Littleton - Boston - Lexington - Concord, MA

 May 11 - 14, 2025

On Friday, May 9 we drove to Spacious Skies Minute Man Campground in Littleton, MA for seven nights.  It's a beautiful wooded campground, 50 amp full hookups for $67 per night.  I got the 'stay 6, get 7' nights deal.  The owners are super nice and gave us helpful information about how to get into Boston on the subway.  There is some road noise but the campground is really quiet.

Site #80

View from the back window.

View out the side window.

As you may recall, we don't usually go into cities, but we made an exception this time because neither one of us has been, except John was there decades ago on business and didn't get to see anything.  The Lord gave us a beautiful day, so on Monday we got up early, drove to the Alewife Station (Alewife is a fish in case you're wondering) and caught the "T" to Boston.  We changed trains a couple of times and came out by the City View Trolley Tours (hop on, hop off) starting point.  We got off at the next stop to see the following:

Paul Revere's house.  It's hard to stand there and believe that someone who lived so long ago and helped make this a country lived in a house that's still there.  There is so much history here!

We didn't do the whole Freedom Trail but did get a good portion of it.

Paul Revere's statue.  He didn't go riding around saying "The British are coming, the British are coming" because back then everyone was British!  Instead he rode to the places he knew there were Patriot supporters and quietly said "The Regulars are coming".

Paul Revere Mall.  Along the wall they had plaques telling about the Patriots.

This plaque is hard to read.  It says:
PAUL REVERE
1735 - 1818
Patriot, Master Craftsman, Good Citizen
Lanterns hung in the "North Church Steeple" gave the signal to spread the alarm that the British were advancing, April 18, 1775, to capture the military stores in Concord.  Christ Church overlooking this ground is now known as the Old North.

"On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere
A glimmer and then a gleam of lights
A second lamp in the belfry burns.
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm-
Through all our history to the last.
In the hour of darkness and peril and need.
The people will waken and listen to hear the midnight message of Paul Revere."

Born on Hanover Street, lived in North Square, established his bell foundry on Foster Street, and died on Charter Street.

Paul Revere wasn't the only rider to warn the Patriots.  Revere crossed the Charles River and took one road, while William Dawes took a southern route.  In Lexington they met Samuel Prescott, who was going home.  He joined them in spreading the word.  But at 1am a British patrol surprised them and captured Revere.

There was also one for Benjamin Franklin.

We got back on the trolley and went across the Charles River to the USS Constitution.  When I made the trolley reservations I didn't realize the the Constitution is closed on Mondays, so we went to the Constitution Museum in case we decided not to come back and see the Constitution.

U.S.S. Constitution
You can't get close to it when it's not open.

Where the ship was repaired several times over the centuries.

Dry Dock #1

We back on the trolley and then got off near Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market.  We walked through Quincy Market and back again looking for something to eat (and that I could eat) and ended up at Bread O' Life Bakery.  We both ordered chicken salad wraps and they were the blandest chicken salad I've ever had.  When we sat down on a bench outside to eat there was a Marguaritaville Restaurant right next to us and they had lunch specials.  We could have spent about the same amount of money and had a decent meal.  Live and learn!

Samuel Adams statue in front of Quincy Market.

Old State House with the Boston Massacre site memorial in front.

We got back on the trolley, not realizing the the Old Granary Burying Ground wasn't that far from the stop.  We rode the trolley back to the start.  I wouldn't recommend this trolley company and it was pretty expensive.  When you look at a map of the historic places it looks like they're farther apart than they area.  We had three different drivers and two of them were pretty good, the other one talked about restaurants and traffic.  You can walk everywhere (except if you didn't want to walk all the way to the USS Constitution you could take a bus).  We saw several walking tours, but unless you want a lot of detailed information you can pretty much do it on your own.  They do have some self-guided walking tours but I didn't check those out.  So after we got off the trolley at the first stop we walked back to the burying ground.

Granary Burial Ground

Burial Ground

Samuel Adams

Paul Revere

John Hancock

Benjamin Franklin

We took the subway back to the parking garage and drove back to the campground.  John had over 10,000 steps and I had over 9,000.

