Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Day One Hundred Forty-five, 090723 - Boston, MA

Day One Hundred Forty-five, Date Thursday, July 23, 2009
Time in Saddle: n/a
Distance for the Day: n/a
Accumulated Trip Distance: n/a
Altitudes: n/a
Speeds: n/a
Weather: 60° overcast becoming light rain in late afternoon/evening
Expenditures: $66

Carol fixed us a breakfast of cereal and fruit, and then we took off on our cycles: she for work, and me for downtown to go see the sights. Unfortunately, I failed to secure my cable lock correctly, and the route into town was very bumpy, so it fell off without my knowing it. After having gone a fair ways, I discovered the problem, and told Carol to continue on without me, while I backtracked to try to find it. I found the Velcro strips that went with it, but the lock itself was gone, which meant that someone probably found it and took it, Demitol. I went back to Carol’s house and used my notebook and her wi-fi to locate local cycling shops around Boston, and called several of them, but none of them carried the same type of lock. Demitol, again. BUT, then I found out that Boston has an REI, which is where I got the lock in the first place. I called ‘em up, and they had them. Terrific! I then spent the rest of the morning and a bit of the afternoon navigating with difficulty (Boston is a tough place to navigate) to find that REI, which I finally did, and got the replacement cable lock ($26). Well, it was now early afternoon, and I wanted to visit the Boston MOS (Museum of Science), so I meandered around central Boston a bit more, finding and going along the beautiful Charles River (which also happened to have a fantastic cycling trail). By the time I got there, it was mid-afternoon, but I paid for entry + a planetarium show ($26), anyway, and from about 2pm to 7pm, I saw *most* of the place, plus a *very* nice, if somewhat low-tech planetarium show. They had one of the old fashioned “giant ant” star projectors, plus a twin video projector setup to show some full-color and motion images, but it was so well produced, integrated, and narrated, I found it very engaging. I stayed until closing at 7pm, and went out into the now light rain, to find my way back to Carol’s house from the center of Boston – no easy trick. I managed, and got back by around 8pm, just as it was getting dark. Carol had to go visit a friend, so she dropped me off at a local grocery store, and I picked up some food ($6), stopped by a small restaurant and got a burger ($8), and walked all my goodies the few blocks up to her house. I ate, did my laundry in the machines downstairs, and blogged, until Carol got home around 10pm, and we chatted more about cycle trips, comparing notes and stories (she’s such a good talker), and I let her know I’d be leaving tomorrow morning to continue on. She went to bed, and I stayed up until three in the morning blogging, then went to sleep.










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