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We have completed our journey!

10/1/2012

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On Friday September 28th, we officially finished our adventure to all 351 municipalities of Massachusetts. Our journey was an amazing once in a lifetime opportunity. We met lots of great people along the way, and visited many wonderful places. The journey consisted of 23 total days, with three days of recuperation, and a total of 20 travel days. We drove approximately 4,000 miles, and spent about 200 hours in the car. 

On Thursday, we headed to the town of Gosnold, which had to have been one of our most anticipated towns since the very start of our journey. Gosnold is located on the island of Cuttyhunk, which is the southern most and smallest island in the chain of the Elizabeth Islands. We had to take a one hour ferry from New Bedford to the island. The ferry goes to and from only once per day, which meant we spent five hours in Gosnold. Now, we didn't have any problems doing this, and we certainly enjoyed our time on both Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, which were also both one day trips. However, there are only 30 people who live in Gosnold year round. And 180 people who spend their summer there. With this being said, absolutely nothing was open for the day, since all the summer vacationers have vacated the island for the upcoming fall season. Lila and I were able to make it to one of the highest points of the island. The view from the top was incredible. It was a clear 360 degree view of the rest of the Elizabeth Islands, Martha's Vineyard, and other land way in the distance. We brought lunch with us, and we were able to eat at a picnic table up at the top. We spent most of our day up there, admiring the view, reflecting on the 344 towns that we had already visited, and not taking for granted being in a town that is the least known by fellow Massachusetts residents.
After five hours of meandering the island, stumbling upon a few different beaches and boardwalks, we headed back to our ferry to embark on the final leg of our journey. We made our way to Winthrop, Chelsea, Everett, Revere and Malden, and then called it a day with one place remaining - Boston.

On a rare and chilly Friday morning we finally awoke to the day we had been anticipating for three weeks. Not that we were looking forward to our journey ending, but we knew this day would be the finish line for the trip. It didn't feel too much different than any of the other days, but we fought the morning traffic and made our way into the city. We had a special day lined up, knowing that we were heading into Boston to meet up with Anne Allred from Channel 7 to do an interview for the morning news. Anne was such a nice lady, and we spent about a half an hour with her in the city. We did our interview right near the steps heading up to City Hall Plaza, and we shot some b-roll footage of Lila and I walking around Faneuil Hall. Our interview will be airing on the early news on Channel 7 sometime this week. On a side note, we will also be having articles published this week in both the Boston Globe and the Patriot Ledger.

Lila and I would like to thank everyone who has been involved with us in any way during our adventure. All of our family, friends, news reporters, photographers, all the people who emailed us with positive words, and everyone who took time out of their day to start up conversations with us as they saw us traveling around their towns.

As this blog post comes to an end, we have fully updated our photo section, and our Instagram sections with every picture we took. We have also added a Store section, where we are selling Massachusetts oval bumper stickers that we have designed. As time goes on, we look forward to continue to write in our blog and updating our website with other Massachusetts travels. 

Thanks again,

Ross and Lila.
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13 Towns Left!

9/25/2012

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Hi everyone! We know it's been a few days since we have updated our site, but as of right now we only have 13 towns/cities left!

We had to take the weekend off for one more recuperation period before we got going with the rest of the towns. We headed right down to Cape Cod early Monday morning, and we have really been enjoying our time here. Yesterday as we made our way up the Cape and ended in Provincetown where we got dinner, visited many stores, and spent some time on the beach.

Today we spent the entire day in Nantucket where we did some shopping, ate at various restaurants, and went to the beach.

We have been lucky enough to be able to spend a few nights at my Aunt Rena and Uncle Steve's vacation house in Yarmouth, while we are exploring the Cape. This certainly saved us lots of money, and we very much appreciate it! A big thanks to them!

Tomorrow we will be heading to Martha's Vineyard for the day where we will be exploring the six towns on the island. The weather in the Cape has been beautiful so far, so we hope to get the same tomorrow. The following day we will be traveling to the town of Gosnold. Gosnold is a small town at the bottom of the Elizabeth Islands with a population of approximately 75 people. It should be.... interesting! After Gosnold we will head back up north where we have to cover six more towns. These towns are Malden, Everett, Revere, Chelsea, Winthrop and Boston.

We will be ending in Boston on what looks like Friday afternoon. Our estimated two week adventure turned into three weeks, but that's ok with us. We encountered a few setbacks, and needed a few days here and there to take some breaks. We have seen many amazing places and met lots of great people along our way.

