Rhonda Bracey: At Random

Our last day in Boston today, and it was a free day for everyone. Some went to various museums and art galleries, some went to Harvard, some went shopping, some went on the hop on/off bus, some went to the laundromat, and I caught up with my best friend, Char.

She picked me up from the hotel and we went to the Boston Public Market (inside and outside stalls), and the very moving Holocaust Memorial nearby. We popped into the Union Oyster House where they’ve been shucking oysters at the bar since 1826 (in the photo below, check the concrete ‘sink’ in the curve of the bar and the rocks on which they shuck the oysters).

Then we drove to her house where I met the very adorable Whidbey, a black lab who’s an ex-guide dog, the black cats, and her husband and her son’s girlfriend. Our time together was limited as Char flies out to Las Vegas for a conference this evening. But we’ll see each other again at a conference in Florida next March. (Sorry, no photos of Whidbey — she’s VERY black all over, including her eyes, so she’s very hard to photograph. We couldn’t go outside as it was raining too much.)

After Char dropped me back at the hotel in downtown Boston, I went looking for a place to have a very late lunch/early dinner. Not much is open in downtown Boston on a weekend, but there were several places at the fringe of the financial district that were on the tourist route, so I went to one of those. I had a delightful (and small, but a perfect size for me) burger with some fiery sauce, and then the most amazing apple cinnamon thickshake — think of the best apple crumble you’ve ever tasted, add a touch more cinnamon, then some rich creamy vanilla ice cream and blend it all together… Yummo!

(Note: When Char picked me up around 9:45 this morning, the weather, while wet, was quite warm — a t-shirt and light trousers were sufficient. By 4:00pm the weather had turned quite icy, and even my rain jacket wasn’t enough to keep out the cold. I think Fall is finally setting in…)

Tonight we pack — our bags are being collected from our rooms at 7:30am and we’ll be in the big tour bus and on the first day of our road trip by 8:30am. And tomorrow will be our first real day of quilty stuff! We overnight in New Hampshire tomorrow night.

BTW, 10 of the group (out of 24) are going to the Boston Bruins v Montreal Canadiens ice hockey game tonight. I’ve opted out — while it’s a supremely skillful game, I find it all a bit brutal.

Here’s a tip — if you’re not into crowds of weirdly dressed people, witches, and all things sort of haunted and magical, avoid Salem, MA during October when they have their month-long ‘festival’ of all things haunted and witchy. We were there on Friday Oct 21, right in the middle of it all, but fortunately, NOT on a weekend day when I believe the crowds are massive. It was interesting hearing about the Puritans and the witch trials while on the drive to Salem, and visiting the cemetery in town, but as far as the main streets in town went, I found it over-commercialised to the max. But hey, that’s me — I’ve never been one for street fairs, or buying trinkety stuff, so I found it interesting, but was done with it after an hour or so. We had three hours there.

Best thing was that I had lunch at a place that had poutine on the menu. I’ve never had poutine and friends have raved about it, so it was about time I tried it. The server said theirs wasn’t the Canadian variety, but I tried it anyway and it was good. The poutine I had was made with french fries, cheese curds, but instead of gravy it had a lovely spicy mess of pulled pork on top. It was very unhealthy, but damn, it tasted good! 😉

Tonight we’re back in Boston for a group dinner at an old public house.

Some of my photos from today:

Very foggy start to the day. 30 mins after this picture was taken, the fog had lifted to blue skies and a warm sun. Salem harbour area.

Poutine with pulled pork!

I found another long-lost sewer!

I’m sure this was a joke playing on the macabre theme of the Salem’s October, but to dress a dog in a ‘cadaver dog’ vest just seemed really wrong to me. Real cadaver dogs are working dogs with a terrible purpose, so to do this in jest was just wrong.

In case you can’t read it: No soliciting. We are too broke to buy anything. We already know who we’re voting for. We have found Jesus. Seriously, unless you are selling thin mints, please go away! Nobody gets in to see the wizard, not nobody, not no how!

