Mass 2016

July 31, 2016

I ran some errands and then came home.  

The Massachuets State Elks Picnic was today, which was held at the Saugus-Everett Lodge.    Great gathering and we had the opportunity to meet the GER (Grand Exalted Ruler) Mike Zellen and his wife Donna.   Wonderful people.  We agreed that when they come to AZ in May, we'll catch up with them.

Later in the evening we went to the lodge and had a drink with them and their daughter Michele, she's a lovely person.

July 30, 2016

Took the train into downtown Boston, great way to get in and out of the city.   Got off at the Fenway Market stop, this puts in right in the heart of the city.   Looked around the market and then headed towards Paul Revere's home via the Freedom Trail.  The trail is marked on the sidewalk via red bricks, making it very easy to follow.  

Next stop was the North Church, famous for telling the locals that the British were coming with the lanterns.   This church is different than any we seen, in that, it has tall square box that families sat/sit in.   The box are about 4' tall, I could barely see over them.   The minister stands on a raised pulpit so that parishioners can see him.   Families would pay to own these boxes and would decorate them in any way the desired.  Obviously this was a rich man's church.

We then walked up the hill to the Copps Hill Cemetery.   Here you'll find the oldest grave in Boston.  On the way back to downtown, we walked through Little Italy, saying to ourselves we'd return for lunch.   However, we didn't!

Found Faneuil Hall, looked through it and some of the shops, then continued over to Quincy Square and some of those shops.  Decided we needed to continue on the Freedom Trail before I started shopping.

Old State House, Boston Massacre, King's Chapel and Old Granary Burial Grounds are just some of the sites we saw.   Once we visited the cemetery (this is where Paul Revere is buried), we headed back to Faneuil Hall to do our shopping and have lunch.   Had lunch at Oyster Bar, had clam Chowdar (they talk funny here) in a bread bowl, comparably to San Francisco.   Bought a few things while shopping and then headed to the open market, where you can buy incredible fruits and vegs at the best prices we've ever seen!

July 29, 2016

Samuel Adams Brewery was our first stop today.   Very interesting tour, much like any other brewery we toured but the oldest one here in Boston.   Got to sample 5 beers (pretty early for sampling for me...only 10:00 AM), this place is famous for its ales, which are NOT our favorites, ok Bobby's favorite...lol.

JFK Library is about 4.5 miles away, so we head there.   It tells the story of his life up to his election as president.   Sadly it does not show much on his assassination, you do see the date and those infamous words by Walter Cronkite that he was passed away.    The library it's self is beautiful, much different than others we've seen.   They do show much more on his earlier years and many movies with his family growing up.

Fenway Park is our next stop, for those that don't know, it's the home of the Red Sox.   The tour tells you all the history on the park.  We got to sit in the green monster area, famous for those home runs balls coming at you at 100 mph.   Also saw the press box where Brad Pitt sat while filming the movie "money".   The longest recorded home run is marked by a  red seat, 502' long.   Many home runs are hit out of the park, but they are unable to record them!

The drive home was long, only 13 miles but took us 1.5 hrs, welcome to the big city rush hour traffic!!!

 July 28, 2016

Went out to breakfast and then found a place to fix our screen on our front door.   Very nice company and only charged us $10.

Saugus Ironworks National Park is nearby, this place tells you about the blacksmith industry and how important it was to our nation.   There are several buildings you get to tour and see how the iron was created and turned into the necessary tools to create and build structures back in the 1700's.  In fact, a ranger made us a nail like they did in the old days and then gave it to Bobby to keep.  It was interesting to see the size of the billows and much stuff they'd make in a day.   A good blacksmith could make a 1,000 nails.

You might ask why so many?   The doors on these buildings had anywhere from 100 to 160 per door.   If you were rich, you had fancy nails with decorative heads, which this family did.

The witches are calling my name, so we head to Salem, MA.  We took the tour of the Salem Witch Museum, what a disappointing program they have.   First off, some of the seats, you can't see the displays they show you.   They do a good job of telling you the story but I don't think it was worth the admission fee.  

We then walked to the Maritime Historical Museum operated by the National Park.  Had lunch and then walked around town, seeing the cemetery, memorial to the witch trials and looked in a few shops.    Bobby is not feeling well, heat has gotten to him, so we head home around 2:30.   Rain is supposed to come tonight, so hopefully tomorrow will be in the low 80's

July 27, 2016

Headed to Saugus, MA, where we'll spend the next 4-5 days here at the Saugus-Everett Elks Lodge.   Very nice lodge with only 15 amp hook up, but they're not charging us, which is extremely unusual, however, they'll get it out of us in drinks...lol.

