#womenover50 – Page 6 – Over 50 Aussie female solo traveller USA road trip and beyond

Boston and Salem Massachusetts

19 May 2018

Rainy and cold, 8C (46F) but won’t stop my day of adventure. I met an ex work colleague from Sydney who now works at Boston University, Craig Slater and he kindly showed me around Boston. Thank you Craig for the lovely day.

That’s Boston in the background from the MIT (Massachusetts Institue of Technology). I wish someone at MIT could do something about the phone reception in this country.

I wasn’t kidding about rainy and cold but there were some committed people out sailing.

Visited MIT.

Went to Harvard

Rubbed the foot of the Harvard founder, John Harvard, which people think is a Harvard tradition, and isn’t, but I wanted to rub anyway.

Preparation for the Harvard Graduation has commenced. I hope the weather is better for the event than today.

Boston Tea Party meetings were held here.

Declaration of Independence announced here.

Learned about the Boston Massacre.

I love the subway busking. Sorry it is a bit shaky but the train ride gets rough and I appreciate how difficult it is for these performers to do this without hurting themselves.Subway buskers video Boston

Then drove 30 minutes to Salem for a Hocus Pocus tour and information on the Salem Witch Trials.

In 1692, 20 people wrongly accused of being witches, 19 hung (14 were women) and 1 pressed.

This is a memorial for the 20 wrongly executed.

A controversial statue of Elizabeth Montgomery, the TV witch, riding a broom, was donated by the TV show and stands in the site of where the witch hangings were carried out.

The town has several witch museums and stores with quirky shopfronts.

Rhode Island

18 May 2018

The home of the Americas Cup. I just wanted to get a quick pic and buy a magnet in Newport and get to my next stop. However, I spent six ( 6) hours here. I discovered the Volvo Ocean Race yachts were in town. I had no idea what that was but now I know this race, dare I say, is more prestigious than the Americas Cup. I went to Fort Adams where I learned about this crazy race. I took the shuttle $US12 return to Fort Adams and the flag kept enveloping me.

This race is definitely crazier than the Americas Cup. A global sailing race run every three years. All teams have a yacht made to exact specifications so the race depends wholly on the team’s ability. Is this the ultimate challenge? There isn’t even a money prize. Just the cup. Check out this video clip

Did you know that parts of the Southern Ocean are so remote the closest man-made thing is the international space station. This race also promotes awareness of the destruction plastic is causing in our oceans.

I went to the Brick Alley Pub for lunch. It has wonderful sports memorabilia.

My airbnb hosts took me out to Capone’s in Peabody Massachusetts for a dance.

The live band The Eric Grant Band played great covers.

Band video.

Two nights in a row I had live music!!

Maryland

12 May 2018

My second time to embarrass myself with authority occurred as I crossed the border to Maryland. I had entered a stop in my GPS for a visitors centre so I could buy a fridge magnet.

When it directed me to the NSA Visitors Centre I knew Siri got it wrong. I drove up to the security and said, “oops. I am in the wrong place”. The cute guard said, “perhaps it might be the right place”. I said “I don’t think so unless you sell fridge magnets”. Yes. I know what you are all thinking. I am lucky I wasn’t arrested for stupidity. He asked me for my identification and if I knew anyone at NSA. I said I did but he was based in Hawaii now (sorry Paul but I didn’t give him your name). I was quite nervous but trying not to laugh at the same time at how stupid I must have looked. The guard just said politely “Mam. Please make a Uturn to the left to exit”. I have heard of people being questioned for hours when taking a wrong turn. I must have looked genuinely stupid. I did get my magnet just before I crossed the border to Delaware at a petrol station.

After my NSA excitement I found my airbnb, I was exhausted from driving from Pennsylvania and was going to have a rest. I was going through Meet up app and found a ballooning festival (Howard County Ballooning Festival) 50 minutes away. I contacted the host Dakota, confirmed the address, got changed and arrived at the festival 1 hour after I checked into my airbnb.

