Day 1 – London to Boston
We meet in Gatwick and have just enough cash between us (London airport prices, remember) to pay for a couple of pints and some fish and chips – heavy on the chips and batter, light on the actual fish. Then off to the cradle of the revolution, that’s the American revolution for those of you unsure of your history.
We fly with Norwegian Airlines – a new airline flying to the East coast. We thought we’d give it a go. It became clear instantly that we weren’t alone in that. The flight was extremely crowded. Once onboard we realized that the dimensions of the cabin, the spacing of the seats and the legroom had all been designed with the average Norse elf in mind. But for anybody over 5 ft tall you were in for a troublesome flight. To get out of the seats you needed to be as lithe and supple as a limbo dancer.
After a 7 hour torture-flight, with immense relief and severe cramp, we got off at Boston. Hurray! We picked up the car a “medium sized SUV Buick”. It was big enough to fit in 8 Norwegian Airlines seats – don’t know what the elves would think. It was very cold – 34℉.
We got out of Boston easily enough, the rush hour was over. Stayed at the hotel “Knights Inn”. The promised bar and restaurant was closed and so we decide to drive to the nearest town and get something to eat. We drove around but everywhere was closed. It was just after Halloween and all the porches had the pumpkins with candles in and other strange stuff – it was eerie, very John Carpenter. This went on for about 30 minutes, but suddeny on the other side of the highway there was, thank god, a Thank God It’s Fridays! Cold IPA and burgers – the perfect end to an interesting day!
Day 2 – Boston MA to Rutland VT
On the road early, to Rutland, Vermont. Called at Manchester-by-the-Sea, which was a very serene place, as well as an excellent movie! Breakfast was in a diner in York, Maine. The corned beef hash went nicely with the poached eggs and the endless cups of (fairly poor) coffee. The Maine coast was beautiful, the Atlantic being whipped in by a fierce wind. We drove into Vermont through immense pine forests climbing up from the road and disappearing into the deep fog. As the fog came down so did the temperature to 30℉. It was a very enjoyable trip.
We booked into the Comfort Inn in Rutland. It was very good – large, warm rooms with great views of the mountains. Still very cold, but not icy underfoot so we strolled to a decent sports bar for a spot of lunch. I went for the veggie option, Ken went for a few pints of Sam Adams.
In the evening we went to the Steak Bar, next to the hotel. It was a classy pace, low lights and a long bar. Good food, salmon and burger. I struggled to get an Americano cocktail – the usual differences of the common language. In the end a friendly USA fellow and his Essex, UK, partner, did the necessary translation and Hey Presto an Americano appeared, and then disappeared! And the barman repeated that trick three more times!
Day 3 – Rutland VT to Niagara NY
It was a 6 hour drive to Niagara, further than you might think. The drive was through upstate New York and the scenery was fairly tedious, lots of land lying idle, many derelict houses – in this respect it is like many areas of the USA. Changing trade,industrial and agricultural patterns and a country with great social mobility often leads to Dylan’s desolation, and not just in the inner cities.
Niagara Falls are spectacular, well worth a view. We were there and it was very much off-season, and very much freezing season. There were a few small groups of tourists, mainly Asian who looked like they wished they’d gone to Hawaii! Parts of the Falls actually froze and the Niagara river struggled to get over the Falls at times.
Stayed in The Red Coach Inn overlooking the Falls, must be a great place in the summer. The food was poor, but Ken made the mistake of not ordering steak – often a grave error in the States.
Day 4 – Niagara NY to Detroit MI
We decided to drive through Canada, round the north of Lake Erie, made the trip to Detroit shorter. Canada was even more cold than Niagara. We stopped at a bar full of lumberjack types all shouting and cheering at the TV. Thought it must be some ice hockey (Canadians are all ice-hockey mad), but no, curling! In this bar the strongest beer was 2%, there was no ice cream and, no surprise, our stay was peremptory.
Booked into a motel near downtown Detroit. Groups of gentleman warming themselves around a brazier in the carpark, holding what looked like home-made baseball bats. Downtown was very lively, good bars, proper beer, good feeling. Ate a superb hot dog at “Coney Island Dogs” – great buns, proper sausage, mustard, onions, ketchup, wisecracking waiter and beer at 6%, really, what else do you need? Found a bar, the “Grand Trunk” that did “well” vodka at $1 a shot, a proper shot. (I learned about the “well” from an American fellow in Charleston airport – it’s a kind of fridge, out of sight from the bar and where the cheaper but good spirits are kept.)
