I’m lumping these two together because they just weren’t my favorites.  I apologize to anyone who ever reads this and happens to be to one of these locations…but I just don’t get it.  First we went to Nantucket.  Once you get past all of the limericks it just was kind of blah.  You get off the ferry (which was crowded beyond your wildest imagination)  It was a beautiful day.  Temps were in the low 80’s and the sun was shining.   The first thing you see (and I mean right there bam in your face) were the shops.  The restaurants were a little further inland…about 400 feet.  Each one had the same seafood menus.  Now I love seafood so I didn’t complain.  I had a lobster roll that could make you want to slap your mama and clam chowder.  We had to catch the next ferry for Martha’s Vineyard so we didn’t have loads of time to spend in Nantucket.  We just ambled around close to the dock.  Boppy didn’t want to rent bikes and there was no point in getting a cab when all you really wanted to do was ride around the and look at the country side.  It was here that I received my first little blister.

Then we went on to Martha’s Vineyard.  I was trying to be a trooper, but I was beginning to really hurt.  I had taken the “little bits of magic” that I carried in my brand spanking new prescription bottle and nothing much was diminishing the pain at this point so I was becoming a bit of whiner.  Boppy was on a mission to see the two light houses on the island.  I love light houses too so I decide I would put on my big girl panties and blah blah blah.  After we had gone around one circular part of the island and come back without seeing lighthouses I was beginning to wonder.  Then we took off in the other direction and about two miles down the road I was sensing there would be no lighthouses on this tour.  We went back into the busy area to find some dinner.  After we were seated (and there was a bit of a wait) we were told that they were a cash only restaurant.  Super…we don’t have cash.  So Boppy gets up and goes to an ATM (located conveniently just across the street) gets cash and comes back while I’m at the table waiting.  We get through eating and realize that we have about two hours to wait before we can get on our ferry…and we’ve pretty much done everything that we can do in the small circle of area that I can walk.  We finally end up sitting on an old bench and waiting for the ferry just like the 70 year old that I feel I am.  The ferry finally comes and we got off in a totally different area than the one we boarded at.  So now we have to hike halfway around the port to get back to our car.  Which, it turns out, we parked in a no parking area that was outside of the ferry authority.  So we had to walk all the way around the ferry terminal to get to our car that thankfully hadn’t been ticketed or booted.  It was a long drive back to the hotel.

I just caught Boppy looking over my shoulder while I was typing.  “You didn’t like Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket?”  I’m a little surprised he had to ask.  Did he think I was just whining for my own benefit?  I answered him as truthfully as I could without hurting his feelings.  “They weren’t my favorites.”

 

 

Boppy was dying to see Provincetown.  He had been there many years before, and wanted to go back even though it wasn’t really along the way.  We arrived just about dusk.  The “hot spot” of the area was about two blocks of happening.  Crammed into that space were restaurants, bars, and shops.  I consider myself to be a very liberal person and I have never been in a place like this one.

It was a gay little town…a very gay little town.  Boppy and I were in the minority being one of only a handful of heterosexual couples.  The same sex couples were very tolerant of our hand holding and touching.  We were careful not to be blatant.  There were lots of transsexuals moving around, and  more than just a few drag shows.  I loved it all, and was mostly unfazed by it all…that was until I walked by a window that had a male mannequin dressed in a butterfly costume perched in a sex swing!  Now listen, my dear ones, this little ol’ Southern Baptist raised Arkie nearly fell off her carefully manicured toes!  I was laughing so hard I nearly fell over a drag queen coming out of the Cock and Bulls bar.  (I had to take a picture of that one!)  So many jokes to make, so little time…but thank God life provides!!  We had finally settled down a little and were walking to The Lobster Pot to have dinner when we were swept off the street by a police siren.  I couldn’t resist, “Oh Lord, someone’s been rear ended!”  Boppy didn’t miss a beat, “that’s gonna be one busy cop!”

