And so to the final stage of our trip, a couple of days on Cape Cod. So many of the places we have visited or passed through appear well known to us through their assocatios with the Kennedys, Kennebunkport on the drive from Boston to Maine, Jackie K came from Newport where they married and they also had a house on Cape Cod at Hyannis, although for the most part we have avoided the most touristy areas if possible. The Cape is a long sandy spit less than 2 miles ...

Rhode Island is the smallest state, barely 50 by 40 miles. We drove through Connecticut, stopping only for giant pancakes stuffed with blueberries (we felt we should at least eat in the state) and crossed a high swooping bridge to Newport which is itself on an island and gave the name to the state as a drunk or myopic sailor thought it looked like Rhodes. We have encountered a lot of road works on the small roads and each has a policeman directing the traffic, wh...

From Vermont we drove south through the Green Mountains to eastern Massachussets, a rainy day but we pootled along country roads. As there are so many trees and houses are wooden each small village seems to have a volunteer fire service. Lenox is a tiny town just north of Stockbridge, made famous by the artist Norman Rockwell, which has made it very touristy for our taste. There is a museum of his work and the area has large houses which used to belong to the ric...

As we left the White Mountains and drove west and south towards the Green Mountains we have seen more of the famous colourful fall foliage and some gorgeous countryside and small villages, more covered bridges, pumpkins growing in fields and the beautiful Connecticut river, driving along quiet back roads often without seeing other cars for miles. Hurricane Irene destroyed many buildings, roads and bridges in 2011 and some traces of this damage still remain. Ver...

We drove through rural Maine past typical New England clapperboard houses seasonally decorated with pumpkins and some with pumpkin people, basically Guys with pumpkin heads. It is also election season here so most lawns are studded with small boards in support of candidates and issues in national and local elections. Maine seemed more pro Obama than this area where Romney is more popular judging by a rough front lawn and bumper sticker count. Our first drive thr...