Western Information

Western Information

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Real estate

We looked at a lot of towns and real estate in the western portion of the state.  Generally speaking the areas west of the 3 corridor and south of I-89 are somewhat less expensive than the areas around the bigger cities and in the southeast part of the state.  With the exception of Keene, that area of the state is made up of scattered small towns.

Land:

Milford - $99,900, 2.13 ac on Maple Street.  This lot is in Milford but reportedly has Wilton water (and sewer?).  It is near the border.  The area it is in is near a factory and is not overly attractive, though not overly ugly.  It is on a hill which overlooks the factory and the river.  The high prices is presumably because of it's proximity to Nashua (drive time roughly 30 minutes).

Hillsborough - $8000 ~ $25000, .25 - 1 ac lots in Emerald Lake Development.  These lots are numerous and listed at inexpensive sale prices.  They are in a community with an association, private dirt roads, a private water system, and lake access (with some facilities).  The lots are smallish and the houses are a mix ranging from reasonably nice but not large to rather trashy (in our opinion anyway).  I suspect the people are perfectly nice and you could have an inexpensive home there but it's not the kind of place I would choose to live.

Hillsborough ~$40,000+, 2+ acre lots on Mary Rowe.  These lots are near but outside the Emerald Lake District on paved public roads.  The surrounding houses are much nicer (several brand new colonials) and the lots are substantially bigger. 

Hillsborough ~ $40,000+, 2± acre lots on Sawmill.  These lots are heavily wooded and (according to MLS) back up to a river (stream, whatever).  The neighborhood has a slightly rural feeling to it (lot sizes in the 2-5 acre range I'd guess) but it is near town. 

Tilton - $65,000, 5-7 acre lots on Calef Hill.  These lots are just a few minutes from town on a nice street with primarily nice newer houses.  These are the kind of lots that an upper middle class family with a larger (2200-2500 sq. ft.) house would be very comfortable on.  They are near a middle school and relatively close to shopping (I'd say 10 minutes or so from Wal-Mart, outlet mall, fast food, etc.).

We didn't have time to look at houses in the western part of the state.  We also essentially didn't do any actually 'shopping' in Concord.  Other lots are available in other towns and that information is readily available from the MLS.  General information about the areas is below.

Commerce and Restaurants

Concord is the capital city of New Hampshire (population 41,000) and is home to pretty much every kind of store and restaurant you would need or want.  The downtown area has small boutique type shops and restaurants and there are department stores, malls, etc.  Concord has high speed Internet access and cell phone service.

Tilton is a small town (3,500 people) but has remarkably good shopping and eating for a town its size.  It is home to the outlet mall which features 50 manufacturers outlet stores with all kinds of goods.  There is also a super Wal-Mart, Staples, Shaw's (grocery store), an Applebees, KFC, Wendy's, McDonald's, Burger King, the Tilton Diner, Subway, and several other things I've probably forgotten by now.  There is also a 'downtown' area in Tilton that has some smaller shops but it's not as large as Keene's or certainly Concord's.  I don't know if there is high speed Internet access in Tilton but my T-Mobile cell phone works there.

Hillsborough is a town of 5100 people in a somewhat less accessible area of western New Hampshire.  There aren't many things there now but there is a shopping center under construction which, I believe, will feature a grocery store (probably a chain).  There's a McDonalds there but otherwise it's all local eating establishments.  There is a Ford dealership there and there is a Sylvania plant of some sort there (probably the big employer in the area).  I saw a Verizon Wireless store in Hillsborough but my T-Mobile phone did not work there.

Henniker is a small town and there's really not much there.  It's closer to Concord than Hillsborough so if you like small town life (no chain stores, etc.), that's probably a nice place for you to go. 

Hopkinton is close to 89 and is a very cute looking town.  I don't recall there being much there in the way of shopping or eating but the town itself has nice homes and is attractive.

Franklin is west of Tilton and is decidedly more run down.  There are gas stations and what not but I didn't find any major stores or restaurants.

Weare and Goffstown are closer to Manchester (see drive times at the end of this page) and, I believe, are growing as a result of their proximity.  Unfortunately we didn't get to see either one of them in the light so I'm not exactly sure what's there. 

101 (and 101A) between Manchester and/or Nashua and Keene features many smaller towns (Milford, Wilton, Dublin, Peterborough, Marlboro, etc.).  None of them are very big.  Once you get a ways away from Nashua and/or Manchester the level of commercial creature comforts decreases considerably.  Cell service (at least T-mobile) on that route is spotty to non-existent west of Milford (or so) all the way until fairly close to Keene.

Churches

There are plenty of Churches around western New Hampshire.  Every town has at least one and larger towns may have several.  We didn't actually visit (i.e. get out of the car and/or actually go to a service) any except one in Peterborough.

Monadnock Congregational Church was recommended to us by Thom Simmons after we described generally what we normally look for in a church.  It is in Peterborough with is roughly half way (time wise) between Nashua and Keene on Highway 101.  We visited there on Sunday, November 9, for their 10:00 coffee and 10:30 service.  We drove that morning from Nashua and arrived right around 10:00.  Having driven by the day before we thought the church was fairly large (I estimated maybe between 200 and 300).  However, the whole building the church is in is not occupied solely by the church.  Part of it that looked like classrooms is actually other businesses (a hair salon, for example). 

The parking in the front is deceivingly small.  Most of the people park in the back of the building and there's a back door there.  I would estimate the main sanctuary seats as many as 200 and I'm guessing there might have been 125 to 150 there that morning.  We began by going downstairs where they have coffee and socialize prior to the service.  We were warmly greeted and the people there introduced themselves and then to the others around them. 

There demographics were a bit spotty.  It didn't look like there were many 20's singles and couples there or many late 40's to late 50's people.  There seemed to be a split mostly between 30's-40's couples with children (and, hence, their young through teenage children), and roughly retirement plus people.

