Massachusetts - Day 1 of Trip

Mini Smart Car Roadtrip
We drove the Smart Car slowly to Boston for our Azores flight.  We were in no rush.  We left on Saturday morning and before long the Hungry One was asking about lunch.  "We're not even out of the Bronx yet!"  I said, laughing.  We settled on a Trinidadian restaurant in Bridgeport, Connecticut called Bobby B's.  We sipped Guyanese lemonade as we waited for our food to arrive.  It was about 100 degrees inside so I kept popping out to get some air.

When I gave my order Bobby asked me "You from Trinidad?"  It was such a surprising question that I just laughed and shook my head no.  "You got the lingo, man." he added.  This was the first of two times in one day I'd be mistaken for a different ethnicity.  The food was excellent.  Dodo had a roti and I had stewed chicken.

After lunch we continued our drive along the smaller roads and highways north through Hartford and into Massachusetts.  We passed Springfield and then took a right towards our first night's location: Palmer, Mass.

We'd booked ourselves a small cabin on AirBnB.  We arrived in the late afternoon and it was chilly - in the low 60's.  Luckily, our host had an outdoor fireplace.  The cabin had a pond behind and lake in front.  There were a lot of birds.

We went to a nearby "Dairy Bar" for dinner.  We had some chicken for dinner and chased it with some ice cream. 

All the ice cream was handmade on site using local milk.  It was also certified kosher, which seemed like a smart business move given the nearby camp for Hasidic kids.

After dinner and the next morning we sat outside by the fire trying to dodge questions from our host.  I tried not to flinch when she asked me about the upcoming elections and I smoothly steered her away from various topics she brought up.  She wanted to know why we didn't have flying cars yet - as we were promised in the 70's.  She wanted to talk about Native American healing techniques.  "You have some Native American in you, don't you?"  she asked.  I felt like telling her I was Trinidadian but decided not to.

Both her boyfriend and roommate were deaf - she translated some of our chat with sign language.  She was a bit loopy but harmless.