Tonight's walk lead us through all six New England States, or at least the buildings that represent them. The start of fall in New England is marked by the Big E, the largest fair in the northeast. Where else can you learn about the history of New England, stand in awe of 600 lbs of sculpted butter and enjoy a bacon cheeseburger nestled between two glazed donuts? Since it was a warm and sunny afternoon, we thought we'd head up to West Springfield hoping that midweek might mean less crowds. We were wrong and wandered around the Eastern States Exposition with more than 84,000 of our neighbors, breaking records for that day's attendance (the following day saw 1/5 of that traffic). Our path was determined by our own desire to avoid the daily parade, which we walked right into. Everywhere we went, there it was; floats, marching bands and all. More than 11,000 steps later, we had covered the Avenue of the States, New England Avenue and Commonwealth Avenue, while managing to out-maneuver the parade. Deterred by the path of the parade and the dense crowds, we had an interesting evening walking a path determined by what we were trying to avoid, rather than the destinations we had intended to arrive at. We were able to approach a familiar path from a new perspective, which lead to some unexpected discoveries.
