Friday, November 04, 2011

Our 40th Anniversary And Other Reasons To Go To Boston


"Huzza, her sides are made of iron," yelled a crewman on the USS Constitution. Thus the name, Old Ironsides, was born. The crewman in question was on the USS Constitution, which was locked in combat with the British frigate Guerriere about 750 miles off of the Massachusetts coast on the 19th of August, 1812. The two ships were broadside at about 50 yards or less and the Guerriere's cannonballs were bouncing off the heavy oak sides of the Constitution.
The ship has had a long and storied career and retired undefeated. She is still commissioned and lies in port in Boston Harbor with a U.S. Navy crew of about 70. She is directly across the harbor from where she was first launched from the shipyard in 1797. In wartime she carried a crew of 450 crewmen which included 55 Marines.


I bring all of this up because my wife has had a fascination with this ship and its history and every year since I can't remember when has said, "We should take a fall tour into the New England states to look at the fall colors and maybe see the USS Constitution." Harvest being the devil that it is, has kept us from doing that. Early September would have been better for such a trip but all you would see is the color green at that time and I can stay home and look at a tractor or late season weeds to accomplish that.
This year was different. The Army Corps of Engineers had pretty well taken care of about 65 percent of our harvest with a slight miscalculation of the storage capacity needed in upstream dams to protect us down-streamers should it happen to rain or snow too much in the high country. Okay, slight is the wrong word but I wasn't sure how to spell gargantuan.
A few months back Marilyn suggested that this might be a good year to try our color tour since we don't have much left to harvest. "And besides, it is our 40th anniversary in September and we should do something memorable." "I guess so" was my long reply, and so we went.
Looking at the Google Maps satellite view made it seem like "well this big airport is here and the ship you want to see is right here. They were both in the same picture and it seemed possibly within walking distance were it not for this Boston Harbor which I later found the correct pronunciation to be Haba. Now if we can find some colorful trees nearby, possibly up on this Bunker Hill place, we'll be done in a few hours.
We could have made life easy for ourselves by getting into a taxi and saying, "We want to see the USS Constitution," and our cabbie would have said something like, "No pablem buddy, it's right across da Haba from heya." Nope, we're smarter than that, we rented a car. Those of you who have been to Boston are at this point slapping your hands to the side of your head and yelling, NO CLIFF, YOU DIDN'T REALLY RENT A CAR DID YOU? Yes we did and we later named it the "Albatross." We actually found a small parking lot about 10 blocks from our ship but later were shocked that it cost us $16 for the two hours we were there. The next day we backed out of a parking garage in downtown Boston after seeing their sign that began with "0 to 4 minutes- $6." We went back to our $16 lot.
Yes, we had learned the first lesson of Boston: come for a visit but we really don't want any more cars in our city.
We got tickets to a trolley company that stops at eight historic locations around Boston and you can get off, spend as much time as you care to and get back on. It was about $40 for all day and the drivers are as well versed with the history of the area as can be expected. Nothing can drive home the fact that we were at the birthplace of America than to have your guide say, "This is the historic Granary Burial Ground dating to 1660, here you'll find the graves of Paul Revere, John Hancock, Samuel Adams and Benjamin Franklin's parents."
The USS Constitution, the Bunker Hill Monument, the burial grounds, and many of the attractions are at no charge to the public.
We had some trouble finding our way around town, We went past the Boston "Gaaden" where the Celtics and the Bruins play, three times on purpose and five times accidentally. At one stop, I got out and walked behind our van. Marilyn asked what I was doing and I said I was going to remove the bumper sticker on the back, the one that says "I'm from Nebraska and I farm so please honk at me often." They don't like folks going a mere 5 miles over the speed limit, but it's hard to manage much better than that when a lot of the highways are under ground and you're trying to use a GPS map with no service.
The Boston area is a great place and I would encourage you to visit but use the 'T', Boston's subway line. Turns out you don't need to take your own drawn butter either, it comes with the 'lobsta.'
On our arrival at home, the two brothers who help me at harvest already had the soybeans harvested and had started on the corn. Now we need to find some place to go until the corn is done.
Next issue, we'll head up the coast to Kennebunkport, Maine, and down the coast to Plymouth, Mass., and talk about the food.

