Dragged Out of the Shire

 

Mad Dog, like any Hobbit, is content in his happy home, in his lovely shire, but he is occasionally compelled by obligations to travel outside it. And like the Hobbits shepherding the ring, he finds that travel beyond his shire is an adventure, if not sought, at least possibly edifying.

Sedona, Arizona

The ocean at the end of his street, the town with all its amenities just a short walk away, the woods and ponds and birds are enough for contentment, but there is some value in seeing the larger world.

Hampton, New Hampshire 

Sedona, Arizona provided enough edification to make him think over how Hampton might be improved. 

Town Clerk, City Hall, City Manager Sedona

Take the public buildings, for example: In Hampton, our town building with its clerk's office is a converted bank, and its soviet style block brutalist architecture cannot be improved by the recent attempts at new siding, but in Sedona, every effort is made to make the building reflect and complement the natural colors and lines of the mountains and soil of the surroundings.

Blending In

Even the police station is subdued and not allowed to disrupt the karma. 

Of course, you have to be very determined to find the police station in Sedona, which has no signs visible from the road, and is ensconced in a courtyard. If you were a distressed citizen, hoping to find help from the police, you'd need a Google Maps to find it. Mad Dog, walking down the main drag, Rte 89A, saw a sign "Police" with an arrow, but walking down Roadrunner Drive, as directed, even on foot, Mad Dog could not espy the place, because the station has no door on Roadrunner drive, only a camouflaged back wall, and you have to make your way down a service road and walk into a courtyard to find the police station, and even then, it's not easy. 

Stealth Police Station

There are no electric wires on poles, and anything which is unsightly seems buried.

There are two urgent care/ emergency medical facilities in Sedona, but neither is open on Wednesday and any medical emergency would have to be medivac'd to somewhere else and it's not clear where.

Even national chains are melded into the color scheme: Mad Dog drove past the McDonalds four times before he recognized it.

There is a lot of talk around Sedona about spirituality, and karma and spiritual vortexes and things you might see after inhaling mushrooms, which you do not hear about in Hampton. Mad Dog never quite got an explanation of what a spiritual vortex might be, but whatever it is, they have it in Sedona, apparently. It may be connected to the Indians who once had Sedona to themselves, but to Mad Dog, that sort of spirituality derives from a pre scientific culture which sought to imagine explanations for observed phenomenon rather than investigate anything with experiment and deduction. 

Doughty New Englanders will drive you crazy when you are on line at the post office, trying to send your package off while the lady at the counter banters on with the postal clerk, who wants to hear about all the grandchildren. Same thing at the dry cleaners and the bank, but if you're in a hurry, why are you living in Hampton?

View From Plaice Cove Obadiah Youngblood

This sort of connectivity in Hampton has its charms: Mad Dog picked up his laundry at the dry cleaners, and the owner, who is the son of Korean immigrants, asked him about Mad Dog's grand daughter in California, who just turned one and in the Chinese tradition, had a ceremony which involved the baby being presented with a display of objects and whichever object the baby chooses is supposed to predict the path in life that baby may follow--a sort of Chinese ground hog day ritual, predicting the future by signs. 

Covered Bridge Obadiah Youngblood

The dry cleaner man remembered about Mad Dog's grand daughter because the Koreans have something similar, and he had chatted with Mad Dog's wife about it. But the point is, this dry cleaner store owner remembered and he made the connection and he took some joy in it.

Hampton Barn

Rte 1A Hampton

Most of the people Mad Dog encountered in Sedona seemed to be from somewhere else, having wound up in Sedona much as flies wind up on flypaper. In Hampton, you are apt to meet people who grew up in town, graduated from Winnacunnet High School and either never left, or returned after a time outside the sect.

Rte 27 Hampton

At the end of the tale, the Hobbits have returned safely home to their shire, and they watch the fireworks from their front yards as everyone celebrates the joy of living in the shire--and that is how Mad Dog felt, returning from the 6000 feet above sea level to the Ocean at the end of the street.

Pink House, Drinkwater Road