We would also like to thank all of the reporters and photographers we have talked to, and all of the newspapers that were interested in our journey.

We most likely won't have too much internet access over the next two days, but we will certainly update as soon as we can.

Thanks for staying with us!

Ross and Lila
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57 Towns Left!

9/21/2012

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As we make our way into the southern part of Massachusetts, we approach our last 57 towns! These towns are primarily in the south shore/Cape area. Yesterday as we covered Scituate and the surrounding towns, we were met by a photographer from the Patriot Ledger to take a series of photos in front of the Scituate town hall. We also found out that we had nice articles written in both the Winchester Star and the Woburn Advocate.  We look forward to making our way further into the Cape, and we will be sure to add many more photos and updates here over the next few days. Thanks to everyone who has been following along with us!

Ross and Lila
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Broken down, but we continue! 

9/18/2012

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Driving as much as we have through Massachusetts is bound to wear down our cars a bit. We found this out the hard way Monday morning when Ross's car wouldn't start.  We had the vehicle towed and spend most of the day dealing with car issues.  As a result, we were only able to visit the first four towns in Essex County before our day came to an end. We knew that we needed to make up a lot of time on Tuesday if we wanted to finish Essex as planned, but we remained positive. This minor setback didn't prevent us from continuing on.  
Tuesday turned out to be a very productive day after all.  We set out early and successfully visited the remaining thirty towns on our list to finish off the county.  We also spent some time in a few of our favorites towns to visit including, Salisbury, Newburyport, Essex and Rockport.  We walked down the beach in Salisbury, we went antiquing in Essex, we experienced a new side of Newburyport and strolled down Bear Skin Neck in Rockport. The drive into Nahant was amazing, as well. It was overcast and a little hazy, but the view of the Boston skyline from the main road was just beautiful.  We talked about how crazy it would look to witness a thunder and lightning storm, or a fireworks display, over downtown Boston from the vantage point in Nahant. 
Although there was a high wind advisory and a sprinkle here and there, we still managed to make our day both worthwhile and memorable.  We have visited many towns in Essex before this adventure started, but our journey has opened our eyes to new and exciting places to go and things to do beyond what we are familiar with in the area. 
We will update our travels tomorrow. Thanks for staying with us and reading along! 


Thanks, Ross and Lila
 


 
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Saturday

9/15/2012

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Today was our tenth full day of traveling. We were able to cover twenty one more towns in Middlesex County. Tomorrow we are planning on covering the bottom section of Middlesex, like Waltham, Watertown, Somerville, Cambridge, etc. After we finish those we will travel up to Essex County and start on those towns. That will leave only a few towns left in Middlesex, which we will cover on Monday. Those towns will be around the Lowell area. We are planning it like this because Lila and I both have to get a few little fixes on our cars, and this will be done in Lowell. Instead of spending a day in the area and already having those towns done, we will save them for after we have our cars fixed!

The adventure continues to be an amazing experience. However it is getting a little tough being in the car for such a long period of time each day. We have traveled approximately 2,000 miles in ten days. along with 8 - 10 hours per day, which adds up to around 80 - 100 hours of driving. 

We just added all of our new photos from the towns, and we will be working on adding new Instagram photos tomorrow.

Thanks for staying with us!

Ross and Lila
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End of the week....

9/14/2012

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By the end of Tuesday we were able to cover a bit more area than we originally thought, and were able to make it to Upton. It was perfect timing, because as we got to the Upton town hall, we passed an old fashioned car show right down the street. We took our photo, and then headed to the car show for a little while before calling it a day. At this point we had been going six full days straight, approximately 1,200 miles, and about 8-10 hours of driving per day. We decided that we had to take a day off on Wednesday to recuperate mentally and physically.

We made sure we woke up extra early on Thursday to start the day off strong. We headed back to the eastern part of Worcester County where we left off, and started the day in Southborough. We were able to make our way into 31 towns yesterday! For a complete list, check out the Our Path tab above, and also the Photos tab. 



We are about to head back out now, and we plan on finishing Worcester County today, and then starting on Middlesex as well. Our path should have us start in Sterling today, finish off Worcester County in Ashburnham, and then pick up Middlesex starting in Ashby.