Traffic was a nightmare coming in on the I-95, couldn't take I-93, motorhomes are not allowed in the tunnels.  Once we got settled in, we headed to the Minute Man National Monument.   This is where Paul Revere  and others warned the Militia that the British were coming.  As most know, they fired the shot that was heard around the world!

It a strange feeling to stand on the road that helped establish our independence.  We saw the North Bridge, this is where the Milita turned the Redcoats and made them head back to Boston.  Also stopped at the Tavern, Bobby keeps asking, where's the beer!

On the return trip stopped at the prior home of Lousia May Alcott, author of "Little Women".   Brought back childhood memories of reading her books.

 It's very hot and humid so we get tired quickly these days.   Once we finished seeing most of the sites, headed back to the air conditioning.

Went to Lodge and met Michele, daughter of the Grand Exhaled Ruler, what an honor for this lodge.   She invited us to play trivia later in the evening (we went back an listened for about 30 min).   She also invited us to the State Picnic for Elks on Sunday, we'll probably stay.

July 26, 2016

Capital of Rhode Island is Providence, so that was our destination today! It's a very hot and humid day, so we started out early in hopes of doing our sightseeing before it gets unbearable.

We parked near the "Superman" building (movies were filmed here), which is about 1 mile from the capital.   We had heard on the news they are giving tours, but when we arrived, we couldn't locate the tours.   We knew they might not be every day, to bad as we think this would have been very interesting.   This building was built for a bank, so most of it involves the vaults, etc.   Something for our next trip.

City hall is close by, so we walked over there.  It's not as fancy as a capital but nice.   We did get to see some of the pics of the many floods (caused by hurricanes) that have caused havoc on this town.

The capital was our next stop, we were about 1/2 hr before the tour, but the tour person gave us a quick overview of the building.   Like so many other buildings in this era, it's beautiful and has lots of gold leaf.  The same architect that build the Vanderbilt homes in Newport, RI designed this capital.   We could definitely see his style.  The rotunda is being updated with paint, so we could get a good pic of it, but it's the 4th largest free standing rotunda in the world.  

July 25, 2016

Cape Cod is about 30 miles away so we headed out there.   We were told that traffic was a nightmare, but honestly it wasn't that bad, no different that Seaside, OR on a week day.

Found out way to Woods Hole, MA, home of the ferry that takes you to Martha's Vineyard.   I knew we need a reservation and I had not made one, so decided to just spend the day looking around the Cape.   When we arrived at the ferry landing, it was packed with people trying to get onto the ferries.   Makes for almost impossible parking in this area, but we found a spot about 4 blocks away. 

While looking at a park with some statues, I noticed that WHOI was located here.   WHOI (Woods H Oceanographic Institute) is the owner of "Alvin", the underwater rover that located the remains of the Titanic back in the 80's.   Some of the fascinating things we learned:  it cost $35,000 every time if dives, can only stay down 6-8 hrs, no bathrooms on board plus batteries die after 10 hrs; three people are on board, of which one is the pilot; it can dive up to 4 miles and takes amazing photos!

Atlantis was in port, so we took several pics of it too!   Atlantis is the ship that transports Alvin to its destination.   So cool that we got to see this and see some of the things they've discovered and are in the process of doing: tracking white sharks, studying algae, search for live in the depths of the ocean, etc.

Took a drive along the coast line to take in the cape, honestly it's not as beautiful as the Outer Banks but still nice.   One odd thing, most of the beaches are private so finding a public beach is difficult.  We then headed into downtown Falmouth, here we walked up and down the main street.   Looked in many shops, looking for that elusive gift I want.  Still haven't found the right thing!

On the way home, we found a mall about 2 miles from us, so stopped in.   Still didn't buy anything!

July 24, 2016

Plymouth Rock is out destination today.   It's not exactly what I was expecting but my friend Terry and told me not to get excited when I saw it.   Honestly, it could be any rock that someone put there.   Yes it has a date on it but it's so small I just wonder if it's the real rock?   When you see the pics, you'll understand.

Mayflower II is here, so we walked over to grab some pics, they've done a nice replication except it doesn't have the name on it, wonder why?

Plymouth has a wonderful bay and it's filled with many boats.   We walked around and admired many of them.  Also took a walk out onto the pier, to get better shots of the city.

After looking through the shops and taking in an art bazaar, we headed to National Monument of our forefathers.   What an impressive monument that took 11 years to build.  It's 182' tall and is made of solid granite.    It shows all the names of those that arrived on the Mayflower.

We are into geocashing, so we had to find one for MA, so we went into the neighborhood around the monument, found the geocash we were looking for.  The lady whose house we were at, came out and helped us find it.   She was the owner of the geocash.   Got to talking, and she graciously showed us her house, very nice.   Also informed us that her ancestor came over on the Mayflower and their names are on the monument.

