New England

Monday 19 June 2006, 9:35 pm

Sunday, June 18

Today we went to church at South Coast Vineyard in New Bedford, Massachusetts. We had been staying in Newport, Rhode Island, and this is the closest church we found. It was about 45 minutes away so we had to leave earlier than usual. It was worth it. This was a very small church. They had lots of chairs set up, but really only about eight families were there, including us and the pastors. We met pastors Ruth and Richard, and another couple, Glen and Mary. They were all very helpful trying to help us find our way around. They also were full of the joy of the Lord which they shared with everyone.

We did laundry this afternoon. We found a run-down "laundrette" in a poor side of town, but we got our clothes clean. After we left there, we found several other nicer laundromats in better parts of town. But we did get to spend a few minutes talking to the owner of this one. It seemed she might need someone to talk to.

We drove around the coast area of New Bedford, where there were some nice beaches. But we didn't really see too much interesting in this town, even though we'd been told about whaling museums and other fun stuff. Since we're way behind schedule, we decided to beat feet toward Boston. We'd been warned that traffic on Cape Cod would be heavy after 6 pm on Sunday, so we headed for Plymouth instead. Plymouth was a disappointment. "Plymouth Rock" is just a large rock with the date "1620" added centuries later. We took a trolley tour around the town and decided we'd seen enough. We're interested in the Pilgrims and all, but we can learn plenty about that without having to be in a tourist trap. So we headed north around 6 pm.

We have seen lots of Boston before, and since we spent so much time in NYC and Washington on this trip, we decided to skip Boston altogether. We did go straight through the town, though, and we went through a long tunnel I don't remember being there before. Was this the "big dig?" I think so. It is certainly a lot easier to get through the center of town now.

One of our favorite restaurants is Warren's Lobster House just inside Maine. We made it there by 8:30 pm, just in time to get some lobster before they closed. Even the salad bar was wonderful, which is unusual anywhere on the east coast.

We found a nice Econo Lodge in Kittery, Maine, but they didn't have internet access so I couldn't post anything last night.

Monday, June 19

Today we "took a vacation from our vacation." I've been reading Europe through the Back Door by Rick Steves, and he recommends doing this every couple of weeks when on a long trip. Anyway, we had lots of errands to run: Mary and I both needed work on our hair, my truck hadn't had an oil change since we left California 9000 miles ago, and we had a care package to put in the mail to Matthew in Iraq.

After dinner in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, we headed up the Maine coast, and tonight we are in Brunswick, Maine.

Tomorrow, we plan to go to some point clearly on the Atlantic coast (not on any bay or inlet), and dip our toes in the ocean. Then we'll truly be able to call this a "coast-to-coast" trip. After that, we need to turn back. Not counting the two weeks on the Mississippi coast, we have spent eight weeks to get to this point, and we have only two weeks to get back. In the next two weeks, we hope to do this:
<< Older Index Newer >>

20060619a