Greatescapers's Blog

As big Family Guy fans, we just had to take a trip to Newport, Rhode Island and the surrounding area. Add to the fact that the Newport Folk Festival of 1965 was the place where the controversial ‘Electric Dylan’ first happened, and it was a must visit for us.

Dex kindly agreed to pick us up at 3pm, as I had to do a call with the West Ham Fan Advisory Board and couldn’t get out of it. Fortunately, that call was well worth the time as the new regime at West Ham is bringing the changes that we all have wanted for so many years. We planned to meet up with Sam and Mark who had made their own way there, so we could all meet up for the Scotland vs Brazil game.

Newport is a pleasant 50 minute drive from Providence crossing two massive and highly impressive bridges to get into the town itself. The water is chocked full of boats of varying sizes and price tickets and the houses are all of wooden construction and incredibly pleasing on the eye.

As we winded into town we passed The Tennis Hall of Fame Tennis Centre, home to a Real Tennis court and one of only four grass courts used on the pro Tennis circuit globally. We also passed by Cardines Field, one of the oldest and most classic baseball stadiums in the US. It is home to the Newport Gulls who play in the New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL). Cardines Field is on America’s Cup Avenue, reminding us all that Newport was the spiritual home to The America’s Cup from 1930-1983.

It was clear that there was real wealth in this town and it reminded me of the famous quote by Alistair Cooke in his ‘ Letter to America’ series, ‘One hundred years after the declaration that all men are created equal, there began to gather in Newport a colony of the rich, determined to show that some Americans were conspicuously more equal than others.’

Newport is that living definition of ‘Old Money’ alluded to by Cooke. The Astors, Vanderbilts, Dukes, Kennedys, Berwinds, Belmonts and the Morgans (of JP Morgan) all owned huge properties dating back to The Gilded Age. We drove around Bellevue Avenue, Ocean Drive and Ocean Avenue, and yes it was all very impressive, think Wayne Manor meets The Great Gatsby. Carter Pewterschmidt, Peter Griffin’s father in law from Family Guy would have lived here of course. Which explains a lot.

Maybe Mark Twain summed it all up rather more tersely than Alistair Cooke felt he needed to. Very much American Direct vs British Understatement?

“Newport, Rhode Island, that breeding place–that stud farm, so to speak–of aristocracy; aristocracy of the American type.”

We found a great bar on the waterfront called The Smugglers to watch the Brazil vs Scotland game. A terrible disappointment littered with errors saw the Scots lose 3-0 and with that, most likely exit the World Cup, although the wait for the teams who finish in third place who play early is a real design fault on the part of FIFA geniuses who wanted a 48 team World Cup in the first place.

The following day we visited Matunuck, had a delicious meal in the Matunuck Oyster Restaurant and then headed up to the Brenton State Park to fly a kite, knock a football around and have some iced lemonade. We were rubbish at kite flying and playing football, but the lemonade and scenery were off the scale. We said our sad farewells to Dex and headed back to Providence to watch the Japan vs Sweden game (2-2) and the USA vs Türkiye game (3-2). It was a couple of long days and nights, but very, very good ones.

As I reflected on our time in Newport and its history, it reminded Milton Friedman, he of the American economist and statistician from the Chicago School of Economics, who rejected Keynesianism in favour of monetarism. He advised Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, and as they say, the rest is history.

“A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither.” – Milton Friedman

To which I would proffer, ‘really?’…

As big Family Guy fans, we just had to take a trip to Newport, Rhode Island and the surrounding area. Add to the fact that the Newport Folk Festival of 1965 was the place where the controversial ‘Electric Dylan’ first happened, and it was a must visit for us.

Dex kindly agreed to pick us up at 3pm, as I had to do a call with the West Ham Fan Advisory Board and couldn’t get out of it. Fortunately, that call was well worth the time as the new regime at West Ham is bringing the changes that we all have wanted for so many years. We planned to meet up with Sam and Mark who had made their own way there, so we could all meet up for the Scotland vs Brazil game.

Newport is a pleasant 50 minute drive from Providence crossing two massive and highly impressive bridges to get into the town itself. The water is chocked full of boats of varying sizes and price tickets and the houses are all of wooden construction and incredibly pleasing on the eye.

As we winded into town we passed The Tennis Hall of Fame Tennis Centre, home to a Real Tennis court and one of only four grass courts used on the pro Tennis circuit globally. We also passed by Cardines Field, one of the oldest and most classic baseball stadiums in the US. It is home to the Newport Gulls who play in the New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL). Cardines Field is on America’s Cup Avenue, reminding us all that Newport was the spiritual home to The America’s Cup from 1930-1983.

It was clear that there was real wealth in this town and it reminded me of the famous quote by Alistair Cooke in his ‘ Letter to America’ series, ‘One hundred years after the declaration that all men are created equal, there began to gather in Newport a colony of the rich, determined to show that some Americans were conspicuously more equal than others.’

