You road I enter upon and look around, I believe you are not all that is here.
I believe that much unseen is also here......................................Walt Whitman
Autumn Leaves - USA New England 2009 |
After the border crossing from Canada into the US, we found ourselves on the I-94. We had left Montreal a day early in an attempt to stay ahead of the weather that was forecasted (that worked out pretty good for a few days!). |
You road I enter upon and look around, I believe you are not all that is here. I believe that much unseen is also here......................................Walt Whitman |
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| We left the I-95, headed east at St. Johnsbury, New Hampshire. That photo on the left may be taken driving into Littleton, not sure. We drove into the White Mountains, the sun shining. A day later a storm brought shows on these mountains. The photo on the right was taken in Gorham,NH. |
We stayed in the Top Notch Motel in Gorham,NH. This town is only a few miles from the Maine border.Prices were high around in Gorham, for motels. People here were kind and prepared to make a deal, accepting AAA-discount but the price remained high compared to our other stays. This photo shows their Halloween decorations, very nice I thought. Next door was an excellent restaurant J's Corner Restaurant & Lounge. Our motel issued a voucher for 10% discount. The next morning we found ice on our car. |
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'They moved on east through the standing dead trees. They passed an old frame house and crossed a dirt road. A cleared plot of ground perhaps once a truckgarden. Stopping from time to listen. The unseen sun cast no shadow. They came upon the road unexpectedly and he stopped the boy with one hand and they crouched in the roadside ditch like lepers and listened. THE ROAD, by Cormac McCarthy
My son Alexander recommended me to read this book, while 'on the road' ourselves. Unnerving and fascinating. Black on black. |
We were in the United States again. A country with 45 million unemployed. A country in turmoil about President Obama's attempt to reform the country's healthcare to make it available to millions who now work and/or live without such an insurance, but many oppose this and accuse President Obama of entertaining socialist-Marxist ideas. Independent people. Egotistical, self-centered people. More than one in 100 adults in the United States is in jail or prison, that is costing state governments nearly usd50 billion a year and the federal government usd5 billion more. More than 2.3 million people behind bars (2007 report). The number is increasing. To have or have not. People are purposely wrongly informed by radio & tv stations on a massive scale. Outright lies. Where does one get the truth here? Possession of firearms is rampant. Kids finding using their parents' guns. Students going on deathly rampage on the campus. A frightening country. They say their armies and their police is to ward off terrorists. But they should be scared of themselves. See also my Blog page. Any way, we had nothing to fear, we wouldn't be staying and the sun was shining! Let's hit the road!! |
You know how it goes, when you have to stop at a railway crossing here. You know you are in for a wait, because these are long trains, they slowly rumble along. The weather was nice, we killed the engine, opened a window, listened to the birds, train and other little sounds stirring in the autumn air. Then suddenly my eyes connected to my brain again, the image of a long forgotten name in the airline industry passing by on a railroad car: Pan Am! WTF?! |
 If I wasn't committed to planes I'd probably be into trains... |
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 I WAS LOOKING A LONG WHILE I was looking a long while for Intentions, For a clew to the history of the past for myself, and for these chants - and now I have found it, it is not in those paged fables in the libraries, (them I neither accept nor reject,) It is no more in the legends than in all else, It is in the present - it is this earth to-day, It is in democracy - (the purport and aim of all the past,) It is the life of one man or one woman to-day - the average man of to-day, It is in languages, social customs, literatures, arts, It is in the broad show of artificial things, ships, machinery, politics, creeds, modern improvements, and the interchange of nations, All for the modern - all for the average man of to-day. [Walt Whitman] |
 Simply a house on a hill. A grand house, for sure. |
 Portsmouth, NH. We stayed in American's (Best) Value Inn. I think 'Best' is not carried by all. We got directions to a restaurant and found a good dinner at Applebee's. The restaurant has a cozy atmosphere, tv is showing sports. On the left is some Halloween decorations, web stuff. |
 The weather was catching up with us... There was some rain and the wind blew the leaves in its usual disorderly fashion from the trees. Autumn showing its cold side. |
