Day 26: Arrival

Hey, who put the ocean on the wrong side? All my life the ocean has been on the left, and now it's on the right. Crazy. That'll take some getting used to :)

Anyway, last night I pulled into New Hampshire at my brother's house (funny story: as I pulled down their street, my brother's wife and their three kids were driving down the street behind me... and I promptly blew through a stop sign. Oops! Nearly 5,000 miles without a ticket and wouldn't it have been great if there was a cop waiting for me right there? Luckily, I got away with that one!)

But that's getting ahead of myself. First, I gotta tell you about what I saw earlier in the day.

If you remember a while back, I saw a few super tiny churches. But in NY, there is the true "World's Smallest Church". And even more interesting - it's in the middle of a lake (though covered in algae right now), only accessible by boat. It's just big enough to fit a pastor and two people getting married.

Then, to see a Volkswagen that makes my car's breakdown in Montana seem like no big deal, I found this beetle up on top of a smokestack. See this is what makes all these weird road-side stops fun - who sits around and says "you know what this smokestack needs? A car on it!" And not just thinking of it, but actually spending the time and money to do it.

And then for people who remember the RCA dog, I found one of the few remaining statues on top of a warehouse in Syracuse.

There's also a cult following for another type of statue - muffler men. I didn't actually see any of the ones along my way (twice I went looking for them, but couldn't find them). But yesterday, I did actually get to find one. But I couldn't actually get a picture from the front (unless I was willing to run out onto the median at the entrace to the NY State Thruway). This muffler man is unique because he's all dressed up as a plantation owner, so I guess it's pretty cool (if you're into muffler men).

By the way, speaking of the thruway, I'm impressed with how good of shape it's in... but as soon as you get on the Mass Pike, the road is pretty bad - seems crazy because they charge tolls, too. But later my brother explained it was the big dig in Boston that took all the money. And you can tell the outlying towns don't like it. I went through one town that was full of potholes (I felt like I was offroading going through downtown) and they had signs saying Pothole Capital USA.

Oh, and also, I mentioned before that I had seen more Curves workout places than Starbucks... well there's a new winner in the most common place to see (and in just the last day alone) - Dunkin Donuts. Really people, they're just donuts - do we need one on every corner? Apparently so.

Anyway, back to the trip. Did you know that Massachusetts is home to the invention of liquid fueled rockets? Yep. There's a park commemerating it with a polaris missle and a replica of the original rocket. It must have been impressive - it went a whole 40 feet in the air. But I guess things turned out okay for that technology.

A Polaris Missle + silo

A replica of the original test rocket (the little thing in the middle)

And then I got to my brother's place. My two nephews (Zachary and Ethan) and niece (Julia) were very excited to see me, but even more excited to see Hailey.

Trying to get everyone to pose it tough with a dog involved!

So that's what it takes to get across the country in nearly four weeks. Up next is trying to find a place to live in Boston (I think today maybe I'll just take a rest and play).

But the biggest thing I learned about Americans while driving across the country: they disagree on a lot of things, but the one clear thing that binds them together? ... Americans love their perfectly manicured lawns! (what, you were maybe looking for something interesting? Hey, I don't explain it, that's just what I saw - everyone wants to mow and pay someone lots of money to spray chemicals to be sure their lawn looks perfect. So that's it - the secret to connecting with anyone in the country... talk about their lawn :)