July 23, 2016

It's Saturday and we decided that going to the Cape was probably not a good idea, as traffic would be a nightmare with this heat way and a weekend.  Weather is going to be in high 90's with high humidity.  What an ugly combination!

Newport, RI is our destination.   It's about 50 miles away and even though it's on the water, we feel it won't be as crowded.  

The infamous "Breakers" home, which was home to the Vanderbilt's. Cornelius Vanderbilt, II (Grandson to Cornelius Vanderbilt who created Grand Central Railroad) had it built in 1893, which is an Italian Renaissance style home.   This house is fabulous, it's extremely hard to explain that beauty that's inside this house, harder yet, it was their summer cottage!  

With over 70 rooms and 65,000 sq ft of living area, it's nothing like you've ever seen!   However with seven children, they need the space I guess!!!   Hopefully the pics will show you it's beauty and some of the details, it's absolutely striking! 

Our next stop was the Marble House, it was the home of

 July 22, 2016

Drove from East Hampton, CT to Rochester, MA, which took us about 2 1/2 hrs.  We are staying at the Gateway to Cape Cod RV park, part of the Thousand Trails system.  This location will put us within an hour of Providence, RI; Newport, RI; Boston, MA, Plymouth, MA and Cape Cod, MA.

Took us a while to get settled in, RPI made a mistake on our reservations and I had to get that straightened out, that took over an hour!

We finally got to our spot and I was leveling the coach, when Bobby told me he could get inside the coach, apparently the lock on the door snapped something and we couldn't get it open.   So, he crawled through the driver's side window over coach and tried to fix the problem.   We finally called Eric at Elite, who told us that it was a major fix.    Do to this, we called a local rv repair person to come out and see what he could do.   Ray Savaria from "On the Road RV Repairs" arrived around 4 and finally after about 45 min, got the door open. 

What a relief that was!!!  We still have to get the lock fixed, but at least we can come and go without having to crawl thru the window!!!

We were exhausted from this ordeal plus the weather is extremely hot and very humid.  So, we just stayed in and watched TV.

July 17, 2016

The town of Brimfield, MA is about 15 miles away and has the world's largest antique flea market going on this weekend.  We've been to the flea market in Canton, TX which is about the same size but it also has new stuff, where this one is entirely antiques.

We looked through about 1/3 to 1/2 of it, obviously not stopping in every tent.   Unlike Canton, this is mostly tents that vendors have set up, as it's only 3 times a year and for 4-5 days each time.  We saw lots and lots of silver, furniture, nick nacks, etc.   Nothing that we needed, that's for sure.

The Springfield Armory was our next stop, this was the only manufacturer of weapons from 1777 until 1968, when the private sector took over that industry.   Off all the buildings they operated, the National Park only maintains two.   The others are part of the local college.

Inside the main building, you get to see many of the guns the built and how they stored them.   You also get to see a little of the machinery that was used, but mostly it's a museum of the weapons the produced.

About 1 mile away is the Springfield Museums and the Dr Seuss Gardens.   They were so much fun to explore, however you could not touch the ones in the sun, as it burnt your fingers, etc. to touch the hot metal.   The museum that's on the ground, was closed for renovation, to bad!!!

We got home around 1:30 and will just goof off around here the remainder of the day.   It's very hot and humid, so tires me out quickly.

July 16, 2016

Boy is it a hot humid day!!!   However we have an appt to try and figure out electrical problem, so off we went.   When we arrived, we were met by extremely friendly and helpful staff of Long View RV Superstore.  They got us backed into an area, plug us in and the system worked just fine.   They determined that it was probably the plug at the Elks lodge that's causing us problems, as it has a GFI on it and our inverter stops it as it thinks it's not properly wired.   This business is so wonderful, they didn't even charge us for their efforts.   Extremely well run operation and highly recommend it if you have problems in this area.

So, we are starving so they recommended a place down the road, it was OK.  Got the coach back to the Elks, are all hooked up and now resting as we are dripping in sweat!!!

July 15, 2015

Traveled to Ludlow, MA where we'll spend the next 3 days.   It's very hot and humid, so not sure how much we see

Arrived at the Elks around 11:30 and had troubles with the electrical system again, keep pooping the GFI and the post.   Spent most of the afternoon talking to experts, trying to find a place to look at our system.   Finally found Long View RV Superstore in Windsor Locks, CT.   We'll take it there tomorrow.

Bobby talked to Dave Parish, he tried to figure out our problem once again, but no luck.  We even called Magnum, make of the inverter, they walked us through a check list, still no help.

Spent the evening watching TV in the bedroom, only have 2 plugs that work on 120 system and they are both in bedroom.