We arrived at Hyannis Port and our Roomsaver.com couponbook steered us to the Travel Inn.This town actually invites people for a walk, very un-American... We went for a stroll (actually, a brisk walk, as the sun was setting rapidly and daylight fading) with the intention to visit the JFK monument. We passed the harbor on our walk. |
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 Rough weather... |
 Most ships and boats in port were the luxury kind, but here was a rugged trawler (?) |
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There is a memorial to President Kennedy on the Lewis Bay waterfront that was erected by Barnstable citizens in 1966. The memorial includes a fountain and a field-stone monument with the presidential seal and JFK inscription: "I believe it is important that this country sail and not sit still in the harbor." President-elect John F. Kennedy gave his victory speech on 09Nov1960 at the former Hyannis Armory.Hyannis on Wikipedia |
 The Travel Inn at Hyannis, we had an excellent stay here. The beds were a little longer than I am used to (Queen-XL size), so I did not need to find a diagonal position to accommodate myself. The breakfast was great too! There is always a disadvantage: no elevator here so we had to lug those heavy suitcases up and down two stairs. |
On the coast, real estate has priority over scenic routes. So one has to look for places like these to see something of the ocean. |
 Route (alt) 6A into Provincetown |
 Lobster cages? |
 This area was originally settled by the Nauset tribe, who had a settlement known as Meeshawn. Provincetown was incorporated by English settlers in 1727 after harboring ships for more than a century. Bartholomew Gosnold named Cape Cod in Provincetown Harbor in 1602. In 1620, the Pilgrims signed the Mayflower Compact when they arrived at the harbor. They agreed to settle and build a self-governing community, and then came ashore in the West End. Though the Pilgrims chose to settle across the bay in Plymouth, Provincetown enjoyed an early reputation for its fishing grounds. The "Province Lands" were first formally recognized by the union of Plymouth colony and Massachusetts Bay colony in 1692, and its first municipal government was established in 1714. The population of Provincetown remained small through most of the 18th century. Following the American Revolution, however, Provincetown grew rapidly as a fishing and whaling center. [Wikipedia, more...] |
 Crossing the Bourne Bridge, over the Cape Cod Canal in Buzzards Bay. I noticed this sign...The Bourne Bridge is certainly a bridge of immense proportions, it has a 616-foot-main span over the canal, but does it bring ill feelings to people as such that it they become desperate? Maybe entry into Rhode Island delivers feelings of foreboding and despair? Or is the sign an attempt to stem the tide of suicide jumpers from this bridge..? |
 After a comfortable nightstop in Mystic,CT (thank you Comfort Inn & Domino's Pizza) we crossed the calm waters of the Long Island by carferry. We sailed from New London to Orient Point, on Cross Sound Ferry. Thus ending our stay in New England and entering Long Island, New York. The weather changed dramatically, we drove all day in the wretched rain. What we saw of Long Island, windshield wipers slashing, was abysmal. The traffic was a real pain, we were constantly stopping at traffic lights. We made very slow progress. A tedious drive, no relief in sight. |
 We stopped (for lunch, if anything else) at the Airpower Museum in Farmingdale. Two birds with one stone, except we didn't hit nothing at all. We lost time doing this as the museum was not signposted. The museum proofed to be small and cramped, although the volunteers were cheery and enthusiastic. More importantly there was no cafetaria, nor anything as such nearby! I managed to keep my appointment in Brooklyn, but then we found the Comfort Inn (Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn) was a non-descript, over-priced place. |
It continued to rain all day, all evening. We shopped for some sandwiches, nibbles and sodas at Deli-at-the-Bay across the street and shut down for the night. The Alamo rental car was returned on Manhattan: they don't have a drop off at JFK Int'l nor a transfer service. The adress (40th Street, 252 W) was problematical to find, the search kept us circling blocks and navigating the one-way streets. But we got there in the end. A 'car service' was called for our transfer to JFK, which proofed to be a stretched limo! Costs usd 60 + 11 toll and 9 tip: usd 80,- You might want to take that in account when comparing rental car prices. Though the disservice of driving into Manhattan bothered me more than the costs of the limo. We had an excellent flight onboard Delta Airlines. The Boeing 767 smoothly crossed the Atlantic and we arrived at 05:30, some 35 minutes before schedule. This proofed to be a disadvantage as KLM, the handling company, wasn't ready for us and the bags took ages. Then a container was overlooked, with another 30 suitcases (adrenaline pumping), more waiting. In the end it took 01hr15 after our landing before we could walk away with our bags. |
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