After leaving Hampton, NH, I headed to Salem, MA.  Salem has quite a bit to see.  The old houses and architecture is worth a walk.  Much of the tourism of the area is focused on the history of the witch hunt as well as modern-day witch souvenirs and tours.

I started with a tour of the Witch House.  This is actually where the Judge Jonathan Corwin lived with his family and is the only building still standing associated with the witch trials.  Much of the detail of the home is focused on how life was in the home for the Corwin family.  The rest of the detail regards the witch hunt and what people believed and used for medicine back then.  A surprising amount involved dung.

I stopped by the Salem Library after the Witch House.  The librarians provided a map of downtown and some advice for where to walk.  There are many tourist attractions.  I considered the Witch Museum and Witch Dungeon but didn’t want to pay the cost of admission to those.  Outside of the Dungeon were some stocks.

I stopped for a Jive Turkey sandwich and had a nice view from my lunch seat:

Walking through town towards the Witch Trials Memorial, I took a few pictures of other points of interest.

The Salem Witch Trials memorial has names of the people that were executed as witches carved into stones around a grassy area.  There are also quotes from the victims carved into stone.

Next to the memorial was a small graveyard.  There are walking paths through the graveyard.  At first, I thought it was part of the memorial: a fake graveyard to recognize the people killed in the witch trials.  I was about halfway through when I realized it is an actual graveyard and the walking paths do go over some graves. 😦  It may have been the original graveyard in Salem as most of the writing is worn off of the headstones.

After leaving Salem, I decided to head into Boston and take a look at the Old North Church in Boston.  The drive into Boston involved going through the Sumner Tunnel (I think) which goes under the Boston Harbor.  As I approached the church, the streets narrowed.  I got to a point where I simply could not find a parking spot.  After a while, I gave up.  A picture of the street near the church.

The next stop was the SuperCharger SouthWest of downtown Boston.  It turned out to be located at the Boston Tesla Service Center.  While there, I spoke to the staff regarding replacing the windshield, performing the annual maintenance, checking a few other things, and keeping the car there for a week while I’m overseas.  The staff was amenable to all of those things.  So, I’m deciding whether I want to get the windshield replaced while I’m gone or wait until I’m back home in Phoenix ‘just in case’ of more rocks on this trip. 🙂  I have a week to decide.  I also got the name of a local storage place to leave my items since the car will need to be empty if I leave it for Tesla to inspect and work on.

After Tesla, I drove a bit further to get into Rhode Island. Tonight I’m staying just south of Providence, RI.  I tried to get some suggestions from the locals again at dinner and received one.  It was the cliff walk I had heard about from others so I probably will check it out.  I’ll be traveling a bit away from Boston over the next week but not too far so I can easily get back for my flight.

Miles: ~8,000

I stayed up until after 3am local time watching the election coverage.  As such, I slept in a bit and then had a late morning.  I decided to park the car in a grocery store lot and walk around Bar Harbor before leaving the area.

As I’m walking, I notice my right leg feels uncomfortable.  I pay attention and realize I have another pair of underwear crammed into the right leg of my pants, slowly sliding down.  I’m well away from my car by the time I realize this.  It gets lodged behind my knee so I just ignore it and continue walking around town and had breakfast before returning to the car. 🙂

Some pictures of Bar Harbor town and waterfront:

Many of the shops were closed for the winter.  I stopped by a breakfast place and had some “famous Maine blueberry pancakes”.  They were good. 🙂

The remainder of the day was spent traveling back south.  I stayed at the same Best Western in Hampton, NH as on the 7th.  I’ve tried to strike up conversations with locals the past few nights at dinner with little luck.

 

Falling asleep early last night lead to waking up early and getting a bit of an earlier start despite having to do the laundry this morning.  I set out for Maine with the intention of getting to Bar Harbor and staying there for the night.

On the drive, I took a picture of another mileage milestone in the Tesla

While charging, I looked for points of interest.  The SuperCharger in Augusta was located just off of Stephen King Drive.  So, I looked to see where Stephen King lives.  Turns out to be in Bangor, which is the next SuperCharger.

When I arrived in Bangor, I ate at Ruby Tuesday and then looked up Stephen King’s house.  Turns out he gets a bunch of people taking pictures regularly of the gates and the house.  I became another one.

Based on what I read, King doesn’t like people to stop and linger, so I kept it to a drive-by picture.

The road to Bar Harbor was slow going.  I arrived after dark.  Hotels are more expensive here as it’s a big tourist place.  I found a decent price on the Quimby House Inn & Spa.  It’s a nice place and I’m enjoying my evening here.  I settled in and then walked around the area.  Dinner was Thai food and I had a beer at the Thirsty Whale.  The crowd was mostly couples that were engrossed in their own conversations so no opportunity to chat with locals tonight.  I’m planning to sight-see in the morning and get some daylight pictures before leaving.

Miles: ~7600

I decided to backtrack a bit to go see the State House in Montpelier, Vermont (the capital).  Montpelier is the smallest state capital in the USA.  The State House is also very much original with huge doors and large steps up to the building.  Outside of the building are three canons and some statues.

After leaving Montpelier, I added a bit of charge and then started the trip to Seabrook, NH.  On the way, I stopped at the Hooksett, NH SuperCharger to add some range and get some lunch.  Inside the rest stop / shopping area there was a display regarding an old water wheel.

On the remainder of the route, I grabbed another picture of fall foliage.

There was a bit of sunlight remaining after I reserved a hotel room, so I decided to head to the beach since I was only a few miles away at this point.

It was very cold.  I could see my breath while outside at the beach.  I got settled in the hotel and then went out to the car to get my laundry about 7pm.  There was ice on the hood of my car.  I asked the hotel staff about the restaurant across the street and was given a positive review and a 10% off coupon.  The food was good.  I had a chicken and ravioli butter nut squash dish that was very tasty.  I fell asleep early and caught up on laundry in the morning.