Yesterday had been such a long day that the thought of "only" 650 miles to do today seemed like a treat and even though we were on the road by 7:15am we stopped shortly after. As last night was a bit of a scramble to find somewhere to sleep, we didn't notice that breakfast was not offered where we stayed, so as we thought we had earned a little downtime we located the nearest International House Of Pancakes (IHOP) and got down to the serious job of eating half our body weight in breakfast.
Apparently we weren't the only one with this idea as six police cruisers were sitting in the car park and half the tables in the restaurant had officers chowing down on what looked like most of the menu.
Leaving North Olmsted, Ohio at around 8:30am we got caught in a little traffic around Cleveland but after a short delay we were back on the I-90 and heading for the finish line.
Quickly leaving Ohio behind, we entered Pennsylvania and skirted one of the five great lakes Erie. We followed this up in to New York State and towards Buffalo. At this point I noticed we were going to be within 20 miles of Niagara Falls. Quite some discussion was had about if it was worth the hour or two delay to go take a peek, we have both been there a couple of times before and even though a few pictures of the falls in winter with ice going over the top would have been nice, our backsides decided that the sooner this car journey was over the better.
Today was the day of the toll roads and low speed limits. After reaching Indiana it seems that the whole of the I-90 is toll road which added up in the end to over $60 of charges, if I were to do the trip again (highly unlikely) alternate routes would be used, seemed a lot for what you got. Also since leaving Minnesota the highest speed limit we hit was 65 mph with a fair bit of time spent at 60 or even 55 mph. Even with the mandatory going at 5 mph over the limit this seemed to make the eastern side of this trip drag out longer than necessary. We must have passed at least a dozen speed traps and the police didn't even blink at us going the 10% over.
New York saw more snow storms but nothing to serious and even with angry drivers the miles passed with out major incident. I even found time to brush up on my French while Carolyn had a nap. I found my Ipod and was mouthing along to the Michel Thomas and becoming fleuent in saying 'I would like to talk to you about the current polictocal and econmical situation in France at the present time.' I'm sure it will be useful whilst I'm skiing in a few weeks.
Entering Massachusetts, I breathed a big sigh of relief as the journey seemed to becoming to an end. Unfortunately like a marathon the first three quarters is just a warm up for the end effort where the race really begins. The Mass Turn Pike (big ass road) was jammed with traffic all hurtling passed each other in whatever lane they saw fit all trying to swerve and doge each other the best they could, which by the state of far to many of them was not all that often successful. Three and a half days of shared driving had taken its toll on me by this point and I have to say that I saw red on numerous occasions and came so close to some cars that cleaning the left wing may not be necessary (no marks, I did check).
We got to Boston city centre at about 6:30pm just in time for the tail end of rush hour and crawled our way over bridges and intersections making the last 3 miles take nearly 30 minutes.
But we have finally made it, we are here, no crashes, no tickets and very few cross words spoken. We have travelled from Canada to America (not far, granted), through 13 States, for 4 days, 3,280 'ish miles, far too many McDonalds and have seen some really amazing views. I could easily spend my days travelling these roads and enjoying all the bizarre attractions and natural wonders along the way.
Carolyn's apartment is brilliant, sat right near Fenway Park (home of the Red Sox) the old red brick building look great and there are some great period features in the building. I have already noticed that the building is only about 1 or 2 k from the end of the Boston Marathon so it will be nice and easy to get back to come next April. I have pointed out she can't move (unless closer) until then.
We have unloaded the car, taken a walk to stretch our legs and even had an awesome Thai meal to finish off the last 4 days. It has been a lot more pleasant than I thought it would after having driven up to Vancouver from Texas in the summer, not having a trailer makes all the difference. We have seen some amazing scenery, had great fun reading the road adverts of some truly odd sound attractions that could only be in the States and also enjoyed the varied place names that Americans have used to name the towns, including but not limited to, Sparta, Rapid City, Gary, Schenectady, Punxsutawny (think Groundhog day) and my favourite so far Coxsackie.
Tomorrow I am planning on getting a run in outside to shake out the cobwebs and get back on track for the L.A. Marathon which is scarily only 4 weeks away now. I will get some tourist stuff done as well and get some photos which I missed out on taking the last time I was in the city back in 2003. I'll let you know what has changed.
Until tomorrow...
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