On Tuesday we went to Lexington to see where the first shots of the American Revolution were fired.  Both the Patriot and British commanders told their troops not to fire; someone did but no one knows which side it was on.

Buckman Tavern.  They have tours but they're closed on Tuesdays!  It sits across the street from Lexington Battle Green, where the fighting started.

The Patriot militia had been warned that the British were coming.  On April 19, 1775, seventy seven men gathered on Lexington Green to wait for them.  At 5am the first shot was fired and eight colonists died.

Lexington Green plaque.

Captain John Parker statue, commander of the local militia.

Lexington Green

A memorial built in 1779 to the first men who died on April 19, 1775.

"The remains of the those who fell in the Battle of Lexington were brought here from the Old Cemetery, April 20, 1835, and buried within the railing in the front of this monument."

We then drove to Concord to the Minute Man National Historical Park Minute Man Visitor Center.  They have a nice display explaining the timeline of April 19, 1775.  They also have an excellent multi-media presentation.  It's probably the best national park 'film' we've ever seen.

After Lexington the British went to Concord searching for weapons and gunpowder that the colonists had stored up.  Word had been spread to the local militias of the battle at Lexington, and an increasing number of militia joined together and fired on the British the whole way to Concord.  They didn't line up like traditional warfare was done back then; they knew the woods and land and fired behind trees and rocks, and hills.  At 9am the British found some weapons and burned them. The militia, up on a hill, thinking that homes were burning go down to the North Bridge in Concord to fight.  The British retreat and head back for Boston via Lexington where reinforcements fire cannon at the colonists.  They start marching back to Boston, but the militia are fighting the whole way back in increasing numbers.  That evening the British are back in Charlestown.  They counted 73 dead and 174 wounded; Colonials have 49 men dead and 41 wounded.  The war has begun

We drove on the road past many old 'witness' homes and taverns that were there during the battle from Lexington to Concord and went to the North Bridge and North Bridge Visitor Center.

The Minute Man Statue

On the North Bridge looking toward where the British were.

On the North Bridge looking toward where the Colonists were.

British Memorial

Inscription on British Memorial

We drove back to the campground and here we'll stay until we leave on Friday as we decided not to go back in to see the USS Constitution.  Then we'll be...

Roving on...

For this is what the LORD says, He who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and not create if as a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited): "I am the LORD, and there is no one else."  Isaiah 45:1

Old Mystic, CT - Carver, MA - Littleton, MA

May 5 - 10, 2025

On Monday, May 5 we drove to Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park Cranberry Acres in Carver, MA, for 4 nights.  It was a really nice park with a lot of very nice cabins.  Being weekdays in early May it was really quiet, and we had a nice site.  It was 50 amp full hookups for $48.75 per night.  They had a special - stay three nights and get the fourth free.

Welcome to Massachusetts

One thing we started noticing in New York that there were more Dunkin Donuts stores, even sometimes across the street from each other.  We also noticed that there was an increased police presence, and that explained everything!  Even in Connecticut and Massachusetts there are Dunkin Donuts signs at almost every interstate exit.  I looked it up and they started in Massachusetts.

Site 205
The reason they call it Cranberry Acres is because there are fields of cranberries all over the area.

Although traditionally the rock is where the Pilgrims first set foot on America, neither William Bradford or Edward Winslow, both excellent chroniclers of the trip, ever mentioned a rock.  It wasn't until 120 years later that 95 year old Thomas Faunce said the rock was the first place they landed.  He had known some of the original Pilgrims.

 In 1921, after several moves of the rock through the years, it was brought here and a portico was built over it.

It's a nice story but I don't know how much truth there is in it.  I was surprised at how few people there were there.  I guess this is the time of year to come.

The Mayflower II

We were there!

Should I stay or should I go?  At that time King James I is head of the Church of England.  A group of religious separatists met in secret, hiding from the eyes of the Church.  Back then you were not allowed to have any other church except the government sponsored one, so their actions were illegal.  After years of persecution they left England and went to Holland, where they could worship without fear.  But life in Holland was hard, and they started discussing finding a new place to live.  England was in an economic depression and they didn't want to go back there, so they decided to come to America.  They set sail on the Mayflower and the Speedwell, but the Speedwell started leaking so they went back to shore.  She was repaired but still leaked, so was left behind and everyone sailed on the Mayflower starting September 6, 1620.