The service began with music which was a combination of songs from a hymnal and a couple of contemporary choruses.  The singing was only accompanied by a piano (one song later in the service they traded the piano for a guitar).  There was a small choir and one soloist who was quite good.  There was also a drama near the beginning of the service.  It was well done and one of the actors in particular was quite funny.

The church is going through the 40 Days of Purpose series put together by Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in southern California (a somewhat larger church ;).  A couple of people in the church mentioned that the church has been going through 'a time of transition' which we deduced (from other comments) meant growth.  There was some implication that the growth was caused partly by doing the 40 Days of Purpose series but I didn't press for statistics (it'd be a small sample anyhow).  The message was delivered by Pastor Tim Jantos who did a fine job.  It was well presented, good material, and nothing stuck out that would raise any big red flags for either of us. 

The church had what I would call a small church feel.  I suspect the people there might consider it a larger church feel but it seemed as though everyone knew each other and would be happy to accept more people into their group. 

Based on our two church attending experiences, we believe it'd be possible for us to find an environment to fit into in New Hampshire but it will not be what we're used to.  I didn't get enough of a feel from this experience (or our time at Grace Fellowship in Nashua) to know if the people there in New Hampshire would be open to significant 'outside' influence in their churches.  For those of us desiring a strong arts program, we may have a more difficult time finding the right fit.

Other

Drive times for some of the towns in Western NH are listed on the statewide page.  The roads in the western portion of NH are mostly good but mostly 2-lane.  Navigating with a good map was not particularly difficult as most of the 2-lane roads do have some sort of signs indicating what they are (as opposed to some streets in towns which are not marked well).

We visited a lot of towns, some of which were simply drive-by's.  Probably the best I can do is just summarize the 'look and feel' of each one here.

Concord

Concord is a short drive (15 minutes or so) north of Manchester on I-93 which is a toll road between Manchester and Concord.  At the south end of town, I-89 splits off and goes northwest.  I-93 continue through town and to point north.  The town is larger (over 40,000 people) and, as a result, has most any creature comfort a person could need.  The downtown area has shops and is near the capital.  We ate in Concord a couple of times at fast food restaurants and a Chinese Buffet.  We didn't spend a lot of time there but it seems as though that would be a nice town to live in, particularly if you wanted to be near the government center of New Hampshire for some reason.

Tilton

Tilton is a small town right on I-93 about 20 minutes north of Concord.  It is in the lakes region tourist area and, as a result, is home to the outlet mall.  As mentioned elsewhere, it is also home to a seemingly disproportionate amount of creature comfort for its size (Wal-Mart, every kind of fast food imaginable, etc.).  The new commercial 'area' (Wal-Mart, etc.) is right at exit 20 and the town of Tilton itself is a bit west of there.  The 'town' has its own feel which is more similar to the other small towns in western New Hampshire.  Housing is somewhat less expensive than in Manchester (or certainly Nashua) but there are some places that are  less expensive yet.  We drove around Tilton on a couple of occasions and it seemed like the kind of place we could enjoy living, though it's on the small side for our taste.

Franklin

Franklin is the next town west of Tilton and is not nearly as nice.  The main street is older and many of the homes are not well kept at all.  Housing prices are somewhat less expensive than Tilton though it's not that far away (maybe 10 minutes).  We drove around a couple neighborhoods and they seemed 'spotty' where some houses would be nicer but mixed in with very unkept places. 

Hopkinton

We only drove through Hopkinton briefly but out impression was that it was a very nice, probably somewhat upscale town.  We didn't check real estate prices but my observation of the housing there would lead me to believe it would be a little more expensive than Tilton, maybe even closer to Concord though somewhat more remote.  If I recall correctly, there may have been a McDonald's there but mostly it seemed like a quiet residential town with well kept nicer homes.

Henniker

We only saw Henniker in the dark (unfortunately).  The town is south of highway 202 a bit and is home to a college (whose name I can't recall now).  There is a river that runs through town and a few shops but no significant commercial area.  There's not even a McDonalds that we could find, though there is a nice new gas station / convenience store right at the highway, along with what appeared to be a newer shopping center of some sort with (I think) a hardware store.  We weren't able to really figure out the atmosphere but it didn't seem like the typical college town to me.

Hillsborough

We spent a little bit of time in Hillsborough mainly because of the attractive land prices there.  The highway has been moved within the last year or so and, as a result, our map was incorrect.  The highway is two lane all the way to I-89, however, it is wide and nice and the traffic moved right along.  What I believe to be the main exit spits you out right at the McDonalds.  There is a brand new shopping center under construction which I think will probably feature a supermarket of some sort.

The look and feel of the town seems like a 'mix' to me, but I didn't find any decidedly upper middle class area.  The closest I found would be near (but not in) the Emerald Lake development on Mary Rowe and surrounding roads.  There were several brand new homes there, some of which are for sale and there are lots available for under $50,000.  There's nothing right around there, though, in the way of shopping.  It's probably a 10 minute drive from there to the McDonalds.  Overall, we felt that Hillsborough could be a consideration at that price if it were closer to better shopping and other amenities.

Weare and Goffstown

Unfortunately, we didn't get a good look at Weare or Goffstown while we were there as it was dark the only time we drove through.  We weren't taking notes at the time but based on my recollection, they were both normal (average?) western New Hampshire towns, though somewhat closer (time wise) to Manchester than those listed above.  If we hadn't toured Keene and the Lebanon area, we may have gone back for a second look, but we simply didn't have time.

