Traffic Jam On Route 6? Let's Have A Bud!

Here we are folks, back on track for the last, and also longest part of the trip.

During this 10 days in Provincetown, I pretty much laid out the rest of the trip on paper with mileage and dates. According to my calculations, we should be back to Fort Lauderdale around September 3rd which officially will make this, a 98 days Road Trip across the continental U.S. and Canada.

It's been a long and wet day, the warm weather and the hot sun we had this past week are only something we can dream of right now.

We started this morning on the road around 11AM, about 180 miles to Merrimack, NH which was our first planned stop. Oh well, maybe I should say 192 miles since my navigator, being from "THE area" insisted on keep going on I95 where my trusted GPS was telling me to make a right on US3 (the new one). Long story short, I had to drive another 6 miles, and then of course, another 6 back to the exit I've been told to skip. So much for having a real navigator next to me, right? Learned my lesson, never trust the navigator, computers at times might be dumb, but they take you there, and my loyal GPS did what it promised: take me to the Anheuser-Busch brewery plant in Merrimack, NH.

I love beers, I've always been a huge fun of that hoppy, refreshing taste that beer, any kind of beer leaves in your mouth. So well, today we had the chance to tour THE brewery. Anheuser-Busch Company is the current owner of Budweiser, Michelob, and some other brands, not to mention the Busch Garden amusement parks.


The tour is for free (yes, no tricks here, everything IS really for free), and includes not only a complete tour of the brewing facility, but also a free sampling (you're allowed two) of their products. I had Budweiser Select, and Bare Knuckles, both on draft and both delicious. Hap had a Redbridge (MY favourite of the four batches) and Stone Mill, which is a USDA Certified Organic Beer.

We got to the plant around 3.30PM, thanks to the Massachusetts Highway Department, and the Travel Info 511 system who kept telling us there was no problem on Route 6 when we probably drove 15 miles in an hour.

Since the tour didn't start until 4.15, we had the time to go visit the Clydesdale horses' stable. More than a stable, it really looked like the Ritz-Carlton, only for horses! What really struck me is their overshadowing figure, they're absolutely huge!

We spent quite some time wondering through the stables, looking at horse until we got to "Luke". I'm not a doctor, but I know for sure Luke certainly has a gastrointestinal disease of some kind. As soon as I walked past him, he proceeded on letting some "fresh air" out of his sphincter. In a few words, for those of you who still haven't got there, the son of a b***h farted almost on my face. And that is exactly when we decided it was about time to go back to the main visitor center, I want to publicly thank Luke for stating his opinion so eloquently! ;-)

After we left the brewery, we needed some food, and that's why decided to go to Manchester, NH, where there's a diner called "Red Arrow Diner".

Now, am I the only one in here that watches the Food Network?
All right, let me explain. The Food Network has a TV show called "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives".
This afternoon we tried one of the Diners featured in an episode of his TV Show!

I was so thrilled to finally try one of HIS places, because they always make your mouth water when you see them on TV, and therefore, I wanted to try at least for once in my life to know what it feels like to have a meal in one of the 10 best diners in the US (That's what they say in the back of their TShirts).

The place is your average diner, nothing fancy or flashy, pretty small, with a long counter in the main "carriage" as I like to call it, and another small section with four booths.

All sorts of people inside, some shady individuals, but also some less intimidating.
I got the Burger Club, a club sandwich who has beef instead of ham, turkey, etc. I also had a side of french fries, and one of mashed potatoes with home made gravy which was good (but nothing to tell home about). The burger (and I'm a pretty good burger eater) was overcooked (I asked for medium), and didn't really taste anything better than the McDonald's next door, but hey, maybe I ordered the wrong kind of food!

Hap had crabcakes with eggs on toasted muffins (Benedict). He said he really enjoyed them, so perhaps I should convert myself to crabcakes, who knows! :-)
One thing is for sure, I was probably expecting a lot more from this place. I don't feel defeated yet, I have a whole list of diners to try, and some look pretty good from the pictures posted on their websites, so keep on reading, because we have some more crabcakes on the way! LOL

We're currently in Campton, NH, which is about 78 miles, 1 hour 50 minutes ride from where we we want to be first in the morning. The plan is to go to bed and pray tomorrow will be a nice day, then wake up tomorrow, have a nice (for as much as the hotel allows) breakfast, and then head out to Mount Washington, where we will earn our "This Car Climbed Mount Washington" bumper sticker. After that, we have another 179 miles, 4 hours drive to North Hero, VT on Lake Champlain, where we will join our friends Bob, Sam, Frank, and Stu. It should be fun, at least that's the way it's been planned!

I can't really wait to get on the road and reach the top tomorrow, let's hope it doesn't rain (although I see already a 60% chance of T-storms). As we say in Italian, che sara', sara', whatever will be, will be, I'll tell you more about it tomorrow.

That's all folks, have a good night and thanks for bearing with me up to this point,
Nico