This time, I'm heading East to the Atlantic instead of Pacific Ocean. I also went with a co-pilot!
A week to see 8 soccer games and numerous tourist sites is rather tough, but we survived.Our first stop was at a State park just inside the Mass border. October Mountain. Nice place and cheap, too ($6 USD). From there, we headed to Foxboro Stadium for the first double header. Australia and Ghana tied at 1 and Norway defeated Russia 2-1. Great atmosphere and lots of fun.
After the game, we headed to another state park - this one near Cape Cod. After another expensive night ($6) we headed out on a bike trail out to the seashore. The water was rather chilly so, after a brief stay, we headed across to a harbour and some warmer water and large sandy shore. As the tide came in, we rescued our bikes and headed back to the campsite via Provincetown at the tip of the Cape. We tried a bit of inline skating but it was just a bit too hilly for me and sandy for the 'blades.
We headed down to Maryland for our next set of games and had a smooth drive through NYC (only excitement was seeing a busload of Amish with engine trouble). We arrived at Patapsco state park and, although it wasn't as cheap as the parks in Mass, we settled for a few nights. Months later, we realized that the park had been used for part of the filming of the marketing-crazy Blair Witch Project. We didn't see any spooky stuff, though.
The next day we headed to D.C. to do the tourist thing before the evening games. We came across a few Canadians while 'blading around the White House - not surprising since the Canadian Women's team was playing that night. The crowd at the games that night had a definate Canadian flavour and we talked a bit with a few fans down from Montreal. We were able to get right behind the bench but we were all a bit disappointed as the Canadians fell 7-1 to Norway, but the second game (Sweden 3-1 over Australia) picked up our spirits.
After breaking camp the next morning, we stopped in at the historic Ellicot City - renowed as the first terminus for the first railway in the States. Nice, quaint, little town. From there, we headed for New York to try and find our campsite in the middle of the city (Liberty Harbour RV Park). I was a bit concerned as we were driving in, but once we found the place we decided to stay. The site is at Liberty Harbour, right across from the departure point for the Statue and across the Hudson from the World Trade Center. We met up with our new friends from Montreal and had dinner with them at the restaurant/night club at the marina.
The next day we tried to see as much of New York as you can in one day. We started with the Statue of Liberty. We spend a bit of time soaking up the history of Ellis Island and then spent 3 hours slowly climbing up the statue itself. Rather beat after the ordeal, we took the ferry back to the car and headed to the camp. We then headed, via transit, to the Empire State Building. We wanted to catch it at dusk, so we headed up 5th Avenue to Central Park. We didn't spend long there before heading back to travel up the Empire State Building. The view was nice and we could just make out our campsite on the harbour. We took the PATH transit to the World Trade Center and the found the dock to catch the water taxi back to the RV park. As we waited, a fireworks display started in the distance. As we travelled across the Hudson, we got a pretty good look at them.
After a quick morning bike ride, we packed up and headed for Giants Stadium for the next doubleheader. The directions on the map didn't quite match where we wanted to go, but we got to our seats just as the action started. The Canadians fell 4-1 to the Russians and in the process lost their bid to qualify for the 2000 Sydney games (I really wanted an excuse to head there next summer ;). The second game saw Australia (our second favorite team) fall to China 3-1 after an early Red card for the Aussies.
With a long drive to Boston, we headed out. We missed a turn or two but ended up on our way. We arrived at Wompatuck State Park for another cheap night of camping at around 10:45pm. After setting up, we had some campfire hotdogs and settled for the night.
We got up and headed out on a few mountain bike trails before heading for Boston. We were trying to get to downtown (and were almost there, as I found out later) but ended up turning off and hitting a beach on the harbour.
After a brief swim with the jellyfish, we headed back to Foxboro Stadium for our last doubleheader. With the US team playing, things were a bit busier and a bit more expensive - parking jumped to $15 from $10 the week before. As we approached the stadium, there were a few more activities to watch. We picked up some small towels from Hyundai and, since MasterCard wasn't giving out beach towels to Canadians, we gave a US address and got one anyway!
The stadium was a bit more crowded than a week before, but the atmosphere was a bit more electric. The first game between Mexico and Italy was quite entertaining with Italy winning 2-0. The second game, US vs Korea, wasn't as exciting as we had hoped and, although the States pulled out a 3-0 win, the game was actually a lot closer.
With our appetite for World Cup Soccer temporarily quenched, we started the long trek for home. The large crowd from the game resulted in an extensive wait just to get back to the Interstate. As the night wore on, we approached the town of Oneonta, home of the National Soccer Hall of Fame. It was already 2:30 am and pouring, so we hit a motel for the night.
We still had a long drive, so when we realized the Museum wasn't opening till 10am, we decided to head for the border. We arrived back in Whitby at 3pm and after a quick nap, I headed back to Timmins, arriving around 1am.Whitby to Whitby: 4,088 km
For Your Information:
The Official Women's World Cup site: wwc98.fifa.com
MapQuest: www.mapquest.com (quite helpful, especially the route mapping).
and, of course, the various camping sites, tourism sites, etc, etc.