Milford and Wilton

Milford and Wilton are both west of Nashua on 101A/101.  Neither one of them stuck out as particularly nice though their proximity to Nashua would be a plus, particularly for Milford.  They did seem to have more creature comforts than some of the smaller towns to the north (Henniker, or Hopkinton, for example), but I didn't see any 'big' chain stores in either town.  Because of their proximity to Nashua, property is a bit more expensive there than we thought it should be.

Peterborough, Dublin and other towns on 101 between Keene and Manchester

There are a number of other small towns between Keene and Manchester and I won't list them all by name.  A couple that stuck out as nicer were Peterborough and Dublin which are near an area with several lakes and some nice hills (you couldn't get away with calling them mountains in California).  Generally speaking, though, they are typical New England small towns and don't have the kinds of larger town features a place like Keene or Nashua would have.  If you enjoy small town living and want something nicer and within commuting distance of Nashua or Manchester, the towns between Wilton and Keene might be of interest.  The closer to Keene, the more time it would take to commute (of course), but Keene, itself, is only about 1 hour 15 minutes in good weather from Manchester so if that commute time is acceptable, I could recommend looking there also (Keene has its own page here).


Copyright 2003 Varrin Swearingen - to reproduce in any way (in whole or in part), please contact the author at: varrin at varrin dot com.

Manchester Information

Manchester Information

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Real estate

Real estate in Manchester is generally a little cheaper than Nashua or Salem.  We were unable to find lower cost new construction (under $300,000) so I don't have anything to report there.  We did drive around the central Manchester neighborhoods some and were pleasantly surprised.  We looked closely at the exterior of one house in particular:

Homes:

Manchester - $265,000, 5 bed / 2 + 1/2 + 3/4 bath / 2900 sq. ft, on Belmont St.  This victorian home is in a nice but old neighborhood.  It estimate the age of the homes at 100 - 150 years.  The lots are small and as a result of new setback regulations it's not possible to add anything to the homes (i.e. a garage).  This house did not come with a garage.  It looked nice and obviously had major updates along the way (windows and siding were apparent externally). 

Commerce and Restaurants

Though we didn't do much shopping in Manchester, there are plenty of places to shop there.  According to my research, there is at least one of every major retail chain store there (i.e. Wal-mart, K-mart, etc.).  There is no CompUSA there (Nashua or Salem both have CompUSA).   There is at least one mall there that we saw.  I used to fly in there regularly and remember seeing several places to shop.  There are also lots of restaurants to eat at.  In addition to all the chains we found in other parts of the state, I specifically remember seeing an Outback Steakhouse. 

The Libertarian Party hosted their annual convention at the Highlander Inn in Manchester.  We went there to have dinner with some of the FSP related attendees.  Their facility is right by the Manchester airport (more on that below) and appeared suitable for many types of gathering occasions.  The restaurant had good food though it was stereotypically priced for a fancier convention hotel restaurant. 

Other

Drive times can be found on the statewide page.  The drive times for Manchester are of particular interest as the only commercial airport in New Hampshire is located there.  It is near the intersection of 101/293 which is where most of our drive times were taken from.  The exit for the airport is one exit east of that intersection and the airport is just a few minutes south of there.  That interchange is currently under construction so the drive times may be slightly longer, but under normal circumstances it shouldn't take any more than about five minutes to get from 101/293 to the airport.

The Manchester airport is one of the bright spots of the state.  It has excellent air service for a town of its size.  Many people in the northern Boston area use it instead of Logan because the prices are lower and it's more convenient.  I used to fly in there regularly and we were always full.  I did a comprehensive air service report previously for each of the FSP candidate states, but since some time has passed I'll include below the updated information for Manchester.  Below is a table that includes each city with non-stop air service along with the airlines serving them, the number of flights, and the type of equipment.

City	# of flights	Airline	Equipment
Albany	2	Continental Express/Connection	19-seat Turboprop
Atlanta	3	Delta (2), Delta Connection (1)	Mainline Jet (2), RJ (1)
Baltimore	11	Southwest	Mainline Jet
Bangor	1	Ensor Air Ltd. (PanAm Connection)	19-seat Turboprop
Charlotte	3	USAirways	Mainline Jet
Chicago Midway	2	Southwest	Mainline Jet
Chicago O'Hare	5	United (4), United Express (1)	Mainline Jet (4), RJ (1)
Cincinnati	4	Delta (2), Delta Connection (2)	Mainline Jet (2), RJ (2)
Cleveland	4	Continental Express	RJ
Detroit	4	Northwest	Mainline Jet
Halifax	1	Ensor Air Ltd. (PanAm Connection)	19-seat Turboprop
Kansas City	1	Southwest	Mainline Jet
Las Vegas	1	Southwest	Mainline Jet
Minneapolis	2	Northwest (1), Northwest Airlink (1)	Mainline Jet (1), RJ (1)
Nashville	2	Southwest	Mainline Jet
New London, CT	1	Ensor Air Ltd. (PanAm Connection)	19-seat Turboprop
New York La Guardia	11	USAirways Express (8), Delta Connection (3)	30-seat Turboprop (8), RJ (3)
Newark	4	Continental (1), Continental Express (3)	Mainline Jet (1), RJ (3)
Orlando	3	Southwest	Mainline Jet
Philadelphia	5	USAirways (4), USAirways Express (1)	Mainline Jet (4), RJ (1)
Pittsburgh	3	USAirways (2), USAirways Express (1)	Mainline Jet (2), RJ (1)
Tampa	2	Southwest	Mainline Jet
Toronto	4	Air Canada - regional partner(s)	19-seat Turboprop (3), 30-seat Turboprop (1)
Washington Dulles	4	United Express	RJ
Washington National	3	USAirways Express	RJ (2), 30-seat Turboprop (1)

In addition to the above, there are a handful of non-stop flights that do not operate at least 5 days per week (i.e. Pan Am to Portsmouth and Sanford).  25 destinations are served, 21 of which have at least 30-seat Turboprop service.  There are 6 US Major airlines with service to Manchester, plus Air Canada's regional partner, Pan Am, and Pan Am Connection (note: this is Pan Am #3, not to be confused with Pan Am #1 or Pan Am #2). 

