Well, here we are just 10 days away from our new adventure. As most of you know, when we travel we go by the seat of our pants. That is, with just a little general knowledge of where we are going. On this trip we know we are leaving Alaska and landing in Boston two days later, with an over night in Portland Oregon. From there it's off to see the sights and leaves, eat lobster everyday and go where the wind blows us. Not everyones cup of tea for sure, but it works best for us as one never knows what gem is just around the corner that might other wise be missed.
It all started with a postcard.
We have never been to the East Coast other than passing through airports, and we have always wanted to see New England in the fall. We are bargain travelers: that is we want bang for our buck. No fifty dollar a plate dinners when we can go where the locals go for the same thing at half price.
One day we received a postcard from some travel outfit offering a "train" trip and leaf viewing through Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and ending in New Haven, Conn. 10 days, meals, hotel, transport and entry fees to various sites all for the low price of $2,499.00 each!!!!! plus we would have to get ourselves to Boston. Good grief, for that price we could go on a Greek Liner for 15 days first class. Anyway, I started looking and found that most of the trip was by motor couch rather than train, and what little bit of train travel there was was by local commuter. The train sites they advertised were really train museums or model train parks. No, no, that wasn't going to work at all. We don't like being on a schedule that says we have to leave the next day at 2:00 am when we would rather stay 3 or 4 more days. We like taking our time and getting to know the history of the areas by talking and eating with the locals.
So, I got on my trusty iMAC and started goggling all the towns, sites, hotels etc. that was being offered, got the prices and locations and told the man I allow to live with me, better known as husband, that we could make that same trip on our own for less than the cost of one person and have a heck of a lot more time and fun doing it. So started the plan, such as it is.
As you all know we are seniors, but the way we travel, and we have done it this way for years and visited all over the world, can just as easily be done with children or by students. Discounts can be shared and mixed and matched, such as grandparents senior and grandkids child tickets. We have looked at all the discounts we can find on local sites, hotels, public transport and car rentals. We will be using and sharing all these and more tips as we travel along.
Now came the question of how we were going to share this adventure with all of you. I at first thought that just e-mailing everyone would work out fine. On second thought, that will be too time consuming. A friend told me about setting up a blog....... great say I who can hardly e-mail, but here I am posting my first one. Have no idea what I'm doing and will learn as I go along. So, those of you who do this all the time, have mercy on me. My spelling and editing skills are not great either, but I'm a good talker and mostly you'll all know what I mean.
Off to start packing,
