For over twenty years Hollie and I were Texans who loved our cars and loved to drive. I love to drive so much that my cars have usually been convertibles that I drove year round with the top down. For many years Hollie drove a 72 passenger bus as we transported my team around rural and urban areas of Texas. Anyway, I wanted to give that as a partial explanation for why we chose to rent a car and drive around Boston rather than taking public transportation.
We arrived at Logan at 4:30 pm on Saturday, got the rental car and headed to the downtown area. We proceeded to drive around for a couple of hours, after which we came to the conclusion that things weren't much different than driving in Atlanta or Houston. The exception were the tolls. We weren't used to that. Hollie was the driver and I the navigator. This worked OK except that he probably saw much more of Boston than I who spent most of the time reading the map.
On Sunday, son Robin chose to take the T to meet some buddies. They went to the expo and the baseball game. Hollie and I drove to Springfield to meet a friend. We got in her car and she drove us to Holyoke for lunch and a driving tour of some of the colleges in the area. Hollie always likes to see these and some were in very scenic areas. Early evening we arrived back at the Logan airport Comfort Inn and then drove to a restaurant in Revere for the pre marathon meal of a steak bomb, onion rings, French fries and snickers bars. Hey, it worked pretty well for him.
Monday morning we left the hotel at 7:30 to drive to the bus area. Before leaving the hotel, we met a guy from Salt Lake City who asked if he could ride with us. We got to the bus area without a hitch and were back at the hotel before 8:30. Then Hollie went out for a run, after which we drove to Framingham where we arrived about 11:00 am. We parked a block from the course and ate breakfast before getting back to the course in time to see the wheelchair leader. We stayed there until Robin came by. Then we hopped in the car and drove to Newton, arriving in time to see the lead female runners. After Robin passed us, we then drove to the finish area. Finding a street parking space was a small problem, but we did get one within about 10 blocks of the finish. We found a viewing spot just after the turn and got to see the finishers from about 2:30 on.
After Robin finished and we hooked up with him, Hollie walked to the car and came back for us within a couple of blocks of the finish. Back to the hotel and Hollie and I drove to a deli to get Robin his post race meal. Hollie then returned to car and Tuesday we took the hotel shuttle to Logan. Although I didn't do the driving, I think I could have done OK if I'd had as good a navigator as I was for Hollie. All in all---not a bad marathon of driving Boston.