03 June 2010

Road To Philadelphia

We got a relatively early start on Monday morning.  The only (minor) snafu was us forgetting the cooler in the room.  JR had to run back and get it.

Our first planned stop was the Bewitched statue in Salem.  JR took lots of pictures of our roadside attraction stops and I will link to her blog once she has them posted.  For now, you are going to have to rely on my powers of description.  Sorry.  The statue was a 2 minute detour and then we were off to Dino Haven in Uncasville, CT.  However...

Once back on the highway, JR expressed a desire for Dunkin Donuts.  I saw no problems with that, so we kept our eyes open for signs.  Sure enough, there was a Dunkin in Reading, Mass.  As I needed to get gas too, we pulled off.  After filling up, we headed into Reading.  The DD was on a corner but I had to make a left across two lanes of traffic to get into the parking lot, so I thought I would turn left before the DD and go around the block.  That part was fine.  What was not so fun, but fucking hilarious, was the town Memorial Day parade that came marching down the road we were on.  I made a quick left into a parking lot to turn around and that's when the cops block off the road I wanted to be on.  Shee-it.  I figured there had to be another way out of the parking lot.  There was.  Then began our attempt to get back to the main road we wanted to be on.  Somehow we managed to cross the main road and end up on a little side street.  JR had the very good idea of checking the satnav to see how far from the DD we were.  Turns out it was only .2mi away, so parking and walking was the thing to do.  It felt a little odd walking down Main St, Reading, while their local marching band toodled by.  Not that there was any way the locals would know we were tourists. 

We make it to DD, order sandwiches and coffees, and wait about forever for everything to get made.  Then the uphill walk back to the car.  By that point, the parade has passed through and the streets were empty.  Seriously, I have never seen a town empty so fast.  We made it back to the highway no problem, but our quick DD stop ended up taking closer to an hour.  No big deal really.  There was no timetable for the trip home. 

OK, back to Dino Haven...

Dino Haven is the pet project of Jeff Wells.  He started crafting dinos in his woody, buggy, uphill backyard in 1981.  After a few false starts, he went to a nuclear submarine shipyard, got a job and some pointers on welding, and the rest is history.  The highlight was definitely his life-size T-Rex.  A T-Rex with a guitar in its tiny little arms.  Which somehow didn't make it any less terrifying.  I turned to JR and said "I would shit my pants."  Heh, wouldn't it be great if Wells could make the T-Rex move at unpredictable times?  People would so shit themselves.  Note to fellow curiosity-seekers, flip-flops are not idea footwear for visiting Dino Haven.  Walking through falls in the short hike category.  Nothing too strenuous, but sneaks are probably the better choice.  And for those of you so inclined, Mohegan Sun is right across the street.

Next stop was Wild Bill's Nostalgia Center in Middletown, CT.  Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, the store was closed for Memorial Day.  We took some more pictures, changed into shorts - it got progressively hotter and stickier as we made our way south - and headed off to Holy Land USA.  We were delayed at a Wendy's staffed by the slowest people ever, but that's just the way our unscheduled stops went.

Holy Land USA is located on a hill in Waterbury, CT.  Apparently it was a legit tourist destination in the 60s and 70s, but was closed in the early 80s and has not been maintained.  There's on is VA, I guess, but I don't have any plans to roadtrip there.  The land is owned by some convent now, but the nuns' only effort at upkeep is keep the stones in the entryway painted white. 

There are no tresspassing signs posted on the chained shut gates, but it is very easy to park outside and walk around.  The place is overgrown and we tramped through weeds and trees to get a look at the remains.  There is a hands-less Jesus, bits of faded iconography, and creepy pathways to nowhere.  I didn't see a whole lot of grafitti or anything, but Holy Land is out of the way and at the end of a residental street.  I kind of wish we had found the catacombs, but I probably would have crapped my shorts.

That was our last stop, and we made our way home.  We got bombarded by fist-sized drops of rain in Trenton, and it continued most of the way to JR's.  Luckily, it stopped by the time we got to her house and we didn't have to unload her stuff in a downpour.

For a JR's perspective, and pictures (eventually), head over to JR's blog.

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