This was the first day our group (QuiltVenture Tour 2016 [QV2016]) was all together. We started with breakfast at the hotel, then met in the lobby ready to start our day touring Boston. Our intrepid guide, Peter (a local historian), took us to the main sites of Boston’s history and told tales of how the revolution started and the main players. He was great! He made history that isn’t our history come alive.

I can’t remember all the places we saw, but there were lots. We stopped several times at various locations — meeting houses, cemeteries (the skull icons on the headstones were to keep the evil spirits away), Boston Common, etc. and learnt more about them. Then we bid farewell to Peter (we see him again tomorrow on our tour to Salem) and were dropped at the wharf for the Boston Tea Party re-enactment. That was really very well done, though by the time we were standing outside in the bitterly cold wind, I’d had enough (I only had on a t-shirt and a pashmina to keep me warm!); however, the history tour still had time to go; fortunately the rest of the time was inside.

Some photos from today:

SOS art installation

Mary Goose, the REAL Mother Goose

The octagonal thing above the pulpit is a ‘sounding board’ that helped project the speaker’s voice to the up to 5000 people inside the meeting house

Dinner tonight was at the hotel’s premier restaurant. I had the New England clam chowder, the black angus sirloin, and a shared chocolate/dessert tier of goodies for dessert. Lots of laughs, and meeting old friends and new.

QV2016 = QuiltVenture Tour 2016

I arrived in Boston this morning, from Bow, New Hampshire where I’d stayed overnight. The drive to Logan Airport, where I had to drop off the rental car, was expected to take 1 hour 45 mins. I allowed four hours… And although it took just over 2 hours, I’m glad I had that extra time up my sleeve as there were major traffic issues on I-93 South for the last 10 or so miles into Boston — it was like a slow-moving car park. Fortunately, I didn’t have a plane to catch and if I’d been late with the rental car, they’d have charged me for an extra day, so the consequences of running late weren’t too arduous.

The cab from the rental car building to downtown was $32 (including a $7.50 toll), plus tip, so it wasn’t cheap to travel only a couple of miles, as the crow flies. But it took a good 15 mins or so via the network of overpasses, tunnels etc.

I checked into the hotel and waited in the lobby until my room was ready. What a lovely hotel! We’re here for 4 days, so I unpacked everything and hung up all my clothes — the first time most have seen daylight for 10 days!

The weather was gorgeous (sunshine, 80F — in mid-October!) so I went for a walk to Faneuil Hall, then down to the harbourfront and along the walkways there. It was lunchtime and everywhere was packed with people out and about enjoying the sunshine, having lunch, walking, etc. I had a pulled pork sandwich from a Jamaican food truck near Columbus Park — delicious!

Boston seems really diverse based on the downtown population I saw and their interactions with each other — all nationalities seem to be represented, and all seem to get on with each other; there doesn’t seem to be the divide that is trumpeted by one candidate in the US Presidential election… In the hotel, there are many nationalities — the man who brought the bags to my room is South Sudanese, I saw a housekeeper of Indian or Pakistani origin in the halls, the person who checked me in was European (perhaps Russian?), and another was Australian. And that’s what I observed in just a few minutes.

Tonight I’ll have dinner with one of the other tour members who arrived from London this afternoon, and later this evening the rest of the group arrive. Already I’ve seen six of the group in the hotel lobby, so we’re nearly all here.

