Journey to America – My Recent Trip to Boston, MA. Part 1

One day in 1995, I was running like the wind in a KFC restaurant in the state of Florida. Why was I running? I was being chased in a game of tag with my older brother, and at that moment I was successfully evading being tagged. Even as a five year year old, I must say I was quite agile. That quickly changed though when I zigged when I should have zagged and I smacked the back of my head hard against the corner of a divider wall. GUSH. I spilt the back of my head opened and was rushed off to a nearby hospital, where my agile skills no longer mattered as the doctors literally put me in a straight jacket (yes, you may laugh now). Sadly, I spent the rest of my Disneyland vacation in Florida sitting by the side of the pool, with my legs daggling in the water as I watched my brother swim away in the crystal waters of the pool, as laughter of nearby children filled my ears.

Queue the intense sound of depressing music meant to make you sympathize with my misery.

However, this trip was going to be different! Almost 31 years later, my brother and I, were now adventuring to the United States of America not as wee lads…but as grown men. My trip would be different this time – no head splitting, no straight jackets, and no leaving my favourite stuffy on the next international flight (which my father ran to the departing plane gate – the airline stopped the plane from leaving, and he went on board and retrieved my newly purchased Mickey stuffed toy from Disneyland, who was buckled up and ready to visit Europe).

Yes, this trip would be different.

Sit back and enjoy another post by The Eason Clan.

Months and months ago, I was sat at my gaming computer and absolutely rocking some random human players from somewhere in the world, in the video game World of Warships (I had introduced my brother, Josh, to this game as well and he later became a huge fan of WOWS). It was through this game that we first learned about a special museum (really the first of its kind in the world) which had a World War Two battleship USS Massachusetts; a WW2 submarine USS Lionfish; and a destroyer, the USS Joseph F. Kennedy – which was Battleship Cove, located in Fall River, MA. Not only are these ships resting here in the water, but they are floating museum which you can fully explore!

My brother and I talked about how cool it would be to visit such a place, and then we decided to make it happen. After booking our flights (four in total), motel, rental vehicle and finally the tickets for the museum, we waited patiently for our vacation. It would be a short trip, flying from Newfoundland on a Friday afternoon and arriving in Boston at 6:00 P.M. local time. We would then go to Battleship Cove (the museum of ships) on Saturday, and then fly back to NL on Sunday evening.

One really important point I want to make though (which really is an overarching theme that was evident throughout our short trip) is that God really blessed our trip. There were four main blessings that happened, and rather than going into a bunch of detail about each one, I will ensure that they are clearly labelled in this post with a bolded B# 1, 2, 3, or 4.

After taking off from St. John’s, NL, on June 26, we travelled to Halifax to clear security and customs there. It was my first time clearing customs as an adult, and the short, non-conversational questions sort of threw me for a loop. As I approached the customs desk with two officers there, one beckoned my brother to one side of the desk and I went to the other. The man at my side of the desk was pretty serious (which I understand they have to be) and the questions were as follows:

“Passport.”

I took my passport out and handed it to him.

“Date of birth?”

……

“Where are you going?” he asked in a monotone voice.

“I am going to Boston…well actually, Fall River…”

He cut me off, “Why?”

“Sorry?”

“Why are you going there?”

“My brother and I are going on a history trip – ”

“Why?”

“Because we want to go there for a history trip vacation -”

“Your good to go.”

Welcome to American soil, baby!

We walked through a long hallway and went into the American section of departures. It’s like I stepped into another universe, even though I was still in Halifax. I saw American t-shirts, seniors everywhere, and different accents that clearly let me know that I wasn’t in NL anymore. There was an American burger joint there in the waiting area, but due to my past flying experiences, I decided having a big, greasy burger in my system would not benefit anyone on the flight.

After boarding our Dash 8 propellor plane again, we took off for the U.S.A. Both of these flights were pretty good, the only problem being that they were quite cramped – but I knew this before we booked the plane. However, by going with these prop planes, we cut our travel time down quite a bit, as we could hop from NL to NS and then Boston, rather than going to Toronto then Boston (which is the way we went on the way home).

