Making up time - at a price

We were about a half a day behind schedule when we left Danvers on the north side of Boston (we had hoped to be in Plymouth, south of Boston last night). Our only option to catch up would be to miss some scenic rides down the coast of Massachusetts. We were resolved to taking highways – even interstates – to make up time.

We didn't want to get onto the Boston roads in peak morning traffic, so we took a side trip to Salem, home of the infamous witch trials in the 1600's. They are trading for all they are worth on that, with every second store in the city mall selling Halloween costumes or offering psychic readings or tours of Salem's witch trail.

This is our second visit as it holds a fascination which is not easily forgotten.

Highlights of Salem include the tall-masted ship Friendship of Salem, and some of the architecture.
Harrisons is a store well worth visiting if you are interested in fantasy figures, Halloween materials, comics and odments. There were also many other stores with tourist trinkets.

We stopped at a restaurant for brunch and were deighted photograph of  a dog drinking and a child playing on the edge of a fountain. Two ladies in the store behaved just like the characters in Roald Dahl's book "The Witches". "Children and dogs should be controlled...." etc. This took us aback. The likeness was too close.

Around 11:30 we finally tore ourselves away and set off on the fastest route to Fall River in Rhode Island. We got there early in the afternoon and after a cold drink headed down to Battleship Cove, home of the USS Massachusetts and other warships. We didn't have the time to wander the park, so we took some photos from outside and rode on.
We rode west into Newport RI. Here we took a very slow ride down the narrow main shopping street - behind a garbage truck that stopped every 10 yards to pick up garbage.

From there we toured around the southern part of  Newport where all the fabulously rich Americans like the Rockefellers had their "summer houses".

Continuing west we rode across the Newport and Jamestown bridges that cross Narragansett Bay.

These bridges are incredibly high (215 ft), and the wind, which was fairly strong at sea level was much stronger and gustier on the bridge, so much so that it was most unpleasant riding and we were pleased to get across in one piece.

Our route then took us south to the pretty town of Narragansett where we stopped for refreshments on the deck of the Coast Guard Restaurant.

I was determined to get closer to Mystic, Connecticut, our nominal destination for that night. Before we reached there we realised just how tired we were. We stopped in Westerly where there are not many motels. A few were booked out, so when we found one with a room we took it. It was incredibly expensive for what little it offered, and their internet didn't work. After settling in we rode of to buy food for dinner and do our laundry. It was 10 pm when we had dinner, and we were thoroughly exhausted.