Newport is that living definition of ‘Old Money’ alluded to by Cooke. The Astors, Vanderbilts, Dukes, Kennedys, Berwinds, Belmonts and the Morgans (of JP Morgan) all owned huge properties dating back to The Gilded Age. We drove around Bellevue Avenue, Ocean Drive and Ocean Avenue, and yes it was all very impressive, think Wayne Manor meets The Great Gatsby. Carter Pewterschmidt, Peter Griffin’s father in law from Family Guy would have lived here of course. Which explains a lot.

Maybe Mark Twain summed it all up rather more tersely than Alistair Cooke felt he needed to. Very much American Direct vs British Understatement?

“Newport, Rhode Island, that breeding place–that stud farm, so to speak–of aristocracy; aristocracy of the American type.”

We found a great bar on the waterfront called The Smugglers to watch the Brazil vs Scotland game. A terrible disappointment littered with errors saw the Scots lose 3-0 and with that, most likely exit the World Cup, although the wait for the teams who finish in third place who play early is a real design fault on the part of FIFA geniuses who wanted a 48 team World Cup in the first place.

The following day we visited Matunuck, had a delicious meal in the Matunuck Oyster Restaurant and then headed up to the Brenton State Park to fly a kite, knock a football around and have some iced lemonade. We were rubbish at kite flying and playing football, but the lemonade and scenery were off the scale. We said our sad farewells to Dex and headed back to Providence to watch the Japan vs Sweden game (2-2) and the USA vs Türkiye game (3-2). It was a couple of long days and nights, but very, very good ones.

As I reflected on our time in Newport and its history, it reminded Milton Friedman, he of the American economist and statistician from the Chicago School of Economics, who rejected Keynesianism in favour of monetarism. He advised Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, and as they say, the rest is history.

“A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither.” – Milton Friedman

To which I would proffer, ‘really?’…

We’ve been staying in Providence, the capital of Rhode Island, the USA’s smallest state. And it really has been lovely. We are staying just off Benefit Street, which is straight out of the 18th century, all wooden houses and exceptionally well cared for. The irony is that our AirBnB in this wonderful neighborhood is super budget. Once again full credit to Kirsty for doing all the research and finding yet another winning home for a few days.

Providence has a lot of universities and design schools and it shows. There’s a good degree of relaxed liberal places to eat, all of which are a welcome respite from the relentless fried food we seem to be surrounded by.

But the highlight of Providence for me has been the coffee shop I found along the road from ours called Bitty & Beau’s. From the outside it looks modern, clean and new. Once inside if you are awake, you see the full range of merch they have for sale and the graphics around the wall.

Their story is rather inspiring. Founded in North Carolina by Amy & Ben Wright couple who are parents of four children — Lillie, Emma Grace, Beau and Bitty. Lillie was born with autism, and Bitty & Beau were born with Down syndrome.

After learning over 80% of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities are unemployed in the USA, the Wrights decided to create a place where people with disabilities are valued & given opportunity for meaningful work. Their model? Well it seems to be coffee shop, with unforgettable staff that aims to change the way people see other people.

For me, that’s a business with a real purpose. I’ve been in all three mornings since we arrived to collect our morning coffee and I have seen different team members. I managed to have a chat with one woman who was clearly a supervisor/leader and we talked about how historic the area we are staying is, her love of Portugal, as that’s where her family came from. That inevitably led to talk of the football and the World Cup. She was absolutely shocked snd stunned that we were traveling around watching England play.

Today I had another chat with a man who was in charge and he filled me in about the history of the company and philosophy of the business. We also talked about football, the US national team and Liverpool FC who he supported because of the Fenway Sports Group connection.

It was their first summer of trading in Providence and he said they were missing the students who were all on their holidays as the students really did support Bitty & Beau’s. That was great to hear and really has inspired me. Contrary to what many outsiders say, there’s much to be inspired about in America. None of us should ever forget that, even if they do seem to be a tad divided right now.

Maybe Americans should be a little more Bitty & Beau’s. Greatness is not always where you expect it to be.

Well my prediction was 3-0 to England vs Ghana. How wrong could I be? And I also thought it would be hot in Boston but it was cool and wet. What was predictable was that it was another totally exhausting game to watch pretty much the norm with England! But more on that later.

We woke up at Dex and Kara’s to typical Old England weather. Grey skies and rain. Dex rustled up a great breakfast and then insisted on driving us to the stadium. Such a brilliant friend.

