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R. Linda:
R. Linda:
After somehow surviving day one, we are onto day two. For joy!
We did the same as the day before for breakfast. There was a place Tonya liked over in Milford, so we decided to go there, we hadn't been since it was reopened under new ownership. I will say the new outside looked spiffy and the egg yolk and white decor inside was very nice. But, the menu was written I believe by O'Hare moonlighting as a gourmet of chocolate-covered bacon, fried cheese curds, and deep-fried pickles. Yes, that was on the menu. I be not joking. The waitress we had, had an overbite that when she spoke with her New Hampshire accent . . . we had notta clue. Dragon asked what was the difference between the speciality coffee and the house coffee and the answer was, "d . ah . k" or something close to it. The answer was "dark" which is pronounced "doc" with the accent and without the overbite. We all stuck to the safe stuff, eggs with sausages and toast. Tonya had ordered one egg, one slice of toast and two sausages and got two eggs, four slices of toast and three sausages. When the orders came, everyone got everyone else's plate so we had to pass the plates, but poor Ton had a He-Man's sized portion, poor lovely, and was subject to her mother's "Waste not, want not."
After breakfast, Tonya thought it would be a nice idea to go to what is called America's Stonehenge, formally known as Mystery Hill in Salem, New Hampshire to walk off her huge breakfast. A brief description of this attraction: It is a 4000-year-old maze of ancient stone chambers, a sacrificial stone, drainage carved into stone floors, an oracle chamber, and oddities all made by some ancient people, that was, and still is, used as a calendar much like the astronomical set up of Stonehenge in England, only this site is more like what you'd find at the Mayan sites in South America. It is still used to determine the solar and lunar solstices each year.
None of us had ever been to this place, so we were psyched to be doing something different, at least Tonya and I were. Well, it is not Stonehenge when you drive up, you do not see the standing stones you would on Salisbury Plain from miles away, no you see nothing but a long driveway that inclines up a bit. There is a building that is a gift shop lodge where you purchase tickets and then off you go through the backdoor to the woods. Not far from this are a few outbuildings that contain alpacas.
One of the subjects of me Mam and Dragon's discussion
Dragon walked up to one of these charming leave-strewn animals and announced she had a sweater made of one of them. Yup. Mam had never seen an alpaca so this was all new to her and this announcement of yarn use had her questioning Dragon about lambswool versus alpaca wool and this made Dragon feel very important especially since me sainted Mam hadn't bought the idea of certain pumpkins for certain uses, and we won't even go into the many kinds of apples. So, leaving them to discuss the merits of lamb vs. alpaca, Ton, me Da, and meself started up the trail as the two nitpickers followed. It should be told me Mam has two bad knees and Dragon has one. I had no idea the trail was mostly uphill, with exposed roots, exposed rocks, and to make it interesting, under the leaves that covered most of this were tons of acorns, so when you stubbed a toe into a tree root, and hurt your instep over a rock, you also got the thrill of rolling forward and falling on your arse because of all the hidden acorns. We each, in turn, took a spill, some more than once.
The "trail" see those rocks? YUP they were under those leaves and it got worse as you walked
"They should have a sign like at Disney World, TRAIL CAN BE HAZARDOUS TO YOU HEALTH - IF YOU HAVE BAD KNEES DO NOT PROCEED." This was announced by the Dragon who was steadying herself by hanging on to me Da on one side, while he tried desperately to keep me Mam upright on the other, along with himself. Just the two of us up front, with no problems were having a time of it.
"What about the wheelchair-bound?" Me thoughtful Mam wondered aloud.
I was having a difficult time as it was to give that any thought.
"By the time we reach the top, we'll all be in wheelchairs," Da laughed, "be a bumpy ride down."
Oh ha ha ha. Funny man and he's me Da to boot. Lucky me to have such a craic artist in me own family. SIGH.
We reached a lettered or numbered square of wood (can't remember which), but I couldn't tell you what we were looking at for the leaves. Everything was covered in them, so we lurched ever upward and onward. We got to the next small wooden square and I couldn't tell you what that was either, it looked like a bit of grooved rock but to be honest, there were a lot of grooved rocks in the trail. Why the one behind the chain was any different, I have notta clue. We could see stone chambers, what can only be described as manmade caves. One was braced with wood like you'd stack outside for the winter fireplace. There were so many of these chambers we didn't care what the brochure said, they were all too alike to care, and we were too focused on keeping our footing. I think the problem was our feet hurt so bad, that we just wanted to reach the top and then go home.
It all looked the same after a while. I actually thought I could borrow me old neighbour's tractor and make me own American Stonehenge in the woods behind me house.
Once up to the top, you could see clearings where there were standing stones that marked the directions, and these were little stones, not the megaliths of England or Ireland. We sat down on the hard uncomfortable wooden benches to give our feet a rest when my father discovered his socks were missing. Yes, they were. Where they had got to, he hadn't a clue.
"I know I put them on when I got up," said he, as he proceeded to pull his shoes off and yes, there they were up around the ball of his foot in hiding. Well, at least we knew what happened to the disappearing socks. Me Mam, always quick thinking and always carrying her purse full of home remedies, told him to pull them back up and then she reached into that huge bag she carries and pulled out two elastic bands. These she put over his feet and around the sock tops. I was trying hard not to laugh and needn't have worried, because Dragon did laugh out loud. But me Da had his revenge on her when after sitting a short while, me Mam asked no one in particular, "How old is this place and who built it?" me Da piped up with "Built in prehistoric times I think, ask Mrs. A here she'll remember."
OH OH. The Dragon's head turned slowly in his direction and her eyes were yellow slits in her head. Thank Tonya for changing the subject quickly and asking me Mam if she'd ever been to Stonehenge in England.
"Why ay, I have," said she.
"I understand it is cordoned off you can't get up next to it?" Tonya stated more than asked.
"Not when I was there," said Mam, "there was a bit of rope around the stones and it would be a man's arm's length to reach them, but I have a bit of stone from there."
Me father nodded his head in me Mam's direction and said, "She's the reason those stones are cordoned off now, because of people like Mam here, stealing the chips."
Dragon got her jollies on that remark, and being Dragon she asked me Mam if she was one of those people who collected stones from sites like that. And the answer was YES SHE WAS. Oi! She had a bit from the Rollright Stones too! That is another stone circle in England, me Mam visited on her geological quest for strange stones from strange places for a strange little woman. Who does that? Oi, me Mam does that. I be so embarrassed and more embarrassed she'd admit to it.
On the way back down to the "lodge" me Mam found a rather unique stone and put it in her pocket. Yup, she had her souvenir and me Da told her she could not keep it, there was an alarm at the door that would go off and she'd be caught stealing the stone. At first, she hesitated, then she decided he was telling her a story just to be irritating because that was what he always did.
We browsed the gift shop, there was nothing really to buy even for the boyos, so we started out the door when . . . THE BLEEDING ALARM WENT OFF! I had to laugh at the look on me Mammy's face. She was shocked and then Da started laughing. The alarm sounded when anyone came in or out of the shop, there was no stone detector, but he had her going and I couldn't take it anymore and told her he was pulling her leg.
I said to Da, "Mam's the best thing that ever happened to you, so be nice."
She turned to me and said, "Ah me Gabriel, I love ya, son," then she turned to me Da and said, "YOU not so mooch."
We ended the day, at a Mexican restaurant where we all ordered Mexican except me Da who ordered a cheeseburger, without the cheese. WHO DOES THAT? Again, you know the answer and I was red-faced he'd even order that way. Ended me day with me shaking me head at them. Oi! See below for a few more rock pictures.
Gabe
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