Here are some of my photos from my walk around Boston this afternoon:

The truck matches the trees and the sky

Sidewalk grate — I loved the pattern in this

Update: Had dinner with one of the other members of the group who’s already here, then walked down by the harbourfront. Found an exhibit by the artist Ai Weiwei of Chinese Zodiac animal heads, spotted a likely Australian-style coffee place, and found B5, a long-lost member of our quilting and sewing group 😉

I’m continually amazed how quickly you can traverse a state in this part of the world. Today I crossed a full state (Vermont), most of another one (New Hampshire), and part of a third (New York). Compare that to 3 days just to get to my closest state border in Australia…

Today was meant to be in the high 70s again and sunshine. Both were accurate, though heavy cloud, some drizzling rain, and a 15F drop in temperature occurred in the afternoon. I left Lake George (NY) just before 8 am. It was pretty foggy for the first half hour or so, then cleared up to blue skies with scudding white clouds. The light was amazing, and the trees were gleaming as it had rained overnight.

I crossed into Vermont over the Lake Champlain bridge, after my sat nav girl took me on a backroads route (which I wanted, but I was a bit unsure where she was taking me at first — I’m glad she did ‘cos I got to see some stunning scenery).

Once over the bridge, I was in Vermont farming country — and what STUNNING country it was too. OMG. I could live there! Some other parts weren’t quite so stunning (tiny towns dying; farm buildings falling into disrepair), but that bit from the bridge to Shelburne was just amazing. The town of Vergennes was particularly beautiful.

I went to the Burlington area as a good friend of mine (in Australia) has a family cottage just north of there, on Lake Champlain. I wanted to take photos of the area in the fall, as I’m pretty sure she’s only seen it in summer.

After seeing the cottage and the locality, I headed along the backroads to Waterbury and the Ben and Jerry’s ice cream factory. I was in time for the next tour, so that was good. Yummy ice creams!!! But the temp had dropped and it was drizzling by the time I came out. Not a good day for eating ice cream, but hey — you do what you have to do to keep your blog readers coming back for more 😉 I had a small cone/single scoop of the salted caramel (excellent) and a taste of the coconut and caramel (really nice) and the Cherry Garcia (not for me… too cough syrupy for my liking).

Some observations from today:

• Interstate 87 north had signposts to Montreal!
• Signs telling you no cell service for the next 64 miles followed immediately by a deer sign for ‘next 58 miles’. So, don’t hit a deer ‘cos you won’t be able to call anyone.
• There was a dead skunk in the middle of the road, and yes, it stank to high heaven.
• Highway 17 in Vermont from the Lake Champlain bridge is just spectacular.
• Everything smelt so earthy and fresh.
• I LOVE VERMONT!
• The Shelburne Museum looks HUGE — we’ll be back there with the tour group next Monday, and I can see why we have several hours scheduled for it.
• Road signs I spotted today: deaf child, blind person, wheelchair, moose crossing for next xx miles, horse and rider, farmer on tractor.
• Hand-made sign: ‘Daffy Duck for President. The best choice.”
• Colchester, VT still has an outdoor drive-in!
• Thank goodness for McDonalds and their bathrooms… Sometimes gas stations don’t have them or they’re not public. But McDonalds always do. Which is good to know after driving for 2+ hours without a break.
• Strong winds blow delicate dying leaves off trees in great numbers, and swirl them around. They look so pretty, but would be a sod to have to rake up from your yard.
• The hills in Vermont and New Hampshire were just COVERED in colour.
• Ben and Jerry’s use milk from both grass-fed and grain-fed cows. My opinion: Grass-fed cows give much better milk.
• Highway 25 South in Vermont follows a river for much of the way and it’s just SOOO picturesque.
• Even four miles out of a state capital, the scenery is still very rural — no evidence of urbanisation.
• My sat nav voice tells me ‘Welcome to New York’, ‘Welcome to Vermont’, and ‘Welcome to New Hampshire’ right as I cross the relevant state’s border.

Some photos from today:

My journey today took me from Seneca Falls, NY to Lake George, via Highway 28. It was a great drive, little traffic, scenic roads, but unfortunately the weather was very cloudy, foggy, with a misting rain for most of the day. When it wasn’t raining, it was gloomy. Not good for taking photos of fall colours, but nonetheless I did (all 200 of them, though many of those were quilt photos). The colour in the Adirondacks seems to have peaked, but that may be because of the altitude.

