A few months ago I took a trip up to New England and visited six states in one week.  It started by spending some time in Boston after a conference.  Boston is a cool city because it blends the old with the new. As you walk between sky scrapers you’ll run into reminders that Boston is REALLY old.  Buildings built in the 1700s sit in the shadow of new construction and modern engineering. At the heart of Boston is a park which is alive with all kinds of people. Pick up soccer games, rec league softball, runners, readers, tourists, bikers, bladers, and business folk mingled around the park which is surrounded by skyscrapers on three sides.  

The one side without towering structures was Beacon Hill, which is a throwback to an older time. One with smaller stone streets and beautiful architecture. Boston (in the summer at least) is a town alive with people walking everywhere, something us mid-west folks dont understand.  I say Midwest, but the majority of Americans dont even walk 5 miles a week.  The car has transformed American in so many unintended ways.  We drive to the supermarket that is less than a mile away.  To say that we’re lazy is too simple of an answer, to some extent it may be dangerous to walk that one mile depending on the roads you have to cross or the time of day.  But for this trip I needed a car. I had 1000 miles to drive hitting Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and back to Boston.  Step one was getting out of Boston and headed up to Portland, ME.

This entire trip I’d be car camping. The goal was to hit as many places as I could.  Instead of the more satisfying exploring of areas via trails, I’d be driving to an area, wonder around for a bit, then drive off to the next place.  The drive up to Maine is nothing special, but Maine itself is worth seeing.  The coast is full of lighthouses and the views are great. Portland, Maine was the closest port from the new world to the old world.  Places like New York and Boston may have held more importance during the American Revolution, but Portland, ME was a significant trading route to Britain (when we werent fighting them). It’s also interesting to me for two reasons. First, the Confederates during the Civil War raided Portland – with one boat. Second, the city has burned four times, the worst coming after a firework celebration on July 4th. Their town motto is “I will rise again.” I’m assuming it’s because they think the’re going to burn their town down again someday.

For some reason I had in my head that Maine was this sparsely populated area, and I was right, Maine its self has just over a million people.  Portland has nearly half a million people living in the area so it made Maine feel a lot more populated that it really is.  After spending some time in town I returned to my campsite (which was in an area for retried people) and waited for a storm that was headed my way.