Made it to the East Coast: New England!

OK, so this update is a couple of weeks old... but better late than later eh? (ooops, remnants of my days in Canada).

I leave Montreal around 3 pm after catching up on much needed sleep. It's stopped raining but is still cloudy and overcast. I cross the border back into the US -- the customs/immigration guy asks me where I've been. He says "Wow, you visited a lot of places!" so I say, "Yeah, I'm on a road trip all across America." He asks "Alone?" and I say "Yeah..." He then jokingly asks "Mid-life crisis?" and then checks my ID, sees the age, then says "Oh yeah, mid-life crisis." Wishes me good luck and then waves me thru. I thought that was funny.

I drive through Vermont and enjoy the gorgeous foliage colors change. This is exactly what I timed my trip to hit the northeast for. It was awesome! I'll have to keep the memories in my head though as I did not stop to take pictures. It went on for miles, along different terrain and elevations, and for as far as the eye could see left or right. I cross through New Hampshire and then enter Maine. It's started raining again for the last hour or so, and I am driving through narrow winding roads in the dark until I enter Portland. I quickly find a place to stay (did not have a reservation), and hunker down for the night. It's late and so I decide to just order Chinese delivery.

The next morning, I begin sightseeing. 4 weeks, and 5800~ miles later, I finally made it to the East coast! I start out walking around Portland, then head out to the Portland Head lighthouse. Very New England! And this is the Atlantic Ocean!

It was still overcast and cold. I keep driving south, stopping by Portsmouth, New Hampshire:I keep going South until I enter Salem, Massachusets. It's raining again and gotten dark so I quickly find a place to stay, and have my leftover chinese food from the night before (much to the amusement of the front-desk clerk whom I asked to microwave my food for me -- she commented: "big-spender, eh?").

The next day, I begin the "witchy" tour of Salem:

It was fun to walk around (specially the week or so before Halloween), and enjoy the kitchy witch memorabilia/decor. The Salem Witch Museum was interesting and worth it, but the Witch Village was a total rip-off. The only downside to this stop was when I went back to my car after walking around (running to it, actually), there was a ticket on my windshield! My meter had expired. I was 5 mins late, which was why I was running. Damn. I'm wondering now if they will be able to find me in CA or should I just ignore the darn thing.

I drive South again, aiming for Providence RI, but stop by Plymouth Rock, for some quick pictures of the actual rock where the Pilgrims landed, and a replica of the Mayflower.

This was a pretty cool stop for me because when I was in the third grade, in the Philippines, we actually divided our class into pilgrims and indians and reenacted (with costumes and food and all) the first thanksgiving! Yes, in the Philippines! -- and in case you're wondering, I was an Indian.)