Day 49 - The end is nigh....

Our final day on the road was supposed to be a casual one with a couple of stops in Rhode Island and northern Connecticut on the way home - However fate led us to an early end to our tour. Unfortunately I picked up a stomach virus over the past couple of days and I was in no shape for sightseeing. So it was straight back to Greenwich for the both of us - with a few odd stops on the way that is ;o)

So that's it! 49 days, 15,000ish miles, a hell of a lot of bad food and many, many amazing sights.

Thank you for reading the blog and thanks to my wonderful wife for making this adventure all the more amazing as I get to share it with her for the rest of our lives - also we get to bore everyone else with the stories as a couple so watch out!!

Bon voyage all.

Day 48 - Last night on tour....

After getting up at the crack of dawn, falling back asleep and then getting back up again we jumped in the car, stopped at the now abundant Dunkin Donuts for brekki and then headed into Maine towards Portland. We got there mid-day and found a town that was a bit short of sights to see. We walked around for a while trying to find something to do but fell well short. The only interesting things we could take a snap of were some odd looking logs sticking out the harbour - and a rusty old globe on the waterfront....

So that was Portland done! We then made the short 2 hour drive into Boston, Massachusetts. This had a lot more to offer! We parked near the Boston common and took a stroll around there first....

Boston has some great buildings, a mixture of new business and old culture all mixed together which is pretty cool....

'Faneuil Hall' - The Boston market place and meeting hall since 1742 and site of many famous speeches by Samuel Adams and James Otis....

The Quincy Market - shed loads of food on offer - yummy!

and best of all - a visit to the famous 'Cheers' bar....

We left Boston and drove towards Newport, Rhode Island stopping about an hour outside. This will probably, maybe, possibly be our last night out on the road - so for the last time - Good night.

Day 47 - Dream job!

We left New Hampshire and drove North into Vermont and towards Waterbury. This is the home of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream - so of course we had to stop in and take a look ;o). They offer a tour of the factory which we obliged and went on - unfortunately they do not allow photography on the tour so no pics of their ice cream making were to be had - still we can tell you we sampled plenty of ice cream for everyone!



This was the tour guide - she looked bonkers but was actually very, very boring! We have no idea how you can make a tour that even kids would love so dull - but she achieved that easily. Luckily the tour was only 15mins of so long so we spent most of the time in the over-priced gift shop. But who cares - they had free ice-cream samples!!!



Some history and flavours stuck to the wall....



Vermont is also famous for its cheese, with the strap line of a place called 'Cabot' supposedly selling "the best Cheddar cheese in the world". America is famous for many things, but its quality of cheese, is, to this point most definitely not one of them! It would be fair to say that I have not had a cheese thus far in the states that was at all tasty or sometimes even edible - that was until now! I am not sure how they did it but the cheese in Cabot was probably the nicest cheese I have ever tasted - and I have eaten a lot of cheese in my life! We sampled many types they had on offer but eventually decided on some original strong Cheddar, hot habanero (very hot!) and some Tuscan (which had a smokey taste to it).

After sampling Ice-cream and then Cheese all afternoon out stomachs were feeling a little delicate - so we opted to call it a night and stopped off about 3 hours short of entering Maine. Tomorrow we hope to make it into Portland Maine and then head downwards to Boston, Massachusetts. We are almost home!

Day 46 - Smores....

After leaving the outskirts of Niagara we took the 6+ hour drive to Nashua, New Hampshire to meet up with Stephs old college buddy Amy. We talked about the excitement of dealing with baby poo all day (they are 2 kids strong) and then went out for a nice Mexican followed by an evening sitting around the fire in Amy and Billy's garden - eating golden brown marsh mellows and creating smores over the flames, plus a couple of beers of course! It was a lovely evening and a great not to stay on a motel for a night! Cheers Amy and Billy!

Day 45 - Did someone leave the tap running?

