Bunking and Ironning in Boston

By mileage standards, today’s ride will be a snap. When all said and done we will have traveled 125 miles, but most of them were urban riding, so I give that 3:1 for country riding. I love riding in the city not for the roads, but the sites. I love seeing Greek Revival details on building, Art Deco and Beaux Arts. No place better to see than Boston.

This will be the first time MeAsWe is on the bike this season. She needs to get in shape for our up coming 5000+ mile tour coming up in May. Today’s agenda is mainly National Park sites, but if we comes across some BBQ places we will stop, and of course some of the towns will start with U S or A for the USA Tour.

First stop was the Auburndale Public Library. This definitely has a gothic overtone. The entranceway is especially neat. Picked this up as the A for the USA Tour.





Our travels took us thru Waltham and MeAsWe spotted a place to have breakfast. The place, In A Pickle, has to be good; there was a 20 minute wait for a place to sit. While we had to wait, it gave me a chance to snap off some pictures. Definetly a good place to stop for breakfast if you are not in a rush, which we were not.



The Wait





The Prep



Next 2 stops were an A and S





Grabbed the Powder House Massachusetts marker. I have the original book as a PDF file and will eventually track all of these down. This one we just happened to come across and I pulled over.



Finally got to Bunker Hill, which is really Breeds Hill, where the battle on June 17, 1775 took place. The monument was erected between 1823 and 1843. The granite came from Quincy, MA and the first commercial railroad was built to haul the granite from Quincy to Charlestown. There are 2 parts of the National Park, the actual obelisk and the museum across the street.





The next stop was to see the USS Constitution. We drove round and round and couldn’t find a convenient parking spot. This is a place we will have to come back to. So off to Saugus Iron Works. This could have been the beginning of capitalism in the United States, It was the first commercially built ironworks erected by the Puritans. Now everyone might think this country was founded for religious freedom. The Puritans left England so that they could practice their religion as they saw fit and expected everyone to kowtow to them. The Scots who they brought over to work in the mills had other ideas how society should be. Let's just say the Scots knew how to party. This was the first National Park I visited for my first IBA Tour in 2008. Still at it and going strong. The movie and exhibits at the Iron Works are really worthwhile to spend a couple of hours at.





The Billows



The Furnance



The Water Wheel that turned the gear that pumped the Billows



Our intent was to head for Nemick’s in Dover, NH to have lunch with other NER’s but time got away from us. The sky went from blue skies and partly cloudy to mostly cloudy we headed home to call it a day. We grabbed one more USA stop ( a train depot to boot), coffee at Dunkin Donuts and headed for the highway.