New Hampshirites are a craggy, gnarly sort of people, which is why they built their road systems to resemble tectonic fault lines. There's the old expression, "as the crow flies" to describe a straight line between any two points, and this expression comes in very handy for New England roads. In the 1950s when the Eisenhower administration began building the Interstate Highway System, New Englanders decided they could save some time and money by simply designating some of their existing roads -- meaning paved old farmer's cattle paths -- as highways. Because the point of a highway was to get from point A to point B, New Englanders were faced with some quandaries, given that many of their roads sort of meander, but with some creative route designations, the problem was solved and everybody was happy. The result is that nowadays, you may be driving down a road designated, hypothetically, Route 25, when you innocently pass a turn-off or side road somewhere, which you ignore. It may be many miles before you discover that Route 25 turned on that side road, though the road which had been Route 25 continued on. Silly you.
Next time, we'll explore the phenomenon of 'Frost Heaves'. When I first encountered them, I expected to see Santa Claus throwing up on the side of the road. Turns out they're something different.
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