I am up in the Boston area for several days to look in on a couple of ongoing projects – lighting and advanced controls installations.  Between meetings, I did find time to get some play in.

This was my first airline flight since C-19 showed up;  The plane was less than 50% full and I was bumped up to 1st class seats on both legs of the trip.  Not so you would know – the above is what they serve now for your 1st class meal.

Want to know what operating under bankruptcy protection looks like?  I have usually rented my cars with Hertz.  I received an automated email that I could walk immediately to Zone 3 and “choose any car in your zone and go…”  Guess which car I picked…

I am in Lexington, MA.  On April 19, 1775 the Revolutionary War started right here in the Lexington green. 

“On the night of April 18, the British Army had sent out 800 grenadiers and light infantry soldiers on foot from Boston, with the intention of destroying Colonial gunpowder and cannons that were being stored in Concord, as well as capturing two leaders of the Sons of Liberty, John Hancock and Samuel Adams, who were staying in Lexington. Hancock and Adams were warned of the danger by two alarm riders, Paul Revere and William Dawes, who alerted the countryside of the British movements. When the British soldiers arrived on the Lexington Common not long after sunrise, they faced 77 men of the Lexington militia, commanded by Captain John Parker. Someone-still unknown to this day—fired a shot, provoking an exchange of musket fire between the two sides. Eight Lexington militia men were killed, dozens more wounded. After the rout, the British marched on toward Concord. There, several hundred militia and minute men from nearby towns assembled near the Old North Bridge to turn back the British and prevent them from capturing and destroying the Colony’s stores of gunpowder and military equipment.”

This is Buckman’s Tavern – where the locals were having a pint or two when they got word of the arriving British regulars.  They spilled out that main door and assembled across the street to greet the oncoming troops.

Memorial that commemorates the six different U.S. naval vessels that have carried the name Lexington.  

Of particular interest to me are two of the 6:

The third Lexington was a timberclad gunboat used during the Civil War – it fought in the battle of Belmont and Shiloh, among other locations.  We’re hoping to see these locations later this fall.

The fifth Lexington (aircraft carrier) was sunk by the Japs in the Battle of the Coral Sea in May of 1942.

The final Lexington (also aircraft carrier) was decommissioned in 1991 and is now a museum in Corpus Christi, TX.

The pyramidal obelisk and base indicate there the 8 colonial casualties were buried.

After the brief road bump in Lexington, the British regulars continued their journey toward Concord.  It’s about a 7 mile hike.  There is a national park between both towns that has, in some areas, restored the “road” to what it looked like in 1775.