Salem? Why go to Salem?

On my last morning in Boston I managed to get yet another good run in. I went further than I had before and explored a bit but didn't find anything mind-blowing to report back on. Back in the hostel I collated pictures, ate breakfast, and waited for Leeann to show so I could take her to Salem before heading to Philadelphia. She finally came down around 10 and I went to get my car from the parking garage. Luckily my homing sense was working at least a little bit because I managed to find the car and bring it back. When I got back to the hostel it turned out that Leeann had decided she was coming to Philadelphia with me so we loaded up and headed out to Salem.

We went to the Park Service visitor's center where I learned that there is a lot more to Salem than just witch trials (duh). There used to be a lot of ship building that went on here and then of course it went through an economic downturn but is now back on the upswing. There were a lot of neat old houses there that had been saved and restored. Well, they looked nice from the outside because we didn't go into them. The next stop was this Salem Witch Trials museum. This place was a total crap-ola. On the way in we heard someone saying that the presentation ended up being the biggest waste of money they had ever seen. We figured we'd go anyway but our opinion was basically the same. The building was an old church so they took the large open area and had put up dioramas on the wall of the time period and had flat benches on either side of this open space you could sit on. The voice acting was terrible...one of the women was supposed to be screaming in terror but sounded like she was in the throes of an orgasm. As the story progressed they spot lighted another diorama. Of course instead of having this all on one wall they did it in a circle about the entire space so you had to get up in the middle of the presentation if you wanted to see the rest of the dioramas. Following the presentation they led us out this back door for the next part of the tour and I seriously thought they were just taking us into the gift shop. We only went through about half of the gift shop and then we entered this room with more static displays and some guy talked about how witches had evolved over time. Although this wasn't as crappy as the diorama presentation we still ditched out early and wandered the streets to find something to eat. Turns out there is a neat hot dog shop that serves different styled hot dogs from around the country. I had a Texas dog which came with chili, jalapenos, and bacon. I've never had this sort of hot dog in all my years in Texas but it was still good as was the Chicago dog I got.

After we ate we hopped in the car and left Boston behind us. My plan was to route the trip through Rhode Island so I could goto Newport and see some of the houses which would also put me into Connecticut so that I could say I had visited another couple of states on my trip. Newport was very pretty and quiet. I could see that it would be quite busy and crowded in the summer. They have several mansions you can actually go in and tour but we just drove around looking at them and then left town. Dinner was in Connecticut at a Bennigan's where I got their yummy monte cristo sandwich. There's is the best I've had and we don't have one in Salt Lake so I usually try and stop for one when I can.

By this time it was dark so the drive through New York City was a breeze as was the trip through New Jersey. The hostel we were heading to had this strict midnight deadline for checking in...the person at the front desk just leaves at that time so I guess you sleep in your car if you don't make it. We called as we were getting close to make sure they would hold on for a couple of minutes and I think we made it there at 12:01 a.m. The room was super cheap at $19 so I wasn't too miffed that they wanted to charge for towels. That's why I'd bought that nice pack towel in the first place!

Since I had to call Rob I went outside after we got settled into the room and while I was talking to him I noticed this guy walking around. He was sort of an unsettling fellow. His left arm was crooked against his body like it was crippled and he was walking with a limp. I seriously wondered if he was going to knife me! He came over and asked about the receptionist and I said she'd gone home. Turns out the guy had come from France to visit some friends and the bus he had taken from Washington D.C. had taken two wrong turns which made him several hours late and then the taxi driver seemed to just be driving him around aimlessly so he didn't make it in time. I whipped out the GPS and we called a few hotels and found him a room and then I drove him there. He was in fact crippled because he had had a seizure while he was working in D.C. and had been in rehab for several years. He also told me that he had tried to desert the army when he was younger (most European countries have mandatory stints in the armed forces) but they caught him and sent him to Cambodia to work in the peace corps. Interesting fellow. Anyways, I was glad he was able to get a room and I drove back to the hostel and watched some TV before turning in.

D