Copyright 2003 Varrin Swearingen - to reproduce in any way (in whole or in part), please contact the author at: varrin at varrin dot com.

Southeast and Seacoast Information

Southeast and Seacoast Information

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Real estate

Generally speaking we found the real estate in the southeast part of New Hampshire to be way too expensive to suit us.  Some towns are somewhat less expensive than others but Salem was particularly expensive and even the more 'country' feeling areas around Salem (Pelham, etc.) were very expensive.  Here's a couple examples of what we found:

Homes:

Pelham -  $370,000 (or maybe $390,000), 3 bed / 2 1/2 bath, unknown address.  We drove by a nice, fairly new colonial on what appeared to be an acre or two of land listed for sale.  There was no literature but we called the realtor and determined the listing price may have been $370,000 (could have been $390,000, I don't recall) for a 3 bedroom 2 1/2 bath home.  It was in the country on a small two lane road not near anything in particular.

Salem -  $559,000 to $799,000, large houses on Hall Ave.  There were two homes on this street.  The first was a very nice home that I would call upper middle class but is probably really upper class.  It's a 10 room, 4 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath home with about 3400 sq. ft. on 1 1/2 acres in a development with comparable homes.  It has a 3 car garage and is within a couple of miles of I-93.  It's listed at $559,000.  The second was an even larger home that looked more upper class to me.  It has almost 4,000 sq. ft. plus 1,250 sq. ft of lower level living space with 12 rooms, 4 bedrooms and 3 1/2 baths.  It was listed at $799,000. 

There was another home we got information for much closer to the seacoast that was also in the mid $300,000 range which was much smaller and not as nice as those listed above.  We didn't look at other properties because we couldn't find any worth looking at in our price range.  The whole area is very expensive.  We did, however, spend some time at Eric Knight's house which is (or at least was) for sale.  I believe he is asking $275,000 for it in Derry and it is a 3 bedroom on a nice lot.  I don't recall the exact square footage but I'd guess somewhere around 1800 or so.  My guess is that is a reasonably good deal for that kind of house in that area but it is too small for us.  We didn't do any real estate shopping in the Portsmouth and surrounding areas.

Commerce and Restaurants

Some parts of the southeast part of New Hampshire feature the best shopping and eating in the whole state.  A particular standout in this regard is Salem.  Right on the MA border on I-93, it has all the big chain stores (even a CompUSA) as well as a mall (or I think two) with more upper class shopping (I think the anchor was a Macy's as I recall).  It reminded me a lot of home as far as the variety of things available, though the size of the town is far less than the 1/2 million or so in Fresno.

Outside of Salem, the variety of shopping and commerce seems to be about on par with the rest of the smaller towns in the state.  A short drive to Salem or Nashua will provide all you would need.  Because we didn't spend a lot of time driving around this part of the state, I don't have a whole lot to report here.

I suspect Portsmouth would have most everything a person would need but we only drove through briefly so we didn't get any information about it.

Churches

We drove by several churches in Southeast New Hampshire and went in and visited one.  We stopped in at Granite State Baptist Church in Salem and took a tour.  One of the pastors was kind enough to take some time and show us the facilities and tell us some things about the church.  They have a nice and well used (in a good way) facility there which also serves as a school.  The main sanctuary seats a couple hundred or so and they have three services.  Based on the variety of instruments on stage, I presume they offer a mix or more contemporary style of worship.  They have a moms play group that meets several days per week, numerous classrooms (used by the school during the week), a gym, and (of course) some office space.  The people we talked to there were extremely nice and helpful.  They hadn't heard of the Free State Project, so I took the liberty of filling them in ;)

We also drove by a few churches in the seacoast / east central area.  We drove by Dover Baptist church.  It looked to be a medium sized church building (by New Hampshire standards) near the downtown area.  We also drove by Durham EVFree Church though we didn't see it well because it was getting dark.  They have a MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group and the building looked new and was 'in the country'. 

Other

Drive times can be found on the statewide page.  We were unable to do much timing of various drives since we did most of this touring on one day and stopped many times.  We did make it from Manchester to Derry in, as I recall, 15 or 20 minutes, though we didn't time that accurately. 

We drove the entire New Hampshire coastline which didn't take us very long at all.  Most of the seacoast area was 'deserted' for the winter.  Many buildings were boarded up but it appeared as though the place probably comes alive in the summertime.  The drive was pleasant (we stayed in the car) and some of the houses were downright impressive.  There were also many houses that needed work and I wondered what the building restrictions were in that part of the state (I suspect substantial).

Overall, I enjoyed the southeast part of the state, probably more than the western part, however, real estate is extremely expensive and, as a result, we didn't focus much effort there.  It would be an easy commute from many parts of southeast New Hampshire to the Boston metro area for jobs.  The drive times would vary based on where you are and where you're going but generally wouldn't be much more than an hour and a half even in rush hour (assuming good weather).  We made it from Nashua to the Logan airport in about 90 minutes on a weekday morning with construction on 3 for most of the way.

Copyright 2003 Varrin Swearingen - to reproduce in any way (in whole or in part), please contact the author at: varrin at varrin dot com.

2003-11 Varrin Swearingen's NH Trip Report

Many of the links in this needs fixing... mostly minor ones.

NOTE: The opinions and commentary expressed in this essay are those of the author and are an exercise of free speech. They do not necessarily represent the views of Free State Project Inc., its Directors, its Officers, or its Participants.

