Blogs from Massachusetts, United States, North America - page 2

A bad start Getting to the airport, check in, great. Security a nightmare. It took me more tan 45 to pass. Should have been a sign for things to come. Boarding and push off was smooth, although somewhat delayed, as you could expect. It went wrong once we hit the apron and we were told that we were number 12 for take off.and even wronger when the pilot announced that for one reason or the other we had to wait for approval from the tower for a flightplan change and we were sidelined. In the meantime rain and thunderstorms had appeared and everything went on hold. A long story short, I missed my conexión in Atlanta and had to find, for expense of the airline, a hotel. Obviously I was not only one looking for a ... read more

The Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts are by no means the highest peaks in the United States, but, foot for foot, they might have inspired more writers than any other range. In particular, Mount Greylock, the highest peak in the state at 3,500 feet, has attracted and inspired scores of famous writers: Melville, Thoreau, Hawthorne, and Holmes, among others. From his study at his Arrowhead farmhouse twenty miles away, Melville was inspired to describe the white whale from Moby-Dick based on his view of the snow-covered Mount Greylock. In the 19thcentury, Mount Greylock was an isolated place that had a special allure to creative types. Henry David Thoreau spent a night on the summit, surrounded by an “undulating country of clouds.” Nathaniel Hawthorne set his haunting story “Ethan Brand” ... read more

Breakfast was in house here with a modern breakfast facility and was really big. Only a light breakfast of yoghurt, banana and OJ today. We had planned to get a Taxi down to Fenway Park the famous home of the Boston Red Sox baseball team to start the day and we asked reception around 9.00am to call a Taxi for us to make sure we arrived in time for our 10.00am tour and he said don’t pay $70- catch the train instead for only $2.40 ! So we bought what they call here a Charlie Card to get us around. We got the instructions from him on how to get there using a combination of the Red Line from the Andrew T-Line station which was about 900 metres walk away from our hotel. What a coincidence ... read more

We started the day with a quick look around the back rooms of The Gris where we had breakfast that was included in our fee. The taproom where we had dinner last night has been described as “the most handsome bar in America”. The firearms room has items dating from the 15th century. The largest of their dining rooms is an old covered bridge that was dismantled piece by piece from its original site in New Hampshire and reconstructed onsite. The Inn was established in 1776 and has been continuously operated since, however the taproom is actually older as it was the original schoolhouse that was built in town in 1738 and in 1801 it was set onto logs and moved to its current location with its original domed ceiling still in place which is made ... read more

Friday 23rd: We were up early as we wanted to travel a good distance today. The guys staying in the motel unit next to ours were packing all their gear into their pickup and all dressed in camo, ready or a days hunting....bear. Leaving here the temperature hovered between 5 degrees and not much over 7 for the first hour or so. After around 5 miles we re-joined our NEBDR route 3. Some of the riding was single track/trail with plenty of loose rocks, water carve outs and overhanging trees. There were regular full track width puddles that kept you alert and muddy. As we came into the small town of Blenheim we stopped and looked at a covered bridge. Apparently it is the biggest single span wooden bridge in the world 71m total length. It ... read more