Bad dog painting Jesus swimming lane markers...

Newport, Rhode Island Day 2 – the rain has gone and been replaced by a sunny day, albeit with a good strong wind! There has even been a warning to sailors today that it may be too windy to sail – That’s pretty surprising as this place supposedly has the best sailing in the USA and is home to the Americas cup. Anyway, I’m not a sailor, so it didn’t bother me too much! 

I did notice a lack of boating activities as I took a couple of hours to stroll along the lovely cliff walk that takes you from Middletown up along the sea to a place called ‘The Breakers’. This is the best known of the huge millionaire owned mansions that are sprawled out alongside the ocean here. They used to be owned by rich knobheads from New York and Boston, who came here to relax after a hard days work (Beating up lowly servants probably). Now, most of the mansions are open to the public and you can wander around to see just how much clag people can shove in an oversized mansion! I didn’t bother looking around inside ($24 each!) but maybe I will open my house in Milton Keynes for visiting Japanese tourists? Hmm, how much money would I make!? I took the free cliff walk instead, as you can see into most of the houses as well as spoil the views of the ocean for those snooty bugars inside! Two for the price of none!

Are those gates automatic?

Its not that big

Path closed - unless you take a short cut down there.....

It was a lovely walk only partially spoilt due to half of the path being closed. I accidentally on purpose managed to completely ignore the closed signs and ended up on an even better bit of path with only a couple of other people for company. It turns out the path was closed because of a huge gaping hole in the walkway – bugar. Still, it didn’t stop me from continuing onwards and enjoying the peace and quiet for a while longer.

My next stop for the day was Fort Adams – an old citadel style fortress overlooking the bay of Newport. Unfortunately, the inside of the fortress was closed and so I spent a while wandering around the outside, taking in the lovely sunny weather, the views of the harbour bridge and one lonely sailing ship which had ventured out. There were also some painters who were all doing completely different versions of what they could see. It was nice to sit and watch them paint for a while, before it got a little too windy and I headed back into town. 

The path looks ok to me......

...or maybe its really knackered!!

I tried but failed to find the dog

Painting in the sunshine

The only sail boat out today

I had passed a church yesterday, which caught my eye and I wanted to go to see it to confirm what I had seen...I was indeed correct – Some priest (It was a catholic church) has very cleverly decorated the ‘Jesus’ statue with a length of swimming pool lane marker buoys. This sounds weird until you realise he has done it to make them look like a massive rosary bead necklace! Ha-ha, it is genius!! I love spotting unusual things and this is my favourite thing I have spotted on this trip so far!

Jesus really liked swimming!!

Friday and after a good hearty breakfast at the hotel, I took my time and enjoyed a pleasant drive north toward Boston. On the way I noticed a car coming toward me with its headlights alternately flashing – a bit like a police car. But when I got closer I saw it was leading a parade of cars attending a funeral. They were driving at normal speeds, including the hearse which I found a little strange, although it meant that other motorists didn’t get annoyed by getting stuck behind them. I also noticed that each car had a flag attached with the word ‘funeral’, written on it. I don’t know if this is to let everyone else know that they are at a funeral, or if it is an aid for them to follow one another, so no one gets lost. Whatever it’s for it is a good idea and gave me an idea to create more of them: - After getting a ban and then returning to driving, stupid drivers should be made to have a flag with ‘idiot’, written on it. Speeding drivers, as well as getting points, should have a chequered flag and slow drivers should have a massive flag that drapes in front of them, so they can’t see where they are going and therefore get out of the way!

Funeral flags

I also passed a random big milk bottle cafe!

Anyway, I’m now in a hostel in Boston and have just enjoyed a 5 mile run around the city centre. Part of the run took me past the finish line from the recent marathon, where the bombings took place. I didn’t want to morbidly look to see where it happened, rather than ‘sort of’ take part, by running past it. I must admit to being curious about how the authorities have marked the spot and can report that they have simply left the finish line painted across the road, with the date - A large 3 foot wide yellow line. It’s a simple and fitting memorial.

After a quiet evening mellowing out in Boston I didn’t get much sleep. My body seems to know when it needs to be up early and refuses to get any rest so that it doesn’t miss getting up with the rest of me (That makes no sense whatsoever does it!?) So just before 6am, I got up and took my body with me even though it was very very tired. We both (me and my body – in fact from here on, I shall refer to myself and my body as just one person again – you know like a normal, non crazy human would do) So we (sorry) I, took a walk through Boston towards south station where I grabbed the bus to Logan Airport. 

My flight took me from the East coast, back to the coast of Lake Michigan and Chicago O’Hare airport. The day was going well and the flight landed early, meaning I had plenty of time to get my hire car and head back eastwards towards the shores of another of The Great Lakes – Lake Erie. It’s here where I am writing this from, but this post is already too long, so I will lend it here and update you on the next instalment in a couple of days time.