Snowman Express

Day 10: June 7, 2009 234.3 miles
Okay, last night was the first time I thought about aborting the mission. I had gotten on lds.org and found a sacrament meeting to go to. It was in Cambridge. I thought, “that looks nice and close to Boston. Maybe we can roll into the church parking lot in the middle of the night. Catch a few zzz’s, go to 9am church, leave the bus in the lot and catch the T to downtown Boston. Cool!” ....not cool! We got into Cambridge and Mapquest had taken us on a road that required us to go under the Charles River bridge which has a 7 foot clearance. We don’t clear 7 feet. So we zoomed into the map and tried to find an alternate route. We drove all around the lovely Cambridge and if it hadn’t been 3am I might have enjoyed driving by MIT, Harvard and many other cool places that I didn’t know were in Cambridge. As it was I was getting kind of desperate trying to help Keith navigate narrow one-way streets that not only T’ed but V’ed and kept changing names every two blocks. Some time you should look at a Cambridge street map and imagine driving around there in a 34 foot RV. The only advantage we had was the hour that we were attempting this craziness–not much traffic at 3am. Anyway, we finally got over to the address for the meetinghouse and we discovered that the Meetinghouse for the Cambridge 1st Ward is the upper-floor of a building that sits right on the street and there is NOT a parking lot. I burst into tears which was stupid since it didn’t help anything except make my nose runny and make poor Keith sigh. Keith went past the church and turned down the next street. He put on his hazzards and just stopped while I tried to figure out how to get to a rest stop or something. I looked over and saw a parking lot. There were 2 cars in it and it was a rather large lot. “What is that and why can’t we park there?” I jumped out and walked around the high fence that surrounded the lot and through the gate which was propped open even though it appeared to have a sensor. No tire spikes. A couple of lamps. I went to the door of the building adjacent to the lot and the outer door was open but not the inner door. There was a sign indicating that this was the New Hampshire Phone company. I looked and one of the cars had a Verizon Wireless logo on it. I decided that since I am a Verizon customer, they must have left the lot open just for me so I would not have a melt-down thousands of miles away from my mommy (believe me, Chernoble would have paled in comparison!). I walked a little further down the street to scout out the neighborhood and felt pretty good about it. Keith was deliriously tired so he agreed to pull into that lot and get a few hours of sleep. We popped out and got the kids moved onto their beds (they had been completely zonked for hours) in a matter of minutes. Keith and I fervently prayed for protection and then I fell into a coma for exactly 2 hours 47 minutes. Then my eyes popped wide open. I tried to lay still so I wouldn’t disturb Keith but I couldn’t. I had to use the toilet bad. Now, those of you who know me know that that is highly unusual. I never wake up feeling like I need to get up and get to the toilet- especially just 3 hours after the last time I went. Anyway, the water pump to flush is very noisy and when I came out, Keith was awake. Since we could not park at this church we knew we had to get out of this area. We got on-line and quickly found another ward out in Hingham which is 20 miles south of Boston and close to the red-line’s last stop. Keith called the number and talked to the Bishop’s wife (yes, it was only 7:40 am and their church starts at 10) and she told us there was definitely a nice big parking lot. For some reason we felt a sense of urgency to get to the church parking lot and get ready there. Seth was already awake and ready to take a shower but the others were still lifeless. We got them to stand up zombie-like while we popped in then they crashed back into bed. Keith maneuvered out of the lot with incredible skill and speed. As we stopped at the intersection by the lot, a policeman came around the corner and drove right by our miracle lot. In the light of day we could see that the very next block was the police station. We are thankful that they didn’t see us in the night and make us move.
I was surprisingly awake. We navigated through the underbelly of Boston. The 93 actually used to go over the top of Boston but now it goes under it. I guess it took years to make that happen but it certainly improved the city. Anyway, we were able to find the church, shower and be in our seats to hear the prelude music. This ward starts at 10. After Sacrament we went to the subway station. I had called MBTA weeks ago and was told that there was an open lot at the Braintree station. It’s not true. We had seen a Kmart so we thought we’d ask if we could park there. However, next door to the station we saw a huge empty lot behind Cardi’s Furniture. There were two men standing outside on the receiving dock. I jumped out with a handful of yummy candy bars and came begging them to let us park there. One of them happened to be the manager and was sympathetic to our cause. He went and printed a sign to put in our window so we wouldn’t be bothered....whooHoo!
Half an hour later we were standing on Park street looking at Boston Common’s–the first public park in America. We went over to the National Parks office where they offer a free guided tour of the historical sites. We got there in time to get our stickers (there is a max of 30 allowed) and had a few minutes to eat granola bars and use their restrooms and drinking fountains. For the next hour and a half I was in heaven. We got a guide that is just right for me. She walked fast and was an excellent story teller. She delighted us with lots of lesser known historical stories and while we moved from place to place she talked about the city both modern and historical. We walked our legs off as we visited places that make up the “Cradle of Liberty” like the North Church, Kings Church, Paul Revere’s house, the State house, the site of the “Boston Masacre”. I am in love with all those tall old buildings that are surrounded by tall new buildings. The old buildings make the new ones look cheap. We even saw one building that kept the old building face then added on a taller glass building. It looked weird.
Well, at the end of the tour we looked around a little more then dragged ourselves back on the train. We all looked like we were about to fall asleep as we sat on that subway. After I got Keith onto the I-95 S, I made our Sunday dinner. We had chicken cordon bleu, mashed potatoes and a green salad. Keith pulled off the freeway so he could eat too. We are currently making our way to an RV park in Jersey City. We’ll stay for two nights. Keith is ecstatic! Print this post