Episode 149 : Hyde in America, Part VI

'So we can go to these places in Boston- Charles River, Quincy Market, M.I.T, Harvard...' the Altruist suggested.

'Then I can honestly say I went to Harvard' I quipped.

'... We could also walk the History trail.'

'Nah, let's just drive in and around Boston. I am not the average tourist; I don't do what tourists usually do.'

So that's how it turned out. My visit to Boston was restricted to seeing the Harvard campus, driving down Charles River, past MIT and the Museum of Science, and through downtown Boston.

I am doing the same in California. Instead of going to the popular places in and near Sacramento, I used non-highway roads, avoiding the freeway (which reminds me of the Madras-Bangalore part of the Golden Quadrilateral), and into small towns that are insignificant on a tourist map.

'Are you from Wheatfield?' the lady in a store asked me when I stopped to buy some gum and water.

'No, I am from Sacramento. Just driving around.'

It comes from going around in a motorcycle, I guess. The journey is the destination, we claim.

I have turned into a snob tourist.