Contents

Introduction

Purpose

I am writing this report with the hope that it will help others out who are exploring a move to New Hampshire.  It is a detailed account of our trip there in early November, 2003.  On that trip we learned more than we could have possibly learned without a report like this.  As far as I am aware, nobody has yet written this detailed of a report about their New Hampshire exploration.  We would have found this useful and it is my hope that you will too.

Background

In order to better understand the perspective of this report, I'll relay some important background information about myself and my family.  Edi (my wife) and I were both born in 1974 and at the moment we have two children, a son, Edison, born in 2001 and a daughter, Erin, born in 2002.  We would consider ourselves Christian and regularly attend church, however we are not particularly closely tied to any specific denomination.  We normally find ourselves most comfortable in Baptist, Evangelical Free or non-denominational churches.  Our circle of family and close friends includes protestant Christians, Catholics, Orthodox, Muslims, and a variety of 'other' religious backgrounds. 

I work as an airline pilot for World Airways.  I also play the drums and percussion professionally part time (mostly jazz and Latin jazz) and enjoy working with computers (we use Linux in our house).  Edi is a homeschooling mother, currently serves as the coordinator for two MOPS (Mothers Of PreSchoolers) groups, and is a Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant.  Edi also sings, most recently with the Choir at our church and two different opera companies in Fresno.

I was born in Hayward, California and moved to Fresno at age 3.  Edi was born in Maryland and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in grade school and to Fresno in High School.  We met in High School and were married in 1993 at age 19.  We moved to Florida (I had actually moved there a year earlier to go to flight school) and lived there between 1992 and 1996.  We moved to the Cincinnati, Ohio area (we actually lived in Northern Kentucky) in 1996 and lived there through mid-1999.  We moved back to Fresno, California in 1999 after deliberating much like we are now as to where to relocate to.  Edi and I have both lived in several different states.  She has visited many of the states and I have visited almost all of them (45 of the 50).  We have been to Canada, Mexico and the Bahamas together, and I have traveled to over 30 different countries around the world while playing music and flying for a living.

Our personal living preferences lean towards newer suburban living with creature comforts (shopping, etc.) relatively nearby.  We gravitate towards larger more utilitarian housing and don't necessarily prefer to have a lot of land (we prefer indoor square footage to land).  I enjoy the outdoors (I like to backpack) but, honestly, we spend most of our time inside.  Edi enjoys movies (much more than I do) and we both enjoy live music and eating out.  As a result of having kids, much of our free time activities lately revolves around them.  When they're asleep, we enjoy playing games (I enjoy online gaming occasionally but we both enjoy board games), cards, and good conversation. 

We first heard of the Free State Project in mid-2002.  At the time I first visited the website, there were 400 or so people signed up.  After researching and discussing the project, Edi and I decided to join.  By the time we signed up, the project had grown to over 1600 members.  We opted out of 7 states including New Hampshire.  Some time before the vote, we decided that we would at least go look at the winning state.  The vote results were announced October 1 and we began our visit to New Hampshire on November 1.  The information in this report is one of the results of that visit. 

Organization

Because of the complexity of providing this information in a most usable format, I will organize it in two ways:  First, chronologically on this page as an overview, and Second, by geographic area.  Providing a third level of organization (topical, for example) is more than I have time to do right now.  If you want to know about real estate (for example), you'll have to search for that by location.  I'll use the same topical format on each area page to make finding the information topically easier.  Some information will be statewide and will be included in the statewide information page.

Each detail page will contain all the details we discovered about each location.  They will not include details about 'events' unless those events were associated with characteristics of the area.  An example of details that would not be included would be details about dinner conversation with various FSP people or the details about my son's finger injury.  Those details (if included at all) will only be on the chronology page below.  Examples of details that would be included would be details about the places we ate at with the FSP people or the emergency room experience as a result of my son's finger injury.  Some pages will be dramatically more detailed than others, since we learned more and/or spent more time in some places than others.  Generally speaking, I'll include all the detail I have.  If you have questions, please feel free to ask, but I probably don't have any more detail than you can find here.

The detail pages will have the following headings (assuming information is available):

1. Real estate - information about land, new homes, and pre-owned homes
   
2. Commerce and Restaurants - information about stores, restaurants, and other places of business
   
3. Churches - information about churches
4. Events - information about or related to events
5. Other - other information that doesn't fit the above (look and feel, etc.)
   

Conspicuously missing is climate and job information.  On the chronology page I'll include weather information about our trip, but because our trip isn't necessarily representative, I'd urge you to do your own climate research.  With few exceptions (Lebanon, for example), I don't have any job information, and in those cases that I do, it's very general.  I am not looking for a job so I didn't do any research about the job market at all. 

Chronology

Saturday, November 1 -  location details here:  Statewide, Nashua

We flew America West from Fresno through Phoenix to Boston.  We arrived in Boston around 11:00 p.m.  We rented a Chevy Venture minivan from Alamo.  The rate was reasonable and we liked the van.  I have now driven all of the 'big-3' minivans (Ford, GM, and Chrysler).  This was the best of those I've driven yet.  I still prefer the Honda to all 3 of them.

We drove from the Boston airport to our hotel in Nashua.  The drive took roughly an hour.  We didn't time it exactly.  There was construction on a bridge on 3 south of Nashua which required us to exit and re-enter the highway.  The weather was cool but not terribly cold.  Upon arrival in Nashua we found a 24 hour McDonalds drive through and a 7-11 to get supplies for the evening and morning.

We checked into our hotel around 12:30 a.m. that night.  We stayed at the Extended Stay America hotel in Nashua.  That location turned out to be perfect for our entire trip.  The hotel is in a business area right off exit #8 (101A bypass) which is near the north end of Nashua.  We could not find a better rate for a newer chain hotel with 'kitchen' facilities, hence our choice.  We booked a Queen room because that's the best room the website showed.  Upon arrival we discovered that the room was a little bit too small for us.  There is no couch, just a recliner.  The kitchen facility is small but functional.  We all went to bed knowing we had all had a long day and needed to get up the next morning for church.

