A little over a year ago, a group of young friends and I decided to give New Hampshire a visit. We would go on a hiking and bike tour through New Hampshire to see where our life's passion was headed.

What we found in Hooksett was something that I thought that I would never experience. But a few hours driving around, I was struck by how far away from my own land in the vast expanse of New Hampshire I had become. It felt as if I was separated from the most basic elements of my life.

My wife, Linda, and I took the train and then we drove up to Hooksett with Larry Hoss. Larry was a very pleasant man who spoke so much English that you would forget that he was originally from Ireland.

We met our friend Charlie Scott, who happened to be also from Ireland. We did not realize at the time that we were going to share the same family for three years, if not longer. As we sat there in Hooksett, I realized what the landscape of New Hampshire meant to me.

In Hooksett, we drove past the actual route of the old railroad that ran from Boston to Hooksett, Massachusetts. The railroads were abandoned long ago, and there is no sign left of what once ran through the area. There are many tracks, but none seem to be running through the place. That was one of the things that drew me to this trip, the prospect of exploring the past.

Then we drove past one of the former homes of the Quakers, a house that is now the home of Lindsay Braxby. She grew up in the home that is now Lindsay Braxby House. She moved away in college, and her husband went to work for a New Hampshire-based Amish company.

In addition to homes of the Quakers, there are buildings and watercolor portraits of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams, and John Hancock. It has to be seen to be believed. This is the kind of place that make you think of America's past, and it is something that hook you from the moment you arrive.

We drove up to Hooksett because we were headed to Old School Barn, which is actually a farm owned by the famed author Jack London. We were there to take a tour. It was an amazing tour, because even after living in a big city, I have not seen so much history in my life.

When we got to the small barn, we learned that this was a place where the family was living when they were a child. Their farm took them to present-day Hooksett. It was the first barn in Hooksett, to be used as a barn.

It was a nice experience to be able to see the experience of of the people of Hooksett had lived through that made them that part of America, without going to the main event themselves. It is a town full of character.

We toured the farmhouse and talked to some of the descendants of the family who had lived there. While we were there, we saw the barn, which turned out to be too small for the daily use it was supposed to have done. That barn was then turned into apartments for the visiting folks.

Lindsay Braxby told us about how the Quakers settled in Hooksett and then how she and her husband had the farm sold to them, since the Quakers lived just a few miles away. And we saw buildings that had been preserved by the Quakers in some cases, in which they sold the houses for scrap metal. And it was all there, just sitting in the heart of New Hampshire.