I arrived in BOS this evening after sitting on a bus for nearly 5 days. It sure was good to stretch my legs and sleep in prone position, allowing my severely swelled ankles and legs reduce in size. Fortunately, I was not a victim of DVT this time.
I ran a few errands today including film processing, tent shopping, and retrieving my car. In just a couple of days I will be heading out to the bush again and am very anxious to leave the hustle, bustle and rudeness of the major city. On Tuesday morning, I picked up the 14 rolls of developed film after forking over $130; maybe it is time to invest in a digital camera for the long-term savings.
Also, while on the run, I grabbed a quick bite to eat at the local McDonalds and couldn't help but try out the new lobster roll. Much like the poutine that I found at McDonalds in the Canadian Rockies, it seems that McDonalds does offer some regional fare. Overall, the lobster roll wasn't nearly as bad as one might expect.
Sleeping in a regular bed has some advantages; however, I am not sure that they outweigh the disadvantages. I love falling asleep with the chirp of crickets and waking up to the sound of the bird's songs and the morning sun. The cool night air and dampness of the dew are unlike anything else. I do not mind camping, even in the hardest rain; though it is nice having piece of mind knowing that my bed will not flood and my sheets will be dry for tomorrow's use. When living in Corpus Christi Texas; however, I do recall many days when things just wouldn't dry due to the excessive humidity.
This afternoon I made the nearly unbearable drive from downtown Boston to Jamaica Plain to visit the Boston Brewing Company. This is where Sam Adam's Beer is created. The free tour began with what I consider to be a commercial for their products and all that I learned was that Jim Koch, the current brew master, is the sixth generation brewer in his family. The brewing facility is quite small and the entire company produces less in one year than the Anheuser-Busch Brewery produces in a day. The entire beer making process became a bit clearer to me during the tour and we had the chance to touch, smell, and taste barley and hops. The visit climaxed with a free sampling of a couple of the varieties of beer brewed there.
After dealing with traffic a bit more and deciding to leave the car in Belmont, I took public transportation to downtown Boston and meandered on the Freedom Trail for a while. This is about a two-mile trail that takes the walker past numerous historic Boston landmarks. Our first stop was at Paul Revere's House, which had closed prematurely that day. One minute early to be exact! To compensate for that loss, we progressed to the Old North Church, which is where the lanterns were hung to signal that the British were on their way. It was amazing to imagine military troops banging on the church doors. Throughout history classes in school I had heard all of the stories about the Revolutionary War, but they were nothing more than stories. I was in awe as I read the history and listened to the guides. It was amazing.
I concluded my self-guided tour of the freedom trail with a visit to a beautiful old cemetery that I came across. Some of the gravestones dated in the late 1790's. Gwen took a rubbing and all of the tombstones were adorned with an eerie skull with wings, almost like an Angel of Death.
With the sun setting, Gwen, a mutual friend of ours, Anne, and I boarded a boat operated by Boston Harbor Cruises for their sunset cruise around Boston Harbor. The sunset was spectacular, and redder than I have seen in over a month. Of course, the redness during sunset is increased with the amount of pollution in the air. Nonetheless, we did sail past the USS Constitution, Old Ironsides, and we even witnessed the firing of one of its cannons. I couldn't help but consider that it would scare me to cross an ocean aboard our large tour ship and yet people did it on this old rickety sailboat.
Alas, I experienced the last night in a real bed again for a while to come.
I eagerly awaited the arrival of a package from UPS. Thanks Mom. The contents of which were critical to my planned departure from the mess of a metropolis and return to the bush. Indeed, the delivery arrived earlier than I had anticipated and enclosed in it were my sleeping bag, sleeping pad, and a month and a half worth of mail. I rushed through my laundry and headed out the door with Gwen.
The first scheduled stop on our itinerary was the Anheuser-Busch Brewery to partake of its guided tour and potential free beer. While waiting our tour time, we visited the stables that housed some of the Clydesdales horses. These are absolutely massive animals weighing nearly 2,000 pounds each. All the horses that we saw were males, as they say that the females are difficult to work with. Hmm. I would gander that this was the best portion of the tour.
The guided portion of the tour through the production lines was quite a contrast to that of the Sam Adam's tour. Of course the facility was many times larger, but you could really tell that the marketing folks had a hand in this tour. The signage was spectacular, the gardens lush, and the guide well scripted. Overall, the tour was interesting, and yes, again we enjoyed free beer at the conclusion.
Our tour guide was an elderly gentleman who seemed to get lost, physically and mentally, occasionally. At one point I inquired as to how they produced non-alcoholic beer and he responded, quite informatively, that they used a process. Of course, I should have thought of that! To continue my torment, I asked specifically what process, and he said that it was like any other process, for example, the one that is employed in changing oil to gas. I could tell that I was getting nowhere and gave up.