Sunday, November 2 - location details here:  Statewide, Nashua, Manchester

We got up in the morning and got ourselves ready to go to church.  We attended Grace Fellowship Church in Nashua.  We went to the Burger King drive through, Market Basket (for 'supplies') and then returned to the hotel.  When we began to do our paperwork we found out that there were King rooms available.  We switched rooms which gave us a bigger room with a bigger bed.  That wound up being just what we needed for the rest of the trip.  We all napped, then got up and headed to Manchester for dinner.

We had been emailing with several people who were going to be in NH while we were there.  We had Alan Weiss's cell phone number so we coordinated what ultimately turned into dinner with Alan and some others.  We drove up to the Highlander Inn near the Manchester airport.  We met with Alan, Amanda Phillips, Tony Lekas and another gentleman whose name I didn't catch enough to remember (pleeeease forgive me... and because of the seating arrangement I didn't get a chance to talk much with him - rats.).  I sat between Tony and Edison and across from Edi and Alan.  The dinner conversation covered all kinds of topics.  Probably my most important observation is that, though email is a spectacular tool for meeting people and coordinating activities, there's no substitute for meeting in person.  I really enjoyed the dinner and feel as though I've made some friends that would be great to live near.

Among other things, we talked quite a bit about education.  Amanda mentioned the Sudbury Valley School which struck a chord with me.  Tony is a homeschooler so we had plenty to talk about with respect to the practicalities of homeschooling in New Hampshire.  It sounds to me from our conversations that New Hampshire does not have the best homeschooling environment in the nation (compared to, say, Idaho), but it's good enough to get started and, of course, we can improve it (I believe easily).

At the end of the dinner we exchanged some contact information.  Tony invited us over to his place for dinner which.  Unfortunately, due to our ridiculous schedule we ultimately had to pass on that generous offer.  We headed out and drove back to Nashua and went to bed.

Monday, November 3 - location details here: Statewide,Nashua, Southeast, Manchester

We hadn't set up any meetings so we decided to use Monday to make phone calls and then tour the southeast part of the state.  We had also contacted Kelton who was staying until Tuesday.  We did have a Monday evening meeting set up with Eric Knight in East Derry and Kelton also wanted to meet Eric.  Ultimately we devised a plan where we would meet up with Kelton in the evening, go to Eric's, and visit for a while.  Since Kelton was going west that day we didn't attempt to spend more of the day together.

We left late morning and headed on a church drive-by trip that would ultimately take us on a substantial driving trip through much of the southeast part of the state.  We headed east from Nashua first to Pelham, then Salem, then to the coast, up 1A from the MA border to the ME border, up to Dover, then Durham, then back to Manchester for dinner.  After dinner we went down to Derry to visit Eric.  As you can see we covered a lot of ground.

Among the things we did while we drove: looked at a church in Pelham, looked at a church in Salem, got some info about a house in South Seabrook, drove the entire NH coastline (save a few feet between 286 and the MA border), drove around New Castle, drove into Maine, drove by a church in Dover, drove by a church in Durham, took 101 back to Manchester.  Details about all that are on the respective detail pages.

We ate dinner at McDonalds near the airport in Manchester and at the end of dinner Kelton showed up.  He grabbed a bite and we headed to Eric's house in Derry.  We were a little bit late for our 7:00 appointment.  Kelton had gone all the way to Keene and back and we had gone all the way to Portsmouth and back (with plenty of stops along the way), so we were simply running late after packed full days.  We arrived at Eric's around 7:30.  Unfortunately it was dark while we drove through Derry.

We spent, if I recall correctly, a little over an hour at Eric's house and visited with Eric and his family.  He told us some things about the Derry and Londonderry area as well as some general NH things which were helpful.  We also got a tour of his house which, if things went on schedule, he has likely now moved out of.  Among other things, we discussed towns, zoning, property taxes, and education with Eric.  We headed out sometime shortly before 9:00 p.m.  Kelton had an early flight home the next day so he went his way and we went back to the hotel in Nashua.

Tuesday, November 4 - location details here:  Statewide, Nashua, Western

Some of the days flow together but I believe we started Tuesday out with Denny's for breakfast in Nashua.  We spent a lot of time that morning figuring out where we wanted to go and made some more phone calls.  We didn't get on the road until 2:30 p.m.  We had planned out a road trip for that day to look at land.  Most of the day was simply spent driving.  By that time we had set up a Wednesday appointment to tour a manufactured home factory and wanted to have some insight on land prices and locations. 

We drove north from Nashua, through Manchester, through Concord up to Tilton.  We had seen some lower price land listings in Franklin which appeared to be closer to I-93 than some other less expensive places.  Franklin, however, was not a very attractive town.  We looked at a couple of pieces of land and then drove south on U.S. 3 back to Concord, checking out the towns along the way. 

Tilton was a nicer looking town, though small, and had some important stores (Wal-Mart, for example).  Franklin (as I mentioned above) wasn't so attractive.  Going south from Franklin, we saw Boscawen (or some of it anyway), then parts of Concord, some of which were nicer.  We took 202 west from Concord through Hopkinton to Henniker.  Hopkinton was very nice looking to me.  For some reason, Henniker just seemed small and isolated to me.  From there we went south on 114 to Weare.  Weare was what I might call 'average'.  Decent town, not much there though.  From there, we went through Goffstown to Manchester.  Goffstown was larger and had a few more 'things' there as I recall.  By the time we got to Henniker, it was dark, so we didn't have a great look at Weare or Goffstown.

