We were lured from the peace and quiet of the Koots for a 10-day visit to New England. Probably not an area we'd choose to visit in the middle of summer, but Scott was getting married and we couldn't miss that. So.....
Travel by air - amazing how far you can go in such a short time, but also amazing what travelers have to go through to use this method of transportation. I guess there's no doubt that the security is needed, but I still shake my head a bit at some of the restrictions. Fortunately you can now bring small tubes of toothpaste in the plane with you. They also wanted to scan my two plums.
We spent a couple of days traveling from BDL in Connecticut around to a few locations that Catherine and I wanted to see - Concord, MA (Walden Pond, Louise May Alcott's home), Boston (The Freedom Trail and MIT), Newport RI (the cliff trail and the mansions) and lots of walking. Most of our driving was planned to follow small "country" roads where the scenery is better and the traffic is slower and less congested. We were constantly amazed at how nice almost all of the properties looked - very well tended, nicely landscaped....
There is at least one thing to note about New England aside from the congestion: in August it is hot and humid. We found the humidity particularly draining especially with the walking we were doing. I hate to say it, but air-conditioned vehicles have something to appreciate as do air-conditioned motel rooms.
I found myself almost completely disoriented the whole trip. I usually don't find that I'm directionally challenged in the woods or in the mountains, but New England had me completely turned around the whole time we were there. There are also roads everywhere and they wander around and as a result I usually didn't know where I was. If not for Catherine and the road atlas glued to her lap, we still might be lost in the forested eastern hills.
After the wedding in New Jersey (about which more in another post), we headed quickly up to NW New Jersey (Delaware Water Gap) and north into NY and a short drive through the Catskills. We even spent an hour wandering around Woodstock. From there we went east again ending up back in CT where we caught our early-morning flight headed west. Bradley CT to Chicago IL to Salt Lake City UT and finally Spokane WA. It felt good to be heading west and back home.
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