Day 2: Milford, CT - White River Junction, VT

I actually managed to get some proper sleep last night, probably because I couldn't get the telly to work.  Breakfast.  Muffiny-things with bacon and cheese.  On them.  I had three, plus a gallon of coffee.  Then to the road.  Once again the BBC have lied - the temperature was into the low thirties almost immediately, so the roof came down and off east we go.  First new state of the day is Rhode Island.  If there actually is an island thus named, it's missing from my map.

Rhode Island!

From here it's north and into Massachusetts.  All those lovely historical places and I didn't visit a single one.  The BBC did, however, get one thing right as it tipped down inna-tropical-stylee most of the way across the state, even though the temperature rarely dipped below 30 degrees.

Massachusetts.  Insert obligatory Bee Gees joke here...

By the end of Mass. the rain had stopped so Mr Optimistic put the top back down and pressed on into New Hampshire.  English place names abound hereabouts though strangely few are actually from Hampshire.  Essex seems to be the most popular - there's a Haverhill, a Chelmsford and a Billerica within a few miles of one another.  Why they didn't call it "Billericay" is a mystery.  I managed to get right across this chunk of NH without being able to get a photo, so had to turn round after crossing into Maine and grab this one:

New Hampshire from the other end

Sorry about the ropy picture but I was parked in a slightly dodgy location and had to take the photo with the camera resting on the top of the windscreen.  And so to Maine.  I'm told that the southern end of the state rather resembles southern Sweden, but as I only ventured a few hundred yards over the state line I cannot confirm whether the place resembles an episode of Wallander.

Maine.  Stephen King was out.

Then it's time to double back into New Hampshire, south and then west for some considerable distance until Vermont sneaks out from behind a tree and punches you in the face.  Western NH is really rather scenic, with an excellent sufficiency of tree-covered hills big enough to ski on.  I believe Vermont to be similar, but the hills are mountains.  It rained again chiz.

Vermont.  A better picture may be forthcoming

This is just opposite the motel, which could prove useful.  Drink BEER, upload photos and eat pizza in a restaurant which has the world's rattiest Mercedes-Benz S-class outside it.  It even has wooden bumpers.  Finally back here to write the Automatic Diary.  Twice, as something messed up the formatting.

New states visited: Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont, which I think may be a record for one day.