As our flight started to descend into Logan Boston International Airport, I could see water all around us. Then I saw something so cool – hundreds of little white boats doted the bay and rivers all along the coast. What was neat though, is that most of them were anchored out in the water and no one was on them – as that’s where they are kept. We landed at the airport, and then plowed on through the craziness of one of America’s busiest airports. Like two disoriented amigos, we made our way through the crowds of people with our carry-ons (we packed light) and hopped on a shuttle bus to transport us to the other side of the airport to the rental car center.

*Important tip: there are no indicators in the Boston airport shuttles that tell you what stop you are currently at (many of the buses and subways in Toronto have light indicators notifying you of your current stop), so many people were asking “Where stop are we at now?” and multiple times people departed the bus when it stopped only to hop right back on when they realized this wasn’t the right stop.

We finally arrived at the rental car center and to our surprise there was a massive line up of about forty people waiting in line at the Budget car rentals line alone (there were about six other car rental lines besides this). It was 6:30 p.m., and I knew that we weren’t going anywhere fast. There were only four workers on the desks, and the line barely moved after ten minutes. It felt like I was on set for the filming of Zootopia at the motor registration building with the Sloths as the workers.

I mentioned to Josh about checking out the parking garage location (where there was a Budget rental counter there) because a sign stated Fast-Track there (which you availed of if you were a member). We honestly didn’t know if we qualified, but what the heck – if I stayed in the line of misery while Josh attempted the other location, we didn’t have much to lose – only our dinner reservation (which we had already called the restaurant and asked them to move the time).

Then B#1 happened. As I stayed in the lineup with a bunch of folks grumbling about the shortage of staff and our hungry bellies, Josh had approached the other counter where you pick up your rental car. He asked one worker at the counter if he could check-in there, to which the guy told him that this wasn’t the right spot for that, and that it was actually the line I was already standing in.

Then something really cool happened.

He asked if the line was really busy and backed up, to which Josh replied that it was. Then the guy exclaimed, “You know what, I’m going to help you out. Your a nice guy. Your a nice guy man.” He then turned to his female colleague and repeated, “He’s a nice guy. I’m going to help him out.”

He checked in my brother right there.

Not knowing any of this yet, I quietly stood in the line of eternity with all the other subjects, listening to more complaints and grumbles of the quality of service. Then my phone rang, “Bro, I got the keys man. Come on down.”

No way… I then said in my heart, Thank you, God, for your favour!

I opened up the line-strap thing so I could exit the line (]I was about half-way through the line at the point of the call). As I was hooking the strap back onto the post, the dude behind me( which the main complainer) said, “Giving up, hey?”

“No man, my brother just got out rental at the other place,” I replied.

The guy looked at me as if I had ten heads, as if I had some supernatural ability to make rental agreements work.

As I entered the garage, we found our rental SUV and out we went into the wide world of Boston. We zoomed to the restaurant, ate a delicious burger platter while overlooking the bay full of ferries and yachts travelling back and forth, and then we turned on the “HIGHWAY OF DOOM.”

Yes, I have labelled it that, as we were in four lane traffic, on a Friday evening in Boston.

ZOOM!

ZOOM!

ZOOM!

It was some of the craziest driving I have experienced (besides Montreal in 2013), as people cut in and out of traffic like their lives depended on it. I was quite happy that my brother was driving as he is a great driver and pretty experienced during in nutso traffic.

After driving for an hour in this traffic flow, we finally arrived at our low-key inn in Somerset, MA (about 15 minutes from Battleship Cove). Our stay at the inn wasn’t the best, as the pictures online certainly did not match the quality of the room we were in. The tiles were cracked in the bathroom, with the door handle coming off, and the shower head high enough for Bilbo Baggins of the Shire. The pillows were like half that of a normal pillow, and we both had a pretty crappy sleep.

The following morning, after a pitiful sleep of a few hours, I suggested that we find a new spot to stay for our next night.

Then B#2 happened.

I went searching online and found another hotel. There was one room at a Holiday Inn Express just on the outskirts of Fall River, as all the other hotels were booked solid. Even though it was over our budget, we decided that our sleep was more important – so I went down to the front desk at our current location, told the worker that we weren’t impressed or satisfied with our experience, and he gave back our money for the next night and the deposit – I then booked the other hotel.

Favour all over us.

The awesome blessings were just beginning…

Tune in for Part 2 of this blog, releasing this Friday.

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