Day 10
We began the day at 7:00am with the destination in mind, Newton, MA, and an AirBnB already set up. Almost 400 miles separated us, so we decided to drive 100 miles each then switch. That plan turned out to helped tremendously. We finished breakfast, broke camp, and did a quick tour of Ontario County Park before heading back towards Highway 20. We stopped at an overlook and admired the beautiful western New York area that has a rich history, in a gorgeous setting. Activities are aplenty both in the summer and winter months, because the area has an ski area as well as a lake for recreation. 
I regret to admit we skip so much in our effort to “get to the next place.”. Unlimited time is a luxury only afforded to some, and we are not them. So we shrug and say “next time”, knowing it will hardly be the case.
We drove through the heart of the Finger Lakes area, skirting Auburn, Albany, and my favorite of the towns, Geneva.
We stopped at the New York and Massachusetts’s border for selfies and were excited to be in the last state of Highway 20. We played a game of leapfrog with I-90, and worked our way through Springfield. At Waltham we got off of Highway 20 and worked our way into Newton as the light faded from the sky.
Alyssa, the lady who owned the AirBnB, met us at the door and was friendly from the start. We got our stuff settled into our room, and Shar took a quick shower. The house’s large basement, set in a quiet neighborhood, had been converted into four rooms. There was a shared bathroom and a mini kitchenette that had a sink and microwave. The only AC was upstairs, but Alyssa had provided us a fan. We kept it going all night, both the humidity and heat were oppressive. Feeling happy that we were nearing our journey’s completion, we fell asleep to the thrumming of the cooling fan.
Miles Driven: 403
City Towns Passed:
Temperature at 10:00am: 78
Day 11
I got up at 7:00am and took a shower. Shar followed suit, and by 9:00am we were eating fried rice with egg made by Alyssa. She normally didn’t make breakfast, but she was doing so for one of the other sets of guests and added a little more for us. We had met Jeff, his wife, and daughter the previous night, and now met the final guest at breakfast. Sam was working in Boston, but lived in New Jersey. He would spend the weeks at Alyssa’s, but go home for the weekends. Alyssa had plans to go to Chinatown in downtown Boston that morning and offered to give us a ride. We mulled over our choices, and given that it was the 4th of July, decided to take her up on the offer. We had concerns about driving into the city because we were unsure what roads would be closed due to the concert/fireworks display being held at the waterfront area.
It was about a 15 minute drive, and we thanked Alyssa for the ride. We made our way though Chinatown for about a half a mile to the Boston Commons and began following the “Freedom Walk”. This is a series of historical places that form a path of sorts through the area. We started out by walking past the old state legislation building, saw the Robert Shaw/Massachusetts 54th memorial made famous because the Civil War movie Glory, and then worked our way through the cemetery. We saw the graves of Samual Adams, Paul Revere, and the victims of the Boston Massacre. Most of the gravestones were so old that they were no longer readable. The large groups being led around by people in historical dress started to be an issue in the small walkways in the cemetery. They would clog the walking area, block access to the major gravesites, etc. Our next stop was the South Meeting Hall. It was here that much of the debate for independence occurred.
We walked about half a mile to the Boston Tea Party site and watched a tourist group get to reenact it with three bales of “tea” tied to a tall ship. We then walked to the Fanuil Hall Mall, a long two block area of shops, drank a beer and had a chili cheese dog at a Cheers pub replica. It was around 4:00pm at that point, so we started making our way towards the Charles River Esplanade and the Hatch Shell where the concert and fireworks were going to be. We walked streets lined with townhouses almost always side by side.
One time there was the tiniest of walkways between two building, not much more than a walkway, but in it burned a lamppost made up of three propane/natural gas bulbs. Nestled among these million dollar places to live was a cute little park for kids. After a lot of twists and turns, ups and downs, we got to one the entrances.
