The Long Story of New England in the Fall

Intro:
It's long, but you can always just look at the pictures.

Chapter 1:
THE FLIGHT
Sleeping in the back of your truck in long term parking may be white-trashy, but it gets you to your plane on time.

The flight was uneventful, except for the crazy lady we met on the airplane. I don't remember ever talking so much to someone on a plane. She was headed to Boston to see an old fling who looked her up on Facebook after her husband died. She had so many stories that taken individually were believable, but great stories. But, when you put them all together I start to wonder. She was a good story teller, but that doesn't make them true. There was the one about the car accident in Denver where the police thought the Comet cleanser that flew all over the car was cocaine, and she was arrested and put in the cell with the naked guys peeing in her hair.  And her husband had to rescue her from the paddy wagon, or who knows what would have happened.
Then there was the story about the Raven that was getting into her friends pond that she tricked by stringing fishing line or something to make an illusion that the pond was covered. There was something about the FBI questioning all her friends and neighbors after Jimmy Hoffa disappeared. Cause she worked at the horse races. Then there was the actual fish story about catching a Marlin by the tail when she was on the fishing boat with all men, who were not impressed that she was the only one to catch one. She won a $500 prize cause it was so big, and then cost her $400 to stuff it.

She tried to convince us to come down to Suffolk to the horse races, telling us that New York City is only an hour south of Boston. But she is wrong about that. She said she hadn't been to Boston since she was a 18, going to see Jimi Hendrix. So maybe things have changed, or maybe she forgot. We left with each other's contact information. Very interesting flight. Maybe the stories were true. I have no reason not to believe her. Perhaps if you take everything that has ever happened to you in your life you could come up with three hours of outlandish stories.

Chapter 2:
BOSTON
It doesn't do any good to bring your GPS if you forget the power cord.

We got to Boston early enough to wander around for a while, eat, wander around some more and end up very far from our car so that we had to pay a bicycle rickshaw to take us back.  Note to self: park outside the city somewhere and take the train in. $35 for parking!!! Not cool. Boston is practicing an urban planning tactic that enables them to invest in transit instead of roads and parking. If you make driving painful enough people will use transit. On our way out of the city we had to stop two times to ask for directions. We got to my friend Synthia's about midnight. That is a long day when it started at 4:45 am.

Chapter 3:
PLYMOUTH
If, like me, you didn't grow up in New England you didn't go to the Plimouth Plantation for your fifth grade field trip.

Thursday we drove to Plimouth Plantation.
Plimouth Plantation is a reenactment and replica of the original Plimouth Colony. It also includes the Wampanoag Homesite, the Mayflower and Plymouth Rock. The great part is the people walking around, going about their business that appear to be the original colonists, and natives. If you ask them questions they will tell you about their life, their trip from England, and so forth. And no matter how you try to trick them into revealing their knowledge of the 21st century, they stick to their time period. They had not heard of Utah (because it wasn't around in 1621), and certainly knew nothing of modern things.

 

 Making Nails

 

Theology Geeks

The Mayflower II

We spent the evening in Plymouth

Plymouth Beach

It had threatened rain all day but didn't start till we were almost back to Synthia's. We actually managed to get there before Eric went to bed. That is a first. Synthia fed us some delicious taco soup and we got to watch a bit of a movie before we crashed.

Chapter 4:
PORTSMOUTH & PORTLAND
On the New England coast everything has "Port" in the name.
Friday morning, we headed north toward Maine through a never ending rainstorm. We stopped to get raincoats at a hardware store and the clerk knew Synthia. She thought it was sooo cool that she met us strangers from Utah. We stopped in Portsmouth, Hew Hampshire. It is a cute little town. We were glad to have our rain coats so we could walk around. We followed a self guided tour that showed us some historic buildings, but without paying to go inside them, they are not much cooler than every other old historic building in New England.
We stopped in Portland, or rather Cape Elizabeth to see the Portland Head Light.

It was raining so hard that the bottom half of our legs were wet from dripping off our rain coats. I felt a little like the sailors, looking for that lighthouse through the storm, so dependent on it for direction.



We found a little wood you know, the type Little Red Riding Hood went into. By this time I was pretty hungry and the rain still hadn't let up so we headed for Oxford Hills with a stop along the way for some fish and chips before we got to Howard's parent's house.

