The Redcoats are Coming

"Listen, my children, and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five; Hardly a man is now alive Who remembers the famous day and year." Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1863.

Hey tour guide, who is the Wadsworth fellow any way? What about this Revere guy?  What's his claim to fame?  KW, you are so full of questions today.  How about you do some googling of both and let us all know at the end of the blog.  Oh, ok I can do that.

Now where are we off to today?  KW, enough with the questions.  Ok then, just tell me.  We are heading to Lexington and Concord.  Hey wait, aren't they fighting there? No KW, that was quite a few years ago.  Well, I need to be ready just in case.  Well, don't look at me if we see any Redcoats.

Tour guide, you may want to come hear.


Well, that settles it.  I'm getting my musket and powder horn.  Where's my hat?


KW, I'm right with you. This should be a big enough gun for me.  Ok CJ, but wait till you see the whites of their eyes before firing.


OK, now that the skirmish is over Mrs. tour guide can get on with her stamping.


KW & CJ even got into the act.


Old North Bridge in Minuteman National Historic Park.


Lowell National Historic Park.


Mrs. tour guide hit the jackpot with 11 different stamps.




Trolley Cars.


Ridding the Trolley.




The Boott Mills in Lowell, Massachusetts were a part of an extensive group of cotton mills, built in 1835 alongside a power canal system in this important cotton town. Their founder was Kirk Boott, one of the early mill leaders in Lowell. Today, the Boott Mills complex is the most intact in Lowell and is part of the Lowell National Historical Park.




Parts from the Francis Turbine invented by British-American civil engineer James B. Francis.




Hey tour guide, can you get us out of the basement.




PS:

On the evening of April 18, 1775, silversmith Paul Revere left his home and set out on his now legendary midnight ride.


Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride."


Sunset over Waltham Massachusetts.


TTFN:

What do you mean we are going to Boston

Hey tour guide, where are we going today?  Well KW, CJ and Mrs. tour guide would like to walk the Freedom Trail.  Ok, cool.  Where is the Freedom Trail anyway?  Oh I don't think you are going to like it.  Oh just tell me, it can't be that bad.  OK, we are going to Boston. Ha Ha, Ha, for a minute there I thought you said Boston, and you know KW won't do no Boston.  As Harry Hogge said in Days of Thunder, No no no sir, don't want em, can't use em, couldn't afford em if I did.  KW get in the jeep.  Ok, but I ain't going to like it.

Boston Common.


Massachusetts State House.


Park Street Church.


Quincy Market.


Green Dragon Tavern.


Captain Jackson's Historic Chocolate Factory.


KW & CJ walking the Freedom Trail.


Tour guide walking the Freedom Trail.


Mrs. tour guide on the Freedom Trail outside the Granary Burying Ground.


Paul Revere and the Old North Church.


Sunset over the Charles River.


TTFN:

PS:

The Freedom Trail is a 2.5 mile-long path through downtown Boston Massachusetts, that passes by 16 locations significant to the history of the United States.  Marked largely with brick, it winds between Boston Common to Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown.

KW here, it turns out visiting Boston was cool.  I didn't see any of those Red Sox people, so it's all good.  Another good thing, we didn't see that big green thing either.  I wonder where we are heading tomorrow?

No Mystic Pizza for you

KWwwwwwww, wake up, it's time to leave.  CJ, please go back to sleep, I don't even think it is day light yet.  KW, WAKE UP now or you will be left behind.  OK tour guide, I'm getting up, but you would not leave me.  Who would do the blog?


OK, tour guide, lets get a move on.  We are packed and ready.

By the way tour guide, where are we heading today?  We are going to Mystic CT, Providence RI, then Waltham MA. for a couple of days. Oh yeah tour guide I forgot to mention last night that we were in a new state, CT.  I guess We can add two more today.


Now back to last nights mention of no space for me in the Jeep.  Take a look at these pictures.  As you can see the Jeep is full.  You have plenty of room.  Look behind you.  You can see through to the back.  So Mrs. tour guide cut down this trip?  Well, let's not go to that extreme KW.


He tour guide, how about we sit back here looking out at all the cars and trucks that go by.  I can give the "ole blow the air horn sign" to the truckers.


Mystic CT.


Mystic Pizza, from the movie of the same title.


Hey tour guide, that's my boat.


Caution.


First sighting of a Lighthouse.


On the Mystic Draw Bridge.


Welcome to Rhode Island.


Off to visit Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park, and Roger Williams National Memorial.


All right CJ, we get to stamp it up.


This is a Whale of a Pix.


We are now in Massachusetts.


TTFN:

Roger Williams:
was a Puritan minister, English Reformed theologian, and Reformed Baptist who founded the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.  He was a staunch advocate for religious freedom, separation of church and state, and fair dealings with American Indians, and he was one of the first abolitionists.  Williams was expelled by the Puritan leaders from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for spreading "new and dangerous ideas", and he began settling the Providence Plantations as a refuge offering what he called "liberty of conscience" in 1636.  In 1638, he founded the First Baptist Church in America, also known as the First Baptist Church of Providence.  He was a student of Native American languages, and he organized the first attempt to prohibit slavery in any of the British American colonies.

KW & CJ Head Up North to visit the Colonies

KW, please get in the Jeep, we are ready to head up North. Tour guide, have you looked in the Jeep lately?  Mrs. tour guide has done it again.  What's that KW?  The Jeep is full and no space for us to sit again.  Just get in and buckle up.  Ok, ok, but we will be cramped in the back.  By the way, what are the colonies?  I'll explain later.  Okie Dokie, lets head em and move em out, rawhide.  KW, I think you watched way to much TV in the 50's and 60's.  If you say so tour guide.  Oh, tour guide, I wrote a song for the trip.  Ok KW, I can't wait, lets hear it.  OK, here goes. I call it on the road again.  KW I think you are doing it again.  Well just listen.  On the road again, Goin' places that I've never been, Seein' things that I may never see again, and I can't wait to get on the road again.  Sorry KW, that was nice, but Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson already wrote and sang it.  Dang, I just can't seem to get an original tune, but I will keep trying.

First stop, Weir Farm NHS in Wilton, CT.


KW, CJ and Mrs. tour guide stamping in the National Parks Passport book.


Groupie PIX with the Park Rangers.



PS:

The Thirteen Colonies:
were a group of British colonies on the east coast of North America founded in the 17th and 18th centuries that declared independence in 1776 and formed the United States of America.  Yes KW, we will visit Vermont and Maine which were not part of the original 13.


Weir Farm National Historic Site:
is located in Wilton Connecticut.  It commemorates the life and work of American impressionist painter J. Alden Weir and other artists who stayed at the site or lived there, to include Childe Hassam, Albert Pinkham Ryder, John Singer Sargent, and John Twachtman.  Weir farm is one of two sites in the National Park Service devoted to the visual arts, along with Saint-Guadens National Historic Site.


TTFN:

Hey wait, KW here. Tomorrow I will show a pix of just how little room I have in the Jeep.  Jason, you will be able to relate to this.  I over heard the tour guide talking and laughing about you in the back of the Suzuki Jeep.  Well, just wait to see me in the back.