The death of 55 people in the London blasts was a terrible thing. Based on some statistics from a recent BBC report, it is also, on average, the number of innocent civilian Iraqis killed every day and a half since the invasion. We’ve just about reached the point now where more civilians have been killed by the insurgents than by the Americans and British.
I wonder if there’s anyone who believes that the ‘War on Terror’ has actually reduced the amount of terror in the world?
The Baby Name Wizard is a very nice use of Java.
Well, I’m in Boston and my long drive is almost at an end. I’ve clocked up about 1200 miles, listened to lots of Garrison Keillor, and seen some wonderful places. Tomorrow, work starts again, and then I have an overnight flight back to London which is only just over 6 hrs. Too short to get any meaningful sleep between the ‘welcome on board’ and the ‘we are now beginning our descent’.
Since I don’t keep any other diary, much of this blog is really for my own records. This post is an example. There follows a quick summary of my route over the last few days, which is probably of very little interest to anybody but me…!
Mon 11th. Tried to pick up the rental car from Dearborn in the evening. The Hertz website had failed to tell me that at the time I booked the car the office would actually be closed. Went back to the in-laws’ again.
Tues 12th. Picked up rental car. Across Ambassador bridge into Canada. Took a few deliberate wrong turns to see some nice Ontario countryside and a few accidental ones which took me to the outskirts of Cambridge, ON. Eventually reached Niagara-on-the-lake where a very pretty girl at the Chamber of Commerce found me a B&B and a ticket for the theatre. Natara’s House was run by a charming Scottish couple. The play was Berthold Brecht and Kurz Weill’s Happy End which is a sort of musical version of Major Barbara with a chunk of communist propoganda thrown in. Quite fun, but I prefer Shaw.
Wed 13th. Went to the Falls. More impressive than I remembered from last time, though high humidity meant the spray hung in the air and it was hard to see as much. Bought some maple choclolate fudge, which was consumed with enthusiasm over the next few days but suffered from the fact that it turned almost to liquid whenever I left the dark blue car in the sunshine and took many miles of air-conditioning to resolidify.
Over the Rainbow Bridge and I’m back in the USA, heading for the Finger Lakes. Drove to the north end of Senaca Lake and down to the south end, then across to Ithaca. Wonderful stay at the Inn on Columbia which is normally quite pricey but had good deals on any rooms still free after 4pm.
Thurs 14th. Taughannock Falls. Wonderful. Then an exploration of the Cornell campus – pleasant but very hot. Then I hit the highways and headed for the Adirondacks; Old Forge, NY to be precise, where I stayed at the 19th Green Motel which was very friendly and reasonably priced.
Fri 15th. Lots of driving through little towns past beautiful lakes. Wanted to jump in. Lunch at the Swiss Kitchen in Tupper Lake, visited Olympic ski-jump at Lake Placid. Quite interesting, rather pricey. Not a great deal to see. Water sparkling on Lake Champlain as I took the ferry across to Burlington, VT. Acommodation starts to get harder to find on Friday nights, and I ended up at the GGT Tibet Inn. Plain, but clean and very well priced. Downtown Burlington is small and busy. People sitting at outside tables in the pedestrianised town centre. A good buzz. Including from the mosquitoes, which bit me inside the restaurant as well as out.
Sat 16th Vermont is lovely. All of it, as far as I can see. Pretty & well-looked after. Shelburne Farms in the morning, then down south and through the Green Mountain region, resisting the lure of the Ben & Jerry Factory Tour. Had planned to stay in central New Hampshire, but everything very booked up as a result of the NASCAR at Louden. A tourist information guy told me that Concord, NH has a population of around 38,000, but gets an extra 90,000 during the NASCAR. In the end I carried on over into Massachusetts and stayed at the completely unmemorable Wyndham hotel at Andover.
Sun 17th Concord & Lexington and the Minute Man National Park. Splendid, despite what happened there!
Into Boston, and managed to get a good rate on a very good room at the Omni Parker House Hotel, which claims, amongst other things, to be the longest continually-operating hotel in the US, celebrating 150 yrs this year. Recommended if you can get a good rate. (You won’t get one for your car parking. $36/night. But, from memory, Boston and Cambridge are some of the most expensive places to park that I’ve ever been, and this is pretty much par for the course.) Watched the new Batman movie (very good) and listened to a bit of an open-air concert on the Common.
And that is where I write this, and now it’s time for bed… More details of much of the above can be found on the postings of the relevant days. And I have lots and lots of photos…
…three if by rental car.
The British rode from Lexington to Concord again today, but this time the locals must have been more enthusiastic about their arrival. They welcomed them with open… wifi networks.
The Minute Man Visitor Center on Battle Road has an excellent half-hour multimedia presentation. Recommended for anyone visiting the area who’s a little rusty on what happened there. The road between these two beautiful towns is also very pretty and it’s worth spending some time there.