Chapter 5:
OXFORD HILLS
Some places still think Def Leopard is cool. Places like Norway and Paris.

After spending some bonding time with the parents and seeing the horses we met up with one of Howard's old friends. The only place open was a pool hall/disco club playing Def Leopard in one room and techno in the other.
Very strange.
We played some pool, which I won, only because everyone else was too busy talking to pay much attention to the game. Later we went to a trail-head where it was way too dark to see anything. We sat in a blueberry field and the boys reminisced until I was too tired, and too cold to stay another minute.

Saturday we visited Howard's grandmother in the Senior Center and visited a real fruit stand, nothing like the tents we have in Utah. This was a permanent structure with varieties of apples that I had never seen and REAL apple cider. We went and saw Howard's sister Darcy and did a house blessing because their resident ghost is getting a bit out of control. THey have a barn that is bigger than our house. Structurally there are issues, but still very cool.
Then Howard introduced me to a couple Maine originals: Red Hot Dogs and Candle Pin bowling. I know you think your hot dogs are red. But they aren't. In Maine hot dogs just weren't red enough so they die them. Some people told me once you try a red hot dog you will never go back. But to me they tasted like any other hot dog. Maybe it was just the thought of hot dog chemicals on steroids that turned me off.
Then we went and did some Candle Pin Bowling. Candle Pin Bowling is similar to "regular" bowling. Except the pins are thinner and the ball is miniature...with no holes. At first I thought it was easier to control the ball, but I changed my mind. They don't clean then up between your shots, so there is always the possibility of rolling pins knocking down other pins. Mostly I was really good at getting it in the gutter, but sometimes the ball bounces out of the gutter and knocks stuff down. I seemed to get worse as the night went on. It is good for Howard to have a game where he can beat me.

Chapter 6:
BURLINGTON
If you drive all the way through two states to take a ferry ride, it might be a good idea to find out when the last ferry leaves.
On Sunday we drove up to Burlington Vermont. It is about a three and a half hour drive through beautiful fall foliage.

 I tried to listen to general conference along the way, but my internet connection was intermittent and eventually my computer battery died.
I really like Burlington. It has a very chill vibe. They have a pedestrian street in the heart of their downtown, which I am in love with, and lots of people wandering around, fountains, and tons of fiberglass cows painted different ways.

Although I didn't get any great cow pictures here is a website that has them on parade.
And here are some little videos I found of the story behind the cows.




Apparently the cows aren't a permanent feature, they were part of a fundraiser and have now been sold at auction. You can go here to read more about it.

We intended to take the ferry across Lake Champlain to New York state, but didn't pay attention to what time the last ferry left so we missed it. Instead we walked along the Boardwalk and enjoyed the sunset.

Chapter 7:
PORTLAND PART 2
An Irish Restaurant/Pub sells more than alcohol. Yum.
On Monday we went to lunch at a small town home cookin cafe in Norway called Boomers. The kind of place where the waitress calls you Honey, and they serve things like corn chowder and Lobster Cake.
Then we drove down to Portland and took a little cruise out around the islands. Imagine how fun it would be to live on an island and have your morning commute on a ferry. I could really get into that.

Then we met up with some of Howard's friends for dinner at an authentic Irish restaurant pub. If you have ever seen Ballykissangel, it is just like Fitzgeralds. If not take my word for it, the atmosphere and food were great.

Chapter 8:
FRYEBURG FAIRE & PERSEPHONE'S TORCH
They call it Senior citizens day for a reason.
On Tuesday we went with Howard's parents to the Fryeburg Fair. The Fryeburg Fair is one of the largest county fairs in the the country. Unfortunately we went on Senior citizens day. Every elderly person within 200 miles was there. I didn't know there were that many people in all of Maine, or in New England for that matter. We saw some old wagons,

 Some old tractors,

 And a fine drake.

After the fair we had enough time for Howard to film his debut professional acting role.



and make a late night stop at LL Bean.

Chapter 9:
GOING HOME
Good trips make for sad departures.
It was a really nice trip and Howard wasn't too anxious to leave. To give us closure it rained all the way back to Boston, just as it had all the way from Boston.

So there you go. The much anticipated and long awaited story of our trip.
THE END