Out of Africa – 15 October 2011

After a week sitting at our office jobs, which followed two weeks sitting in an RV around New England (with a seven hour flight each end), and culminating with two hours on the sofa this morning cheering Wales on in their World Cup semi-final game, we definitely felt a walk was in order, So we drove to Pirbright after the game for a ten mile walk.

First we fortified ourselves with lunch at the White Hart in Pirbright. We would recommend this pub, as their food is excellent.

The walk set off along the Basingstoke Canal and the return walk was alongside army land. Red flags were flying everywhere to warn us to keep out, as firing was taking place today. Sure enough, we eventually walked across the end of the firing range and could see the soldiers facing away from us and firing from a prone position.

Pirbright was the home to Lord Pirbright, better known as Sir Henry Morton Stanley, whose immortal words in deepest Africa make him famous to this day - “Dr Livingstone, I presume”. We found his grave in the local churchyard at the end of the walk. The enormous chunk of Dartmoor granite makes it fairly unmissable.

One last Boston fling – 8 October 2011

We had a ridiculously early start to the day to accommodate the various travel plans and other constraints of the morning. First deadline was to get Janine and Alan to meet their taxi at 0630. We had all spent the previous evening packing so they were up and ready in short order, intending to breakfast once at the airport.

Since the rest of the party were going to be disturbed we figured that we might as well get on the road as soon as possible. After breakfast we set of to return the RV deciding that we would finish the cleaning in their yard rather than at the campground.

It was a good decision as the weekend was Columbus Weekend and we were on the road well in advance of any holiday weekend traffic. It also gave us time to discuss the refunds and recompense for lost vacation time due to the issues with the RV.

We had the RV all cleaned and presentable well before the 10:00 return deadline and were ready and waiting by the time the shuttle van we had arranged, arrived to take us to Boston. Our web research had indicated that the only place we could leave our bags for the day was the Bus Station at Boston South Station and this is where we thought we had requested the shuttle to drop us. As it was, the shuttle dropped us at Back Bay Station.

Bradley and Susan had decided that the complication of extra baby luggage, baby stroller and Linnea herself predicated against another visit to Boston and elected to get the shuttle driver to continue with them to Logan Airport. So we said our farewells and they drove off.

After they left we could not see any bus station as expected near the Amtrak station, so I asked where to find the bag storage and was told that we were at the wrong station, but we could take the train arriving in 1 minute to get to South Station and that we could ride for free. The train conductor was very helpful when we disembarked at South Station and it was not long before we were free of luggage and able to explore Boston again albeit with a time limit of the luggage storage closing at 5pm.

The first stop was the Tea Party Museum on the waterfront learn to more about the famous event. We were in the correct area but could not see any replica ships in the water so asked at a tourist booth only to find that the museum was being redeveloped an would open in 2012.

We then investigated various tour options: “Trolley”, “Duck”, harbour cruise and Segeway but decided to simply wander and set off along the waterfront walk, enjoying the unseasonably warm weather.

At one point a large Natural Gas tanker made its way down the harbour escorted by a pair of fast Coast Guard rigid-inflatable boats each with a manned machine-gun in the bow. These out-runners had the task of keeping all other craft away from the tanker and any other craft, no matter how innocuous were forced to a dead-stop in the water as the tanker passed. Talk about an over-abundance of caution. I think any of the fibreglass pleasure craft challenged would have come off worst had they been able to ram the tanker. Still, it was an impressive display of Homeland security paranoia.

We left the waterfront a couple of times, once for a gelato and once to wander through the Fabeuil Hall Marketplace. After a late lunch/early dinner salad on the waterfront, our return trip took us back through the recently redeveloped park in what is effectively the median strip between two major, one-way traffic routes along the waterfront.

At the end was a large protest camp outside the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston building as an off-shoot of the “Occupy Wall Street” movement were vocally protesting against the “Fat Cats”.

We were so exhausted by now, that we decided to take the bus to the airport. This gave us five hours to fill in, so set about writing up the day and checking photos. By the time we got around to buying coffee, we discovered most food outlets had closed. It appears that ours is the last flight of the evening, and not very full, so all employers had decreed their shop could shut early. It was just as well we ate in Boston.

Boston - 7 October 2011

The campground proprietor provided helpful information on our travel options for visiting Boston. We had researched what we could from the Internet but his information was based on the particular issues involved in parking a large, high, vehicle – information not disclosed on the Internet sites.

So instead of driving 3 miles to the local commuter train station, we drove 40 minutes to the end of the Green T-Line and could use a much cheaper all-day travel pass. The Green Line took us directly to Boston Common where the Freedom Walk started.

This walk, well marked with a bold red line in the pavement, traces the early history and happenings of the Boston settlement, focusing on the times around the Revolution and Declaration of Independence. The walk ended, for us, at the harbour to see the USS Constitution (Old Ironsides) which is the oldest commissioned warship in the US Navy and thus could still be called upon to go to war – but probably would not be!

The deck and a couple of levels below are open to visitors and all is in absolutely top-notch ship-shape condition with the brass gleaming and the woodwork all highly polished. We did not establish whether or not the cannon were still in battle ready, working order or not.

Visits to the USS Constitution are free if you have photo ID - it is a Navy Base so unidentified riff-raff are not allowed! How many tourists are going to come prepared for this without some warning? Murray had a photo licence but Christine had nothing so we had to blagg our way past security. He took Murray's licence, asked Christine his date of birth and thus proved that she was not a terrorist in disguise. We were very grateful for his discretionary latitude.

