Day 10 - Newport

Julian woke at 5:40am... so we were washed, packed and Julian was feed by 7:30am.  We had breakfast in the hotel and mucked around a bit before leaving to go grocery shopping at 9:20am.  (Timing is important).  The hotel directed us to Stop and Shop and this is it (forgot the outside photo).

 Bakery, Fruit and Vege.

 Everything else.
I have always wanted to go to an American supermarket.  This one seemed to be very similar to ours which I found very surprising.  I think the prices were also similar, perhaps a little cheaper.  This was pretty big so it had a good selection and the bakery did very nice donuts ;)  So we bought our beer, cereal, and nappies and headed out back to the I-95.

Unfortunately our Galant had other ideas.  Steve said "There is a strange warning light on the dash, I am going to pull over." Then we both heard the noise - we had a flat tyre.  We were on a slope so we headed around the corner to the Aldi supermarket carpark to change it.

Steve cursing rattle guns and kicking the rim to get it off, Julian in the pram trying to avoid the sun, suitcases on the deck.  I went inside Aldi and headed to the first male I saw to ask where I could get a tyre fixed.  Thankfully I struck it lucky and a nice guy told me the directions to Pep Boys.  Steve thankfully managed to put the spare tyre on (bloody space saver tyres) and we went to get the puncture fixed.

If it was only that easy.  When we got to Pep Boys, we found that the nail had damaged the sidewall and we were up for a new tyre (it just gets better and better).  Eric found us the cheapest tyre but it still set us back $110.

Julian was very unhappy as it was now 10:45am and he needed sleep badly.  So we left the rim with Eric and went for a drive to get Julian to sleep.  Took less than 5mins.

 Julian surrounded by suitcases and nappies!

We needed to kill sometime to allow Eric to get the tyre sorted, so we drove along Boston Post road for 20mins before turning around and heading back.  It looked a lot like the drive into Hoppers Crossing - lots of big shops surrounded by parking lots.  We did find some suburbia (nearly all with flags out the front):

 Pretty little houses.

 Our white Galant.

Steve installing new tyre at Pep Boys - yes they could have done it, but this was faster.
In all the flat cost us $110 (to be claimed on Travel insurance); 2.5hours and because of the lost time, we wouldn't be going on a tour of the Vandebuilt mansion in Newport :(

It was 1.5hours to Newport and it was a very nice drive.  We asked Jane (GPS) to take us to Flo's Clam Shack for some Newport specialities - Clamcakes, Chowda and Lobster rolls.

 At Flo's, waiting for lunch.

 Hot creamy clam Chowda and fried clamcakes.

 Julian pretending that the lobster was a phone (the lobster lights up when your order is ready).

 A very delicious lobster roll - Steve and I shared it.

Flo's Clam shack.

Cont...