Dateline: Gloucester, MA

How did we get here? Strange things were happening. We researched all the RV campgrounds and State Parks and because of the "Season" we couldn't find anything open in Salem or Gloucester, the closest open park being in Salisbury so that was our destination when we left Cape Cod. Our three choices were to drive through Boston on I-93, drive around Boston on I-95 or take the I-495 Beltline. Being sort of middle of the roadish we took I-95 and headed to the Post Office in Newburyport to collect our mail care package. The USPS says that Priority Mail takes two days but in reality the mail sometimes doesn't arrive until Saturday which was the case today, we hoped.

So here we are sitting in a 30 minute spot in front of the PO and there are some funny lights on the dash and the engine doesn't start. Well, we've got both emergency road assistance and aftermarket warranty contract, so no problem. Except it's now Friday afternoon and most of the repair shop don't work are on Saturdays, all the RV service places are booked up weeks in advance getting the locals ready for the "season", and trying to find someone who can and will work on a MB diesel engine. After about 20 calls we found a MB dealer in Lynnfield that would work on the engine and had a Sprinter mechanic that was working on Saturday. The wrecker guy can't tow us until after 7 PM because of other towing jobs, but he is in the neighborhood an stops by to see us. When I showed him what the problem was, guess what, the engine starts. He leaves and we take off for the MB dealer. We arrive about 4 PM and go over the details with the service advisor and are able to get a rental car from Enterprise. Because of the time, we decide to call it a day and check into a local motel where we enjoyed a wonderful Italian dinner catered by a nearby pizza place that delivers.

Saturday morning after a breakfast of champions at McD's we're at the dealership to talk to the mechanic to tells him exactly about the problem. No such luck, the mechanic is sick and doesn't show up for work. Well, we have a car, we unload some more clothes from the RV in our Trader Joe bags since we didn't think that we would need suitcases or duffels and take off for Newburyport to retrieve our mail which did arrive. Now we have two or three days to bum around so we are able to visit, after Newburyport, both Gloucester and Salem. So we took the lemons and made lemonade and now  we are now in Gloucester for a couple of nights.

Right across from the PO is this  wonderful little park. The thing that I though was interesting is that this church had a clock in the spire. I can't remember the name of the park but the bronze is a guy named William Garrison, called The Liberator because he published a newspaper by that name and was very involved in the abolition of slavery and some other various causes.

Market Square is in the middle
of Historic Downtown Newburyport which is filled with shops, restaurants, parking lots and much traffic. Very interesting - there is a time limit for street parking with no charges but the parking lots are three hour limits @ .50 cents per hour. We found Susan's knit shop and also two pet shops. The town is very dog friendly and many of the shops had water bowls outside. Shadow had a real field day. This is the best of the historic down towns that we have visited.


                           

This is their waterfront park which is mostly grass and shade trees with a minimum of walkways and vertical improvements. That is my lovely bride and Shadow walking on the promenade which is on the Merrimack River. There was a sign that said that on the old waterfront the Middle Shipyard in 1798 built the 24 gun ship Merrimack for the new U.S. Navy, another good trivia question.

This is the in-town boatyard on the Merrimack. Never being up north in the winter it's amazing for us to see so some many boats, shrink wrapped, and on the hard. Along the roads we also have seen a lot of other shrink wrapped boats in the yards of their owners. Shrink-wrapping must be a good seasonal business.

         

After leaving town we drove along the river towards the inlet. This is a neat little house that we talked about where the cupola may have come from. The house looked like it was built on concrete pilings whereas we also saw two new homes under construction that were being built on steel I-beam pilings

No not a light house, but on Plum Island, by the inlet is this range light for the river. After leaving the island we drove down to Gloucester and took a lap around the waterfront and saw this great bronze sculpture . The Man at the Wheel, 1923, is a memorial to the 10,000 Gloucester fishermen lost at sea.

And that is that....except for the 1/2 gallon of espresso ice cream we ate for dinner at The Captains Lodge, our old but clean motel!  Good night all..Susan (and Lou and Shadow)

Actually, it was only a quart and really good - expresso with chocolate chips...............L