It was not the first time that ID had been asked and waved through. On a number of occasions the younger two were asked for ID before being served alcohol with their meals. Considering they are more than a decade over the legal age, we all thought it quite hilarious. On one occasion Alan's NZ licence was accepted but he was told that it was not valid documentary proof as it was an “out-of-state” licence. On another occasion Christine resorted to assuring the waitress that Janine was indeed over 18.

After lunch we made our way to Harvard Square to meet Janine's friend Dan who is a post-grad student at the Harvard JF Kennedy School of Government. Dan gave us a personal and informative tour around the prestigious centre of learning ending with a side trip to a bridge over the Charles River where the students were participating in the very English occupation of rowing on a beautiful autumn evening.

Bewitched – 6 October 2011

Today was a beautiful day for a drive around the coast. Our campsite was at Salisbury, a fairly uninspiring coastal development (this made it all the more surprising that it had such an excellent restaurant!), but across a bridge is the township of Newburyport. This has many large impressive 18th century houses, once the homes of wealthy shipowners.

We continued following the coastal road around the peninsular to Rockport.. This proved to be our favourite place of the whole trip. Once a fishing port, it is now predominantly an artists colony. The small town was delightful to walk around, many picturesque old buildings, including former fisherman's cottages, are now selling gifts, artworks and pottery. The harbour with it's boats and old fishing-shack, provides seating to relax and watch the sun playing on the water.

South from here we were planning to stop at Gloucester, but it is so much bigger, and less appealing, we carried on. The coast had many lovely settlements, with fine old houses, which took us all the way to Salem.

As we have all heard of Salem, but were not too clear on the actual details, it was interesting to visit. The museums all sounded a little OTT, but in fact we enjoyed our visit to the Witch Dungeon Museum. Details of the history surrounding the Salem witch episode is narrated and acted out, using excerpts from the original court transcripts.

There is a curious irony that Salem is only a tourist stop these days because of false stories about witchcraft and yet the modern town is making its money off ghosts, ghouls tarot, psychic readings and so forth and thus is still trading on false stories about witchcraft.

Maine coast – 5 October 2011

The day finally dawned with blue skies and a promise of sunshine. We had designated today as the birthday celebration as we are not all going to be together on the actual day so the celebrations began with another all-American diner breakfast in Old Orchard.

Once completely sated we set off down the coast to Salisbury, MA, passing through Maine and New Hampshire again. Highlights were Kennebunkport, a real tourist trap full of bus tour parties and York, the oldest colonial settlement in the area.

Kennebunkport has a real cute village feel, with lots of restaurants and shops selling artworks as well as souvenirs. There are many fine houses in the surrounding villages, and according to the guide book, George Bush along with many other Republicans, holiday there.

Lunch was overlooking York Beach, then we drove through York Harbour and on to York, which was the oldest permanent English settlement on the coast. As a result, there are still a cluster of fine old buildings in the centre. The York Gaol is the oldest colonial building still on its original site in the US. We enjoyed looking around, until the rain clouds that had been pursuing us all day, finally caught up with us.

Tonight was the designated 'birthday' as Murray's actual 60th birthday is not until Monday, when we will be back in the UK. Today was chosen, as the dinner venue sounded the best choice of the trip. We hurried to our campsite, as we had booked a window table early, at 5.30pm, to be able to enjoy sunset over the Atlantic.

The Seaglass Restaurant had excellent reviews on the Web, and we would heartily endorse them. Having a window table is a must, as the Atlantic breakers crash below the building in a most spectacular fashion. We discovered they actually floodlit the sea at night, so the view continued during the dinner.

Bradley, Alan and Janine shouted us the meal as a joint 60th treat, and we enjoyed the best meal of our trip. The best entree was probably scallops with risotto, best main tied between fillet mignon and pork steak stuffed with cranberries and walnuts. All deserts were equally good. The children presented us with a unique book designed mainly by Alan and Janine, highlighting selected significant events of every year since 1951.

Happy Fall – 4 October 2011

As the reserved campsite for the night was well way from any significant towns and we were not confident that the propane situation was any different to yesterday we rang ahead to establish if there was “emergency” accommodation we could move to if required; there was not. The campground owner helpfully suggested a motel in the largest town we would pass through, so we secured two rooms. After a delicious dinner at the Black Horse Tavern we retraced our steps a few miles to the motel.

After discussion with the proprietor he upgraded us to the suite for one of the rooms as it it was a two-room unit and certain members of the party had complained about certain other members' nocturnal audio the previous night. The owner said that they did not typically rent the suite at this time of the year or for a single night but he took pity on our plight and accommodated us in both senses of the word.

All was well until 5 a.m. when with a quiet rumble the vast majority of the softboard tile ceiling fell on top of Janine and Alan who were sleeping in the lounge. Fortunately such ceiling tiles are fairly light and no damage was done. The emotional trauma and psychological scarring will take many years of expensive therapy to heal!

The proprietor was, naturally, mortified when he saw the damage and opened another room for them to get a little more sleep.
As we pulled away from the motel, we were struck by the irony of the sign on the church across the street, “Happy Fall”.

We had yet another RV repair rendezvous to make so after stopping for another American Diner breakfast we drove through the rain all the way to the next campsite at Old Orchard on the Maine coast.

The RV repairman arrived a few minutes after us and could not find any propane leak. But his trip was not wasted as the rear slider unit which makes the internal space significantly larger when parked decided to fail. He made some makeshift repairs to enable its continued use and we concluded that the final task the previous repairman had undertaken had actually resolved the propane problem. There has not been any recurrence of the alarm or propane smell since so, hopefully, all is well.