It was time to say goodbye to Boston this morning and head out into rural New England. That meant going back to the airport to collect our hire car, a very ugly Ford Bronco. Given that we were here to see the autumn colours (sorry, “fall”), there didn’t seem to be much point travelling by the interstates, so we headed out on US-2.
Where do I go now?
Once we’d left the environs of Boston it became an attractive drive with some lovely hillsides of multicoloured trees – exactly what we’d come to see. All this was thirsty work so we decided to see if we could stop for a drink somewhere.
In the UK, you’d head for the town centre, follow the signs for the expensive parking, and then find a coffee shop. Here, there are signs before the exits telling you what places are available, usually food, petrol, and lodgings. We turned off at one place that had advertised a Dunkin’ Donut and drove around in vain, trying to find it or anywhere we could stop and get a drink. In the end, we came away disconsolate and thirsty.
Do the Americans have a secret code? Do they instinctively know where to go when they turn off? I’d really like to know as we’ve never really found the answer.
We carried on to our half way stop, a pretty place called Deerfield, where we did find lunch and where the waiter instead of asking us how our meal was simply said “delicious?” It’s hard to respond to that so we just nodded in agreement.
Trump vs Harris
As we drove around some quite small roads past farms and small villages, a common sight was to see boards in gardens proclaiming support for either Trump or Harris. A couple of observations on this: firstly, Trump supporters are never content with just a single board; their lawns need to be festooned with them and secondly, there were more boards for Harris than for Trump, which I felt relieved by.
Lenox
Our overnight stop tonight was in Lenox, Berkshire County, Massachusetts and was another very attractive town with very quaint looking buildings. You can usually judge the wealth of a place by the shops it contains and so I am going to stick my neck out and say that Lenox is wealthy as the shops here were basically of no use to the locals. They were all artisan shops selling high-end tat and the usual smattering of restaurants – many of which were closed.
Tomorrow we head North and ice cream awaits!
Glad you enjoyed Day 4 in rural New England. You should be seeing it at its best! There have been signs before the exits of Interstates all over the country for years telling you what places are available, usually food, gas, and lodgings. It is a great idea and is very helpful. I think you must have had a case of stale data – the Dunkin Donuts shop had since shut its doors. I will be glad when the election is over when I can again watch TV in peace without the same boring, putting down rivals, negative minded campaign ads driving me and everyone else nuts! I am starting to miss the car and prescription medicine commercials!