Day 6 NewEngland

Day 6 Salem
We slept in the next morning because with all the snow they advised people to stay off the streets so they could clear them. I think by morning they had 14-16 inches on the ground, probably more. They are totally equipped for snow, just not this early and it was really wet. The weight had broken many trees which broke many power lines. Not much for breakfast in the hotel with no power, just bagels. We packed up and sent Derrick out to clear all the snow off the van. Derrick went outside with the hotels broom and removed the snow. We headed to Walmart for warm things. Derrick brought a hat, I brought ear warmers..... Not enough for this weather. The parking lot was ridiculously full. Once inside we found the whole city wrapped in a single file line circling the store. I didn't think we would ever be able to check out! Lucky for me, everybody needed their morning coffee. With no power and Walmart somehow did, they were standing in line at Dunken Donuts for their morning coffee.... Only one person working on a Sunday morning. Lol We needed gas and soon realized only one place in town had pumps working for whatever reason. I sent Derrick to get a windshield scraper, Jenn to get hot coco in 7/11 and I in the van sat in a line around the block for gas. If you ever need hot coco in New England, look for a 7/11, Reasonably priced and milk chocolate. Never a coffee shop, it is yucky bitter stuff. Once fueled we headed to Salem, Ma. Yes, Halloween Capitol of the world! This is where the Salem Witch Trials were located. Once on the wet freeway we encountered a car that flipped slush on my windshield. I was surprised to find out my wipers did not work, I said a few choice words when I no longer could see anything on a busy snowy road. Derrick reached out the window and manually moved them for me, but due to his arm length, he could only clear the bottom six inches. That would be fine if I were an old grandma and could see no higher then that. I hunched over the rest of the drive to Salem and was determined to get to the bottom of it once there. I dropped Jenn and Derrick in town to walk around while I called for help. Non of our phones got charged with the nonexistant power and none of us thought to bring a car charger. I called on one til it died, drove around with no visibility to find someone to fix the problem. It was a Sunday and no one had a technician working. Finally enterprise suggested a tow exchange, they would have a tow truck bring me a new van and take the broken one. They said do what we want in town and when you are somewhere for a while call us and we will send it on the way. We had a fun time in Salem! A little creepy and not a place I would take kids near Halloween. The history I would want them to know but definitely a different time of year. The history was fasinating, I somewhere bypassed that these 4 girls had lied about people being witches and 18 people were hung, many people never got their lives back once it was all over. So sad. We took a tour that I would not suggest, info pretty good, just not my favorite. We walked back to the car and called the car rental and went to dinner and waited and waited.bI called several times asking the eta and if the tow truck had even left. All in all, from the time we called and walked into dinner, it was 5 hours before a new van. It was midnight and we still had 90miles to drive north to Portland, Maine. Gosh that was a long tiring drive, but it was a brand new van, only 3 miles on it when we got it!

 

Puppy of my DREAMS!

Creepiest house EVER!

Yep, new van has only 3 miles on it!

Day 5 of NewEngland

Day five
I could not ask for a better day!.... Minus the rain and snow. We got up really early to drive into Boston, stopped in Provindece, RI for Derrick. HP Lovecraft was buried at a cemetery there. We were going to stop in River Falls for Jenn, I guess Lizzy Bordem's house is there. We drove past way too early in the morning to take a tour. We were thinking we would hit morning commute traffic and thought it was amazing that we didn't. Once in Boston we realized it was Saturday! On vacation I always loose track of days. We parked down by Boston Commons and waited there for the walking tour guild to open. Had we had different resources we would have walked the freedom tour self-guided but not so much this time! Boston is really an amazing city, easily walked in a day lots to do in several. Compared to NYC, Boston is a clean city. I just loved how much it is rich in history! Our tour guild was awesome. On the northside we had canolles, pastries stuffed with typically creamy, sweet riccatta cheese! This place was amazing, Modern Pastries! Before we drove out of town we stopped there for another one. I would fly into Boston just to have those! We took two tours back to back and learned so much. As the tour was finished it started to rain, and when it rains, it pours. We hurried back to Quincy Market to find refuge. We spent about an hour plus trying to find something to do for the evening. All of our options for haunted houses were cancelled because of the supposing snowstorm. We opted to drive north to our hotel and find something to do in Salem tomorrow. We got on the freeway as it started to snow.... 30ish minute drove became a scary, snowy drive. I am totally comfortable driving in snow. I am not so comfortable with the stupid drivers on the rode. I actually prefer to drive because I am an anxious passenger! At one point I was forced to take an exit off the freeway, luckily I could get back on quickly. An hour and half maybe two hours later we made it to our hotel. By that time there was already a foot of snow on the ground. I was so exhausted, I crawled right into bed. About 10pm I heard an annoying fire alarm chirp, I told Derrick to have Jenn help him figure it out.... And I rolled back over. I guess the power was out in the hotel and most of New England.

