Day 35 - The Freedom Trail

The weather called for 69 degrees and partly sunny.   It turned out to be more like 75 and clear blue skies.   We have really had fantastic weather.  We took the truck 45 minutes to the first train station.   Bought all day passes for $11 each and took the train into Boston.   A much less stressful day than yesterday when we took the truck into those narrow streets.  And no parking problems.

We got off at the Park Station Downtown.   The beginning of the Freedom Trail.   A two and a half mile walk through Boston ending at Bunker Hill.  Four years ago Martha was in a wheelchair and today just four years later we were actually passing some folks on the walk.   She never complained just walked on.   A real testament to achieving what you set your mind to accomplish.   

The trail is marked by red bricks.   Kind of like following the yellow brick road without the Munchkin send off.

More graveyards.  A lot of very influential patriots are buried in these plots.  Samuel Adams (prior to making beer), JOHN HANCOCK,  Paul Revere, among many others.

Outside the Old North Church.

One if by land, two if by sea, there on the interior Martha will be!

The tour guides (we did not take a tour) were very informative and smartly dressed.

A statue of our old friend Ben Franklin rests in the courtyard of 'Ruth Chris Steakhouse'.

The site of the Boston Massacre.  It was carried out by British Troops and not indians, even though it appears that this guy was scalped.

In this town house the Declaration Of Independence was written and plans laid for a new nation.

Paul Revere's house

Just a great day for a walk.   A very long walk.

This is where the Declaration Of Independence was first read aloud to the public.  It is guarded by one of America's truest Patriots.

And a handsome one too!

We had lunch at the U.S.S. Constitution.  Then finally, after walking, reading, and standing for three hours, the final destination.... Bunker Hill

The monument is just like the Washington Monument it seems to me.  That's me at the bottom, no, next to the statue.

We took the train back to the truck around 4pm.  

Tomorrow it is supposed to rain all day.   We are going to have a P.J. day.   We'll stay in the trailer all day.   We will play some cards and we have several movies that we taped off of HBO ready to view. We also taped the canonization of Mother Teresa which was aired on the Religious station overnight and that was a three hour taping.  She is now Saint Teresa Of Calcutta.  That will give us plenty to watch as we sway in the wind and listen to the raindrops clap onto the metal roof of the trailer.   

Thanks for reading.

Day 34 - Boston

Where to go first?   I was excited to go to the Cheers Bar but disappointed that no one knew my name.   

Lots of stuff for sale, this shirt was only $28 and $19 for the cap.   So I took a picture of them instead.

Martha hanging out in Cliff's spot.  I would have had to use Norm's.  :-(

Then where else?  A coffee ordered on the first floor, and......

I drank it on the second floor.  Nothing like a two story coffee place.

Some of the streets were normal......

Some I had to pull in the mirrors on the truck to keep from tapping parked vehicles.   Both wide and narrow, they were lined with beautiful old buildings and a million people.   I understand now why people went West.  What a crowd!!!   If it were like this when the British first came over to get a handle on the rebels, they would have returned and told the Queen, you really don't want it!

Then we cruised over to get some higher learnin.

The campus is tranquil once inside its gates, but surrounded by the sounds and sites of big city.   

Finding a parking spot is a nightmare, and fitting this monster of a truck into it...... Martha has to get out and tell me when I am a half inch from the car behind and then I have to jockey several times to fit in.  And I taught parallel parking for 25 years!  Never like this though.  Guess a Toyota Corolla makes it a bit easier to do, and teach.  :-)

We saw the car below parked at a church across from Harvard.  My guess is that the owner was inside praying for some more $$$ after learning of the tuition costs.

Then over to the Boston Tea Party site.

The promise of the museum is a Revolutionary Experience.   Obviously they have never traveled with a deaf guy pulling a 40' trailer through strange territory.

We passed Paul Revere's house and the Old North Church.  There were sooooo many people and no where to park we let it go with a drive by.  So many tourists everywhere.  Of course it is a holiday weekend.  I am pretty sure I heard Paul shouting, "Raise the prices!  The tourists are coming, the tourists are coming!"

We topped our day off with a stop at Target for some shopping.  Thanks for reading up on us.

Day 33 - Continued

Busy day.  We started out about 8am, only half an hour to Plymouth.   They have a replica of the Mayflower docked.

This is supposedly the beach that the pilgrims landed on in their dingy.  Who am I to doubt that.

And they stepped off onto 'this' rock.   Actually a replica.  The original rock was either warn down from tourists stepping on it to get their photo taken, or its sitting in the Smithsonian.

Nice dingy.   This is actually the little memorial house where the fake rock resides.  I guess it is dead as the tomb seems to indicate.  I'm not being to cynical I hope, this stuff is really very cool to me.

Wouldn't you know it, no butter.

We are going to Gloucester and Portland, Maine next Tuesday and Martha plans to indulge in a Maine Lobster while I have my sights on some Atlantic Salmon.

The houses are all really cool.  The bays and inlets and marinas are awesome as well.  We left Plymouth and drove 45 minutes onto Cape Cod and into Hyannis Port.

From Hyannis Port we took two cruises.   The first was an hours tour of the area by water passing the 'Old Money' houses on the beach.

Including the Kennedy Compound.

The sloop in the foreground is Ted Kennedy's.  The Chris Craft Yacht looks like the one that I have seen pictures of JFK and family on prior to being President.   When he was President, he was not allowed to come to the compound the tour guide said, for security reasons.

Back in Hyannis Port we had lunch marina side.  What else?  New England Clam Chowder.

Then we took another ship for the one hour cruise to Martha's Vineyard.

Martha, Martha, Martha.   Everything is Martha.  Lady Martha was the name of the vessel we took.

There was another boat named 'Bad Martha', but that didn't apply so I didn't post it.

Even the ice cream shop, was Martha.

Before leaving we enjoyed a shared plate of fish and chips.  

We left Martha's Vineyard at 6:45 pm and the hour cruise back to Hyannis Port was at sunset.

Awesome sunset and worth the trip even though we had to drive the hours trip back to the trailer in the dark.  Got home just after 9 pm.  Today, it is now Saturday, we are going into Boston for the day.

Thanks for reading the BLOG!

Day 33 - Plymouth Rock / Cape Cod / Martha's Vineyard

We had a really nice day today.  We went to Plymouth Rock, Cape Cod, and Martha's Vineyard.  I have a ton of photos and have 26 I wanted to put onto today's BLOG.   Unfortunately the RV park does not have very good internet and it is taking about 5 minutes to upload each picture.  I usually drive to McDonalds and use their internet, but the nearest town is 11 miles away and I do not like driving in the dark as it is 10pm here.  So tomorrow we are going to Boston and on the way I will stop at a Starbucks and supplement today's BLOG.  

Day 32 - Middleboro, Massachusetts

Started out on our five hour drive to Massachusetts around 8am.   It has been overcast all morning and rain expected.  Right on time, it rained pretty hard the last hour of our trip.  The first time we had to pull the trailer in the rain.  AND the first time we had to set up in our new RV park in the rain.  No big deal though.  It is so lush and green everywhere with so many streams, rivers, and lakes, I can't help but wonder what might have been going through the pioneers minds half way across Nevada on their was West.  They had to wonder why they ever left.  

When we drive over a small bridge that says the name of a creek on it, I look down and there is more water flowing in it than L.A.'s Santa Anna River.