Today was one of those days of lots of driving, slowly, on secondary
roads, and walking around historic places like Plymouth and Boston and
Salem. And refusing to get out of the car in nondescript places like Fall
River, Massachusetts.
Tubby falls out of bed, and is dressed and packed. I'm very proud
of him, even if there's only one more day for him to practice his
quick wake-up skills.
6:34am
We're in the car and have the engine running -- and find the mist
on the windshield is apparently either frozen on, or drippings from
a tree. In either case, they washed off easily.
6:36am
The convenience store, across the street (hence, "convenience")
were left with two less Diet Pepsis, but us $2.50 lighter.
6:56am
We made our first stop in Fall
River, and found that an early arrival is quite handy when you
want to avoid traffic.
7:14am
On our way to the next stop, we snap a picture of our rental car
rolling over to 30,000
miles. Pretty good, when you consider we got it at 25,736 miles
-- a tidy 4,512 miles since we got started (well, by the time we stop
for the night, that is).
7:45am
Newport is our next
stop, which is a rather attractive town on the Atlantic Ocean, and
surrounded by quaint shops and really, really expensive homes near
the water.
10:07am
The meandering of secondary highways (partly because it's scenic,
partly because Tubby tries to avoid toll road areas) landed us in
Plymouth. And it was
something
10:49am
At long last, Tubby purchased a book of 10 postcard stamps ($2.30
-- bargain!)... so the postcards we bought in Washington DC will actually
go out in tomorrow's mail... only a week-plus late.
10:52am
Back to the highway, sort of -- more secondary highways as we head
to Boston.
11:27am
The skyline of Boston
comes into sight, and we navigate downtown, slowly.
1:35pm
Boston is huge, so we'd hopped out of the car, and parked (about
2 1/2 hours, $23) for a walk-around. It was also an unseasonably warm
day in Boston, with temperatures peaking at 69°F at its high today.
2:40pm
Being enchanting and not at all bewitching, we pop into Salem
to see what the place is all about.
3:55pm
We ended up taking flight once again, but didn't get far.
4:09pm
Lunch, or rather an early dinner, set in as a good idea, and we
set the parking brake at IHOP and joined only one other couple in
the restaurant, a server (Marilyn), cook and bus boy in occupying
this old-school-looking restaurant.
5:25pm
We manage to get out of Massachusetts, and cross into New Hampshire,
met by a welcome sign and a toll booth. But by exiting the turnpike,
we dropped our toll out-pay from $2 to 50 cents.
6:37pm
After more driving in circles than I'd care to consider, we found
the motel, and promptly passed it up for a Barnes & Noble (looking
for a book, no success), and a Best Buy (looking for a DVD, found
three and a CD).
7:09pm
Now at the motel, although it took a bit of effort to find the small,
hidden driveway along the busy main road.
7:18pm
We're checked in and parked in room 210 of the rather new-looking
Motel 6. (The landscape isn't even done yet, and there's a new-paint
like smell in the place, although not in a bad, fumes sort of way.)
8:02pm
Amidst posting the stuff from yesterday I didn't get posted (no
connectivity), I found yesterday's log was wiped out. Drag. Especially
as I'm not inclined to make it up. Sorry.
11:12pm
The updates for today are done, and both yesterday and today are
posting as we speak...
11:41pm
Posting: successful. Bath: successful. Feathers stuck in the drain:
not my problem (it's Tennille's, the housekeeper, according to the
customer service card here in the room).
11:49pm
Everything is said and done, so I'm going to bed -- and since we're
a bit ahead of schedule, we're sleeping in an extra hour, until 7am
tomorrow for this, our last day before departing for the home nest.