Our Tour Guide

Love how this one turned out!

Love this place!

 

Because everyone needs  Feminine hygiene products and bubble gum! 

Bunker Hill

Yes the drive home!

 

Day 4

Day 4
After a long day In NYC we woke up this morning with sniffles and achey bodies. We decided to sleep in a little bit longer before heading over to Rhode Island. I make all my reservations online for my hotels before coming on a trip and I typically prepay for the room because it is almost $20 less, this time I mistakingly didn't prepay. We stayed in a beautiful hotel and upon check out the General Manager did not want to give me the rate that was on my reservation. I have gone a lot of places and stayed in a lot of hotels, I am no pushover. I told her that we would have that rate before I would leave. After 30 minutes of going back and forth and had choice hotels on the phone, she gave me that rate. I would have never have chosen that hotel if it was the price she wanted me to pay! 


The down fall of our trip, everything for this this was all set up and organized on the computer. There were some unfortunate things that happened to where we did not have a navigation device or the internet and that was what we were banking on. We have the iPad but today as we were driving our internet stopped working. I sent Jenn into  Walmart for a map that covers Connecticut and Rhode Island. After driving for 90 mins, Derrick and Jenn were sound asleep (normal). I grabbed the map out of Derricks hand and soon realized that we were not on the map. GRRR where are my navigators!  I soon found that out the map only covered Connecticut!  I should have made states both states were one the map.... assumed they did that! I pulled off the freeway in Warwick, Rhode Island. the map was no longer good to us. I was on the phone with my mom, AT&T, Apple, mother-in-law for 3 hours...... Grrrr so frustrated. We ran into a Walmart, several gas stations and no one had maps of Rhode Island. Maybe they think the state is so small that they do not need to sell maps. Jenn and Derrick walked around Walmart and Payless for the whole time. When all was said and done it was 4pm in the afternoon and we finally had Internet on the iPad. I knew where we wanted to go and the roads to get there.... Just not sure where those roads were.... Derrick did pick up hand warmers in Walmart which came in handy later on today. We decided to skip going on the boot of massachusetts and go back to Mystic SeaPort, Ct for the evening. For Halloween they had Frights and Sights going on. We walked around this old harbor and went on old ships that were spook alleys, old abandoned buildings where they would tell us scary stories.... Lots of kid friendly things to do too. We were there on the perfect night, some celebration with lots of fireworks..... It was extremely cold so we sat a clear tent and bought hot coco. AWESOME Night! .....definitely want to go back during the day, lots to see. We drove back to Warwick to stay the night. WARNING.... Do not stay in the Warwick AirportComfort Inn. I am a third generation Comfort Inn seclusive sleepers (or sister companies). I typically only stay with them and I think they are a great price (normally) for a good night sleep. This one was an exception.... Smelled awful when we went in, floor not really clean, wrappers on floor. Jenn already crawled into bed  and she thought the whole hotel would be the same. Mold in toilet, door had 10 screws holding it together, cigar wrappers on floor, it was so bad that Derrick spayed cologne on our pillows to smell better so we could sleep. I called the front desk and told them.... You better believe I will be leaving this review on trip advisory and calling corporate. If I payed $50 a night I would expect this. But I did not pay anywhere near this! I took pictures and I was not a happy customer. This is not the end..... early start tomorrow for Boston!

Sent from my iPad