I met Dakota, Chas, James and their lovely friends.

I missed the hotdog eating competition and an hour after I got there, an announcement was made that the balloon glow was cancelled as a storm was coming through. This was the best photo I got of any of the balloons.

I was disappointed but I felt for all the children who were looking forward to the hot air balloons. It was a 3 day festival, free, but parking was $US20 each day and by looking at many of the people the parking would have been a lot of money for them, as it was for my limited budget. I didn’t return the next day as it rained all day.

Straight after the festival I found a salsa Meetup 45 minutes away. I arrived at Mr Mambo Salsa but was told by someone in the carpark that there was no dancing there ( I later found out I was on the wrong side of the building). I checked the Meetup and went to an alternate address 45 minutes the other way. I love when I cross borders my phone GPS announces “Welcome to …” in this case it was Virginia. I just drove 4 hours in the morning from Pennsylvania to Maryland and then all of a sudden I am in Washington DC crossing over to Virginia. I love this country!!

Arriving at the salsa venue I find out it is the wrong place and salsa was on where I was at previously. I know most of you would give up and go back to your accommodation ( mine was 40 minutes away) but it was Saturday night and I hadn’t danced since the cruise 3 weeks ago!! I went back to the previous venue and found salsa and bachatta!!

I got my fix of dancing and a pic with Mr Mambo

I got my fix for dancing but I do miss my Sydney dance venues and partners.

Pennsylvania

11 May 2018

Ohiopyle Falls!! Why didn’t I know about this place? Thank you to the Park officer at Fort Necessity who mentioned this gem of a place. This is a place I want to return to for a few days and do some whitewater rafting and hiking.

Just down the road is Cucumber Falls.

Ohiopyle Falls were previously known as Falls City and located 25 minutes from the little town of Hopwood (this is my current airbnb) Hopwood has a population of 1,900 and, as many parts of the USA, abounds with history.

Fort Necessity is the location of George Washington”s first battle and defeat. He was 22 years old.

The George Washington Tavern was a stagecoach stop, just down the road from Fort Necessity.

I had the privilege of being given a private tour of the Bruderhof New Meadow Run Community in Farmington. The Bruderhof is a self sustaining Christian community with about 230 members. There are settlements in Germany, England and Australia. The Australian one is set in Inverell, NSW.

They are a passive community where their children are schooled within the community and they have a high school in Upstate New York.

They have a wood furniture factory in their community and also publish books which are free. Thank you to Ben for showing me around and Frances for giving me a female perspective on the community.

The impressive Great Cross of Christ sits on the mountain at Jumonville. It stands 18.2 metres (60 feet) high, 756 metres (2480 feet) above sea level and was built after WWII.

Charleston West Virginia

10 May 2018

Today I really wasn’t into doing much but had to find a fridge magnet for West Virginia (WV). My stop at the capital of WV, Charleston, had a gift shop in the West Virginia State Museum where I succeeded in finding my magnet.

This museum has one of the best displays of history. I was very moved in many parts, especially at the end of the tour with the song“Take me home country road, to the place, I belong. West Virginia.Mountain Mamma. Take me home“. This museum covered railroads and coal mining, marching bands and immigration, a pumpkin festival and Italian festival and of course the Civil War and much more.

The quirky post today is this display in the museum. The Dressed Fleas Emmiline and Alexander.

The Capitol Building in Charleston WV.

Charleston University

Some of the houses on the Ohio River who have a direct view of the Capitol Building.

My highlight for today was cooking for my airbnb hosts in Pennsylvania, Keith and Shanda. I have been missing my home cooking and cooked potato and carrot soup, pasta sauce “a la Edi” and tomorrow I will cook my brocolli soup and tortellini carbonara.

