Five towns in one day!

People have asked Josh and me how we decide where to go and what to visit as we pursue our goal of visiting all the towns in Massachusetts. Sometimes we have a particular place in mind that brings us to a particular town, but lately we've just been looking at a map and picking a route that would allow us to hit several towns in one area. Last weekend we chose to head southwest along the Connecticut border, our main destination being Lake Chaubunagungamaug in Webster, MA. Sometimes that lake name is spelled Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaug and has been cited as one of the longest place names in the world. You can understand why it is more commonly called Webster Lake.

That day we just set out with a road map and decided to see what we found. Our only rule about visiting these towns it that just driving through them doesn't count as "visiting." We have to stop and see something, or at the very least make a small purchase at a store, even if it's just a 7-11. We stopped in Uxbridge first and walked through a deserted town center. The hot dog place? Closed. Gift shop? Closed? We settled on gawking at the town hall and checking out the old jail windows in its basement.

From there, we went to Douglas where we stopped in at a flea market and took a look through costume jewelery, old tools and coin collections. In Dudley, we drove through the Nichols College campus and wondered what it must be like to go to college in such a small, rural town.We drove around Webster looking for Lake Street, and drove around the edge of the water, which was dotted with speed boats out for Memorial Day weekend. We ate at Waterfront Mary's, a burger and sandwich place and debated the merits of summer recreation vs. winter. We started to head home, but not before stopping in Oxford, an adorable old-fashioned town with tree-lined streets and plenty of park space. We strolled through the cemetery in the town center, which remained rather undecorated considering the holiday weekend.

This was one of our favorite days so far in the expedition because our only task was to get to the lake, and everything else along the way was a surprise. We broke our record with five towns in one day and brought our total towns visited to 30. We're gonna hit 10 percent soon and you're all going to want to throw us a party.