June 14th: Rainy Ride to Jerome’s Deli in Manchester, NH
By: Steve Goode
Edited by: Judi Goode
June 14th: to Jerome’s Deli in Manchester, NH
I woke up this morning to thunderstorms and rain. The good news is I only had to drive 20 miles to get to the deli so I decided to take the highway. Highway driving in small towns can be very quiet, usually with very little traffic as compared to the highways in major cities such as New York, Chicago, etc. I actually find it pleasant to ride on the small town highway roads.
Today’s deli, Jerome’s in New Hampshire is a 4-person operation. It was voted the best deli in New Hampshire last year. By the time I arrived, the rain had stopped, so we were able to take all the photos we needed. The owner, Jerry and his team do an incredible business and there was a constant stream of people coming in to pick up their orders.
Small town communities are very social. Everyone talks to everyone else and I found that Manchester didn’t disappoint. One guy started a conversation about my riding suit. He told me that he had the same manufacturer for his snow mobile suit. Even though I ride a motorcycle in the rain and cold, I still don’t understand why people want to go outside when it is freezing and ride their snow mobiles around in the snow!
I had just finished my lunch and was outside getting ready to leave when I noticed a husband and wife entering the deli. He was wearing a sleeveless shirt and had a 3” x 3” Star of David tattoo on his left arm. My curiosity got the best of me and I asked him if was Jewish. He told me “no” but his grandmother was Jewish and he had a tattoo of the Star of David in honor of his grandmother. We got into a great conversation about the book he had just finished, “The Tattooist of Auschwitz”. I also had just read the book. That is what I love about these trips: you just never know who you’ll run into. We parted and he and his wife said they were going to donate to MAZON as a result of meeting me and learning about the organization.
Now onto Portland, Maine for my next deli adventure. One bit of observation from my travels. When you ride on the backroads, you never know when you cross a state line, but here is a clue. When you get to within one mile of a state line you will start to see places named: State Line Diner, State Line Liquors, State Line tattoos… you get the idea. You also know when you are coming to a town when you see a water tower in the distance.
