Boston Tea Party

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Boston's tea party.

Beautiful things come in small packages and are all always expensive, we know that, that, is Boston as well.
Small, beautiful AND expensive, to overnight that is.
Hotels were out of the question for I knew that already, regardless of the period rates are always very high.
Airbnb then, wonder of men's shared economy.
Well, that took us a while and we had to do more research than normally, but one thing was clear, staying downtown was out of the question for the prices were super high too.
Landing at Logan's airport after that No!, No!, screaming flight with the kindergarten from hell and the almost cavity search with the blue rubber glove was a true Blessing.
We headed off to pick up the rental car,funny how things go, been to Italy and Spain and always tried to rent a fiat 500 cabriolet, which it is always shown on the rental's site but it is always out of stock when you arrive, here we rented an economy class and yes you guessed right, the guy wanted to give us a 500, here, in the US of all places, the land of the big and far, probably the only one's driving a 500 are some Beverly Hills Chihuahuas or a couple of circus midgets ( little people would be the politically correct word ).
We thanked him kindly, joked about it and got a " mid-size" vehicle, which he graciously upgraded.
A Jeep we got, brand new with that particular smell of brand new.....mmmm, nice.
We headed off to Everett, in Boston, but not quite, about 15-20 mins out of downtown, which in US standards is " around" the corner.
A mainly Brazilian- Portuguese populated neighborhood with Victorian looking houses, with bay windows and parking spots, at least our area, in here Susu was our hostess, whom we might add, was very nice, flexible and accommodating, muito bom, as they say down in Rio.
Boston was to be used to meet my sister and as a base for our RV hunt, we both had been in it before and we both LOVED it.
It is a lovely, charming city with a flair and air of Europe, British, very British, but with lots of Irish and Italian too. It breaths history in every corner, from the tea party to Paul Reve, to the Boston Red Sox, to the 182 Dunking Donuts shops in the city ( really, no kidding! They must have a large Donut-eating police force) , to the Cheers bar and the parks and streets,Harvard, and all the college pupils ( it has an enormous amount of campus for the Harvard, Cambridge, Boston College and god knows what other learning institutions, and it has the never ending housing challenge as all student cities do.)
In out first morning we headed off to Uxbridge on an RV hunt.
Uxbridge is about 1 hr and 45 mins south of Boston, big highway surrounded by nice green trees all the way, the thing is, when there's no traffic it all seems quicker, doesn't it?
We had decided that we were to buy an RV and not rent it, unless you want one for a long weekend we advise you to do the same, otherwise be prepared to sell one or two of your organs plus the typical -arm and a leg-, you see, when renting it you pay per period, plus insurance, plus, plus AND you only get a 100 free miles per day.
Now, if we were in the Netherlands it would be okay since that is already a third of the country, but here!? Going to Walmart and back to do your groceries is already half of your daily portion of miles! We are doing a cross Canada and US trip! Imagine the miles we will be rolling time .75 cent or more per mile, nope, renting was out the door.
Buying it to sell it afterwards seemed the right thing to do,although a big investment, but with Nadine's selling experience we shouldn't be concerned at all, and even if we lost half, still, it would be cheaper than renting it for 3-4 months.
And there we were Flagg RV, our research showed they were Massachusetts biggest. We knew it wasn't going to be easy nor cheap to find the right travel partner but jeeeeezzz, the prices!! We are talking kidney removal prices here, and of course the one we had seen a week before, the one that fitted our wishes and budget was long gone, they go as warm bread Ralph said, it is after all RV season and the affordable ones go fast. No kidding....
So we had to upgrade our budget a bit when considering other options and models.
In that price range we have 3 Ralph said so off we went in search of our Kid, our Herby, our McClean, our Christine ( all those that wonder, these are famous car characters from tv or movies, Wiki Fact courtesy of N and F )
It was love at first site, for me that is, Nadine needed to have a couple of adjustments on the RV before she was convinced. ( Arno, now i know why you call her sonder-Regel) 😊
it reminded me of Breaking Bad, Mr.White,Mr.Pink, Skyler,Uncle Ralph, and of los Pollos Hermanos, not that we want to be in the meth-cooking business or anything but it added a lot of charm to it.
Start small think big they say, well we started big, thought big and got big.
Mr. White ( as we baptize it) is a 30ft ( 10 mtr) long, almost 12 ft tall ( 4 mtr) -wide as the road lane- vehicle that feels as a boot box on wheels ( no offense to Mr.White) it feel as a box because inside of it theres no much weight, nevertheless it weights around 15,000 pounds, roughly 7,000 kgs. Driving it would be a whole new experience.
The day after we made Ralph an offer he could not refuse and started the paperwork journey, insurance, getting Mr. White to an independent mechanic to have him checked, he is after all 13 years old, even when he's got only 18,000 miles on the clock we wanted to be sure he wasn't too good to be true.
After all car salesmen are a breed of their own.
The RV dealer had to have it inspected, tuned, registered,history report etc.
All in all at least a week before we could take ownership.
In the meantime we went on a field trip with my sister, the Duck Boat tour of Boston, we boarded at the Museum of Science.
The ride takes you through all points of interest in Boston on an amphibious truck ( like the ones used by the Americans in WWII to land on Normandy on D day) real fun it was, good explanation of the highlights and a fantastic view of the city's skyline from the river, it happens that our driver/ guide was related to Shakespeare.....
We went also to the movies, Jason Bourne, BIG popcorn, huge comfy stretch couches, and an even bigger air-con, my goodness, now we know how eskimos watch movies ( btw, Eskimo is not longer politically correct, the word to be used is : Inuit )
Went out for diner, walks, and, another field trip, this time to, Salem.
Roughly 45 mins from Boston, famous for its witches, actually more for the burning of their witches.
Cute little enchanted town with a small pier, harbor, church AND a witch museum, that's right halloween lovers, a real witch museum.
In the " theater-like" museum they introduce us to witch hunting, dating back to 1790.
After a nice museum tour we headed to a little sightseeing along the small town and ended at the harbor for a nice lunch.
Waiting for the RV we had the opportunity to search for some equipment, blankets, cookery stuff, etc. Target welcomed us with open arms.
Next day little Italy at Hanover street ( we have no clue why it starts in Germany, this little Italy) nice dinner at an Italian Trattoria, my god the portions!
Suddenly it was time to go pick Mr White to bring him to a mechanic for an independent check ( btw this is a MUST of you want to buy a car in the USA.
(they suggest it all over the place, even when protected by the Lemon Law)
Getting to drive it to the mechanic was an adventure on its own!
Neither of us had done it before, but as for everything there's always a first time!
Went for a drive 35 mins from Uxbridge, left Mr White at the " Doctor" and went to have Blue Berry Pancakes- as you do when in this part of town- when we picked him up-music to our ears was sung-it seemed as new, the previous owner must have had it in a covered garage, it was the best RV he had seen! ( keep in mind this was an independent, randomly found mechanic away from the dealer, as a matter of fact in a different state even, this was Rhode Island) full tummy and a big smile as we went back to Uxbridge....
We took possession of it on Friday the 26th of August, exactly 2 months after our - honeymoon-world-trip- had started, a new dimension in traveling was waiting for us, the big trip.
Start small, think big.....

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