We know it's been a few days since we have updated the blog, and we thank you for staying with us! Today looks like a beautiful Autumn-esque day, so it should be perfect for traveling.


Ross and Lila
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Monday and Tuesday

9/11/2012

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First we would like to say that as we drive around Massachusetts today, the thoughts of September 11th will not be forgotten in the least bit. Our thoughts and prayers are of course with everyone who lost someone, and our entire country on this day.


Yesterday, as we departed from Greenfield, we were able to cover the rest of western Franklin County, and then headed down to the western side of Hampshire County. We finished at the bottom of the county as the sun went down. We thought if we were somewhere within distance to Greenfield we would head back up to that area to stay at The House On The Hill again, but we were just too far, ending in the Middlefield area, but we would like to thank Donna again for her offer! We were able to finish all but seven towns in Hampshire County, which means as soon as we finish them today we will be heading towards Worcester County. It has been a great adventure through Western Mass, and all the things we have discovered here. 


When we head to Worcester County later this afternoon our hope is to complete the bottom third towns, and end in the Blackstone area. We will give another update later, and we would like to thank everyone who has continued to follow us and get involved with us on our journey!


Thanks,
Ross and Lila
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Day 4 and Greenfield

9/10/2012

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Sunday was by far our favorite day so far on our journey. There was a crisp autumn feel in the air as we wound our way through the eastern side of Hampshire County. We covered a few towns and then headed up into Franklin County. 

As we arrived in Franklin County in Greenfield around 4:30 to meet up with Ann Hamilton, the President of the Chamber of Commerce, we were shocked to see about thirty people hanging out by the town hall. Ann had mentioned that she was hoping to get some people from the town involved and stand in the photo with us, but we didn't expect all these people to be there! It was such a great and unexpected surprise. We had photographers, newspaper reporters, owners of local restaurants, and many other Greenfield residents. We chatted with all of them for a while, and then we headed off to the Franklin County Fair in Greenfield with Ann and her best friend. The fair was such a great break from driving so much. We saw racing pigs, a demolition derby, contests for largest pumpkins and various items, an amazing dog show, and so much more. After leaving the fair, we were offered a free dinner at Magpie Woodfired Pizzeria in downtown Greenfield by the owner, Jim. We had an amazing dinner there, and felt so welcomed in by him. We were also offered free drinks from Becky as well. If you ever go through Greenfield, we would highly recommend having lunch or dinner here. You will be invited right in by Jim. As the night wound down, we settled into our complementary stay at the House on the Hill, provided by the owners Donna and Alain. The House on the Hill is an adorable bed and breakfast, which was such a great change from the generic hotels we have been staying in each night. Our room was elegant and cozy, and we had a delicious breakfast prepared for us in the morning. The House on the Hill was so much more personal than any other stay could have been. Donna is the sweetest lady, and we thank her very, very much. If anyone is traveling through the area in the future, and would like to get away from a standard hotel, please check out The House on the Hill. You absolutely won't regret it. Check our their website at  http://www.thehouseonthehillbnb.com
 

All in all the town of Greenfield went above and beyond for us, and we can't thank them enough. From Ann, Donna, Jim, and Becky, everyone here has been so wonderful. Greenfield is such a tight-knit community, which we love. We will absolutely be visiting here again in the near future.

Thanks again,
Ross and Lila
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Days 2 and 3

9/9/2012

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Hello everyone! We apologize for not getting a blog up until now. Our service in this area isn't the best, and the WiFis at the hotels aren't working great until now. But let's go back to Friday. Lila and I woke up in Lee, Massachusetts and we continued our Journey through the bottom of the Berkshire County. We were hoping to complete all of the Berkshire towns along with all of the Hampden towns in one day. Our first town of the day was Tyringham. One of the most interesting things we have seen on this journey so far has been in this town. We were heading down a long wooded side road, and out of nowhere is a house that looks like it's made out of a giant tree, or mushroom. It's called Tyringham's Gingerbread House, and it was originally a house designed by Sir Henry Hudson Kitson in the 1920's. You can view a photo of in our Instagram tab (which I will also include in the blog). We continued through the bottom of the Berkshire and Hampden counties on what seemed to be never ending roads. Some town halls in towns like Mount Washington, New Marlborough, and Tolland, pretty much only had one road in that would lead to the town hall. Some of these towns took about 45 minutes just to get in and out of because we had to head back on the same road we came in on! Needless to say our goal of finishing both counties in one day was way out of reach. We do enjoy stopping along some of these roads when we see interesting things. In Sheffield we traveled along a road that had at least fifteen antique stores. If you have ever been to Essex, MA, it was similar to this. A few towns over in Sandisfield we stopped at the Tolland State Park. We have noticed that a lot of long roads out here have beautiful rivers flowing alongside (pictured below). It almost reminds us of what you would see in the White Mountains of NH. We walked along some of the rocks in Sandisfield, and out of nowhere popped this creature. It ran down the rocks, jumped into the water and started swimming cross stream. It looked just like an otter, but we thought that was impossible! Lila was convinced it was one. We started looking it up on our phones, and found many articles that say river otters are making a huge comeback in Massachusetts. This one was only about a foot long, so it must have been a baby. But it was very cool to see. We continued on through the towns, and once the flash started going off on the camera, around 7:30, we decided to call it a night and took our last photos for the day in Agawam. We ended up staying over night in West Springfield and continued there the next day....


