Seems we can’t get enough of Boston, because two weeks after we had been there to celebrate Easter/my birthday, we were back on the road. However, this time we were on a mission to deliver Ryan his bicycle, which we were supposed to bring on Easter. However, with all of the RV maintenance (detailed in our post titled Adventures in De-Winterizing), we ran out of time to service the bike, which had not been ridden in a few years. Both lights as well as the speedometer were non-functioning. If he was determined to ride on the busy city streets of Boston, we at least wanted to make sure he had a safe bike!
We also wanted to try a new route. We decided to try Route 95 rather than our usual Route 15 route through Connecticut. There were more full-service stops along Route 95 which would have diesel fuel (Route 15 doesn’t allow trucks). Also, we wanted to look for a potential stop to split of the trip into two segments. We were planning to leave Thursday night and stop somewhere along 95, but by the time we got fuel and loaded up to RV, it was 9:30 and we decided just to get to bed early and try to depart by 6:00 a.m., hoping to meet Ryan in front of his dorm by 11:00 a.m. Even though we were all packed, we somehow didn’t get on the road until 6:45 a.m. Then we hit traffic at the Tappan Zee Bridge, so our ETA was quickly updated to noon—great timing, since Ryan’s class was at noon.
The iPad is working out great for navigation, and we also downloaded a number of shows from our DirecTV GenieGO, which allows us to copy shows from our DVR to another device and watch without needing WiFi or cellular. We enjoyed listening to several episodes of “Pawnography,” which was much more entertaining than our music playlists. One thing we haven’t figured out is how to stop the music from autoplaying everytime we start the RV—it blasts on because we have the volume set high enough to hear the Google Maps navigation (which for some reason plays at a low volume). If anyone know how to disable autoplay, please advise. We are considering deleting the music library from the iPad just to avoid being startled by the blasting music everytime we turn the ignition key (more on this later).
So we drove directly to the Bike Store in Boston, rather than go to his dorm. Once again, we very easily found parking on the street, right in front of the store. There was a little bistro next to the bike shop, so I got some takeout and we relaxed in the RV while we waited for Ryan.
I walked the dogs while Karl & Ryan were in the bike store getting the various accessories, a new helmet, and backpack. The dogs were actually very good and seemed entertained by the passerby’s. Most people admired them, but a few people definitely were not dog-lovers. After visiting with Ryan in the RV, he rode the bike and we met him at his dorm to exchange some clothes and take some commemorative photos. We were back on the road a little before 3:00, but we still hit major traffic on the Massachusetts Turnpike which delayed us at least 30 minutes. We decided to take our old route home since we had plenty of fuel and we were uncertain about the Friday afternoon traffic on Route 95 (more on this later).
We stopped for dinner along Route 5/15 somewhere in Connecticut. We got take-out from TGIF Friday’s and also fed and walked the dogs. After one more quick stop before we crossed into New York, we made it home a few minutes after 9:00 p.m. All in all, we accomplished a lot in determining a better route, testing the dogs in new situations (we did not drop them off for doggy day care this time since Topper had been ill), and of course spending a few hours with Ryan!
