Posts Tagged “rhode island”

For this journey, we decided to wait until we got home to do a route log. This was a much smaller trip and didn’t seem to require daily updates. It ended up being a little more involved that we initially planned, but that’s okay—that’s what’s fun about a road trip. You may have to view the larger version of the map to actually see where we went.

Isabel and I have now each visited 42 of these 50 states (we were together for all of them except Texas and Florida). The states we haven’t hit so far are: Alaska, Hawaii, North Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Kentucky. If we’re feeling ambitious, we could knock out three to five of those states on our December trip. I never had a goal visiting all 50 states before, but now I totally do. Looks like we could do it pretty easily now. Wonder what we’ll shoot for next?

On a somewhat unrelated note… after traveling thousands of miles and seeing the most fascinating things this country has to offer, I’m left with one burning question: New Jersey, what’s your deal? Do you really not trust me? Are you worried that I’m not smart enough to handle the complex operation that is pumping gas? Is this task really so complex that you must leave it up to a professional? Twice I have nearly run out of gas to make it over the state line so I can fill my own gas tank. Maybe I’m a little crazy, but I like to be in charge of my own petrol. Besides, I have no idea what tipping etiquette is for those guys and that’s enough to make me break out into a sweat. End rant, start log:

View Larger Map

We had our home base in Bangor, Maine, for two nights, but we had a couple of important sites to see before we left this morning. The first item on our list was this:

Yep, that’s a 31-feet-tall, 3,700 pound Paul Bunyan statue, the base of which contains a sealed time capsule from 1959, slated to be opened in 2084. Pretty impressive and also pretty… spooky, right? I mean, if that thing lived in your neighborhood, you’d probably be inspired to write, say, horror novels. Kind of like Stephen King! Here’s his house around the corner from our “Maine” man (ha!) Paul:

I’ve actually never read one of Stephen King’s books (though I do enjoy his column in Entertainment Weekly), and Brian hasn’t either, but we wanted to see his awesome spooky gate with bats and three-headed dragon-monsters on it. Also, he has an Obama/Biden sign in his yard. Nice!

After that, we headed to Scarborough, Maine, where Brian said there was a roadside attraction, but he decided to keep it a secret from me to surprise me. The surprise attraction was at Len Libby’s Candies and it was (drum roll)…

A life-size moose sculpture made of chocolate! Killer combo, Len Libby’s Candies! You’ll notice that, as a bonus, there are also some life-size chocolate bear cubs scattered about the scene.

After that, we bade farewell to Maine and went back into New Hampshire:

New Hampshire, I’m sure you have a lot to offer, but I’m afraid this trip wasn’t about you. We just passed through a tiny piece of N.H. before getting back into Massachusetts!

In Massachusetts, we ended up in Boston’s evening rush hour, which was exactly as fun as it sounds, so I won’t talk about that. We had planned a couple of other stops in Mass., but timing and the cold and the traffic and whatnot foiled us, so we only visited one place on our list: Jordan’s Furniture in Reading. I can’t believe I didn’t already know about this place. Their website looks very innocent; do not be fooled. It’s a local furniture store chain in the Boston area, and each store has a different crazy theme complete with crazy stuff in it. The store we chose to visit, for example, includes an indoor trapeze school and “Beantown,” a Jelly Belly store and series of Jelly Belly mosaic–covered sculptures of iconic Boston buildings and scenes. There’s also a giant Jelly Belly banana split on top of an ice cream stand inside. I mean, I really don’t know what to tell you about it. I know it doesn’t make sense, but it was there!

Okay! Moving on, we then went to Rhode Island!

Our primary destination in Rhode Island was the Hasbro headquarters, which boasts a giant Mr. Potato Head:

After that, we headed out to Connecticut:

We’re now in for the night and are most likely going to make our way home tomorrow, with a few exciting stops as always!