We decided we needed a longer rest, so before even seeing Rhode Island properly, we decided to stay another night. We were not disappointed! It is now the second city that is definitely in the running. Like Columbus, it was a very good size for us. It was small enough that it felt manageable and not especially stressful to be in, but also full of useful things that we want.
The driving got calmer as soon as we crossed out of Massachusetts. Everyone we met was extremely friendly and helpful. We were thrilled to know Seth MacFarlane was not exaggerating the local accent on Family Guy. Not everyone sounds like Peter and Lois, but a fair number of people did. I know a lot of Americans aren’t too keen on some of these ‘stronger’ East coast accents, but as a linguist I found them fascinating and as a non-rhotic speaker of English, Chris enjoyed being so easily understood by fellow non-rhotic speakers or even just the rhotic locals who were used to their non-rhotic brethren (a reminder that non-rhotic means ‘dropping’ r in words like car or port).
We did a bit of shopping, which is always a great way to talk to people. The women of Target and Macy’s were both extremely happy to talk and had lots of advice about what to do in Rhode Island. They recommended we check out the student area, so we did. We ended up meeting a couple from New York and Arizona there. She told us housing prices were three times as much in Long Island as they were in Arizona. Good to know. Thanks!
Chris also found this and for about half a second thought it was something else:
We decided to catch up on our cinema in the afternoon and went to see Terminator Genisys (which was fun – we both enjoyed seeing the various ages of Arnold that they managed to convey well and I do love both Matt Smith i.e. the 11th Doctor and Emilia Clarke i.e. the Mother of Dragons). The cinema wasn’t quite as flash as the one in Columbus, but it was still clean and comfortable (and still much better than the Brighton Odeon, sorry Brighton Odeon) and the staff were lovely and helpful like everyone else we’d met.
We so liked the Chinese we tried the night before, we decided to go again since our hotel had no microwave (our car cooker does work for various things, but is best suited for a lunch portion).
At any rate, Rhode Island is in the running.
Check out the video:
PS – We met someone lovely from Indiana, so sorry about the not so happy post from Indiana, there is at least one genuinely lovely guy from there 🙂
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