Boston, Massachusetts

On Sunday morning we rode the Harley to the Harley Davidson dealership in Everett for a service. The bike was about 2000 kms overdue for an oil change. The workshop is open 7 days and operates on a 'first come - first served basis'. The staff were excellent, and we had a look around the store, made a coffee and watched TV while they worked on the bike.

As we were heading back to our hotel on the motorway, a truck braked hard in front of us and swerved hard to the verge. I then saw what the  problem was - some 'plonker' had obviously not secured their load on a trailer and sitting in the middle of the lane was a mattress from a bed. I flicked the bike past it and carried on. It could have been nasty if we had hit it.

Our friend Neil came and picked us up from the hotel and we headed into Boston with the family to see an exhibition at the Boston Science Museum. The 'Dead Sea Scrolls' exhibition was on in the city and many of the scrolls and other middle eastern artifacts on loan from Israel were on display. It was very interesting and not many people get the opportunity to see close up articles that date back to the Iron Age (500 - 700 BC). There were ancient iron arrowheads that have been dated to the era of the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem. The scrolls themselves are dated around 2000 years old. They were found in clay pots in caves above the Dead Sea by a shepherd boy back in the late 1940's and contain complete and partial transcripts of many books of what we know today as the 'Old Testament'.

After dinner we went to what was a favourite ice cream parlour Neil and Karen took us to on our 2010 visit. The place is called 'Cravings' - speaks for itself doesn't it - need I say more?

This morning we packed up the Harley and rode to Neil and Karen's house in Wakefield. I had been doing some on-line research on New York and was having real difficulty finding a hotel in downtown Manhattan that provided secure parking for motorcycles. As far as I could tell, there aren't any. Even the commercial, parking buildings won't accept them because of liability and insurance issues. Our intention was to ride the Harley right into the heart of New York and park up for a few days. Most of the stuff I read advised against it for a number of reasons, mainly; poor roads, even poorer driving standards by New Yorkers, appalling traffic congestion and risk of theft.

So our cunning plan is to leave the bike and our riding gear at Neil and Karen's where it will be secure and catch the Greyhound Bus tomorrow to New York (only a few hours drive to the south from Boston). We have booked into a Hotel for 4 nights a couple of blocks from Central Park. We will return to Boston on Saturday and then continue touring on Sunday.

This afternoon we went to 'Breakheart Reservation', a popular recreation area for swimming,  running and biking. It was a very warm, humid day, so it was nice to walk in shaded areas for an hour.