The chart room, where the navigators planned and plotted their course.

Obviously the Captain had the best quarters.

The second level was where the Pilgrims stayed for the voyage.  They cooked, slept, and passed the time here.  Some of them were sick, and the children were bored, so I'm sure they were glad to see land again.

More of the deck where they stayed.  The ship looks so small to us.  It's hard to believe that many people came on one ship.

This was the hold, where most of the passenger's household goods, tools and supplies, as well as the ship's store of food, cordage, canvas, etc. were stored.  With 102 people plus crew on board it must have been completely full.

After 66 days they landed in what is now Plymouth on November 11, 1620.  They intended to settle near the Hudson River, and had permission from the king to go there, but winds forced the ship to stay in the harbor.  It was also getting late in the year to be settling.  Some people weren't very happy and were making "discontented and mutinous speeches".  So they quickly drafted the Mayflower Compact and the male passengers signed it.

The men went to look for a possible townsite, but it was another month before they decided where to build.  In the first bitterly cold winter half of the people died.

As an aside, the settlements of Plymouth and Jamestown were very different.

The Jamestown settlers were from Europe, where you worked but the kings and queens took what they wanted, you got the rest, but they took care of you.  They were used to that, so when they got there they told the Native Americans that the king now owned the land.  The king was supposed to send them supplies, but the British Empire had a lot of colonies and they didn't supply them.  So they looked to the Native Americans and told them they needed to take care of them.  They didn't work and for the first couple of years the Native Americans they did supply them with food. But after two years the Native Americans said enough is enough and you have to take care of yourselves.  There were 490 colonists the winter of 1609-1610.  In the spring there were 60 left.  So they started Indian wars and kidnapped Pocahontas.  She got her chief father to supply them for another two years.

The Mayflower colonists didn't like the European way of doing things so they wrote the Mayflower Compact.  They based it on the Bible, which is the form of government we have today.  They didn't want the government telling them what faith (church) they were going to follow to they elected a pastor, governor, and city leaders every year.  At first everyone worked and contributed food, etc., but people started getting lazy thinking they would still eat even if they didn't work.  Governor Bradford put a stop to it and said if you don't work you don't eat.  Productivity increased seven-fold.  When they were looking for a place to live they didn't want to take someone else's property.  They found a place that looked deserted and built there.  Along came a Native American that spoke broken English.  He went and got Squanto, who had been kidnapped and sold into slavery along with 26 others by the Spanish.  Some Catholic monks came long and bought them all and freed them.  Squanto went to England and learned the language there, then returned to his home.  He became the Pilgrim's mentor.  They asked him about buying some property so he took them to Chief Meso, and they got a title deed for the property they wanted.  Other countries had slavery for thousands of years but they decided they didn't want to do that.  They considered it stealing when you take a man, and the Bible says not to steal.  So they passed a law that said that if anyone stole a man it was considered as a capitol punishment and they were put to death.  They also taught boys AND girls to read so they could read the Bible.  They had the highest literacy rate in the world.

What a difference between the socialists (Jamestown) and the capitalists (Plymouth).

So back to did I stay or go?  Some went back and some stayed.

This Samuel Fuller was the brother of Edward Fuller, my 9th great-grandfather.  Edward was a signer of the Mayflower Compact, and had a son also named Samuel, my 8th great-grandfather.  Edward and his wife died the first winter and Edward's brother Samuel took in their son Samuel and raised him.

Now you know more than you ever wanted to know about the Mayflower, Plymouth and Jamestown.

We're now in Littleton, MA, but it's been raining for the last 24 hours, so I'll take pictures and post info on the campground in the next blog.  We'll be here for a week so it will be a while before we're...

Roving on...

For this is what the LORD says, He who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and not create if as a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited): "I am the LORD, and there is no one else."  Isaiah 45:1