S**t of a day :(

Spent the night in  a beautiful little motel - the Lake Inn - that we just stumbled on in the dark,wet, late evening. Lee did some clever bargaining and we got it for a great price.   Had a lovely view of the lake from our balcony despite the rain and gloom.

View from The Lake Inn

Took off for Salem Massachusetts which turned out to be a slow trip due to the heavy rain. We got there and struggled with the winding roads and tight traffic and very poor Visitors Centre. The whole witch trials aspect was poorly done - all a bit tacky.

Salem

Salem

We gave up and left for Boston. Lee wanted to see Harvard and we headed that way. Harvard is like a city in itself and the roads were even more windy and rough and it was pouring with rain and there were roadworks and people walking everywhere. It was a nightmare and I was feeling the strain. On our third attempt we got into a carpark - a multi story one where the ceiling was so low the van aerial kept hitting it and we couldn't get the aerial down. Then there were signs hanging from the ceiling that actually hit the top of the van and also pipes running along the ceiling too. The whole place was packed so tight that I could hardly get the van past the cars that were there. It was so stressful - a man was telling me to go the other way - I felt I couldn't go forward and couldn't go backward. I did the only thing I could do - I cried. We finally found our way back to the entrance and just left. We decided  to go and find a motel and get booked in and get the train into Boston tomorrow to explore. It took us 3 hours of driving to find a hotel with a vacancy. Apparently Boston's hotels and motels are always jam packed on weekends. As it is we got the last room at the Hampton Inn and could only book in for tonight - have to find somewhere else for tomorrow night. Being a Saturday I don't like our chances. I hadn't eaten since breakfast so hunger added to my despair. Solved this by having a really nice steak over the road and am now in bed watching NCIS and chilling (I hope) and listening to the thunder. Let's hope tomorrow is a better day.                     Miles # 187.3 (301 kms)  Bugs# 855