We left JFK airport and straight into the urban New York traffic. Thank the world for SatNav, we would never have found our way towards Boston without it.As we headed North into Connecticut along Interstate 95, the colours immediately hit us. All kinds of Autumn including almost scarlet bushes lived up to all we had been told about New England in Fall. But it was noticeable how more advanced the Autumn was even an hour further North, as more bare trees appeared and the colours calmed. Let's see what we find when we reach Maine.
After getting used to the car, traffic and roads, we started wondering where to stay, and took a detour to Cape Cod. Both of us felt we knew the words Cape Cod since we could remember, but couldn't say exactly why. Later, theories like "scene of the film Cape Fear" were dispelled but at least we knew it was a place Bostonians went for vacations.
We ended up in Hyannis at the aptly named Cape Cod Inn. Standard USA Motel is the best description. As we walked around the town, Nicki said "I feel like I am in the TV" as we felt like this town was like 100 others we had seen in movies based in USA. All the buildings were old-style but new - it did resemble a film-set.
We walked along the cute Main Street and stopped at a music store, "Kelley's Guitars". Inside we saw some very odd shaped guitars, and the owner of the shop (strangely called Gene) came out and explained them to us. He talked at us for about 30 minutes about the guitars, real -estate buy-ups, the lost lease of his shop and his past history of being an architect and selling his business to pursue his love of music. Upstairs he had a studio where he taught autistic children music, apparently a unique way to get through the barriers of the condition.
We walked along the cute Main Street and stopped at a music store, "Kelley's Guitars". Inside we saw some very odd shaped guitars, and the owner of the shop (strangely called Gene) came out and explained them to us. He talked at us for about 30 minutes about the guitars, real -estate buy-ups, the lost lease of his shop and his past history of being an architect and selling his business to pursue his love of music. Upstairs he had a studio where he taught autistic children music, apparently a unique way to get through the barriers of the condition.
But those guitars fascinated us. They were bendy! The builder is a guy called Leo Burrell, now 78 and retired. He came with a unique way of making guitars which twisted the shape without losing acoustic accuracy to mould to the player's body instead of the guitar player having to match the shape of the instrument. As he talked, a musician in the store was playing one of the models and it sounded fantastic (although the frontage of the shop reverberated as they played - no wonder the new owner wanted to knock it down!)
As we walked further on, we talked about what kind of place to sit and have a drink. Nicki's idea was to talk to local people and get suggestions about what to do and where to go - I said "no problem, as long as we don't go to Irish bars - they are all the same and you feel like you might as well be in Amsterdam or London in them". Then we see a nice place and go in - it's called the British Beer Company (BBC for short) No Irish pubs for us, then...
As we sat at the bar, we saw a guy eating what looked like a 2 foot wide pizza, it was just huge! OK, we know America is famous for large portions but this seemed ridiculous. It was explained that they had a 2 for 1 offer today and people took the leftovers home. We promptly ordered 2 smaller pizzas, 1 to eat and 1 to go - plenty enough for us.
We ended our day with a walk along the remaining part of Main Street. We saw a beggar and after walking past with our spare pizza underarm, felt a bit guilty and went back to offer it to her. She answered "Thanks, I already ate one". Obviously we weren't the first with such guilt pangs. It seems in Cape Cod, the beggars can be choosers...