The police and military were out in force blocking all the roads near the event. We ended up having to go back and scavenge a plastic bag when we noticed a sign saying “No backpacks”. We had brought Shar’s little daypack with us. We scavenged a bag out of a trashcan, turned it inside out, and I transferred everything to it, rolling up the daypack. When we finally did go through security, which included being scanned for weapons, we found out we probably would have been ok, but it makes for a good memory. We found a spot along the slough and waited about thirty minutes for the sun go behind the trees so that the heat became bearable. We relaxed, paid $4 for a couple bottles of water, then found a water station to refill them several times after that. Shar had a piece of overpriced pizza and a canolli. I paid $7 for a plain hamburger that was burned. I was only able to get a little mustard on it before the pump ran out. The ketchup had disappeared sometime before I had a chance to get some.
Sitting on the ground had long since gotten uncomfortable two and a half hours later when the concert started. Rachel Platten, The Indigo Girls, and the Boston Pops sang and played for over two hours before it was dark enough for the fireworks to start. It turned out that our spot wasn’t a good one for firework viewing, it being partially obscured by the same trees that had helped with blocking the sun. We weren’t alone in the disappointment, all the people who had got there earlier for good concert places had the same obscured view, and a huge migration of people began. We hung back, found the best place we could, and watched the fireworks through the trees or on the big concert tv screens. That migration paled in comparison to the mass of people moving out of the park thirty minutes or so later when show ended. We made our way the best we could to a small park about a half mile away and started working on getting a ride home. Shar had reached her limit on data and it was in slow data mode, which frustrated both of us. We finally got a hold of a Lyft driver, and we ended up paying $60 for a ride because it was still in the peak cost time frame. It was worth it not having to hike the mile to South Station, figure out what light rail stop, then another fifteen minute walk to Alyssa’s house from there. Sleep came quick as the fan cooled us.
One time there was the tiniest of walkways between two building, not much more than a walkway, but in it burned a lamppost made up of three propane/natural gas bulbs. Nestled among these million dollar places to live was a cute little park for kids. After a lot of twists and turns, ups and downs, we got to one the entrances.
The police and military were out in force blocking all the roads near the event. We ended up having to go back and scavenge a plastic bag when we noticed a sign saying “No backpacks”. We had brought Shar’s little daypack with us. We scavenged a bag out of a trashcan, turned it inside out, and I transferred everything to it, rolling up the daypack. When we finally did go through security, which included being scanned for weapons, we found out we probably would have been ok, but it makes for a good memory. We found a spot along the slough and waited about thirty minutes for the sun go behind the trees so that the heat became bearable. We relaxed, paid $4 for a couple bottles of water, then found a water station to refill them several times after that. Shar had a piece of overpriced pizza and a canolli. I paid $7 for a plain hamburger that was burned. I was only able to get a little mustard on it before the pump ran out. The ketchup had disappeared sometime before I had a chance to get some.
Sitting on the ground had long since gotten uncomfortable two and a half hours later when the concert started. Rachel Platten, The Indigo Girls, and the Boston Pops sang and played for over two hours before it was dark enough for the fireworks to start. It turned out that our spot wasn’t a good one for firework viewing, it being partially obscured by the same trees that had helped with blocking the sun. We weren’t alone in the disappointment, all the people who had got there earlier for good concert places had the same obscured view, and a huge migration of people began. We hung back, found the best place we could, and watched the fireworks through the trees or on the big concert tv screens. That migration paled in comparison to the mass of people moving out of the park thirty minutes or so later when show ended. We made our way the best we could to a small park about a half mile away and started working on getting a ride home. Shar had reached her limit on data and it was in slow data mode, which frustrated both of us. We finally got a hold of a Lyft driver, and we ended up paying $60 for a ride because it was still in the peak cost time frame. It was worth it not having to hike the mile to South Station, figure out what light rail stop, then another fifteen minute walk to Alyssa’s house from there. Sleep came quick as the fan cooled us.
Miles Driven: 0 Steps Walked: 23,000
City/Towns Passed: Newton, Boston
Temperature at 10:00: 86
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