Wednesday, November 5 - location details here:  Statewide, Nashua, Western

We set up a meeting with Bob Lebel of RML General Contractor who builds Epoch manufactured homes.  Our meeting was to take a tour of the Epoch factory in Pembroke, near Concord.  The previous day we had ruled out Franklin as a town to live in so we decided to investigate another area that has low land cost: Hillsborough.  Details of our findings are on the 'Western' page.  After touring Hillsborough, we returned to Pembroke for our meeting.  The tour went well.  The factory looked like a suitable place to build manufactured homes and it appears to me (I'm no expert) that they build great homes there.  We also toured their model.  Their model was set up with lots of fancy upgrades in the downstairs to showcase what they can do and basic trip for part of the upstairs to show what a base house looks like.  Both looked great, though some of the nice touches in the kitchen and dining room were really nice.

After we finished our tour, we headed back to the hotel.  That evening, after doing some research, we decided to tour a couple of more expensive lots in the Nashua and Hudson areas.  Because of the land prices and locations, we figured it would be worth taking a look just to see if it would somehow be 'worth it' to pay more money and be closer to a bigger city.  We looked at several lots and called it a day.

Just as an aside, pretty much every day (or, more accurately, night), we spent a considerable amount of time researching our next moves based on what we found during the day.  That meant pretty much a short night of sleep every night.  I was typically up until at least midnight or 1:00 a.m. every night and we were out of bed by roughly 8:00 a.m. every morning (sometimes a little earlier).  With all the driving, looking, thinking, eating, diapering, talking, meeting, and so on, it was a pretty tiring trip.  But it was well worth the time and money.  There's no way we could have learned everything we did just over the Internet or looking at pictures from a real estate agent.  Now, on with the show!

Thursday, November 6 - location details here:  Statewide, Nashua, Western

Thursday brought us 'more of the same'.  Having seen a couple of lots in Nashua, we decided to look both at lots and at houses in Nashua as well as a few in the surrounding area.  After a 'relaxing' (read me doing research while we all get ready) morning, we headed west towards Wilton and Milford.  We looked at a piece of land there and then a couple more in Nashua. 

When it got to be nap time, I took the family back to the hotel for a nap and then went to visit another builder.  I went to the Value Homes.  Value Homes is a builder for Excel modular homes of PA.  Their model was nice and I was able to get more specific pricing information than I was from RML/Epoch.  It appears to me that Excel and Epoch are fairly direct competitors.  I haven't examined the spec sheets to the finest detail, but it appears both are very nice, well built homes which rival or exceed the quality you'd get in a site built house. 

I returned to the hotel, picked up the family and we toured a little bit more, this time heading over towards Hudson.  I don't recall now where we ate, but it may have been Denny's again.  Throughout the course of the week we ate at Denny's probably 3 times, Pizza Hut once, a local pizza place once (Papa Gino's, I think it was called), and several fast food establishments.  Overall, we were happy with the food. 

Friday, November 7 - location details here:  Statewide, Nashua, Western, Manchester

Friday we got a late start on our day.  We decided to go back up to Tilton to look around in a little more detail.  There were a couple of lots for sale that were less than what was available in Hudson or Nashua.  Nearby is Wal-Mart and the outlet mall and Concord is just 20 minutes away.  Tilton is right off I-93 and is at the 'base' of the lakes region.  We looked at some lots there and then headed back towards Nashua. 

We did make an addional quick trip up to Manchester later in the day to look at a house in town there.  We drove around the neighborhoods in the center of town and found them very pleasant, though older.  In the evening on the 7th, I started working on putting together our trip for the next day.  We decided to go to Keene for a tour and a visit with a friend.

Saturday, November 8 - location details here:  Statewide, Nashua, Keene

We got a late start (I don't recall why now, other than doing more research) and were under way to Keene in the early afternoon.  We went by way of Manchester so that we could time the Manchester - Keene drive.  That added about 15 minutes to the trip which was almost 1 1/2 hours (including the detour).  On the way, I spoke with our friend (amidst losing cell service off and on).  I got some church information from him and we looked as we drove by at the church we wound up going to the next day (Monadnock Congregational Church).  When we arrived in Keene, we got right into looking at land and homes.  We had mapped out about a half dozen places to look and drove fairly quickly around town checking them out (with a stop at the UPS store downtown along the way).  Keene has much more to offer than Tilton (details in the Keene page) and the property prices are a little lower, I presume because of the 'perceived' distance from the metro areas.  There are several brand new stores in Keene and they're building more by the minute.  The Borders is brand new and the Wal-Mart opened within the last year. 

After we had toured the town, we arranged to meet our friend at Uno's (yes, there's an Uno's in Keene).  We enjoyed a great dinner there together and he was able to tell us a few more things about the town and we talked about several other things.  Among them were the Acton Institute, Keene State College, Economics, the relationship between liberty and Christianity, and churches.  After a great dinner we headed back to Nashua.  On the way back we were able to observe a full eclipse of the moon.  We were right on the outside of the area where it was actually totally eclipsed but it went from totally full to totally eclipsed in such a way that it was just a tiny sliver of 'halo' around the bottom part of the moon.  The kids particularly enjoyed the eclipse.

This brings to mined one important facet of our trip: weather.  The first several days it was rainy and cloudy.  By late in the week it had cleared up and was a little bit cooler (lows in the 30's v.s. 40's).  That particular night it was crystal clear.  It stayed clear until the day before we left when it started raining again.

Sunday, November 9 - location details here:  Statewide, Nashua, Western, Keene

Sunday, we went to Monadnock Congregational Church in Peterborough.  We arrived around 10:00 a.m. for their 'coffee' time and then attended the 10:30 service.  Details about the church are on the 'Western' page.  On Saturday, I had observed a sign at the Colony Mill Marketplace indicating that Sunday, the 9th, was going to be the Taste of Keene event.  I assume that event happens annually so I'll include the details about the event in the Keene section.  We enjoyed our lunch and shopping time there.  The Colony Mill Marketplace is a nice mall and the feel of the event reminded us of a smaller, indoor version of the Taste of Cincinnati.  We were particularly pleased with our experience that day.  The food was outstanding, the atmosphere was wonderful and the people were friendly.