When we got to The Lobster Pot we had an hour’s wait.  They gave us one of those little vibrator things that restaurants use (get your mind out of the gutter).  We were sitting out on the little patio playing with our vibrator, when we became acquainted with a little old lady sitting next to us.  She had come with her son and his family.  She said they make a yearly sojourn.  They own a home in Provincetown that they visit in the summer.  They had just been to The Lobster Pot the night before but the grand daughter wanted a dessert she hadn’t gotten, and so they came back just for the dessert.  They still had the same hour wait we did though.  She was telling us how over the years there had been more and more “regular” families showing up in the summer.  She said there would always be oddities though, “Why just last week a woman washed up on the shore.”  We expressed our concern, to which she responded…”not to worry.  She sobered up, at least until the next time she ties one on and washes up on shore!”

True to form, Boppy literally parked as far as humanly possible away from the action.  We walked probably 3 miles to get to the scene of the crimes…and I wasn’t very happy at the time (plus it was a lot cooler than I expected it to be) but it was totally worth it!  Yay, Provincetown!!!

I survived.  There were four days of hell involving so much pain that I’m not sure I really saw all of the interesting things Boston had to offer…but I’m alive.  And there were days I wasn’t sure I would be able to say that.

Let me begin by saying that Boston was experiencing record heat.  It was 95 degrees.  Now I’m not minimizing 95 degree heat…it was excruciating…but a record?  And there was little to no humidity.  It seemed cooler than Arkansas, but I wouldn’t be out in Arkansas unless I was in my pool.  However; travelling with Boppy is no vacation.  We needed to see and do everything Boston had to offer, and we needed to do it on foot. 

Going into this trip my pain level was somewhere around a 6.  I am on new meds and I was armed with a new pain medication which is supposed to ease the pain without causing drowsiness.  It worked, thank God, and I was taking it by the handfuls.  We were not wearing pedometers, but Rob estimates that we walked 10 miles on day one.  Because he kept getting lost, and he was leading the way.  Believe me I was way in the rear.  Then he would decide there was one particular thing he wanted to see, and that it was just a few feet away.  When it wasn’t he would tell me, “it’s just over here…just a little further…I’m sure it’s just around the corner, over the hill, past this intersection…”, whatever bullshit line kept me walking.  So I walked, and walked, and walked.  One freakin’ day he walked me all the way across Boston and into Cambridge to see the USS Constitution.  I barely made it there and was actually begging God to let me make it…I was bargaining like an m’er f’er…then we got up to the entrance and it was closed.  Seems they aren’t open on Monday.  This was our 15th anniversary trip, and I seriously considered killing my husband.  He was smart enough to ask the Marine at the entrance if there was a quicker way back.  Turns out there’s a ferry that takes you from one port to the other…for about a buck and a half.  You know that expression, ” if looks could kill.”  Well seriously!

A vacation with Boppy just isn’t complete without a few blisters.  I currently have three.  You see it’s not a sprint…it’s a marathon.  We need to see everything, eat everywhere, and walk everywhere.  He doesn’t like driving in cities he’s not familiar with…and I understand that, but shit…have you ever heard of cabs, ferrys, and things of that nature?  I was sitting in our hotel with my TENS unit on my hip, an ice pack on my ankle, and three bandages on my toes.  He looked at me and made a little kissing noise.  Just then the phone rang.  He looked at me and said, “You gonna get that?”  Everyone always comments on what a patient man he is.  I’m assuming that they mean I’m not easy to live with…well let me tell you…he’s not the only patient one in our marriage.

Well…Boston is behind us.  We are currently in Manchester, New Hampshire.  There doesn’t seem to be a lot of walking during this leg of the tour.  Thank God for basic training or I  never would have made it this far in the trip.  By the way…these blogs will not necessarily be written in chronological order.  They will be written in what I feel is the order of importance.  I am, after all, in charge of at least this part of my life.