Whirlwind

I’m always amazed when I travel how it’s possible to pack so much into one day.

Monday morning, as outlined below in some detail, I headed to the airport for the early morning flight to Boston. After the initial folly of the empty airport, the balance of the trip went surprisingly well: our plane landed at about 9:20 a.m. and I was on the highway in my rental car by 9:45 a.m. Total customs interaction: hand customs guy my (US) passport. He scans it in, and says “okay, thanks.” My luggage was waiting for me when I got to the carousel.

A trusty Subaru was waiting for me curbside at the Hertz location, and by 12:30 noon I was in the valet parking line at Mohegan Sun, the large casino in south-eastern Connecticut that is home to the new The Old Farmer’s Almanac General Store. There is no way to properly do justice to Mohegan Sun in words: it was simply larger than life.

By 2:30 p.m. I was back on the road, north on the I-395 toward Worchester, Mass, where I stopped in briefly at a Target store, just to get an update on their Michael Graves-designed line of products.

I ended up getting lost in downtown Boston around supper time: I tried in vain to find the Ted Williams tunnel, and finally gave up and parked the car and phoned brother Johnny, just landed at Logan Airport, and asked him to hoof it to the subway and meet me downtown.

After a brief dinner at Legal Sea Foods we headed north to New Hampshire in the Subaru, spending a frustrating 45 minutes in a mobious loop of intersections in and around Nashua, NH. Finally, about 11:00 p.m. we arrived in Keene, New Hampshire at our hotel and went right to sleep.

Two countries, two provinces, four states, 18 hours. Too much activity for one day.

Comments

Alan's picture
Alan on January 23, 2002 - 23:31 Permalink

I believe Nashua New Hampshire has the worst road signage this side of Siberia. I recall one afternoon trying to get through the place as apparently local libertarian theory required liberating signs directions from map direction tyrrany.

Johnny's picture
Johnny on January 24, 2002 - 15:22 Permalink

As Pete’s navigator and wing man on our ill-fated, unplanned scenic tour of Nashua and surrounding environs, I can verify the general shittiness of the road signage. Poorly lit, confusing, with a lot of ‘A’ and ‘B’ options. In our ‘travelling all day’ induced semi-catatonic state, we had virtually no chance of successfully navigating through Nashua.

Alan's picture
Alan on January 24, 2002 - 16:05 Permalink

Isn’t there also (you can see how this is burned in my mind) a “ring road” through the downtown? It was not you, I am sure. I vote it as worst municipal/state service on the planet.

Dan James's picture
Dan James on January 24, 2002 - 17:15 Permalink

Worchester, Mass. Is this the town that looks like it’s from a movie? Cathedrals on the hill. Large LONG factory… Been through there twice this year and it’s all a blur (mainly because we drove straight to Washington DC from PEI).