Adventures in Boston, Cape Cod and Atlantic City

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October 30th 2008

Published: October 31st 2008

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Hiker Jules

Cape Cod

Me at peace, listening to the waves

“Go in search of your Gift. The more you understand yourself, the more you will understand the world.” Paulo Coelho

Update on stats: 3800km driven, 2 campgrounds, 5 hostels, 2 motels, and still only 1 stop at Mcdonalds.

This last week and a half has been a little less hectic. I just arrived in Washington DC and as you can see I only drove approx 1200 kms which is half the driving I did in the first 10 days. It was also more driving to just “get there” rather than touring around. In Boston and Atlantic City I just drove to the hostel/motel and parked it for the time I was there and either walked or took public transportation.
Ok, starting with Boston. I loved it there. It was very expensive but I enjoyed the architecture and green spaces. I also liked walking along the waterfront. I arrived on October 20th. That night I decided to settle in and do nothing. The next day I headed out to do the freedom trail. It is a trail along the city street marked in Red on the pavement. It passes by all the monuments/ museums/ exhibits that are a big part

Boston

Boston Common

of their history and the freedom from the English. The walk itself is 3 miles (I am now thinking in miles most of the time), but it was at least a couple miles to get to the start of the trail and a few miles to get back to the hostel … so, needless to say I walked for a very long time that day … it was GREAT!

On Oct 22, I took a tour of Harvard University. It was the day that Al Gore was arriving to talk to the students so there was a nice buzz around the campus. It wasn’t open to the public or I would have stayed to hear him. After spending the morning at the University, I went to the JFK museum in the afternoon. It was very interesting. It was a detailed look at his whole life and time as president. By the end when they were showing the assassination, I had tears as I felt like I knew him.
The next day was more walking around the streets and a museum. I happened to go by the Cheers bar and decided to go in and have dinner. My waitress knew

Boston

Refelctions of the pond

I was interested in the history so she brought me a book to read all about it through dinner. In the evening, I met up with Stuie (from Ausieland) and Ed (from Ireland) to watch the Boston/Toronto hockey game at the TD Banknorth Garden. It was a great game. It was the game where the leafs head went through the glass. It was interesting to be part of that dynamic. We had some hecklers behind and all around. Instead of chanting, “Go Boston Go” or other things like that, they were chanting “Canadians Suck” etc. In fact, after the game, there were street vendors that were selling t-shirts with those words on it.

On Friday Oct 24th I took the ferry to Salem. Salem itself is an ok little town, but the ferry ride was really fun. It was a high speed ferry so it was fun (and cold) to stand out on the deck with the strong wind blowing and listening to the waves. I felt like I was on a cruise ship again.

Saturday was time to leave Boston and head to Cape Cod. When I started out, I didn’t know where I would be sleeping.

Boston

Leaf "clean-up" in the Public Garden

All the hostels in the area are closed as the season ends on the Canadian thanksgiving. When I arrived, I tried one hostel that I thought would be open. When I arrived, someone answered the door and said to come back at 5:30 as he is not the owner. So I headed off to the beach on the Atlantic side. It was so beautiful and very few people. I walked for at least 3 hours in each direction. Then I found a nice quiet spot and just sat and enjoyed the peace of the waves. It was such a great day. I was able to stay and watch the sunset as well. It is exactly what I wanted to come to Cape Cod for.

When I arrived back in town, the same guy answered the door and said he ran into the owner and she said they were closed because the huts don’t have heat in them. Now it was dark and I had to find a place to sleep. There were lots of places open (and lots closed for the season), but I didn’t want to pay the normal price of $200 a night. I stopped and asked

Boston

some people at a local theatre and they recommend an Inn up the street. It was $70 for the night, which is outside my budget, but I decided to just settle in rather than try to find another place. It was so nice to have my own private room though … it was quite a treat after sleeping with 6 other women in a very small room in Boston.