Augusta Ohio/Huntington West Virginia

The road from Cincinatti Ohio to West Virginia runs through beautiful green lush country side. The treescape makes for a pleasant drive as was the scenery through Kentucky, Virginia, North and South Carolina. The roadkill through those states has been significant compared to what I see on my roadtrips driving from New South Wales to Queensland.

The roadkill I have seen is around 50 animals per hour, often small, which I expect would be squirrels and birds, and larger raccoons, possums, small pigs or hogs and a few larger furry animals I could not discern. I prefer not to drive at night as I expect I would encounter more live animals on the road at that time than I do through the day. I am thankful the animals I have almost hit were on roads where I was travelling slow enough to miss them without putting myself in danger. A few orange birds which I think are the Northern Cardinal (the state bird of Kentucky) have played chicken with my car several times, I had to stop several times for squirrels, twice for beaver and once for a turkey. I have no intention or wish to hit any animal, for theirs and my safety. This country has lots of wild animals. I have yet to see a bear and would enjoy that so long as he or she isn’t hungry and is not coming in my direction.

I didn’t do much sightseeing today but I stopped off at Augusta Kentucky (there are several States where you continually cross their borders as the road winds in and out of the State).

I saw a documentary with George Clooney about this town of 1,100. He went to Augusta University and his aunt, the actress, singer, Rosemary Clooney lived in Augusta.

Augusta’s history dates back to 1787

and has a ferry which takes cars across the Ohio River for $5US.

Some of their historical buildings

On arriving in Huntington WV fatigue has set in and I will have a rest for the remainder of today.

I will take this opportunity to provide some information which might be of use for others who are planning a roadtrip.

Travelmath.com is a trip calculator for distances in kilometres and miles, travel time between 2 cities and naming cities or towns to stop in between.

Something very frustrating in the USA is mobile phone reception for data and/or calls. For a country which sends people to the moon and into space it has not mastered phone and data service in all parts of their country. I have been without reception in Mississippi and now in Huntington West Virginia (WV), the second largest city in WV, I have no reception. Whistleout is an excellent site which shows you the coverage for providers and not one covers all the USA.

Kentucky to Ohio

7 May 2018

Every time I cross another border I am amazed at what I see. I seem to continually say “it is soo pretty” or “WTF, how big can these houses get!” I have to say these to myself as I cannot call my friends because of the time difference in Australia or unless they are here in the moment it just is not the same or they get annoyed that it is a reminder they are at work and I am not. It is probably the worst part of travelling alone, not having someone to share the moment, but it doesn’t make me want to change anything. I would be happy for someone to join me but I am really enjoying the whole experience, even the melancholy moments, which do not last for long.

There are people around whom I can have a chat with, whether it is the hotel manager who works the late shift that I had a late night snack with or the elderly man who insisted on escorting me across the Roebling Suspension Bridge from Kentucky to Ohio.

Or the person who filmed this crazy 50+ year old climbing the flying pigs sculpture in Cincinatti.

There’s always someone who will fulfill my need to have a chat.

Cincinatti was known as “porcopolis” in the 1800s so they have a Flying Pigs Marathon and flying pigs to welcome you to the riverfront.

Cincinatti is known as the Queen City of Ohio. A Queen City is the largest city of a State or province which isn’t the capital.

Then there are the people dancing on the keyboard of the Smale Park Foot Piano.

Error

This video doesn’t exist

The Smale Park tulips in the Alzheimer’s Garden.

The Roebling Covington Floodwall murals on the Kentucky side of the Roebling Suspension Bridge.

And I went to my first baseball game in the USA at the Great American Ballpark the home of the Cincinatti REDS. What a lot of fun these games are, not just to enjoy the game but the audience fun with Kiss Cam and shooting T-shirts out of a cannon into the audience and general fun capturing the audience on screen.

I got a certificate for my first baseball game and had the obligatory photo with a police officer and the REDS mascot.

Thank you Amber for the great night.

Pikeville Kentucky

6 May 2018

I woke up to a heavy rain but decided no matter what, I was going sightseeing.