I stopped briefly in Old Forge to take some photos of a covered bridge and saw there was a quilt exhibition on at the local gallery. And what a gallery and exhibition! That was a fortuitous find. In addition to the main exhibition, there were also some variations on log cabin quilts upstairs in another area.

Another surprise today was that my route followed the Hudson River for a while. We’ll see the Hudson again in New York City, but here it was in its upper reaches and so very picturesque.

There were lots of lakes along the route, many hidden by the trees. Most were imaginatively named — First Lake, Second Lake, and so on until at least Thirteenth Lake! There were many little resorts, B&Bs, cabins, and motels in the small towns too, and most had ‘no vacancy’ signs out — I wonder if they are closed for the winter, or if they really are full of fall tourists. I sure didn’t see much traffic or cyclists (Highway 28 has a great bike route on the shoulders), which might indicate a full house of travellers. Likewise, the parking bays on the side of the highway had few cars to indicate that people were out walking the trails.

Other observations today:

• For much of the drive I had little or no cell service (not that I needed it), and in parts I had no radio reception either.
• The smell of the leaves and the earth and the fresh air is just wonderful. That air is so pristine.
• Despite the inclement weather, the temperature didn’t get below 60F and hovered in the mid 60s most of the day. Still OK for a t-shirt.
• Someone was offering seaplane rides over the lakes and hills! Had it been fine, I’d have popped in to see if they were running and how much. But the weather was so yucky, it wasn’t worth even seeing if they were open.
• I saw a few cows grazing on grass (this is NOT usual in my past travels in the US). And some of them were what I call ‘panda’ cows — they were black with a big white band around their mid-section, just like a panda.
• Warning road signs seen today included: horse and buggy, cattle, snow mobiles, snowplow turnaround.
• In Forestport, NY I saw a sign nailed to a tree — 5 acres + cabin for $29,000!!!
• There’s lots of granite in the Adirondacks…
• There’s a lack of gas stations and general stores on Highway 28, so therefore there’s a lack of public places with a bathroom. Be prepared!

Just a few of my photos from today:

I’ve observed several things this trip, some of which have been at odds with other places I’ve visited in the US or have struck me as strange in some way. None are good or bad — they are just observations. I’ll add to this list as I notice other things.