I also went to the North Bridge in Concord, which is being rebuilt and so had a big bulldozer in front of it. I heard another Brit near me saying to his kids, “Come on, let’s go to Lexington. We won that one!”.
With apologies to Robert Frost…
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Two roads diverged at a heritage site And, sorry I could not travel both, And get to New Hampshire before the night I studied the map as hard as I might. To walk, or ride, through the undergrowth? |
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Then, took the Farm Trail, as just as fair And having perhaps the better claim For I was podgy and in need of air (And ’twas nearly an hour til the tour bus came) |
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And both that morning equally lay Through fields where Vanderbilts built their shack I saved the Inn for another stay (Though, knowing how much I’d have to pay I wondered if I’d ever come back) |
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I shall be posting this through WiFi Somewhere highways and highways hence Two routes diverged at Shelburne Farms, and I, I took the one less travelled by And loved all elements. |
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This chap formed part of the welcoming committee at the motel in Old Forge, NY, where I spent last night.
He was quite interested in me, but was mostly interested in getting out of that door to go and play with the various other residents sitting outside in the front courtyard.
After I had got my key he was allowed out, and proceeded to tear round and round the garden in great excitement. On one lap he noticed that my door was open, shot in, grabbed a sock, and then tore round and round proudly holding it, to the amusement of both me and the other spectators, who made remarks to the effect that it was just as well it wasn’t my underwear…
Fun times in upstate New York. Here’s where I had lunch in Tupper Lake. Fabulous berry crumble…
New York is a big state. It’s taken me a long time to cross it. And it seems much bigger because I’m on roads which wiggle a lot and where you often don’t exceed 45mph. It’s a sin to rush past places like this with only time for a quick photo:
but I had to keep moving. I did take a pause to go to the top of the Olympic Ski-Jump slope at Lake Placid, though. (Click for more pictures)
Eventually I made it to the ferry across Lake Champlain, and I’m now in Burlington, Vermont, which is very pleasant except that even in the cafe of the downtown Borders where I’m writing this, I’m still being bitten by mosquitos…
[I realised later that they were probably waiting for the Harry Potter launch at midnight]
Now I must visit the leafy suburbs to make a connection and post this – a bit like going to the postbox – on the way back to my somewhat unusual but pretty-good-value motel.
The Cornell campus is lovely, because as well as bits like this:
it has bits like this:
and this:
and this:
A few more pictures here.
After this, just a few miles down the road, I drove through the heaviest rainstorm I can remember, with lightning exploding overhead.
I’m now in Old Forge, NY with a hope of seeing something of the Adirondacks tomorrow.
…I went to Taughannock Falls, not far from Ithaca. This is a magical place and my photos cannot possibly do it justice, but clicking on the pictures below will take you to some more of them on Flickr.
There wasn’t much water coming over the falls after the recent hot weather…
…but that just gave me more chance to walk along the riverbed and paddle in the pools, and to appreciate the beautiful rocks.
Well, I made it to Ithaca, but the Chamber of Commerce was closed when I got here. In the residential areas here the laptop was going ‘ping’ to indicate an open wireless connection about three times on every block, so, thanks to somebody, I was able to connect, get a map, and find the Inn on Columbia. Even better, they had a special on their rooms which meant I was able to afford to stay here.
I’m in the Gazebo:
Thanks to my borrowed net connections, I’ve also been able to download podcasts to listen to on the journey as I went along. Great fun…
I was in Detroit. I needed to go to Boston. And, unusually, I wasn’t in a hurry. So just for fun, I thought I would drive.
Yesterday I went from Detroit across the bridge into Ontario and drove to Niagara-on-the-Lake, which I knew and loved from a previous visit. Driving in North America, I’ve discovered, can be exceedingly dull unless you make a deliberate effort to get off the highway from time to time, at which point you can take some nice photographs:
When does a barn cease to be a barn and become part of the flora & fauna?
I was thinking I would have to stop and pay for wifi access at various places en route, but I discovered a better way. I have a car power adaptor for my laptop, so I just sat it on the passenger seat running MacStumbler and it went ‘ping’ whenever I passed an unencrypted network. If it was somewhere where I could pull over, I would do so.
Similarly, I have a window on Google maps, and whenever I need a bit more detail on where I am, I find a nice residential neighbourhood and drive around slowly until I find a connection. It’s a sort of Digital Hitchiking.
Another picture, this time from Port Bruce, Ontario:
Anyway, after a brief stop at Niagara Falls this morning, I’m now back in the US, and this posting comes to you from Geneva, NY. I’m heading for Ithaca tonight. Let’s see if I make it…
…this time we’ll put our digital camera in ‘Quicktime movie’ mode before pointing it at the falls…
(Click to play)
I’ve just had one of the best steaks of my life, for a very reasonable price, at Mancy’s in Toledo, Ohio. There aren’t very many other reasons for visiting Toledo, but if you should find yourself in the area, the ribeye comes highly recommended.
Oh, and the art museum is pretty good too.
© Copyright Quentin Stafford-Fraser
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