Behind Enemy Lines

Heading home

Well after four frantic days of looking for sports bars, souvenir shops and interesting characters, Pete and I are on our way back to sunny Hackensack. I did the treadmill thing this morning (4.04 miles, 30 minutes), then met Pete for breakfast at our hotel.

I'll miss New England -- Hartford's snowy streets, Providence's charming downtown, Foxboro's quiet sense of community, and pretty much everything about Boston.

We met some really cool people on this trip. But are New Englanders better than us? Check out this little story on the Boston Herald's Web site:

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/football/patriots/view.bg?articleid=1068889&format=comments

Anyway we're about two hours from home, I think. Isn't technology great when you can blog from the passenger seat of a Toyota?

We're here!

Well, Pete and I finally reached our fourth destination: Foxboro, Mass., home to your New England Patriots. We popped by the stadium about two hours ago to take a look around. There were TV trucks lined up outside, probably preparing for live shots for the evening news.

Pete's a great traveling companion. We spent most of the ride here from Boston trying to mangle any word in the English language that ends w/ the letter R. ("Tell the drivah to take you ovah the rivah.") I hope our friends forgive us when we return home speaking with these ridiculous accents.

Almost forgot, have a message for Bergen County from Deb Bobek, a young lady we met in Boston on Wednesday night. Bobek was helping her friend shop for Patriots T-shirts at Quincy Market. We asked her for a prediction for the big game. We also told her we were from a newspaper in Hackensack. Her response?

"Patriots all the way! You can print that, Hackensack!"

Before we left Boston, I tried (unsuccessfully) to buy a Celtics hat. Hat cost about $24 before tax and it didn't seem to fit right. Not worth it.

Going to try to find someplace for dinner now. I'm stahhhving.

Cold, but no snow

A sign over here in Coolidge Corner said the temperature was 24 degrees this morning. Well, at least we don't have snow, which would have made this whole "reporting" thing difficult. Nobody wants to stop and talk to two clowns from Jersey while they're covered in three feet of snow.

Got another quick run in this morning. Four miles, I think, most of it along Commonwealth Ave. and Beacon St. Passed the offices of The Daily Free Press, my old college newspaper.  At 8:25 a.m., that office usually has a ghost-town feel to it. Most of the work there goes on between the hours of 6 p.m. and 4 a.m.

Anyway we're headed toward Fenway Pahhhhk. Hoping to flag down some fans near the Red Sawx souvenir shop. We'll head on to Foxboro sometime this afternoon.

We fear change

Things have changed a bit since I last passed through Boston. In order of importance:

1. The Vinny Testa's/Vinny T's that used to be on Beacon Street apparently closed. Many moons ago my family almost killed me for making them wait 90 minutes to get into this place. It was THAT crowded. A decade later, it's gone. Too bad. Great food, huge portions. They still have their other location open down by the Prudential Center.

2. The T -- subway for those who don't speak Bostonian -- abandoned the token system (in 2006, actually, according to our friends at Wikipedia). You can still use dollar bills, but the preferred method of payment is by Charlie Card. Basically you put money on a Charlie Card, which then acts as a debit card. When you get on the T, you tap the card, and voila!

Sidenote: When our conductor explained this process to Pete and I, he used the phrase "tap the cahhhhhhd" approximately 800 times. Love that accent.

3. The "John Kerry for President" store in Quincy Market is no more. When I rolled into town in 2004, I joked that the Kerry store was located where the "Michael Dukakis for President" store once stood.

Had a nice dinner, bought Barack Obama's "Dreams from My Father," and now I'm getting ready to call it a night. The plan is to wake up at 8, maybe run along the Charles Rivahhhh and then catch up with Pete for another go-round through the city.

Love that dirty water...

Made it to Boston about 20 minutes ago after a brief detour through Hyde Park. (Me: What did people do before GPS? Pete: They got lost. Me (confused): We just got lost.)

I went to school up here at BU, so this is a treat. I love this town, everything from Fenway Park to Faneuil Hall to the Charles River. Plus I think I have a few dining points left over from '99.

We spent the afternoon talking to people at Providence Place, a huge mall in downtown Providence. Parked for about three hours and paid $1. Insert your own pithy comment here.

Well, time to run back out. We're hoping to hit Quincy Market before dark, maybe stop at an Italian restaurant or seafood place for dinner.

The Long Way Home

Isn't it nice when your 30-minute morning jog turns into a 55-minute, where-the-heck-am-I? tour of Providence? I imagine I'll have sore legs tomorrow.

The highlight: Running up the steps of the State House. Can't really compare it to a run up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. No Rocky statue, but I did pass statues of Oliver Hazard Perry and Nathaniel Greene (they're war heroes, according to newenglandshores.com). Wonder if either of those guys could go the distance w/ Apollo...

Meeting Pete in a few minutes for a quick bite, then heading back out into Providence. Hoping to make it to Boston sometime this afternoon.

The view from Providence

So there are six pillows on my bed in this hotel room. I mention this because it's been a long day -- a day that began at the Hoboken Parking Authority (8:15 a.m.) and Bank of America (9 a.m.), included a stop at a Hartford barber shop (3:30 p.m.) and wrapped up on a sleepy street corner here in Providence (8:15 p.m.). Those pillows sure look inviting.

Pete and I took a shuttle over to Finnegan's Wake, an Irish bar a few miles from our hotel here in Providence. Met some great people, although pretty much everyone we talked to tonight seemed to pledge allegiance to the wrong football team. 

"You're not going to find many Giants fans here," the woman at the front desk warned us before we went out. She was right.

We had a late dinner here at the hotel -- pasta w/ scallops, shrimp and lobster for me, steak for Pete -- and are turning in to get ready for another day on the road tomorrow. I'm hoping to get a run in before we start working. Can't wait to explore this city in my running shoes.

On the road...

Hey kids. We're off and running on this crazy trip into the Heart of Darkness... I mean into New England. Pete's driving. I'm typing. And we're trying to make Providence before the bars close tonight.

We spent the afternoon in Hartford. Know what's a good thing to do in Hartford? To paraphrase a line from comedian Dave Attell, pack up and get the heck out of Hartford.

The city was quiet. In New York, you go out on a Tuesday afternoon and you have to elbow your way around tourists. I think Pete and I were the only tourists walking around Hartford on this snowy afternoon.

Ah yes, the snow. Almost forgot. It's snowing up here. First spotted the snow at Exit 14 on 91, a few minutes before a house went speeding past us on the highway. (Me: Did we just get passed by a house? Pete: Yes.) We had flurries in Hartford, but now we've got rain. And me without my umbrella-ella-ella.

Big thank you to the kind people we met in Hartford. Chris Rosa shared some great stories inside his barber shop. Jason Dean and Rich Niederwrfer talked with us at a sports bar. Ditto Jose DaCosta. We asked DaCosta if Pats fans and Giants fans can co-exist this Sunday.

“I don’t think there will be fights,” DaCosta said. “But I know there are going to be a lot of rivalry, a lot of bantering, everybody egging each other on. As far as physical violence, it doesn’t really happen around here.”

And on a personal note, it was a thrill for this former hockey writer to take a walk through the hallways of the Hartford Civic Center (They're actually calling it the XL Center these days). The place has some great photos of former players. Close your eyes and you could hear Brass Bonanza -- maybe the best hockey theme song of all time.

Next stop: Providence. Any advice? Recommendations? Please share.

Chris Rosa takes a few minutes to talk to us in his barber shop.

Jose DaCosta, a Giants' fan, sits at Mayor Mikes bar in Hartford, Conn.