This evening we camped near Peterborough, NH, which is the town that the play, Our Town, is based on. As seems to be the case anytime I begin a trip, it did rain for a brief period overnight and, as anticipated, the new tent kept us dry.
This morning we embarked on a short and easy hike up Mt. Monadnock, in Massachusetts. This is the most climbed peak in the world second only to Mount Fuji in Japan. The ascent was over extremely rocky terrain and progressing towards the cloud, er fog, shrouded peak. We were told that this would be an easy hike, but it was sure developing into something much more difficult. It did not help that the humidity was near 100% and the temperature in the upper 80's.
With sweat pouring down my face and shirt completely soaked, we had made it to the top. As we sat at 3165 feet above sea level, the cool breeze chilled me and slowly dried my clothing. Due to the persistent fog, the photography opportunities were slim, but the hike was tremendous. Of course, since we had climbed all that way, we had to get back down. The descent was significantly more treacherous than they way up. The steep path covered with loose rocks made for challenging, but fun rambling.
After the grueling workout and a brief lunch we stopped at Bacon's Sugar House. This was not much of a store or a sight but contained many interesting pictures of US presidents with maple sugar from Bacon's and other odd memorabilia. The owner and attendant was Charlie Bacon himself. He was a strange elderly man who insisted on telling us his personal and business history. Some of this was interesting, but mostly I wanted to be on my way. Before leaving, I ended up in his garage looking an old car. The old building was neat and so was the collection of now antique tools. Not being familiar with automobiles myself, I didn't know exactly what I was looking at but I knew that it was probably older than me. The old man tried to convince me that it was a 1983 model, but I knew better.
The drive out to the Berkshires was completed in a torrential downpour that continued while pitching the tent and making dinner. The tent is now well rain tested. Since going to bed at 8:00 PM in the pouring rain wasn't the most pleasant though, I went for a wander and found a Bingo game starting shortly. After a shower, Gwen and I attended an evening of Bingo at the local campground. The number of overweight people present surpassed even that of the Milwaukee Zoo. Fortunately, the rain ended and we retired for the night.
With a busy schedule for the day, we started with a tour of the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA. Stockbridge is the place that many of the wealthy and retired from New York City and Boston go during the hot and humid summer months. Consequently, it is a bit uppity, though quite pretty. It was great to see so many of his works and also visit his studio. He never worked here, but rather the building that housed his studio was moved to its current location.
Following the Norman Rockwell gallery we stopped off at the Berkshire Botanical Gardens. These were gorgeous! The variety of plants was incredible and I was so impressed with the herb and vegetable gardens that they had created. Furthermore, there was an impressive collection of outdoor sculpture to view along the way. The only other time that I have seen such a great collection was during a visit to Storm King in western New York, earlier this year.
Figuring that the heat and humidity had gotten the best of us, we ventured over to Chesterwood, the Daniel Chester French Museum & Studio, for the air conditioning and visit. Again, the tour was guided and quite informative. So many artists lived or worked in this area during the summer months. Also in attendance on the grounds was Andrew DeVries, a sculptor in residency. He offered a grand demonstration and explanation on how an artist creates bronze sculptures. There were numerous works in varying degrees of completion, which offered a great lesson.
Touring through Lenox, waiting for the Tanglewood Music Festival to begin, I found a bookstore and took the opportunity to pick up a copy of Stud Terkel's Working. I am anxious to read this book as it came highly recommended from a woman that I had met last week on the bus from Toronto to Buffalo.
Again, succumbing to the heat we made a stop at the Berkshire Ice Cream Restaurant. They claim to have ice cream that surpasses Ben & Jerry's or even Hagan Daze. I would have to agree as I had what may have been the best hot fudge sundae ever. While eating my treat, my newly purchased book began to disintegrate in my hands. Needless to say, I walked back across the street and returned it for a refund since they didn't have any more copies in stock. It seems that the manufacturer had neglected to add the glue to the equation. This is depressing since I have been looking for this book at most stops and it seems popular, but difficult to locate.
We concluded the evening with the Tanglewood Music Festival. This was amazing and I highly recommend it to everybody. This evening the New York Philharmonic was performing and they were magnificent. We arrived about 3 hours early to procure a good location on the lawn and enjoy some quite time snacking and reading. It seems that others had this marvelous idea as well, though were significantly more outfitted. We had ported along a bottle of wine and a bit of cheese both recently purchased from a shop in Lenox. I saw countless tables, chairs and exquisite picnic baskets. I did spy a candelabra too. The couple in front of us, he is also a pilot by the way, had a wonderful meal, followed by fresh coffee and Kahlua, and finished with Champagne and cookies. Another group dined on lox, tomatoes, and mozzarella cheese. There were so many multi-course meals that I could not believe it.
After the sun set and the meals were complete the ringing of a bell signaled the beginning of the musical enjoyment. I noticed a candle in front of me whose flame seemed to dance with the music. As the sky grew darker, the stars began to appear like popcorn on a navy blue background.