Is This One Of America's Most Historic Cities Or What?

July 10, 2014 to July 11, 2014

Boston, MA

When Steve asked what I wanted to do today, I told him that, technically, I still had to ride my bike to Boston in order to fulfill the terms of my bike tour. It simply would not be sufficient to stop one city, one suburb, one block, or even one inch short of Boston. So Steve got his bike out of the basement and led me down Massachusetts Avenue, across the St. Charles River, and into downtown Boston--a distance of about two miles. Success had been officially achieved!

We continued on and checked out a few prominent sites including the State Capitol, the finish line of the Boston Marathon where the bombing occurred, Cheers Bar, and the park where "duck boats" take tourists for rides on a small pond.

At the park, I noticed a college-aged girl running in an out-of-control manner. She had a large bag slung over her shoulder and a camera around her neck and they were swinging back and forth wildly as she ran. Predictably, she lost her balance and took a nose-dive into the pavement. It looked bad. Two of her friends caught up to her, tended to her for a second, and then one of the friends ran up to us.

"Is she okay?" I asked the friend before she could speak.

"Yes, but . . ." the friend began, ". . . she was running to take a picture of you guys."

"A picture of US?"

"Yeah, she's doing a project on people disobeying rules and she's been waiting for somebody on a bike to come along. She wanted to get a picture of you guys back by the 'NO BIKES' sign."

The injured girl managed to get up and hobble over to us and we agreed to go back and pretend to be riding our bikes right over the red painted circle with a bicycle in the middle and a diagonal slash through it. She had a scraped knee that was bleeding pretty fiercely, but that seemed fairly minor considering how hard she went down. She took her photos, thanked us, and her friends said they were going to take her to the doctor now.

Looking back, I'm not sure if I should be proud or ashamed to be featured in that particular project. If it was an important component of her dissertation and it helped her get a PhD from Harvard, well, I guess I am happy to contribute to her success.

In the afternoon, I disassembled The Reckless Mr. Bing Bong and boxed it up in preparation for my flight home two days from now.

Downtown Boston as viewed from Cambridge.

More of the Boston skyline beyond the St. Charles River.

The next day, Steve continued his role as my guide and we took the subway to the historic North Boston area. It was a busy district with great smells coming from the many bakeries and restaurants--especially ITALIAN bakeries and restaurants. We had a superb lunch at one of them--Panza's.

Here are some other things we explored:

Paul Revere's home--the oldest house in Boston.
The Old North Church of "one if by land, two if by sea" fame.
A cemetery dating back to the late 1600's.
The U.S.S. Constitution
The Battle of Bunker Hill Monument
Other historic stuff.

Steve was a wealth of information on points of Boston's history, culture, business, architecture, etc. I learned a lot on this day, so next time I ride into Boston I will have more to say than, "Hey! Cool buildings!"

Paul Revere lived here. Boston sure has a lot of cobblestone streets--like this one in front of Paul's house.

That's me in the shadows of Panza's Restaurant. This place sure knows how to serve a "pasta dish."

One if by land, two if by sea. It was equally cool inside.

Today's ride: 10 miles (16 km)
Total: 1,746 miles (2,810 km)

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