We left Michigan, drove back through Ohio, Pennsylvania and into New York today - the driving is really not that fun anymore! We knew we had made it back into New York - after not driving through a toll road for 44 days - we went through 7 of them today! (Thanks for Papa Mac for paying the toll passes ;o) We eventually made it to Niagara Falls by late afternoon. What a lot of water!

It starts off ok looking a bit rough....

Then it tips over the edge....

and thunders into the side Niagara river....

all returns to calm again though!

The view from here would have been cool - but it was in Canada and it is apparently a pain in the rump to get over and back across the border.

This was a viewing point we could see from the bottom of the falls - no thanks!

We left Niagara and headed east once again. Tomorrow we are driving across New York and into New Hampshire to see Amy, Billy and the kids. Onwards and sideways....

Day 44 - Its all about the Sushi....

We got a great early start this morning and were packed and outta Effingham by 8am (which is a miracle for us). After giving it some good legs down the highway we sadly put the skids under our own good pace and it went like this....

Approx 10am - A phone call to the Macaluso house to check in reporting all was well and the car was doing great

10:30am - *Bang* - The exhaust on the car splits in half - doh! (Sounded like driving a sports tractor though which was cool)

11:30am - After visiting a garage that wouldn't seem out of place in Mad Max (complete with every mechanic and the guy behind the counter chain smoking), it was only an hour and load of welding and we were back underway!

We drove straight through Indiana, into Ohio and onto a place I had been waiting 13,000 miles to visit. It's no secret to some of you that I collect something called Vinyl Art and I had bought a piece that I collected from an art gallery in Columbus - It is called Sushi and is by a chap called Andrew Bell. Pretty funky!



After talking to the lady in the gallery for ages (she was great!) we left to drive up to Michigan. On the way we were sure that we saw a prop for the up coming Ghostbusters 3 film drive past!...

We arrived just inside Michigan in a place called Luna Pier and booked into a trusty Super8 motel. The only place to eat was next door and it served all day breakfast. I decided to go for their breakfast special - a mere 3 eggs, 4 sausages, 4 slices of bacon, 3 slices of toast and grits - we really need to go on a diet when we get back....

We are driving east and back into New York tomorrow - Niagara Falls here we come!

Day 43 - Bud....weis....errrrrrrr....

We left Knoxville and headed towards St Louis. Whilst looking on the map for directions we discovered a real gem! The worlds largest bottle of Tomato Sauce! - I don't think we have seen enough of the worlds largest stuff - so this was a must stop and see. I wonder how long this bottle would last me?

To give it some scale here it is next to the car....

We have passed some pretty funny road signs in the last 41 days, not all of which we have had a chance to grab a camera and take a picture of. Like one sign that was the colour yellow and had the word yellow written on it.......I mean what the hell is that supposed to mean? But the below one we managed to snap whilst driving along today - do you think it is a message directly to me?....

We pushed on passed the funny road sign and made it into St Louis. St Louis is just recovering after being on the edge of some fierce weather storms over the past couple of weeks so the Mississippi river is running very high. We stopped off near the arch for a couple of pics and just about made it through with the car as the river was over flowing....

This statue was on the waterfront promenade - only the top of it is still showing! We got out of there rather quick to avoid getting our feet wet ;o)

As we left St Louis we stopped at the Anheuser-Busch brewery - or Budweiser as it is known to most of us. It is the largest brewery in the world! The place is spookily void of humans though - it kind of reminded me of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We fully expected some Umpa Lumpas to appear out of the walls and sing some songs!

Not sure what this rat on the wall is all about?!

A fondness of eagles is abundant....perhaps the Umpa Lumpas like them?!

Millions and Millions of bottles and cans moving around - but no humans!

We were aloud inside the factory and with no golden ticket from a Wonka bar - lucky us!

Another days sightseeing over we stopped for the night in Effingham, Illinois. Onwards to Indianapolis, Indiana and then onto Columbus, Ohio - I'm finally looking forward to seeing my Sushi....