A Living Magazine - Day 354 - Homecoming - Bedford to Concord

I woke up for good - after having spent most of the night half-awake and uncomfortable - and packed up, then took another shower and left. It was time to walk to Concord, the first of my final towns. I took these shots in Belmont...

Cool playhouse for kids.

Papaver orientale garden.

Right before the border with Concord, I found a trail area and checked it out quickly...

In the old days you have this kind of storm window.

Now, this is an example of what I don't like to see. This street was probably once a field.

It was bought, subdivided, a bunch of bland, plain-looking McMansions were built,

with crappy, cookie cutter, uninspired architecture. 

Now they're all for sale--in a neighborhood of all the other nicer old houses I've been showing. 

The saddest thing is that the typical American home buyer has no appreciation for true

aesthetics. They aren't taught these things in school any more. And most people go to business

colleges, not liberal arts. Love to see more appreciation for taste and beauty. But, I digress... 

Here's something interesting.

This big boy never made it across the road. He looks pretty old.

Probably hit two days earlier.

Don't know what this was? Got to ask Natalie Conrad.

Here ya go. Ha!

Ahhh... The downtown area!

Laptop--OLD school.

Main Street.

Walden Street.

I was quite hungry and went from place to place checking out menus. They were WAY over my pay grade, until I got to Helen's Restaurant. The food was pretty good...

The Breakfast Burger.

But, the service was unfriendly, and they had a "Cash Only" policy, that they didn't say anything about until the check came. I HATE that. Well, I'll let you read my review at TripAdvisor...

I was in Concord passing through by foot (backpacking as a photojournalist) and saw Helen's. It looked like a reasonably priced place. So, I went in.  

My server (an older woman with dyed blond hair) looked overworked. She fake smiled, and tossed me the menu, asking what I wanted to drink. I ordered a Pepsi. She left and then brought it back. I had already decided what I wanted, and ordered the Breakfast Burger--burger, bacon, thousand island dressing, lettuce, tomato, with a fried egg on top--and fries. She mumbled something and left. 

About 10 minutes later she showed up with the meal. I thanked her and she said, "...yup." It wasn't bad, really. A bit pricey at $10.99 (other places were gougingly overpriced, so I took what I could get.  

But it hit the spot. I was burning a lot of calories and this recharged me. The server left the check. I did some work on my tablet and then put down my credit card. I try to keep as little cash on me as possible, and never expect that a place will be cash only. When she returned she said, "We're cash only. There's an ATM across the street." Got the feeling this had only happened a million time there before--the surprise about cash. 

I was not pleased. I left all of my stuff and walked a block down the street to Bank of America to get cash out. Cost me $3 friggin dollars in fees. I returned and gave her a $20 (my meal was $15), she took it without saying thank you, nor apologizing for any mix up. When she returned to give me the change, she just put it on the table and started to walk away (again, without a thank you). 

I stopped her and told her I'd had more relaxing lunches. I'd looked for any indication of "Cash Only" on their sign outside when I brought the cash back from the ATM, but didn't see it. She said it was there and on the menu. I tipped her my standard 20% ($3) and left. I looked again on the sign outside and she was right, in small writing it did say, "Cash Only." 

But, come on! Am I the only person who never thinks to look whether a place accepts cards or not anymore? It's kind of a given in the 21st Century. I was really pretty pissed, not just at my own mistake, but at her attitude and the fact that with my ATM fee I'd spent $6 more than my meal cost, and had to run around town. 

So, I went back in and took one of my dollars back off the table. As I left I heard her laughing in the back and she yelled, sarcastically, "Have a nice day!" 

Ruined my afternoon. I felt deceived. They're too cheap to pay processing fees, so they surprise attack people with the cash only thing. I will never go back there. It was ultimately my fault, but not ONLY my fault, in my opinion.

I recovered quickly, and walked to Starbucks on Sudbury Street...

This abandoned house was quite intriguing.

This was not becoming my favorite afternoon. Starbucks consisted of one table that everybody had to share--no counters or stools, no other tables at all. And of course the one table was packed with laptop-tapping kids.

So, I crossed the street and went to Dunkin Donuts, which was completely empty (at that time) and had a lot of tables and outlets. They had a nice staff, good prices and fast internet. Good enough for me!

Jeff sent a message encouraging me to check out the North Bridge at Minuteman National Historical Park. I finished my post for the day, and headed there, also looking for a sleep spot. I took these shots as I made my way down Lowell Street...

Neat! An easily accessible boat landing.

Then I took a right on Liberty Street...

This cool old house had no "lawn." only beautifully cut grass trails around

what they let turn into a field. I thought this was a great idea!

I'd much rather look at wildflowers than a boring green lawn.

Not far up the road was a spot to walk across the street and straight into the park. And, WOW! What a place! I will now simply let you see the things I saw in order. Most are self explanatory, but I may caption a few of them. Some of my best landscape and sunset photography yet was done on this day. Enjoy!

The North Bridge.

The Manse Boathouse--What a neat "tiny house" this would make.

Looking back over the bridge.

This is one OLD plaque. The three words below are what stuck out for me...

I like that they keep a respectful spot to honor the British soldiers who lost their lives here,

although the engraving is a bit of a slap in the face.

I wanted to see more of that boathouse...

One of my favorite shots of all time--the textures, colors and time of day...

Taking a peek inside, I saw someone's blanket and pillow.

I actually considered sleeping in here myself, but, nah. 

The Old Manse.

Prominent writer-owners.

Nicely kept garden.

I want this shot as a poster.

See the light from behind coming through the middle window on the second floor?

After exploring a bunch of trails around the woods, it was dark enough for me to find a place to camp. I looked in the woods, but the only spots were very well guarded with tens of thousands of poison ivy plants.

So, I started back toward town, then saw a field along the upper part of Liberty, flanked by a tall wall. I slipped over it and went down to a large tree, interestingly shaped into a W.

I was so psyched to find a place, right near where I entered, and directly across the field from the North Bridge...

I left my Nomadic mark. I use WYSOTO (wear your soul on the outside) now.

I also made this short video to record my excitement. The day had turned out quite nicely. I can't believe how much I can fit into 16 hours.

I wandered all around in the dark just exploring. Some kids took a walk down the path at about 11:00 p.m., laughing, maybe drunk. I did some ghost sounds just to screw with them. All innocent fun. They picked up their pace and went home.

Finally, at about 11:30 p.m. I crawled in and fell asleep.

Concord Sleep Spot.