Day 5 – Detroit MI to Erie PA
Visited the Henry Ford Museum, a hugely interesting collection of Americana. Absolutely worth a visit. It contains, among many other artefacts, some connected with , arguably, turning points in USA history: the chair Abraham Lincoln was shot on in 1865, Rosa Parks’ bus from 1955 in Montgomery Alabama and the presidential limousine in which President Kennedy was assassinated. (There’s a kind of link between those three.) There’s much else.
Sadly we had to leave Detroit and hit the road to the town of Erie. We drove around the lake, via one of the ubiquitous Thank God It’s Fridays. By the time we arrived it was evening almost freezing and the fog was seeping in off the lake. We stayed in the Hotel Glass House which was comfortable and warm, if a little unusual. I’d stay there again. We took an Uber downtown and there were good bars with a selection of good beers and an even better selection of picaresque characters ready to share a drink or two. We ate in “Voodoo Erie”, which was a big old warehouse serving burgers/pizza. It brewed its own beer and had a great Friday night atmosphere. The sweet potato chips were excellent. We finished off the night in a bar in the Union Station – once on the line from New York to Detroit and Chicago. It is now beautifully renovated.
We took an Uber back to the hotel. The driver was an Afghani who had worked for the USA armed forces as a translator. The USA army had made sure he and his family got out of Afghanistan and were rehoused and assisted to resettle in Pennsylvania. He was lucky and he knew it, but he was full of praise for the USA. The USA, all human life is there.
Day 6 – Erie PA to Corning NY
We drove around the lake and at this time of the year it was truly swamp-like, steamy fog oozing off the, apparently, polluted water. It was certainly atmospheric, in a Stephen King kind of way. You couldn’t see far beyond the end of the bonnet. Glad to get back on the road again, in a Willie Nelson kind of way.
The drive through upstate New York was good. We did see a prison detail clearing the culverts while a guard sat on top of a pickup holding a shotgun and smoking a cheroot – bit like watching Cool Hand Luke without the eggs or the attempted escape.
We arrived in a freezing Corning and I managed to get us old-codger rates at a Radisson, really nice hotel and centrally located.
We strolled along Gaffer St., pure Norman Rockwell small town USA – lots of bijou cafes, small niche shops and well behaved bars. Had a lunchtime drink in the Moon Bar and watched Manchester United beat Newcastle 4-1. The IPA, as is increasingly the case these days, is better than the beer in the UK.
In the evening we ate well, fish, lamb chops and roast vegetables. We met a couple who liked Trump on the grounds he was not a Washington insider and was going to “drain the swamp”. They were, on the face of it, normal people. This of course was “early days Trump.”
Day 7 – Corning NY to Albany NY
On the road to the capital of the Empire State, Albany. It was a cold grey drive. We booked into The Renaissance, very much a classy 5 star hotel. The rooms had all the facilities you would ever need.
Albany has very much a Washington D.C. feel. An imperial capital for the Empire State. Very impressive Capitol building and others in the neo-classical style. But beware, as in D.C., take a wrong turn and you can find yourself in muggers’land.
Lunch was in the Albany Beer Hall – very good IPA and plates of salmon and steamed broccoli, followed by vanilla ice-cream and good American cheese.
In the evening we found the British Pub, full of locals all enjoying the American sports and the ambience. The rib-eye and fish and chips were outstanding. On our stroll back to the 5 star we were attracted by McGeary’s pub (an Irish bar which in New York is par for the course). It had good live country music and plenty of “well” vodka.
Day 8 – Albany NY to Boston MA
We decided to go back to Boston via New Hampshire as it has no general sales tax. This would save us a few dollars on our presents – not quite enough to pay for a drink on Norwegian Airlines, but handy enough in Logan Airport. Lunch was in a pleasant bar – well cooked steak, mash and asparagus. The bartender told us this was her second job of the day and she had a third one in the evening – she had to do this to provide for her family. This was about 2 in the afternoon and she already looked exhausted. Many Americans live like this, struggling to make ends meet amidst the land of plenty, two jobs or more. No social security net. We left a generous tip in cash.
The airport was crowded but a flight-tray of red wines ensured we survived the flight painlessly, if hungrily, and disembarked happy at Manchester. Another USA trip, another few states chalked off and looking forward to the next one. A la prochaine!