I drove to Pauley Bridge (the bridge to nowhere) and just as I stepped onto the bridge the sun came out and the rain stopped.

The Breaks known as the Grand Canyon of the South is on the border of Virginia (Virginia is for Lovers) and Kentucky, 48 km (30 miles) from Pikeville.

This is the vista from the Kentucky side overlooking the Russell Fork River, which is popular for whitewater rafting.

I then drove to the Stateline Lookout on the Virginia side of The Breaks.

The Breaks Stateline Lookout Virginia

I thought these Elk were cute in Elkhorn City.

The Hatfield and McCoy feud is a very big part of Pikeville history and could be compared in some ways to Australia’s Ned Kelly story. The town has a historical trail of the Feud including the resting place of some involved in the feud.

I have been complaining about the weight I am gaining because I am driving so much and not dancing. I heard about the 99 steps of UPike (University of Pikeville). “UPike climb of 99” . So I decided to do this walk for some exercise. This climb is also part of an initiation for Freshmen.

What a surprise when I got to the top that I was given a goodies bag as congratulations.

Did I say I did the walk because of my weight gain?

These cute bear structures are scattered around Pikeville.

AS a volunteer for the Red Cross Emergency Services I am keen to meet up with other volunteers around the world. When I found this sign for the Red Cross I asked where the volunteer office was located. Someone in uniform advised me that they were located on the 4th floor. No-one was in the office but I soon realised I was in the local gaol.

Behind the corrections facility you will find the Pikeville Drag Racing track.

I ended my time in Pikeville with this sad story of Octavia Hatcher

Kentucky

5 May 2018

Today I left North Carolina for Pikeville Kentucky. I randomly chose Pikeville as a stop as it was just over three (3) hours drive from Asheville.

A reminder that the goal of my trip is to visit the States I have not yet been to, today I started in North Carolina and to my excitement within three (3) hours I drove through Tennessee, West Virginia and Virginia to get to Kentucky. So today I could mark off three (3) more States. Although I won’t count them until I have stopped at some spot of interest.

The drive got a bit scary at times. It started raining as I crossed into Kentucky. It was pelting down and at times the car aquaplaned. The road was very steep and winds through the Appalachian mountains and there were many spots where the water funneled across the road rather than down the side of the road. Thankfully the drivers here aren’t like the aggressive Floridians.

Arrived at my motel, the Daniel Boone Motor Inn, yep, he was a real person, not just in the TV show. He is famous for exploring and settling one of the first American townshipswest of the Appalachians, Boonesborough, Kentucky. I took it easy the first night in Pikeville as the rain has not let up.

Asheville North Carolina

5 May 2018

Last night I had a fun night shooting pool with hillbillies from Flat Creek. Today I had a giggle with people at the other end of the spectrum, the Omni Grove Park Inn.

This hotel has two (2) fireplaces, each 11 metres (36 feet) wide which can burn logs up to 4 metres (12 feet)long in the great hall which is 36 metres (120 feet) long and 24 metres (80 feet) wide.

Check the size of the chimney.

The view from the rear terrace.

The original lift still functions and runs along the chimney shafts within rockwork of the fireplace.

The 3rd floor is the original atrium lobby.

Betsy is one of the Hotel Ambassadors who not only provided me a history of this hotel but recounted her time at MLC Melbourne when she was 13 years old.

Not only was I impressed with all the fine detail of this plush hotel, what made an impact was that anyone is welcome to spend the day admiring and touring the hotel without being a guest. They also have three (3) hours free parking to allow you to do this. This fabulous hotel also has a golf course. Perhaps one day I can afford to stay here.

This morning I visited the historical birthplace of the Governor of North Carolina Zebulon B Vance. He served both during and after the Civil War.

Lake Lure is the famous place Dirty Dancing was filmed. I was disappointed I didn’t have anyone to reproduce the lake scene with nor anyone to dance with in the gazebo.