13 comments:

Lanny said...

Food! Let's talk food! Food on trips! But for today's post... It sounds like you make travel plans like Dirt does. Glance at map, head out door. And it appears that it could be for similar reasons? Well besides being men. Its like how he used to do dishes, leaving chunks between fork tines in hopes that he never has to do it again. I say, practice makes perfect!

However hard it was for Marilyn to get you to go, it sounds like you had a great time.

I always wonder why America doesn't have more bad spellers. Don't they see the r's?

Granny Annie said...

Ron was in Boston shortly after he joined the Navy in 1957. He toured the USS Constitution and what impressed him most was how short the crew members must have been in order to maneuver around below deck.

We have two large reproductions of the famous paintings of the USS Constitution and the HMS Java that Ron got in Taiwan. They are huge and have elaborate frames and we will never live any place suitable to hang them.

Cliff, it is difficult to imagine you touring the most liberal state in the U.S.A. Does Marilyn have to keep her hand over your mouth?

Granny Annie said...

Ron was in Boston shortly after he joined the Navy in 1957. He toured the USS Constitution and what impressed him most was how short the crew members must have been in order to maneuver around below deck.

We have two large reproductions of the famous paintings of the USS Constitution and the HMS Java that Ron got in Taiwan. They are huge and have elaborate frames and we will never live any place suitable to hang them.

Cliff, it is difficult to imagine you touring the most liberal state in the U.S.A. Does Marilyn have to keep her hand over your mouth?

Jim said...

Cliff, I loved your write-up here. It brought back memories. You did good witht the rental car. Next time double park along the street. That is free.

Mrs. Jim and I stopped off to see the Boston Tea Party boat. There weren't any parking places on the warf but people were tripple parkikng we did that too. Next we went to the MacDonalds close by and ate a lunch. We came back and the car was just fine.

That car was a rusted out 1976 school teacher type that we could afford in Texas. Mrs. Jim was afraid her feet would fall through one of the holes in the floor board.

Next we drove over to the Old North Church, Paul Revere's, and found a parking spot right out front on the street. The meter even had a lot left on it. Mrs. Jim was amazed how I got around in Boston. Faster than she could read the pre GPS days map.

I lived three years in Manchester, New Hampshire, and would come to Boston a several times each year. I would go to the ORIGINAL Radio Shack store and got my General Class Ham Radio license in the Federal building there with the FCC. I've kept it up for over 50 years [K1TLT, now upgraded to Extra Class].


I'm ready for more. Makes me want to go. We did in 2002. Flew up this time like you did, to Manchester and drove around way up to Montreal and back over to Maine that time.
..

Peter said...

"I guess so" was my long reply, and so we went.

That reminded me of... So they went, they found the horses at the old mimosa clump.
Sounds like Boston is a fun place to visit Cliff.

Shannon said...

Glad you got to go, but sorry for the circumstances that allowed it to happen.

Cliff said...

Peter, I can't deny that it crossed my mind when I read it back to myself.

Ralph said...

I know you were there but I still have a hard time believing it - all those people, all that concrete.
Ralph

EV said...

Good choice for a colorful, historic and memorable trip, Cliff. Sweet .... and with your Sweety!!

Rachel said...

Congratulations on the anniversary Cliff!

Hard to picture you in Boston, but it must have been exciting too...or at least parts of it! Seeing the USS Constitution would have been thrilling, and listening to them talk up there! haha!

I had to laugh when you said you went past the Boston "Gaaden" where the Celtics and the Bruins play, three times on purpose and five times accidentally. If I had to drive in Boston I would probably still be there trying to get out! The mere thought of it makes me nervous.

Looking forward to more about your trip and some of that lobsta you surely had!!

Peter said...

Hi Cliff, thanks for the heads up about our recent visit by your CEO, I did manage to conjure up a reason to keep him here but he got away before I could tell him that he made the perfect political book-end with ourown much esteemed Prime Minister Julia Gillard.... Se up-coming post!!

Peter said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jerry in Texas said...

Happy 40th Anniversary, you two kids!