New Hampshire: Day 1

Thumbnail: Seat screen

I pack light. A sin­gle lens, and only car­ry-on bag­gage.

This plane takes me to a more cen­tral air­port. Every seat has a USB plug, a pow­er out­let, and a video screen that lets you choose what you want to watch. I make a note to fly Air Canada from now on.

Thumbnail: Plane

In stark con­trast, my con­nect­ing flight has two pro­pellers.

Thumbnail: Single aisle

The win­dow seats are also the aisle seats.

Thumbnail: Propeller

I choose one by the pro­peller. The reflec­tion in the shiny nose gives me a wide angle view of the plane itself. As it spins, the blades begin to ghost, and even­tu­al­ly dis­ap­pear. It accel­er­ates faster than any oth­er plane I’ve been on, and leaves a loud hum and hiss that sus­tains itself until land­ing. I’m exhaust­ed enough that I fall asleep short­ly after take-off.

Thumbnail: Girl on plane

The cap­tain is the same per­son who stores your lug­gage, goes over the safe­ty instruc­tions, and gets you to your des­ti­na­tion.

Thumbnail: Cockpit

The num­ber of pilots is almost equal to the num­ber of pas­sen­gers. They leave the cock­pit open, and I get a first hand look at what they do in the con­trols to get the plane to respond a cer­tain way.

Thumbnail: Hotel bedroom

Thumbnail: Living room

My home base is a hotel suite big enough that it has two HD TVs, a fridge, a microwave, and a liv­ing room sep­a­rat­ed from the bed­room. For the next four days and three nights, I won’t have the com­pa­ny of my cat or the com­fort of my ukulele1, but it feels good to be stay­ing here long enough that I can hang up my clothes and set­tle in.

Thumbnail: Goodies bag

They leave a pouch on my blan­ket, which includes a sleep mask, ear plugs, and laven­der linen spray. I make a note to stay at Crowne Plaza’s from now on.

Thumbnail: Stuffed steak

I’m back in New Hampshire, and crav­ing some famous New England surf to go along with my turf. For din­ner, I order the filet mignon, which comes stuffed with Maine lob­ster, brie, spinach, and shi­itake mush­rooms, wrapped in smoked bacon, pre­sent­ed with dried cher­ry demi-glace, whipped pota­toes, and aspara­gus. Cooked medi­um-rare, of course.

I’ve been in meet­ings all day, work­ing nine hours after six hours of trav­el­ing and an ear­ly flight. Now the meet­ings are over. Everyone’s gone their sep­a­rate ways, and I’m here alone.

  1. It did­n’t fit in my suit­case []

2 comments

  1. New Hampshire has the best state mot­to.

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