A long ride but not much fun...

I started this morning from Provincetown without The Girls (my GPS voices) talking to me still. My route, as usual, was being tracked on Strava, for later posting. So why isn't it posted elsewhere? Read on.

The route was somewhat simple. I was to take a combination of routes 6, 6A, 3, 3A, 1 and 1A. Not too hard right? The morning (I was on the bike by 8:30) was cool enough that I opted for the leather jacket this morning (it covers my poor wrists and gives my other long sleeve garment a break). 

I had some fun with the names of the towns: Going back through Dennis, I confirmed that they do not have a Denny's. Because it sits at the major crossing point over the Cape Cod canal I sensed, just riding through, a feeling of Supremacy in Bourne. I passed on the urge to grab a bite to eat in Sandwich. Then later, when I did stop for lunch, I asked if there was a "Which 'which" store in Salem.

I made it off the Cape and across the Cape Canal by a little after 10. The highway immediately north of the Sagamore bridge is a nice divided highway which allowed for a rapid approach to Boston, or Bastun as they say. It didn't last too long however until everything came screeching to a halt - rush hour traffic jam at 10:45! I have driven in a number of large cities now, many notorious for their traffic problems. But I still contend that Boston is the worst. The combination of bad roads, confusing traffic patterns and people that should never be allowed to drive anywhere else. I'm throwing the suburbs in the mix too. It seems that the region spent their entire budget for the next millennium on th "Big Dig", which by the way, was part of my rout through the city. It is amazing. It should be; it is the most expensive road project in U.S. history at $14.8 billion dollars and 16 years before hey finally cried "no mas". It not only relocated I-93 from a bridge to a tunnel, but there are exit and entry ramps within the tunnel. It's beautiful but U.S. Tax payers paid for it. Maybe Trump can send the Mayor a bill? It won't be paid off until 2035, or something like that!

Once I came up out of the unbelievable I located highway 1 for a trip over to Salem. About 14 miles from the tunnel I pulled over in a big parking lot to take a picture of the Tripometer as it flipped over to 10,000 miles. Much to my chagrin, it didn't. It went from 9999.9 to 0!

Before I realized where I was (it turned out one Salem) I spotted a Verizon store. I had decided to take The Girls in to see the Doctor, to see if they had laryngitis or something more sinister. I told them I did not want top date my phone and because I could not tell them the password on my account, they got over that hurdle quickly. The guy turned the phone off, then back on. He urged Navigator off, then back on, then the settings within Navigator, off then on. He even tried the Google Maps app which took us to the same place. We now had a very faint voice that could barely be heard in the quiet of the store so he turned the volume up and proclaimed it "cured". I told him I'd try it, though I knew it would never work, and it didn't. The only thing it will do is direct me to the first turn before I start my bike. But he did accomplish one thing. He managed to turn Strava off and erase my morning trek through Boston, along with the accompanying data.

As I continued into Salem I stopped, of all places, at a Jimmy John's to ask if here was a Which Wich in town. They had never heard of the chain of sandwich shops (even though a search tells me there is one in Boston - they need to get out more). But while there I used the restroom and came back out laughing. I had to get my camera and go back to take pictures. The reason will be posted later under the title "For men only" so anyone that wishes to avoid it can do so.

After lunch I located the Witch museum. They have a two part presentation, the first telling the history of the 1692 hysteria that left 20 people dead and 150 townspeople suffering the symptoms of being accused. It was pretty good, but then we were led into another room where the next 15 minutes were spent explaining what witches were through the centuries, followed by an Op/Ed piece on other "witch hunts" in U.S. History. This last could easily been eliminated as it was, in my opinion, off the mark, perhaps an attempt to project a sense of understanding in what happened over 300 years ago.

I made it back to my bike before the meter ran out and headed again northward. I soon crossed the Essex bridge into Beverly, named after a sweet lady that can out hike all of us! From there highway 1A carried me north until it was supposed to reunite me with highway 1 for a trip across the Merrimack River into New Hampshire. I missed a turn somewhere (thanks Girls) and ended up getting on I-95 which, luckily, had a welcome center at a rest area right on the New Hampshire border. So I stopped and got my picture.

 From there I don't know where I went. As I got on the Freeway there were signs that it was not to be free and I had a toll booth coming up in a mile. So I got off at the first exit to avoid the toll (I didn't want to be on I-95 anyway, I wanted highway 1 again. 

As I reached the bottom of the ramp I came to a toll booth! So much for planning ahead. After paying up I found myself on a highway headed inland. So I did a U-Turn (which are getting much better if I do say o myself) and headed back east, toward the coast. I figured, and correctly so, that I would cross highway 1 before my tires got wet. I turned left on 1 and, almost that quickly, I Lund myself entering Portsmouth. By taking the 1- bypass, I found myself crossing the Piscataqua River into Maine.

 I stopped to take another picture, this time from right underneath the sign, then went less than a mile to a Days Inn, where I got a very reasonably priced room with Wi-Fi of yet undetermined quality.

So I ha do download pictures and make-up a map for Strava. Other than that, all's well until tomorrow. I'll be scampering up the cost and, perhaps, take a ferry to Nova Scotia, hey?