By Spencer
To start the trip we decided to first visit the New England states. We wanted to complete these six northeastern states as a trial run before committing and going west. The plan was to do a loop starting and ending in our home state of New York. This allowed us to visit several isolated states while staying relatively close to home. We successfully accomplished this in five weeks, making it back to New York to spend Memorial Day with our families.
Starting from our apartment in Rochester NY, we went south towards New York City and Connecticut. We have both been to NYC before and chose to skip it for now. From Connecticut, we went to Newport, Rhode Island, then Massachusetts. We mostly stayed along the Atlantic Coast, following the major eastern highway I95. After Boston MA, we spent a week each in Maine and New Hampshire. To finish the loop we spent only a single day in Vermont. With its proximity to New York, we figured we could return to do more in Vermont another time.
Connecticut did not go at all according to plan so I can’t say much about that state. We did learn early on in Connecticut that it is best to fully research and plan before driving somewhere new. I basically randomly chose to head towards Bridgeport CT since I saw it had a beach on the ocean that I was anxious to see. We arrived only to discover that it was no fun driving right through the city and that we had no other reason to be so far south in the state. It was too bad our plans further north in Connecticut were cut short. See Week 1.
It seemed like all the biggest attractions for Rhode Island were in Newport, so we wisely choose to spend our limited time within the State in the coastal city. Newport was really great. We had our first successful remote work week at a university library in Newport. The military fort, cliff walk, and mansions were really cool. I especially liked the cliff walk along the coast. The ocean waves crashing on the rocks provided excellent scenery. See Week 2.
For silly reasons I often joke that Massachusetts is just a lesser version of New York state. And while I can’t say I’m now a Boston Red Sox fan, I will admit the state was better than I expected. We thoroughly enjoyed Cape Cod. I certainly did not expect the sandy dunes out at the end of the cape. The raw oysters were… interesting. It actually didn’t taste like much to me, maybe I didn’t try a big enough bite. I’m glad we went to see Plymouth Rock even though it was just a quick touristy thing. Boston was fine. On our initial way up to Woburn (a suburb of Boston), we drove right through the city and discovered the highway goes underground with exits onto the streets above, that was cool. Another interesting thing we discovered in Boston was about the national parks. I always imagined national parks as big iconic landscapes with household names, but there are actually tons of smaller parks located all over the U.S. I never would have guessed there was a national park along the streets of downtown Boston showcasing historic buildings and landmarks – Boston NHP. It was cool to visit revolutionary war locations that I remember learning about in school. See Week 3.
The only bad part about Maine was that we only got one week in the state. Acadia National Park was certainly a big highlight of New England. And we got our national park pass at Acadia, so we now have access to any park for a whole year. It was really unfortunate that the trails up Mt. Katahdin were closed. I guess on the bright side now we have an excuse to go back someday. See Week 4.
The Franconia Ridge Trail in the White Mountains of New Hampshire was quite a hike. With over 9 miles and three peaks above 4000 feet, it was quite a push for us after a winter of desk jobs and video games. One of our goals for this trip is to live a little more active lifestyle. Our legs were sore for days after that hike. That’s not to say that we have any regrets, it was good to get our muscles going again and the views along the ridge were absolutely breathtaking. I’m looking forward to even longer and higher hikes. See Week 5.
Vermont was short and sweet. Driving up through southern Vermont I was surprised to see so many mountains. For some reason, I always assumed the Green Mountains were in the north but I guess that’s not the case. I really liked the hilltop view of New York from across Lake Champlain in Vermont. See Week 5.
We chose an excellent time to visit New England. The spring season was warm enough to allow our adventures, but it was not quite so late in the year that the peak summer season had reached full effect. We found ourselves in several free parking lots that would have been paid just a month later. Tourist attractions were not too busy, and with school still in session families had not yet filled the beaches and hiking trails. There were however some drawbacks to choosing May for this portion of the trip. A few trails were closed due to mud or for protecting endangered species. And we suffered a couple of cold nights during the first week.
Driving through New England was mostly fine. We only had bad traffic outside Boston (typical Massachusetts haha). One thing that was weirdly annoying also occurred in MA. We found that drivers in Cape Cod and Woburn often incorrectly yielded the right-of-way as a courtesy gesture. I understand that they were probably just being polite, but I believe it can be unsafe to not follow the common rules of the road. On another note, it would be great if gas prices stopped increasing. Thank goodness we are at least doing this in a Prius.
The car setup was good enough along the first leg of the trip. We used the first month to reorganize as needed to maximize our storage capabilities. The bed is really quite comfortable and cozy. We sleep fine now that we are both feeling 100%. The microwave has been really useful for warm meals. We have not had any mechanical issues since the parking brake snafu in Newport. And at least we have nice new rear brakes now.
The weather in New England was good enough. A cold start for sure, but we knew that was a possibility. I’m not sure if it was just a coincidence or the coastal proximity, but it seemed like whenever we were trying to make a meal outside it was really windy. It also was very foggy at times which seemed out of the ordinary but perhaps that was also because we were closer to the coast. Maybe we’re more perceptive of strange weather because we are outside or in the car all the time.
One thing that really surprised me initially on the trip was the libraries. It turns out that public libraries can be a fairly interesting place to visit. Many of the libraries we worked at in the northeast had fascinating history and architecture. A fairly big highlight of the trip so far was seeing the inside of Woburn Public Library in Massachusetts. It had a very classic 1800s-style aesthetic and felt like it was from a movie. Other libraries have been similarly grandiose, both new and old, and it has been fun looking for these interesting places to work. And on that note, working in New England was fine. Our remote work setup has been successful so far.
We’ve had lots of people asking what our favorite part of the trip so far was. I always respond by explaining that Massachusetts has been my favorite state all around so far, but in terms of a single attraction Acadia National Park is the winner. I was pleasantly surprised by Massachusetts and the history that Boston had to offer. But the hiking and scenery of Acadia were really outstanding. I really enjoyed the beehive hike in Acadia that had us walking right along the cliff edge and scaling the rocky face of the mountain. I’m very hopeful we will have more hikes like this again.
