The Grand Canadian/
American Adventure
Day Four Boston to
Bangor via Salem
Today we hopped on our brooms and headed up the road to
Salem, home of the infamous “Salem Witch hunt”. The first thing that strikes
you driving into Salem are the beautiful New England homes, some of these
buildings have been refurbished and look stunning. Chelle has stated that if we
ever win the lottery she wants to build one of these homes up in the Blue
Mountains, not sure how we would get that one through the Blue Mountains council?
Oh well I guess if we had enough money to build one of these homes we could
just buy the Council also, like most Sydney councils I believe they are for
sale Lol.
Our first stop was the Salem visitor’s centre, where we
watched an audio visual presentation on Salem and the area. If like me your
only association of Salem is with witches, you would be surprised to learn of
its rich other history. At one stage or another, Salem has been the biggest
fishing port in the USA, a haven for pirates and the biggest leather and boot manufacturer
in the USA and the second biggest in the world and has been at the very fore
front of workers’ rights. One in Three people who worked in Salem and Essex
County mills would be killed in a work related accident on the job.
Leaving the visitors centre we then split up, Chelle and
Tash headed off to the Salem Witch Museum to witness a recreation of the Witch
Trails, while Ryan and I headed off in search of treasure and Pirates. I am
amazed at how many pirates operated out of Salem, first as Privateers during
the War of Independence then as free lancers when they realised the money to be
made. The first hangings to take place in Salem weren’t of supposed witches but
of pirates.
The girls meanwhile had to cut short their tour as they were
bumped by a school group and ran out of time, Chelle said she had found it
interesting but it wasn’t what Tash had expected. We made up for that however
by me taking her to another museum that this time traced the history of witches
through the ages. Once again another interesting learning experience, Tash even
got to rub the belly of a dragon for good luck.
Mid afternoon and a quick walk around the waterfront
district before jumping in the car and heading off on a 300km journey through
New Hampshire and up into Maine to Bangor. For those who are not aware Michelle
grew up in Bangor in the Sutherland shire so we have come halfway around the
world only for her to get back to her roots, the journey being made more
interesting looking for moose and composing bad poetry.
Tomorrow we follow the coast and then it’s back into Canada.
So stay tuned.
