Summer 2003 Northeastern US Roadtrip

Day 14 - Boston, MA to Portsmouth, NH

Only 20 people were executed during the Salem Witch Trials which lasted less than one year in 1692. 19 of these were death by hanging and one was death by pressing. A door was placed over the man's chest and large boulders were placed on top of him until he died. He refused to confess to being a witch. Both male and females are called witches. Warlock means "traitor". Wicca is an established religion in the United States and has nothing to do with the devil. The idea that witches could fly came from the days when they would sweep the debris from their fields to make them pure before planting. Be nice to a witch when you see one.

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This House of Seven Gables was built in 1668 and added on until 1692. They don't build them like they used to.

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Cute tour guide was caught off guard when I asked to take her picture. "I'm not photogenic", she said. "Like hell you're not!" I said.

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Day 14

Monday, July 14th Portsmouth, NH written 11:00 PM

Checked out of hotel with directions to the Saturn dealer in West Roxbury. Got thoroughly lost on Boston suburbs streets and drove around in circles for an hour. Venus called the dealer and they aren't even at that location anymore. Got directions to another dealer in Medford just off I93 which we found fairly easily. I read where they say the streets of Boston were laid out by cows! I believe it and I think they were labeled by cows as well because there are no street signs for blocks and blocks and blocks! Roads twist and curve and change names and directions so much it's really incredible! Anyway, dropped Venus and JJ off at a laundramat and I took Vuela to the Saturn dealer for for her 9,000 mile service, an oil change. Napped in the waiting room.

We drove all of 20 minutes to Salem, toured the Visitor Center, the Witch Museum and Witch Village, where the tour was given by a practicing witch (Wiccan) and the House of the Seven Gables. Cool house built in 1668 and lived in for a time by Nathaniel Hawthorne (nee 1804) who wrote the book of the same name inspired by the house.The Scarlet Letter is the only book of his I have read. Original part of the house has ceilings only 6 feet 5 inches for cheaper heating. Rest of house, built during the next 25 years, had higher 8 feet ceilings. Had a very, very narrow staircase, hidden, built next to a firsplace. House is right on the Salem Harbor an early important seaport of New England. The guide, very cute, was from Alabama going to school at the University of Rhode Island and working here for the summer.

Left Salem and drove to Portsmouth, New Hampshire where we are spending the night in a Holiday Inn off of I95. Had dinner a Bickford's Restaurant next door. I like New Hampshire's slogan, "Live Free or Die" and want to find a hat that says that.

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