gardens and parks that provide a serene atmosphere to walk and think. White Park fit the bill perfectly. As I noted before, many towns are built into the native woodland.

This park preserves some of the woodland with trails through the trees. A nice walk way surrounds the pond which freezes over in winter and is used as an ice hockey rink.

Bow-Janet’s brother Steve and his wife Kim live in the town of Bow. At my time of arrival, they had three adult daughters and one teenage son.

The girls had moved out, which left the mother-in-law apartment conveniently vacant which they graciously rented to me.

Bow has a large area,  but is sparsely populated in wooded neighborhoods. Even houses appeared different to me, and on my walk I photographed at least half a dozen houses.  I also discovered Pandora music that day and enjoyed my soundtrack of epic movie themes by John Williams and Hans Zimmer.

To me, living like a tourist is the habit of finding new things to see and learn about. My third tool in helping me live like a tourist was the addition of a Smart Phone. I chose an iPhone as I have other Apple products. I started with a 4 and am now on an 8. With each upgrade, the pictures have gotten better and better. Without this tool, I’m not sure this blog would be possible.

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” – Helen Keller

My journey to New England began in late July of 2013.  I was offered my job on Wednesday, July 17, and left Kansas City on Saturday, July 20th.  At 7:00 AM Saturday morning, my father called to ask if I’d left yet. I told him my pickup was loaded and I was heading out the door.  He invited me to stop by his home and swap pickups. His 2010 Chevy Colorado was a huge upgrade to my 1993 GMC Sonoma.  Little did I know this change in vehicles would influence a new lifestyle of weekend adventures. Not only that, but having 4-wheel or all-wheel drive is quite a necessity in New England.  When dad gave me the truck it had around 35,000 miles.  Three years later at trade-in, it had 105,000 miles.

Our first experience with this vehicle was actually a trip to New Jersey the year before. In 2012, our daughter, Autumn, married her online friend, Jim, who lived in New Jersey.  After a beautiful poolside wedding, we loaded her belongings in this pickup and drove her to her new home in Manchester Township, NJ. This marriage was the catalyst that prompted me to look for a new position on the east coast. Funny how things have all worked together in this journey.

Few of these adventures would have been possible had it not been for my Garmin GPS. After driving Autumn to NJ in 2012, Janet and I rewarded ourselves with a day in New York City. We had booked a hotel in Newark, NJ. At that time, I owned neither a GPS or smart phone, so I studied my Google maps carefully .  Unknown to us, a heavy storm overtook us on our way to the hotel, and in the dark, I could not remember all the directions I had studied. Luckily we found a list of directions on my iPad that led us to our destination, not without a frightening exit off the highway into a dicey looking neighborhood. I figured $100 was worth the confidence of navigating myriad of roadways I was to find throughout the northeast. I called my GPS, Samantha, as that was the name of the voice in the Garmin library.  Samantha was a welcome companion and a lifesaver more times than I can count.

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” – Helen Keller

 

Thanks for joining me! My name is Clifton Dancy.  I’ve worked in public education for twenty-eight years as a teacher, instructional coach, and administrator. Five and a half years ago, on my 50th birthday, I boarded a plane to Manchester, New Hampshire for an interview that eventually would result in a mid-life change that involved moving from Kansas City, MO to New England.  I moved in with my brother and sister in-law and began exploring my new world not only to familiarize myself with the layout of the land, but also to take in the rich culture and heritage I’d now become a part.

Weekend adventures became the routine and I quickly added 25,000 miles to my truck in that first year.  Janet finished her final year of teaching in Missouri and prepared to join me.  I’d warned her that my weekends were not going to change with her arrival.  She, along with many other Facebook friends, had been following my adventures, and was eager to join me.  Janet was a welcome addition to my adventures and we developed a signature selfie look for our adventures. To date we’ve snapped close to 500 selfies from Kansas City, MO to Venice, Italy and many places in-between. We also began to notice that we’ve seen more of New England than many of our friends and family members who’ve lived here most of their lives. This observation was the inspiration for the mantra, Living in New England like a tourist.

Over the years, my Facebook friends and family members have encouraged me to document these adventures in a book or a blog. I’ve chosen the latter, and hope that this project will provide not only a record of my travels, but also encouragement for others to explore the area they live.

The links on the side show some of my latest of over 100 adventures. If you’d like to start from the very beginning click here.

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” – Helen Keller