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Day 23 - 15th May - Boston

Gaz and Rayls, Jim and Bette.
The 4 of us

Today we head to Boston, a night there and then tomorrow we fly SouthWest Airlines to St Louis.

We have spent the last 19 days with Jim and Bette and have worked our way from St Augustine in Florida to here in Maine. Jim and Bette have looked after us well and we really appreciate the time they have taken. We have been able to see so much along the way.

Today we are taken the 65 miles or so to our hotel near the airport in Boston.

Thanks Jim and Bette, we really appreciate what you have done for us.

Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart
Way to go Jim

Jim went way and above the call of duty on our drive from Moody to Boston. He drove next to a Wal Mart truck for around 20 miles - highlight of the trip!!!!!

For new visitors to the web site you may not be aware that Rayls and I count Wal Mart trucks as we venture around the country. The Wal Mart truck you see at right is the 118th of this trip. Rayls guessed 193 day 1 and I guessed 232. Still much road running to come so that number of 118 should increase.

The drive into Boston was uneventful, apart from the Wal Mart truck, and we were at our hotel - the Hilton Boston Logan Airport just a bit after 11am.

We unloaded our bags from the car and said our good byes to Jim and Bette. Always hard to say thanks and goodbye, what we say never seems adequate. Jim and Bette have been good to us and hopefully we will see them again.

I was half expecting not to be able to check in so early but the people at the Hilton have been great and we were allowed straight up to our room (475) where we dumped our bags and made plans for the rest of the day.

Around mid day we went down stairs to the lobby and caught the hotel shuttle bus to the train station. Bonus here, we were trying to figure out how to buy a ticket when two young ladies who must have been flying out gave us their tickets. They had weekly unlimited travel till the 18th and they just gave them to us for nothing. Bonus!

We caught the blue line train to Government Center station and then the green line to Park Street Station. The green line trains are pretty shonky - much rattling and creaking.

It turns out that Boston is a very pretty city - lots of trees and gardens. We walked across Boston Common to 84 Beacon Street the sight of the Bull & Finch Pub. The Bull & Finch is the pub that the TV show Cheers was styled after and was originally chosen from a phone book. When the Cheers people asked the owner (Tom Kershaw) to shoot initial exterior and interior shots Kershaw agreed, charging $1. Kershaw has since gone on to make millions, licensing the pub's image and selling a variety of Cheers memorabilia. We took some photos and Rayls bought some memorabilia.

We then strolled along Commonwealth Avenue Mall - an area around 100 yards wide with houses on either side. Many statues, a really nice day and a very pleasant walk. We checked out a street flea mart - no purchases. Just off the mall I did get to rest on a bench outside a fire station (Ladder 15).

Somehow we made it to Fenway Park, a lonnnnng walk. We walked around the stadium and then had late lunch/early dinner at a restaurant under the stadium. Nice to sit for a bit.

We then took the same T train that we took after the game on Monday night and creaked our way to Government Center station. Went up to day light and checked out the area around the station before catching the blue line train to the Airport where we could not find anyone to pass our tickets on to so we gave them to the Hilton shuttle bus driver who will pass them on.

Nice to get back to the hotel - I managed to con the hotel people into free internet - normally they charge $15 for 24 hours, they charge $32 for you to park your car (luckily we have no car).

On the advice of our friend Eileen from St Louis we did on-line check in for tomorrow's flight and we have good position and will not need to get to the airport as early as we thought. The hotel is an 8 minute walk from the SouthWest terminal another bonus.

Ted Williams

Yeah, I didn't know much about Ted Williams either - check out this article if you are interested in more info like I was.

Comments

Comment by Helen |

Hey Rayls, great to read all about your holiday sounds like you guys are having a fantastic time. xx Hels :-)

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