After the Taste, we headed back to Nashua to do some more research and get another big night of sleep.

Monday, November 10 - location details here:  Statewide, Nashua, Lebanon

We planned our Monday around the idea that we would do our last big 'tour' and save Tuesday for any last minute visits we needed to do and/or just relaxation.  That turned out to be a good plan since we had a little accident on Monday night.  We put together a list of properties in and near Lebanon and hit the road in the morning.  After a stop for breakfast (Denny's again), we got a late morning start up I-93.  It took just over an hour from Manchester to Lebanon.  We decided to drive beyond Lebanon (across the river) to Vermont since Edi had never been there before.  We came back into Lebanon (what they call West Lebanon) and drove around the 'commercial' area.  Lebanon has pretty much everything Keene has plus a Denny's and a Best Buy.  The town itself probably isn't quite as nice, but it's not bad.  We went up to Hanover which is much nicer (and much more expensive) and is home to Dartmouth. 

We looked at a couple of houses in Lebanon and West Lebanon and went to Enfield to look at both houses and land.  Enfield is about 15 minutes from the shopping (depending on where you are in Enfield) and land prices there are very reasonable.  It's primarily a Shaker community.  Details about the land and area are included with the Lebanon section.  We had attempted to make some phone calls on the way to Lebanon but discovered that T-Mobile's service ends shortly after leaving Concord on I-89 and doesn't pick up again... ever. 

After we finished our Lebanon and area tour we headed back to Nashua.  The drive was easy and quick.  We went briefly to the hotel and then went out to dinner at Bickfords.  This was our second trip to Bickfords and though the food was generally decent, both times what we got wasn't exactly what we expected.  I guess they just do things a little differently there than we anticipated.  After dinner we headed back to the hotel.

When we arrived at the hotel we had an unfortunate accident.  As Edi and Edison were getting out of the car, Edison got his finger (the middle one on his right hand) caught in the car door as Edi was closing it.  He apparently reached in quickly at the last second, probably not realizing the door was closing.  Fortunately, only the tip of his finger was caught in the door.  Unfortunately, the small area of his finger tip that was injured was injured very badly.  We quickly went in, got paper towels from the very helpful and nice lady at the desk and I got directions to the Emergency Room.  We got back in the car and rushed to the ER at St. Joseph Hospital in Nashua.  I took Edison in while Edi parked and got Erin out.  Because he was screaming and there was blood all over his hand (and mine), the staff figured out there was a pretty serious problem.  After a very brief wait (it seemed like 10 minutes so it must have only been one or two), we were taken in to a room.  I'll spare all of the details of the care, but we're extremely pleased with the quality of the care we got.  They re-wrapped his injury after a doctor examined it.  They gave him some Tylenol with Codine, took and x-ray, determined that the bone at the tip of his finger was broken (and the nail was missing), and ultimately came and gave him four stitches. 

Edison had calmed down substantially prior to the local, but that made him very unhappy again.  Then, a few minutes later, the doctor and a nurse came back to stitch up his fingertip (what was left of it, which I think was most of it).  Edison was a trooper but he screamed quite a bit throughout that procedure.  I'm not 100% sure the local completely numbed the pain, though I'm confident the Tylenol/Codine was helping substantially by that time.  They wrapped it up with tube gauze, gave us some instructions and we headed out.  I think we were there something like 3 1/2 hours.  The whole time, Erin was as well behaved as I've ever seen her.  It was obvious she knew something was wrong and she did just exactly what we told her the whole time.  That was particularly amazing considering we didn't get out of there until after 11:00 p.m.

Having gone through that experience, we knew we would want to just take the next day off.

Tuesday, November 11 - location details here:  Statewide, Nashua

We slept later on Tuesday than we did any other day of the trip, mainly because Edison wasn't interested in getting up before 8 a.m. as he had been every other morning.  He was obviously feeling substantially better but was very tired and occasionally still in a little bit of pain (we'd have to ask him about it to find that out though).  We mostly slept, did research, and got ready to go home the next day.  We took advantage of kids-eat-free-night at Denny's and called it a day.

Wednesday, November 12 - location details here:  Statewide, Nashua

We got up early Wednesday and checked out of the hotel.  There's lots of construction on 3 between Nashua and I-95.  As a result, the drive time from the hotel to the Boston airport was about an hour and a half instead of the hour we planned.  Fortunately we had left enough time to make our flight.  We returned our rental car (loved it) and headed to the America West ticket counter.  We discovered upon check in that there would be a tech stop for fuel on the way back in Denver.  That caused us to miss our connection in Phoenix, but they were able to accommodate us on a flight three hours later. 


Copyright 2003 Varrin Swearingen - to reproduce in any way (in whole or in part), please contact the author at: varrin at varrin dot com.

Song for a Free State

NOTE: The opinions and commentary expressed in this essay are those of the author and are an exercise of free speech. They do not necessarily represent the views of Free State Project Inc., its Directors, its Officers, or its Participants.

Song for a Free State
By Philip Denisch

We came for freedom, we came for peace,
The gears of state will lack our grease.
We came for liberty, we came for air,
We're Free State people, awfully rare.

We left our homes, we left our farms,
We won't forget our firearms.
We left our cities, we left our states,
We're Free State people, not inmates.

We went for life, we went for zest,
Laissez-faire is always best.
We went for good, we went for right,
We're Free State people, see our light.

We stand for justice, we stand for truth,
We stand together, age and youth.
We stand for wisdom, we stand for reason,
We're Free State People in any season.