• There are a surprising number of recent deer kills on the sides of the interstate highways. There are quite a few deer signs, but neither the deer nor the car comes out of it well if hit at 70 mph. For most, the dead deer is intact at the side of the road, but one was like a scene from a horror movie with great chunks of red meat strewn all over one lane — I expect a truck hit it or ran over it. There’s also quite a lot of raccoon and opossum road kill.
• There are very few billboards on I-90 (unlike in Arizona, Texas etc.). In fact, I’d almost say there have been none in the states I’ve driven across, except for a patch on some Native American land (the billboards for the casino were a giveaway).
• The light between 8 and 9 am and between 5 and 6 pm is just magical for taking photos, assuming the sun’s shining. There’s a real soft golden glow.
• There are a surprising amount of agricultural pursuits visible from the road, and surprisingly little urban sprawl. I’ve seen fields of corn, soybeans, wheat, and wine grapes, with some being harvested now. Considering I’ve driven over/around/through Toledo, Cleveland, Buffalo, and Rochester, I’ve seen no evidence of urban sprawl like you see in California or in Australia. In fact, it’s all quite rural and bucolic as you’re driving by on the interstates (I-90 was the main one I’ve been on). Update: Same for the other New England states; even four miles from a state capital, the scenery was rural.
• In the middle of ‘suburbia’ in Fairport (near Rochester, NY) there’s a working farm! With cattle and sheep and goats all grazing on grass. It seems it’s heritage listed and cannot be developed and is part of the green belt. Awesome!
• There are a lot of Trump/Pence signs in the rural areas, with a few Clinton/Kaine signs. The election is due to be held in about three weeks…
• Exit numbers on I-90 are sequential, whereas (from memory) those on the west coast are based on the number of miles from the border. Update: Same for the interstates in Vermont and New Hampshire.
• There are tolls on some parts of I-90. I was terrified of what to do in a rental car, but unlike other places, they have at least one booth with a person to take your money, so it’s been a breeze. (We don’t have toll roads in Western Australia, and there are only a few in other states, so they’re not something I’m familiar with.)
• I need to trust the Google Maps navigation function. I’m getting to trust it more (this is my first time using it), but I still have trouble with ‘turn left in a quarter mile’ when there are two sets of lights up ahead — I don’t know how far a ‘quarter mile’ is without doing some ancient math calculations in my head! Now, if she said ‘turn left in 400 yards’ I’d have more success because a metre is close enough to a yard and I have a reasonable idea of how far 400 metres is. At least she talks Australian 😉
• New York state has ‘Text Stop’ places on the interstate, in addition to the service centres. Ohio has lit messages over the interstate saying that some 120 teens have been killed this year alone, and to save the LOLs and OMGs until you stop.
• Hotel air conditioning units — they’re either too hot or too cold, or if you can get the temp just right, the fan is so loud you have to wear ear plugs… even on ‘low’. If you turn it off, you no longer have a/c. The ones in your house don’t make this much noise, so why do they in hotel rooms?
• Beware the a/c in cars in the US! I got caught — I turned on the heating/cooling, adjusted the temp down, but it was still warm and humid in the car. Eventually I found the ‘snowflake’ button and suddenly I had delightful a/c. In the process of finding it, I tried all sorts of pushing, pulling, and turning of the various knobs. One knob had 3 dots on it, so I pushed it in and the 3 dots lit up. Maybe that was the a/c? No. It was the car seat heaters!!!! I nearly burned my backside.
• A 113 g (4 oz) tub of low fat yoghurt had 16 g of sugar in it!!!!! Unbelievable.
• When the trees change colour, the furthest leaves are the first to go. Leaves closest to the stems and big branches stay green for longer, while leaves mid way to the end of the branches are yellow, and those furthest out are orange/brown. I might need this info later if I decide to paint fall colours on trees…
• Most drivers drive with their headlights on all the time, which is good. Some states require you to turn your headlights on if you are using your windscreen wipers.
• Most of the interstates I’ve been on (90, 87, 89, 93 so far) are only two lanes, except in built-up areas around major cities. Merging is good — long merging lanes, merging traffic gets up to speed to merge, other drivers move over to let them in. I’ve seen no evidence of any sort of road rage.
• Drivers keep the the right (keep to the left would be the equivalent in Australia), and it just works. You only go into the other lane to pass; people don’t hog the passing lane.
• Some radio stations display the artist and song they’re currently playing on the dashboard screen, which is handy if you like a song.
• Interstates are designed for long-distance travellers — they have rest areas, info centers, service plazas, and signpost how far to the next one.
• All highways and most roads are numbered, which is darned useful for travellers. No need to look for a local road name or locality that you’re not familiar with.

Today’s drive was from Erie, PA (where I stayed overnight) to the Rochester, NY area. I then spent a few hours catching up with a friend over lunch at a restaurant overlooking the Erie Canal. It was a really warm day (~79F) for this time of year, so we sat outside to take advantage of the weather. Oh, and we visited a Wegmans — OMG!!!!!

Along the drive, I noticed the Fall colours are really patchy — some spots are full on with the reds, oranges and yellows, while others are still mostly green.

The final stop of the day was at the outlet mall not far from Rochester, where I stocked up on undies (I can’t get them in Australia, and it’s too expensive to buy them at normal price and have them shipped), and a few things for my DH. I was going to head towards Albany tomorrow, but my friend there now has a work commitment he needs to deal with, so I’ll head towards the Adirondacks and Vermont instead.

Here are a just a few photos from today: