New England – Fall 2010 – Day 1: LHR to Boston - New Start.

After a slow breakfast and a leisurely morning we caught the hotel hopper to the terminal and were in more than adequate time to check in our baggage and pass through security to wait for our flight.
This journey was ground-breaking because our struggle with carrying our bags on our recent cruise and the realization that we were the last people in the world without wheeled baggage had persuaded us to purchase bags with both handles and wheels. Thus my huge stock of Prince kit bags will remain in our loft until such time as they become historic exhibits in their own right.
We joined our flight without problems and, when we were in the air, a PA announcement asked us to make ourselves known to the cabin crew. We were then greeted by the senior stewardess and given our friend’s best wishes – the cabin crew then looked after us very well serving us champagne and chocolates.
Without these special kindnesses we would still have been well impressed with the Virgin treatment that we received it was a very pleasant journey.
We flew out of LHR at about 15.15 and because the time change was on our side we arrived in the USA at about 17.45.
On arrival in Boston we passed through Immigration and Customs painlessly and quickly found our way to the shuttle bus and on it to the car hire depots.
We were booked with Hertz and we had been advised that we needed to reprint our car voucher rather than present yesterday’s – the faint printing of the hotel machine was still acceptable and we were assigned a Chevy Aveo Sedan which seemed almost brand new. It is about the size of a Ford Focus and easily accommodated our two major bags and all hand luggage in its trunk.
We must have appeared to be veterans of this process because the couple behind us was collecting their car and setting out to drive in the states for the first time and they asked us for any advice. We tried to help but when they told us that they had no SatNav we were concerned as to how they would manage. I had switched my SatNav on in the office not to find our way to the desk but to let the device find itself, to speed our progress when we had the car.
We set off from the depot by about 19.30 and we were aiming at our second day’s hotel – The Kennebunk Inn in Kennebunk, Maine. This was a problem in itself because it was further from the airport than the first hotel and also the tour details that we needed to proceed we waiting for us at the first hotel. We now had a two hour journey in front of us in a miserable damp evening. We were not prepared for there being roundabouts in New England as all our American friends had claimed to have met them for the first time driving in England – I guess the clue is in the name – New England.
Our navigation was excellent and we arrived quicker than the SatNav expected, we parked behind the property and walked round to the front door on Main Street. The door was open but there were no other signs of life, we wandered the ground floor and in the office area were two envelopes one of which had our name on it. Inside was our room key and bill. I wrote on the invoice that we had paid in advance and we took possession of our room.
It was quaint and for the only time on our tour we used a real key.
After depositing our luggage and sending an email request to American Driving Vacations for our tour details to be forwarded to a later hotel, we set out into the drizzle to find sustenance, and possible a beer.
Two blocks up the Main Street we found both at Duffy’s Tavern and Grill. The disturbed eating pattern of the day was such that we only required a bedtime snack but the place was pleasant and the regulars came and went while we kept half an eye on the Packers losing from a winning position against the Chicago Bears.