2004-05-04 - 11:35 a.m.

Just got back from an early morning trip with my dad to the White Mountains of New Hampshire, where he was delivering a truckload of geraniums and things to a small garden center up in Plymouth. It was only about 40 degrees F when we left, and it was certainly no warmer up there! The clouds kept rolling in all the way up, and once we got into the mountains, we found ourselves driving into a shower of wet snow. There was even some noticeable snowcover on some of the faces of the mountains!

We would have gone last night, but it rained heavily and the trip wouldn't have been as much fun. Even still, it was a little bit cloudy, so some of the mountains were hidden from view. We even nipped up to Franconia for a brief side-trip, to take a peek at the Notch (a beautiful mountain pass and home to several ski resorts) and the spot where the Old Man of the Mountain used to be. If you've seen New Hampshire liscense plates and highway signs, you've probably seen a sillouhette of this rock formation, somewhat like the profile of the face of a wise-looking man (some say it's the face of an Algonquin Indian chief, and Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote a short story "The Great Stone Face", inspired by it). Well, about a year ago, the remains of a hurricane blew through Franconia and knocked the Old Man off the mountain: Nobody knew it was even gone until a few days later when the clouds lifted. There's been talk that the State of New Hampshire is going to try restoring this landmark, once they collect the necessary funds and materials.

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