Day 3 - Day three was a breeze compared to day 2. All of the towns to the east of Springfield are much smaller and civilized. It was near impossible to find a gas station or even a Dunkin Donuts in the bottom towns of western Hampden and the Berkshire County. We found a Starbucks in Springfield where we stayed for about an hour and uploaded all of the town photos to our website. We finished eastern Hampden, with the only delay being some traffic in Brimfield due to the antique market that was going on. It seemed like a cool place to stop, with thousands of different vendors, but we know we would have spent hours there. And so we continued up into Hampshire County. Although the radio stations kept warning us of severe thunderstorms in the area, we seemed to avoid them all day. We did go through a few little showers, but nothing that really hindered our progress. The sun was starting to set and we took our last photo in South Hadley. We were checking all sorts of hotel rates in the Amherst/Northampton area, which all were extremely high due to it being Saturday night and the location. All of a sudden we got caught in one of the severe storms they were warning about all day (see the picture below!). We quickly called a few of the hotels we stayed near in West Springfield, found a good rate, and got there as quickly as possible, dodging the tremendous amounts of lightning. It was funny to think that we were driving for 10 hours throughout the day, yet we ended up just a few towns away from where we were the night before, and stayed there again. 


Today, Sunday, we have a slightly different plan. And as sad as Lila and I are that we have to miss the first Patriots game of the season, we must continue on!! We have been welcomed by some amazing people in Greenfield in the Franklin County when we visit. They have some special plans for us, which were set up for Sunday. Our route for today is to head up to Franklin County, do the eastern most towns, and end in Greenfield around 4:30. Ann Hamilton, who is the President of the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce has been in touch with us for a few days, and has kindly set up some things for us when we get there. She has also graciously set up for us a stay in the House on the Hill Bed and Breakfast in Greenfield. The owners are Donna and Alain, and we absolutely can't wait to meet them. 


We would like that thank everyone who has reached out to us throughout our journey. We will continue to post as often as we can about where we are and what we are doing.


Thanks again,
Ross and Lila
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Day 1

9/6/2012

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Today was the first day of our journey. We started in Williamstown, and headed down the Berkshire County. We ended up visiting Williamstown, Clarksburg, Florida, Savoy, Adams, New Ashford, Hancock, Lanesborough, Cheshire, Windsor, Peru, Hinsdale, Dalton, Pittsfield, Richmond, Lenox, Washongton, Lee, Stockbridge, and West Stockbridge. We traveled our here from Woburn around 7am, and drove around these towns until 7pm. We took a photo in each town in front of either the town hall, or another town building or sign. Additionally we took many photos on our iphones and uploaded them to Instagram, which are also viewable from our Instagram tab above. We settled down for the night in the beautiful downtown of Lee. Unfortunately our WiFi service in the hotel is very weak, so I was only able to upload four of our photos in front of the town signs. We will have to stop into a Starbucks or something tomorrow afternoon to use their free WiFi to upload the rest. But I was able to get all of the Instagram photos up.

The towns we saw today were awesome, and totally different than what we are used to in the Greater Boston area. If we stopped at every country store, corn maze, antique shop, and cute restaurant that we saw out here today, we probably would have only made it through a few towns!

We really appreciate any followers that we have, and we would love to hear from you guys! Please feel free to contact us either via email, Twitter, or Instagram. Thanks so much, and we will post again tomorrow. Goodnight!
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