Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
After a really nice week staying with family and friends and saying our goodbyes (thanks very much everyone for the send-offs and the wonderful hospitality) it was quite a wrench to leave.
The flight via Dublin was uneventful except for blagging better seats on the plane and keeping Kirsty (and rows 9-12) amused with my comical snoring. Nearly 100kgs of luggage and no excess fares to pay - so that paid for the executive lounge in Dublin where a copious amount of alcohol was consumed, in readiness for our US Immigration interview. It must have gone well as we got the full 6 months available - until 11th April 2008. So, barring any unforeseen problems, that's the earliest we'll be returning to Blighty.
Arriving at Boston was a bit weird as the weather was duller and greyer than in London and we didn't get the feeling we were in another country until we got the hire car and remembered that US road signs bear no resemblance to their road maps. The Red Sox playing that night made for some enjoyable traffic jams too. But a nice American meal and a great night's sleep in a very comfortable hotel put everything right. Before that, though, getting a sat nav was the no.1 priority. Thanks ever so much to the Tyneside crew. Because of your generous leaving present we now have TomTom rather than LostLost - it's commentary's not as humorous as The Gorrilla's but its map reading is better! (Soz, Jim).
Rather than hitting the motorhome trail immediately we decided to spend our first full day exploring and getting our bearings. We headed for Cambridge (where Harvard university is) and Boston. The weather was gorgeous and the famous New England Fall leaves were just starting to drop from their branches.
Harvard is a beautiful place to walk around and, despite being only 320 or so years old, appears to have just as much history as any European cultural centre. It is very apparent that New Englanders are exceptionally proud of their history and patriotism and are not ashamed or embarrassed to cling to it and exalt it like its British cousins are. Despite the devotion to its history, Cambridge is also incredibly vibrant and modern. Next to memorials to revolutionaries, graveyards for the earliest colonists and statues to generals, presidents and intellectuals, there are Jazz bars, comedy clubs, funky vinyl record shops and coffee houses.
In the grounds of the university, an advert requesting paid volunteers for psychological experiments (supervised by 'qualified' personnel!) was too intriguing to pass up. We're looking into that…
Moving on, we made our way across the river to Boston and heard a bizarrely pro-British presentation on the start of the revolution and had our first taste of their famous clam chowder - it won't be the last. In the evening, the Cheers bar was a bit disappointing (well, as disappointing as anywhere can be that sells beer) so we arsed around in a brilliant Halloween shop for a while, watched a few of the really talented street performers (and a few that weren't so brilliant) then made our way to the other side of the bay to watch the 747s fly into the airport 100 feet over our heads - like on Wayne's World. Terrifying! Before getting there though, we did have a more terrifying experience when I turned left at a junction and momentarily forgot to drive on the right hand side of the road and entered a motorway slip road - the wrong way. Kirsty very calmly suggested I might be in error (I think the multitude of car horns were suggesting the same) and she kindly offered a few helpful suggestions to rectify the situation. Hire cars, we found, are very tough vehicles and are happy to cross central reservations to avoid danger.
Today we decided to do some real research into motorhomes and drove out to a few dealers and emailed a few more. After not being too impressed by what we'd seen so far, Kirsty queried the viability of us buying a car or VW camper and staying in cheap hotels rather than a motorhome. After seeing how cheap Ford Mustangs and 6 litre pick-up trucks etc are, we have decided to do some costings tomorrow and decide which avenue to go down then.
Thanks everyone for your comments on the blog's messageboard. Keep them coming, they are a very appreciated link to home and distant friends (even you, Tally and Johnny).
- comments