I went out that night to the theatre and watched a Dance Festival. Cape Cod is gay friendly so there were lots of gay couples and drag queens. I was all dressed up so I decided to go down town to grab something to eat and meet people. I went into one of the bars where there was karaoke … this was great. It was actually “Drag karaoke” as the host was a drag queen. The patrons were a mixture of straight, gay and drag. It was great. At one point, I went to the washroom and when I was coming out, there was this girl dancing with a bunch of guys at the bar (I forget the song but it was a good dancing one). I told her that

Boston

Reflections as the sun was setting

they should go out on the dance floor. She started asking the guys and they wouldn’t go so I told her I would go out on the dance floor with her. She kind of ignored me and left me standing there and kept asking the guys. I took that as my cue to leave. As I was driving back to my motel I was trying to figure out why she would do that. Most women will dance with other women even if they are strangers. All of a sudden it hit me … of course … she thought I was trying to pick her up!

The next day (Oct 26th), I decided I didn’t need to see any more of Cape Cod and decided to head to Atlantic City. I normally don’t want to be driving for more than 5 hours in one day, but I really didn’t want to find a place in between so I decided to make the complete trip. Needless to say when I arrived I was pretty stiff. I stayed at an Econolodge and the room was great. Again I was spoiled with a bed, shower and a bath. It even had a walk-in

Boston

My hostel Room, I was in the bottom bunk at the back.

closet.

So, I was in Atlantic City for 4 nights and there really isn’t much to report. I walked the boardwalk, then played poker, then went to bed. Next day, walked the boardwalk, then played poker, slots and a little roulette, then went to bed. Next day, Played poker, went to dinner, played craps, played blackjack, went to bed. I played in a few poker tournaments which was fun. The furthest I made it was to the final table but was the first one out (so I came in 10th).

Fun Fact: For those of you who don’t know (and I admit, I didn’t know), the boardwalk in Atlantic City is what the game Monopoly is based on. The streets that meet up with the boardwalk are the streets on the game. It was neat when walking the boardwalk to see the signs for the streets. My motel was just off Pacific Avenue.

The story of Atlantic City would not be complete without telling you about my new friend Joe. I met Joe at the first poker tourney I played (at 1pm in the afternoon at Bally’s). We really didn’t chat as he was across the table.

Boston

Good sample of the old and new architecture existing toegether

I wasn’t going to play in the evening tourney (6pm) but it was now 5pm and I didn’t really want to go back to my room so I decided to stay. This time he happened to be two seats from me so we started chatting. He is a typical Italian from Queens New York who said he was 44 years old. He is an electrical engineer and does acting and stand up comedy on the side (I have seen the website pictures of past performances and have an 8 by 10 glossy of his profile shot to prove it --- no joke!) We chatted a little about my trip but I really didn’t think anything of it. He was out of the game before me. It was probably about another hour before I was out.

As I was leaving the poker room, he was sitting at the off track betting booth and stopped me as I was going by. It was about 9:30 by now and he said he was just going for dinner and would I like to join him. So I thought, what the heck … you have to stop being shy and just go out. He

Boston

John Harvard ... all dresed up in Green for Al Gore's visit. Check out the windmill on his shoulder.

took me to a nice Italian restaurant … OMG was there ever a lot of food and I really wasn’t too hungry to start. The evening was nice, we ended up gong to another casino after dinner where I played a little blackjack and he taught me to play craps. Throughout the evening he was trying to convince me to make a stop in New York (he would find me a job) and that he would join me for part of my time in Florida. I just smiled because , well, I just met him 3 hours ago and wasn’t going to commit to anything (even though he was a nice guy…) (Maggie and Darren … those dots are for you)

The next day we went out for breakfast and then to a 1pm tourney again. We agreed that if either of us won we would split the money. This was the one where I made it 10th and he actually finished 4th which paid out about $180 (I didn’t see half of it though). We grabbed a sandwich and I was so tired that I said I don’t think I will play in the 6 pm tourney. I

Boston

JFK museum

will go take a nap, and pack up a little (as I was leaving in the morning) and we would get together after the tourney. I had some poker chips from some winnings ($75.00) so I asked him to cash them for me while he was playing. So he dropped me off at my motel room and I took a nap, then took a bath, then watched the world series, then read a little. Well, I waited and waited and waited. I thought, wow, he must be doing well … the afternoon game was 5 hours long just to finish 4th. It was at about 1am that I realized this guy it not coming by. I had a fleeting thought that maybe he got in an accident but I quickly knew I was just kidding myself. So … in the end I was stood up plus he took off with my $75.00. But if I look on the bright side … I do still have his 8 by 10 glossy to always remember him by.

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