Fall 2022 Trip to Boston in Freebird
2022-11-02
“Wouldn’t it be great if someone could come up with a way to get from Cleveland to Boston in an hour and a half?” This was our son’s sarcastic jibe when Marcia told him that to visit them in Boston it would take us a day and a half each way.
We did want to maximize our time with him, his wife, and our two grandchildren but Marcia responded that we enjoy driving our Sprinter motorhome, are looking forward to seeing the fall leaves, and plan to hike and/or bike on our way there and back.
This conversation caused us to reflect on why we value our small motorhome travel together. We concluded that our motorhome travel provides us quality time together, allows us to explore the country, and lets us eat healthily from our own refrigerator. We enjoy listening to books and music and going with the flow, not the plan.
We left for Boston at noon on Wednesday and stopped along the interstate at a text rest area. I put our small gas grill on the picnic table and grilled steaks and potatoes. Marcia fixed a salad from the last of our garden tomatoes and peppers. We opened a bottle of red wine and relaxed, surrounded by trees in their peak colors. After dinner, we drove for another hour or so and at a rest area, slept comfortably for almost nine hours.
We woke up early and drove to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, our favorite New England town. We usually park downtown in front of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church and stay the night, then in the morning sit in the rocking chairs on the porch of The Red Lion while we drink our coffee. This morning we got wonderful croissants and cappuccinos at the French pastry shop across from The Red Lion Inn and took a hike, starting behind the church and crossing the Housatonic River. On Laura’s Tower Trail, a moderately steep one hour hike, we climbed to a fire tower where we could see the Berkshire hills in full color. We left for Boston, ate lunch in the van and had to hurry through a maze of interstates to meet the grandkids when they got out of school.
We had a wonderful visit with our family and stayed for four days. On the way back, we stopped for the night at the Sherwood Inn (established 1807) in Skaneateles, New York, another favorite town. We had dinner at a table in the bar and watched the Cleveland Guardians lose to the Yankees in the playoffs. After dinner, we retired to our motorhome parked in the back corner of the lot. In the morning, we left for home and made it back by mid day. Definitely a longer, slower trip, but much better than flying.