East Coast 2021:
Day 7 - Branford, CT

	Thursday, September 16, 2021: We checked out of the hotel by 7:30 AM.
	We saw this sand sculpture at the other entrance to the hotel.
	Goodbye, Lamie's Inn.
	We drove south on Route 1 headed toward Boston.
	The marshland was looking very pretty in the early morning light.
	We loved to see businesses with Route 1 right in the name, like this one: Route 1 Antiques.
	We crossed over into Massachusetts at Salisbury. This was our 36th state that we had visited this year.
	Knowing Massachusetts and how they like to pronounce things, it's probably a good thing that they changed the town's name from Colechester.
	That's still not the Atlantic Ocean. That's the Merrimack River with Plum Island in the distance.
	This part of Route 1 was part of the Essex County Scenic Byway.
	The Clam Box restaurant is current leading in the contest for restaurants where you know immediately what you are going to eat. Not only is the name descriptive, but the entire shape of the restaurant matches the theme. Well done.
	Another full service gas station. Not falling for it this time, New England. Nice try.
	The fall colors were more pronounced here.
	We love the SNL digital short with Casey Affleck at a Dunkin Donuts so much, that we just couldn't pass up the opportunity to have Dunkin in Massachusetts. While we waited for our donuts, we stared across the street to the Dunkin Donuts on the northbound side of Route 1.
	As we were leaving, we were stunned to see an I Love Kickboxing franchise that was apparently still in business. Weird.
	Gotta love the local restaurant owners' commitment to architectural advertising.
	Traffic came to a standstill as we neared the outskirts of Boston.
	As we crawled across the Tobin Memorial Bridge, we were able to see the sights, including ...
	... the obelisk at the Bunker Hill Memorial in the neighborhood of Charleston.
	Downtown is still a ways off.
	We admired the Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge, ...
	... and the conference rooms of the Verizon building.
	Construction routed us down Washington Street and past the Converse headquarters building and their flagship store, ...
	... and TD Gardens, home of the Bruins and the Celtics.
	We got a good view of the Great Hall, and the tower of Custom House peeking over the building next door. That's a statue of Samuel Adams in front of the building, no doubt telling people to try the new Octoberfest special.
	Sometimes you have to slant your building to match the street, like the Brookline Bank building here.
	We passed the Old State House, which was built in 1713 and is the oldest surviving public building in Boston.
	But we were here to see the new Massachusetts capitol building, not the old one. There was big canvas draped over the front of the building showing what it would look like if it wasn't undergoing renovation.
	We fought our way out of downtown back to Route 1 and continued south.
	Route One Wine and Spirits. Nice.
	We drove through Foxborough and saw Patriot Place. Who knew that Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots, was on Route 1? Not us, until now.
	We took a slight detour and crossed over into Rhode Island (our 37th state this year) at Woonsocket.
	We were driving through the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor, on our way to ...
	... the Museum of Work and Culture.
	This is the location of Rhode Island's Merci Train. An entire room of the museum was dedicated to it and it was the best display we have ever seen.
	Oooh, the door is open! The door is open! It's rare to be able to see inside the boxcar. There wasn't anything related to the boxcar inside, just miscellaneous storage for the museum.
	This one also had a plate on the end, exactly like the one we saw yesterday in New Hampshire. We wondered if it was a regional addition.
	There was a newspaper clipping from the 1990s attached to a display case nearby, describing the rescuing of the boxcar from a junk yard and its restoration and relocation to the museum.
	The clipping also talked about the gifts that were inside the train, like this beautiful wedding dress that was given away in a contest in 1949, and this vase that weighs over 350 pounds. It is very rare to see any of the actual gifts that were sent by the French people to the United States. Many were distributed and some are in other museums separate from the boxcars.
	There were displays that explained the history of the Merci Train, ...
	... including this picture from the day the boxcar was delivered to Rhode Island.
	We were both very taken by this cool painting outside the restrooms.
	We walked through the rest of the exhibits in the museum, learning a little bit about the local industries that were in this area.
	Back outside, we crossed the street to take a look at Woonsocket Falls, ...
	... which featured a thirty foot drop in the river.
	Our beloved Septimus turned over 77,777 miles as we left town.
	We headed down to Providence to see ...
	...  the Rhode Island capitol building, which features the fourth largest structural-stone dome in the world, and probably the only one with a shiny gold man statue on top.
	Virgin Pulse - Virgin has companies for everything!
	We loved the look of the Grange, a restaurant at the corner of Dean and Broadway.
	Back on Route 1, we stopped at ...
	... Cosmic Steak & Pizza for a delicious lunch of New York System-style weiners.
	Debbie had two classic weiners, with just ketchup and onions, and Tom had a chili dog (top), ...
	... plus two Cosmic weiners "all the way," with chili sauce, onions, and mustard. Both were delicious and we were glad we had stopped there.
	We saw a rare Route 1 sign with the mileage right on the sign. When your space is limited, you do what you gotta do.
	The Wine Store adopted this section of highway, and they were doing a wonderful job of keeping it beautiful.
	We drove down the narrow streets of Westerly, Rhode Island, ...
	... and crossed over into Connecticut, our 38th state of the year.
	This historical marker told us that this town was called Southerton, then Mystic, before finally being named Stonington in 1666.
	Connecticut was staying with the more traditional Route 1 signs.
	We crossed into the town of Mystic, ...
	... over the Mystic River ...
	... on the Mystic Drawbridge, ...
	... past Mystic Pizza. Whew. Yes, this is the actual Mystic Pizza as featured in the film of the same name.
	This bridge crosses the Thames River.
	The Thames River. In Connecticut. Although if you name your town New London, you really don't have any other choice, right?
	We crossed over the Niantic River, ...
	... and finally the Connecticut River before arriving at our hotel, ...
	... the Rodeway Inn and Suites in Branford, CT.
	We had a very nice king suite. We unloaded our stuff and made a quick exit to ...
	... the USS Chowder Pot III, which we decided is the best name for a restaurant, ever.
	We ordered what we called a "soup flight," which was a bowl of the Rhode Island chowder, a bowl of lobster bisque, and a bowl of New England clam chowder. With the big hunk of sourdough bread that came with it, we were stuffed before we finished them. We saved most of the New England clam chowder for breakfast the next day. Miles today: 237. Total miles from Fort Kent, ME: 878.  Day 8 >