The stadium is the home of the NFL’s New England Patriots. But much like the RyanAir or EasyJet model of ‘London Stansted’ or ‘London Luton’, the Gillette Stadium is nowhere near Boston. It is actually in Foxborough which is at least 45-60 mins by car away. Dex, a big Ghana fan for the day, dropped us just short of Patriot Park. Patriot Park looks like a typical retail park surrounded by car parks leading up to an area with bars and restaurants. Apparently US sports fans tail-gate for match days. Tail-gating is when you park up the oversized car and have beers and oversized food out of the back with your friends. Today though, with a combination of the weather and the sheer number of England and Ghana fans present, that just wasn’t going to happen.

So the pressure was on the bars near the ground which were totally overrun with fans and the English and the Ghanans were in fine voice. We had four sets of friends we were trying to catch up with. We couldn’t get into two of the bars to see two sets of those friends, but managed to meet up with two lots in one bar and have a good time pre match.

The walk to the stadium took in a short cut through a cinema complete with non working escalators, much to the surprise of the cinema staff. We sailed through security and everything was so much easier than expected. We waved goodbye to Sean, Suzy, Callum, Fabian, Mark and Sam as we all found our way to where were sitting. We met up with Steve our Forest friend and had a proper laugh.

The stadium was similarly impressive to Dallas although a good bit older. Our seats were low and right behind the goal. Perfect for the action to come.

Both national anthems were impeccably respected, well done England fans, and a great game looked like it was ahead of us.

It was great to see the usual booing of the hydration breaks and those ‘celebrities’ who FIFA have now decided to name with captions. That must be because so many fans inside the grounds just had no clue as to who these people are. Consequently Mumford & Sons got a round of boos, in sharp contrast to David Beckham who got a huge reception with a round of ‘There’s only one David Beckham’, another nice touch from the England fans.

Let’s face it Ghana set up to not concede and made it really hard for England to break them down. Frustrating for the boys and frustrating to watch all round.  

But despite all of that Saka, Guei, Kane and O’Reilly all had great chances towards the end. O’Reilly’s leap reminded me of the great Billy The Fish as he was about a foot higher than anyone else, which is saying something given those Ghanaian defenders were all massive!

Sadly, though a win was not to be but it could have been a complete disaster as it appears we were lucky not to concede a penalty with that Konsa challenge towards the end.

Two steps forward one step back? Maybe. But let’s face it, from what we have seen out here, Argentina, France, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Columbia, Netherlands, and a few more all look good. If we can get to be in the top eight, we will be doing well.

Next stop is New Jersey on Saturday. We need to win against Panama and try and get back to the levels of that second half performance against Croatia. Let’s see how Panama set up against us. They are out of the World Cup so have absolutely nothing to lose. Game on. We hope!

Goodbye Nashville, Tennessee and hello Providence, Rhode Island. You really couldn’t have two more different States. Think Dolly Parton to Family Guy in a couple of hours flight!

We Ubered it to our AirBnb. Early impressions were just fantastic. Our home for a few days is a very old, wooden building with an eclectic interior design taste and furnishings and extremely homely on a very tight budget. Happy days.

We had a very easy Monday morning in Providence the highlight being a WhatsApp call with Dad. That really made me cry but was so lovely to see and talk to my Dad and Mum.

I picked up some coffees at Bitty & Beau’s which was a lovely coffee shop. It was founded by a couple and offers jobs for people with disabilities and the team were super helpful and welcoming. The woman who served me was fascinated by fact that we were following England around. She was from Portuguese heritage and knew all about the Portuguese team and their challenges given the ‘Ronaldo’ factor.

We decided to take the Argentina vs Austria game on the big screen from Dallas in the local fan park. The weather had turned a little colder and wetter. That did seem to have an effect on the numbers of people watching the game out in the open. The majority of football shirts being worn were Argentinian and every single one bore the number 10 and Messi on their backs. We met a lovely Ecuadorian couple who lived locally and talked football. They seemed to like living in the US, but also said that they missed their homeland. They were slightly bewildered and struggled to get their head around what we were doing watching football on a Monday afternoon. As for following England around North America, well they were absolutely fascinated.

We had laid plans to meet up with our very dear friend and part-time Ghana fan, Dex, who lives just outside Boston. Dex generously cooked dinner at his and his wife, Kara and Conor, their son’s house and then to take us to the Ghana game today.

Dex picked us up from ours just after the end of the game, a game where Messi broke the record for scoring goals at the World Cup, surpassing Miroslav Klose’s previous record. That felt right given the utter brilliance of the little Argentinian maestro. two goals in that game to add to the three in his first game. Surely the Golden Boot this time round will hit double figures?

We called in to pick up some beers and really enjoyed watching France vs Iraq from Philadelphia with Dex’s friend Sean who we had last met in Boston twenty years ago at Dex and Kara’s wedding. I predicted a 3-0 win for France. We at least saw the first half of the game until the enormous storm stopped the game for two hours from half time onwards. Dex told us that if there is a lightning storm within 15 miles of the stadium, they have to be evacuated. Camera crews on gantries and spectators in stands constructed in metal are real dangers to life. It happens all the time out here and they just hold the game until the storm passes and spectators get back into the stadium.

