Andy Gapin

I just got back from an amazing weekend in New Hampshire. It was pretty crazy from start to finish. I went to work for a full day on Friday and then went into NYC for an amazing burrito and to go see the Gaslight Anthem at Webster Hall. Then took the PATH back to Hoboken, hopped in my car at 12:15 AM and started what was supposed to be a six and a half hour drive up to New Hampshire. We got lucky since it was so late and there was no one on the road, we made it in 5 hours and 45 minutes. Not too shabby and driving on Route 302 in New Hampshire was a ton of fun. It was empty and really windy. Perfect for the stick shift driver that loves to really have some fun behind the wheel. We got there at exactly 6–the sun was starting to light up the mountains–and immediately rode a moose. But then we found out that the rest of the group that was already there was sound asleep and not being woken up by our calls. So we had to chill out in the car for a couple hours. It was freezing and we were tired as all hell. This was kind of miserable.

At this point, we should have gone to bed, but that didn’t happen. It was time to head across the street to Attitash and go snowboarding, the entire reason for the trip. By this point, I had been up for over 24 hours straight–by the time I went to bed, it was about 42. I should have broken myself trying to snowboard without any sleep, but I think I somehow tricked my body into thinking that I did sleep because I felt perfectly fine and had tons of energy.

The only sucky part was that because of the weather we only got to go one day. But that one day was awesome. A really nice way to end the season. It was really warm out, I think it hit about 50 degrees, and the snow was really wet, but the trails were great and groomed very well. It was a lot of fun. Of all the mountains that I’ve been too, I think this was the best. The mountain also had some really beautiful views of the surrounding area and of Mount Washington.

And even though it rained the second day, we had a great time exploring. We embarked on what was supposed to just be a trip to the store for some more food, but ended up going on a covered bridge tour of New Hampshire. We found four of them within only a few miles of where we were staying. As we were checking out the second one, we realized that we were really close to Mount Washington so we decided we’d randomly go drive up it. Even though it was raining, this was one of the most beautiful drives ever, but since we’re from Jersey and don’t know anything about it, we didn’t know that the road to drive up the mountain is closed until May. That was a bit disappointing, but it really wasn’t very far of a way to go so it wasn’t too bad. On the way back we passed Storyland and had to stop. It was closed, but we had to get some pictures.

On the drive back to Jersey, I caught a vanity plate that said “taxes” and one that said “dgrssi.” We couldn’t snap pictures of either in time though. I also tried some pizza in Connecticut that was really awesome. It was half buffalo chicken and half peppers and onions. It was sliced very oddly though. Instead of being sliced the way a pizza normally is, it was sliced across the pie to form eight rectangles. This made it really hard to eat, but it was worth.

Here are the pictures. We took about 400 in all, but only some select ones are there. Check ‘em out!