Claire and Josh's Road Trip Across the USA: Days 1-4

Day One: We got a free upgrade to a Dodge Avenger from the car rental company :] and After a tearful goodbye to Havertown/Philly and the baby rabbits in our flower pot, Josh and I finally headed out on our long anticipated road trip across the USA! We made our way up to CT, only getting lost in NYC, taking a small detour through Hoboken, NJ... very proud of our Garmin GPS. We drove along a beautiful scenic highway in CT and stopped at the Merritt Canteen, which had fantastic sweet potato fries. After driving all day, we finally reached the first camp ground. This was my first time camping and I must admit I wasn't terribly excited, but I must say it wasn't too bad. The woman at the reception of the camp ground was so bubbly and welcoming and gave us a free upgrade to a fire pit tent area, with the wood provided. Having the fire was relaxing and a great introduction to camping... until the bug descended upon us. Unfortunately, the bathrooms were no different- you could barely get in the door before the mosquitoes and beetles attacked! The tent was surprisingly comfortable and Josh managed to fall asleep right away, but it took me awhile to acclimatize to the sounds of the CT forest and feeling so vulnerable in a thin fabric tent.

Day 2: Today started slightly earlier than anticipated as a man decided to connect his speed boat trailer to his giant truck at 8 in the morning. Nevertheless we successfully packed up the tent, saved a turtle from being run over, (we later saw him walking head on into a log). We bid farewell to our first campsite and made our way on to Woods Hole which is on the heel of the Cap Code Peninsula. We drove through Rhode Island - all be it very quickly - and eventually arrived in Woods Hole, which happens to be the home of the US's largest oceanographic research centre. We arrived just in time for the seal feeding which was unfortunately a little disappointing as the seals were a little fat and were literally just being fed. We then went into the research aquarium to see the peculiar variety of sea life that was housed in the aquarium. After this we took the ferry across to the Devon-esk Martha's Vineyard and proceeded to rent bicycles to cycle around the Island. It was very much like Amityville (Jaws). We did in fact end up cycling past the beach/ bridge where they filmed the famous lagoon shark attack scene where one had to be temped to shout "get out of the water it's a shark", yet we resisted the urge, plus there was only about six people there, so we would just have looked odd.
After this cycle ride along the East side of the island we cycled back along the middle of the island, which was very hot. We eventually returned to the rental shop, dropped the bikes off, and went off to get ice cream, damn good candy floss flavoured ice cream. We ferried back to the main land and drove back north to our campground for the evening. The site was woody and pleasant and we drove off again to find some food. At the restaurant I (Josh) decided to opt for the local speciality, clam chowder, or as it is pronounced around here "charwdAr". It was fantastic; the best think I have eaten so far. We returned to the tent for a night's sleep ready for whale watching in the morning.

Day 3: Whale watching! We drove out to Provincetown, only getting lost once when the website for the whale watching company listed the wrong address. It was exactly as I remembered it! We boarded the boat and were supplied motion sickness tablets for the choppy waters. I didn't get motion sick at all, which was a shock! The waves were so big at times the splashed up the sides and almost knocked us over while standing. We waited and scanned the waters for about 3 1/2 hours with no luck at all, just spotting a small harbour seal that was unusually far from the coast. We has sadly given up 4 hours and and took a seat in the enclosed lower level while the boat headed back to shore. Not too long after a voice came over the loud speaker shouting, "Minke whale!" Josh managed to spot it during its split second surface for air, but it quickly disappeared. Feeling disillusioned again, we headed back inside. After heading even closer to shore, another boat had reported spotting a Fin-Back whale. We stopped by on our journey back and I finally saw it, that distinctive spout of ocean spray and the curved back of a whale going down for a deep dive. We saw it surface about three more times before having to give in to our time limit of 1pm. Although this whale watching trip hadn't been as successful as the one I went on a number of years ago, it was still just as amazing to even see the Fin whale's back. That view did not expose the absolutely massive size the whale, but did remind me of how amazing, graceful, and beautiful they are. How people could ever hunt such amazing animals, I don't understand. After we got back to shore we walked around Provincetown and I had delicious vegan frozen yogurt. While making our way back to the car, we saw a rather creepy looking man dressed as PeeWee Herman (who wouldn't look creepy dressed like that?) who was shouting "why be a 9 when you can be a 10 with a tan?" and "Can't tone it? Tan it?"... clearly advertising a tanning salon in the area, but I am still perplexed as to why he was dressed as PeeWee aside from drawing attention. We then made our way to the Indian Head Campsite, where we set up our tent and then went to buy a few snack and take a short walk on a nature trail. We managed to fall asleep while listening to an audio book in the tent; however we were suddenly woken up by flashes of lightening in the distance at 2:30 AM. We quickly packed up all of our things just in time. As we uncomfortably tried to sleep in the car, large thunderstorm passed over releasing thrashing rain on to the campsite... definitely a good call to move back into the car. The heavy rain lasted for over 2 hours. We managed to eventually fall asleep in the car... how? I don't know.

Day 4: We set off for a pit stop in Plymouth to see a well known cemetery, Burial Hill, and Plymouth Rock, which was really neat to see where the Pilgrims first landed on the Mayflower in 1620. It was still raining as we made our way to Boston. I was particularly excited for this day, not only because we were staying in a hotel with a shower, but because I had never been before and had only ever heard wonderful things about Boston. We listened to "Shipping off to Boston"by Dropkick Murphy as we drove in. Note to self- never drive into Boston's city center again 1) the drivers suck and 2) parking rates are extortionate! Although we had some difficulty while finding the second parking lot, it was the cost that got me... $45 for a day's parking?!?! That is crazy!
We stopped at the same diner for breakfast that Tom and Josh had during their nerdy weekend at Pax East. I bought a mug from there because I loved the color and design, but I have come to find the one the waitress gave me had a chip-like imperfection on its handle... disappointing. Oh well! Moving swiftly on... We started the Freedom Trail and it was fantastic! During that 3 mile trek I fell in love with Boston. If it didn't get so cold and snowy there during the winter, I would love to live there. We saw so many famous graves, such as Paul Revere, and monuments (photos to come!) and took in the beautiful areas of the city. The rain eventually stopped and it began to really warm up as we were walking. Unfortunately, the temp reached its peak as we were walking up to the Bunker Hill Monument... somehow Josh also convinced me to climb all 294 steps to the top of the monument. At the top we found several other people who were also very out of breath. The view out of the windows was spectacular and made it definitely worth the effort. We took the train back to the car park and Josh decided to continue risking the drive with the mental Boston motorists. We eventually got to our Motel 6 and I took a wonderful long shower to make up for being so gross without functioning warm and bug-free showers the past few days. Also, so happy to be in a real bed!!!! With no bugs!