Whilst all this was going on, Norway vs Senegal was getting underway in New Jersey, the same stadium we will be at for the last England group game at the weekend. This was a real classic of a game. Norway with Haaland are a great side and Senegal’s front line are so dangerous. It topped up 3-2 Norway and guaranteed their safe passage into the second round, with Senegal’s future in the competition hanging by a very fine thread.

We had a BBC5Live Breakfast piece to do and then to bed.

Today’s the day we head to the Foxborough Stadium for the Ghana game. Like a lot of these stadia, they appear to be nowhere near the ‘host’ city, in this case Boston which is 45-60 mins away. It’s a bit like London Stansted or London Luton airports.

I am feeling unusually confident about the game, and have even predicted a 3-0 win for England. Time will tell.

Goodbye San Marcos, Austin Texas hello Nashville, Tennessee. I’ve really been looking forward to this trip to Music City. Like really looking forward to it!

And hey boy, hey girl, has not disappointed, it’s actually exceeded my expectations on every single measure.

Our hotel is on Lower Broadway directly opposite the Johnny Cash Museum, we are smack bang in the middle of the Honky Tonk Highway. You want live music? You want loud live music? You want multiple bands all playing live loud music all at once? You’ve got it. These Honky Tonk bars are everywhere. It’s like peak Woolworth’s Pick ‘n’ Mix but instead of sweets, it’s live music.

Our friends were also arriving in Nashville so we headed to The Fleet Street Pub. This is a pub run by an Englishman who is also clearly a Gooner. We met up with Obi, also a Gooner, who we last saw on the last night in Qatar and Reg (2), who is Billy the Bee’s brother who lives in the U.K. Both great people. Billy has asked me on to his and Laney’s Brentford FC podcast Beesotted a fair few times when West Ham play Brentford and is always the life and soul of any party!

We watched the Canada vs Qatar game on the big screen. Qatar got a 6-0 drubbing, and Canada don’t look like mugs at all. We very confused about table vs bar service, because there are ‘obviously’ two separate regimes running each and the tips ‘real estate’ seems to be where the real value is. Getting caught up in this tipping turf war ain’t for us. Welcome to America!

At the end of the match we decided to change scene to one with bigger screens and actual commentary that we could hear. So we duly headed to Draft Kings where we were meeting up with the wonderful Reg 1, Mark, Supes and main orchestrator and all round good person, Billy, all of whom were coming in from Mexico.

Draft Kings is actually a betting company, so think a Paddy Power or Bet365 pub and ridiculously expensive. There were walls and walls of enormous screens and noise to watch the Mexico vs South Korea game on. Both teams looked unimpressive to be honest, and at the end of it, inevitable talk turned to a possible England vs Mexico in Mexico City down the line. Personally, I would love to go back to Mexico City and the Azteca Stadium. The last time I was there we lost 2-1 to Argentina to that goal and that other goal. It would be lovely to return and this time win.

And then back to Broadway, which is quite simply like nothing else I have witnessed. Literally thousands of people, thousands of pairs of Cowboy boots, Cowboy hats and Rhinestone everywhere. It’s like one big hen party sponsored by Ariat or Tony Lama (two of the big names in Cowboy boots). Humour is good and people are clearly out for a good time.

We hit Chief’s Honky Tonk Bar which like most of the bars has about 5 floors of music. Two things stood out. The extremely high quality of the bands playing and the overall friendliness of the Americans.

For those of us who have travelled many times to the US, the friendliness and openness shouldn’t be a surprise.

Relentlessly optimistic, Americans are always interested in what you think of their country and why you are visiting. When you tell them that we are here for The World Cup, and yes, we were travelling round watching England play their World Cup games, they are all completely enchanted and confused in seemingly equal measure.

Two young lads, Owen and Ryan, were on the other side of the bar and were smiling and pointing over at us. Kirsty thought there was something up. I disagreed. 20 minutes later and my confidence was repaid. The boys were just happy to see ‘an old timer like me having fun’. I did say ‘less of the old’, but they were genuine if a little drunk. That was better than the comment some English fan said when he asked where I was from, always tough question. Is that where I was born, where I have lived, or where I live now? Anyway when I told him I lived in the Cotswolds, he quipped ‘you’ve made some money as you have clearly got a trophy wife’. I corrected him on both counts, but Kirsty found it hilarious. Mind you, when he told me where he was from, note I didn’t actually ask him, he said ‘South London, just outside Gatwick’ to which I replied ‘West Sussex then’. Fortunately him and his very drunk mate decided their night’s entertainment laid elsewhere.

Next up the USA vs Australia match. And we had an early start to make sure we got into the American Outlaws venue to see it.

Y’all come back now…..