Road Trip Log: Days 5 and 6

Total miles from Day 5: 1599

Total miles from Day 6: 1673 (if memory serves)

So much to say! Saturday (Day 5) we spent out on Cape Cod with Greg. I had a fantastic time! As Greg has mentioned, it was like meeting an old friend for the first time. We drove around the Cape's elbow a little bit, saw both shores. It's so beautiful out there! The weather was warm and sunny, but the breezes were very comfortable. It's hot, but not as hot as South Carolina, thankfully.

We went out to eat at a lovely little place (can't remember the name) that served delicious food. I had The Best French toast I've ever eaten, made with croissants. Who'd a' thunk?

Much of our time with Greg we spent in The Nest, talking and laughing and realizing how a friendship built through online interactions can be pretty damn close. The possibilities are amazing. Both Greg and his home (and his beautiful kitty) are most welcoming. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

C and I had reservations for Saturday night at another Motel Sixth-Circle-of-Hell. Foolish, I know. It felt kind of creepy. When I talked to Superman last night I told him that I really didn't feel comfortable there. When we were in Taunton on Friday night we stayed in a much nicer place, the Inn of Holidays. Superman and I discussed perhaps finding a nicer place here near Salem. This morning C and I scoped out the Inn of Comfort just up the road, and lo and behold, it's quite nice! Not quite as swanky as the place in Taunton, but very comfortable. And there's art on the walls! So we made reservations for the next couple of nights, then went back to the dregs and checked out. Yay! We're are much more comfortable now, in a few different respects.

Here's the rest of the Day 6 report.

After checking out of the Sixth-Circle-of-Hell, we drove around for a while looking for a likely breakfast spot. We never found one. I ended up wandering into Boston. We had plans to meet up with RG at noon (he has already posted his account of our day). I had gotten directions from here to there from the Google Maps magician and emailed them to C, but he didn't have his computer out yet as we wandered into the big city. After bumbling around in Boston traffic with crazy drivers and one-way streets, we finally found our way to the parking garage beside the designated meeting place. We were an hour early and had had no breakfast and NO COFFEE!! I'm not called "Java" for nuthin', you know. We wandered around Quincy Market looking for food and stumbled on Dick's Last Resort. I chose it because of the "last resort" nomenclature. Little did I know that they are famous for acting like dicks. Whatever. I broke my fast with a sweet blue rum drink (can't remember the name, but it's suggestive). C had a piña colada, and then another one. The poor man was totally stressed out from my "adventurous" driving. Directions? We don't need no stinkin' directions! Yeah, I've been putting the dear man through his own special hell, though with no intentions of doing so. As similar as he and I are, we differ a lot in our approach to road trips. More on that later. After a couple of drinks and some food, C felt much better.

I called RG to tell him where we were, and since he was already in the neighborhood he came around to join us. The three of us enjoyed a lovely lunch on the patio, or whatever they call that chained off area in front of the restaurant. Afterward we went wandering around, RG showing us many interesting public places. We mostly did parks and stuff. We saw that duck pond thingie, and looked at lots of very old brownstones. The brownstones and a few of the super-swanky hotels in the city reminded me of some aspects of Biltmore House, especially how the super fancy rooms are on the first and second floors, the kitchens are in the basement, and the servants' rooms were in the unheated attic. Actually, Vanderbilt might have had some heat for his servants. He also built his house in Asheville, NC and not in frigid New England.

RG's account is much more accurate about where we went and what we saw. What we did was to spend a good deal of time on benches between bouts of walking a lot. I'm not used to walking that much. It's good for me, yes, but we should build up s-l-o-w-l-y. I was so stiff and sore when C and I got back to the hotel! Walking so much, then sitting in the car for the 45 minutes or so it took to get back to Danvers was not good for my poor, tired, sweaty body. Once here I rested for a few minutes, then took a warm shower. Felt some better after the shower, but was still stiff. I'm very tired now, but not as stiff. Analgesic pain reliever/muscle relaxers (OTC, nothing stronger) are most helpful.

C and I had a blast with RG! I had RG recount some of his stories for C, and I enjoyed laughing again at them. RG is a very good story teller. Perhaps I should have had C read some of RG's archives before our meeting, but I didn't think about it. Anyway, we had loads of fun. C got a great deal of enjoyment from seeing me walk so much, I think. The dear man has been trying to encourage me toward healthier habits for a very long time.

We wandered quite far from the original meeting place, and I was worried about walking all the way back. RG, bless his heart, walked us down to a T (subway) station where C and I rode back to within a block of the parking garage. That was a relief. It was kind of fun to ride the T, actually, and MUCH better than walking all that way back!

Tomorrow we are staying close, going into Salem to check out the college, and doing some of the touristy Salem stuff. Bewitching, don't you know.

A note about pictures: yes, I have some. I've been so busy with all this exercising and getting "befuddled" (I get befuddled, C gets lost, and we're together in the car I'm driving.) I'm extremely tired now, too tired to post the pictures. Blogger takes so long to load pics anyhow, and I don't have the patience for it now. They're coming, though!