Sorry for the lack of posts the last few days….a couple nights at gypsy camps and a lack of Web Access have proven troublesome. I have worked my way into and through Rhode Island and I am now poised to take Connecticut by storm….but it wasn’t easy. On Monday I took a tour of Boston and visited the top running sites….marathon finish line, Reggie Lewis center etc. I also made it to Dedham in time to find a gypsy site next to a movie theater….and then saw Ted2. Priceless!

On Tuesday I met with my cousins, in Foxboro of all places! We did NOT see Brady, or test any footballs, but we did have a nice lunch at Gillette Stadium  (home of the Patriots). During lunch the storm clouds began to build and by 4:00pm they were chasing me south AND closing in from the south ad well. I got a cheap motel about 20 minutes before it would have been bad! More on that in the next post. I ended the day with a great meal at Luciano’s Italian restaurant.

Good news, I had a great nights sleep! Bad news, I am 24 miles away from my next potential bed. Family friends of the Mittman (Moyer side) clan, have graciously offer me a place to stay right in the city of Boston, but I had to get there first.

So it was off to the races…like a snail. I walked the first few miles to get my bearing on Danvers, and then accidentally got my self on the wrong side of a divided highway….for 9 miles! Eventually I got into the northbound lanes (facing traffic, it’s the law) and finally got to run for about 6 miles, in the hottest part of the day. Then with 15 miles in I finally got a glimpse of Boston in the distance, and that was all I needed to get motivated to finish the day.

I hiked through Everett, which is mammoth, and then closed in on my destination. My GPS took me right through Boston Common, and a bunch a historic areas, so it was slow just because I was taking TONS of pics, but eventually I made to Colby and Rick’s beautiful home. After a very needed shower they lavished me with a wonderful dinner at a place right around the corner and before I knew it it was already after 11:00pm. City life is SOOO cool!

 

I woke up with condensation issues in my tent from the overnight, and was packed and on the road by 9:30am. I had a lot of ground to travel and no good camping options, or motels, on the horizon. The good news is that the day was filled with beautiful landscapes and some actual “official” trails…in addition to the road. The Clipper City Rail Trail through Newburyport was filled with amazing sculptures and gardens exploding with summer flowers. The port itself was also presented Rockwell-worthy vistas.

As the day wore on however I began to consider the reality that I was going to be outside again after a horrible experience at the last motel two days earlier, and the wet night I had just had, the prospect of another night outside, without a shower, was not too exciting. It was right about then that Laurie called me to say that Marise Stewart had just posted a note to Facebook that from what she could tell is was in or around the Topfield area….which is where she and her family live, and that I was welcome to stay with them if I was indeed in the area.

I stopped dead in my tracks, and after a quick couple phone calls and a GPS search I realized that I was actually only about a mile and a half from her house! WHAT ARE THE ODDS!

So after 30 years (or so) I got to catch up with Marise, and meet her wonderful family….and I had a place to stay, a meal, AND a shower

Positive energy restored 🙂

 

 

After departing Portsmouth on Rt1 I headed towards the towns of North Hampton, Hampton, and Hampton Falls with an eye towards making it to the Massacusetts state line. I did not anticipate running into the Eastern Trial again but low and behold I did!….sort of. As I was headed down the road I noticed an old train bed and then saw a couple bike riders riding on the loose gravel…so I broke out my phone map and sure enough there was the old train line headed in the same direction that I needed to go…so off road I went. This part of the path is clearly NOT yet officially open, but it was in pretty good shape and got me off road for the better part of the day. Unfortunately, about nine miles in if just sort of stopped in the middle of a dense forrest. Luckily, I hacked my way in the direction of the sounds of trucks in the distance and after about half an hour I climbed back into Rt1. With the day wining down I neared the state line, but no favorable options for motels or campgrounds were in sight so as dusk began to settle in I crossed the state line and found a gypsy sight in a meadow about 100 yards off the road and out of sight. I got my tent set up with about ten minutes to spare.

After spending the  better part of 3 weeks in Maine I was looking forward to a giant “welcome to New Hampshire” sign when I crossed the bridge on rt1, and then I would do a happy I’m done with Maine dance, but alas, there WAS NO WELCOME SIGN!  To add insult to injury it began to rain about 5 minutes after I crossed and didn’t let up for hours?. So I had to adjust my plans on the fly and get a motel instead of camping out.

The part of the day I spent in Maine was a fitting end though. I met some more great people and saw some interesting sights (see pics) including a super cool outdoor climbing course and zipline place called Take flight.  Check ’em out.