Longfellow's Tall Tale

Heading out to get a couple more National Parks, Minute Men and Longfellow. I have been at both places on the 4th of July in 2008. Longfellow was a pure Ink grab and run. Matter of fact the Park Rangers didn't like where I had parked and started to come over to me and I shouted 5 minutes. Of course with any trip, it can't be just one place to go.

First stop is a favorite of NER for BBQ. This is one of the top rated joints in the Northeast

In Brookline grabbed this on the side of the Village Smokehouse. This could be a Romney add about Obama. Ya think ??

I got this thing for neon and I thought this was pretty neat. Not a clue what it means, but it goes with a women's clothes store. Looks high priced. I thought South Boston was Irish.

Castle Island was next on the hit list for the Korean Memorial. Since we had to walk to the memorial, we took advantage of walking around for awhile.

Fort Independence stood between where we parked and the memorial. Fort Independence is the oldest continuously fortified site of English origin in the United States. According to the guide at the fort, it never fired a shot in the time or war, however it was a test facility for the cannon manufacturers.

I was a tad perturbed at myself because I did not bring our DCR Park Passport book for a stamp. I started chasing them in 2010 and have not completed the book yet. We will thou.

Front of Fort Independence

Right inside the door is the box for the DCR Stamp

Inside Fort Independence

Right past the fort is the Korean Memorial we needed for the Tour of Honor.

Some Southies enjoying the beach at Castle Island. I liked the colors of the containers at the docks.

We watched plenty of these guys come in for a landing. I was amazed at how quiet they really were. I am sure they have been working on this for the last decade or so, right along with the fuel efficiency.

There were plenty of these around. Good way to get around crowded streets

MeAsWe was getting hungry, I mean real hungry. All they had on Castle Island was fried food. I said the next place was a BBQ joint, which didn't thrill her. However, I did mention it was one of the highest rate places in Boston. First we had to stop at Longfellows, it was on the way.

About an hour after we left Castle Island we got to

I wasn't up for a heavy meal. The temps were well into the 90's at this point, so I settled for Chili Verde, mainly a pork stew MeAsWe had the plain Chili. Both of them were quite good.

The hostess saw me with my camera and told me I had to go downstairs for some pictures. As I descended the stairs, I flash backed to the 60's.

After coming done, this sits right outside the door.

At Minute Man we did take advantage of the 25 minute movie they had. I learned that there were 2 riders on April 18th. Paul got detained by the British. Samuel Prescott made it thru to warn the Patriots about the Regulars coming. William Dawes was also involved in the midnight ride, however both of these guys were left out of most history books and Longfellow took literary license and left them out too.

We blew of the Wayside Inn - Home of Authors and North Bridge VC's. Not to forget the USA Tour we grabbed this sign. MeAsWe looks so enthused, doesn't she? We were suppose to do this ride the day before. She was not up to riding. Well I putzed around, went to Giffs, shot the shit. and talked myself right out of going. When I came back home, MeAsWe gave me a puzzled look and I said I didn't feel like going, it was too much like work. Her response was, "YA THINK". Well after a good night sleep that faded away for me, not sure if it has for MeAsWe.

With Minute Man stamped in our books, the day's mission was really complete. On the way home (sort of) we were riding along RT 20, passed Waldens Pond and I remember I was looking for the Wayside Inn in Sudbury about a year ago and missed. it. We have time on our hands so I pulled into the Wayside Inn. There has to be about 3, 4 or 5 of these places called the Wayside Inn. Maybe Longfellow just didn't want to give them different names.

The Wayside

Stage Coach Stoop

One of the Minutemen

Old Boston Post Road

We did stop at a couple more BBQ Joints (see all of them HERE). This was the last one of the day.

The miles were less than 150 miles, but the day was full. 2 National Parks, 10 BBQ joints, 1 Tour of Honor memorial, and 3 USA towns. We would have been home by 5:30PM, but we stopped at MeAsWe's aunt and uncle's. That was a great end to a great day.