2026 GREAT AMERICA 250 ADVENTURE - A MEDIOCRE HALL OF FAME

 

MONDAY – JULY 6, 2026: I spent the night at the Holiday Inn Express in East Greenbush, New York. This hotel sits up on a hill and afforded me a nice view of the Albany Skyline. I really liked this hotel, as it was off the road and was very quiet. It was exceptionally clean and the employees were very helpful. Plus, it’s always a good stay when the Pancake Roller is working.

I don’t have a lot planned today other than to make some miles and travel almost al the way across Massachusetts into New Hampshire which will set me up for the next few day.

I was lazy this morning and slept in. I think the last few days of 100+ degree temperatures took its toll and I was a little lazy this morning. I didn’t get out of bed until a little after 8:30 a.m. After breakfast, I finally checked out and hit the road at 9:30 a.m.

I headed east on Interstate 90 which is a toll road here in New York and for some stretches in Massachusetts. A few years back I got an EZ Pass, and I reloaded it before I left so I do get a little bit of a discount.

About 30 minutes into my trip I stopped at the Love’s Travel Stop in Canaan, New York. I have the Loves app on my phone and usually get a10 cent per gallon discount when I scan the QR Code at the pump. This time when I scanned the code at the pump, I got 20 cents off which was a nice surprise, especially with these high prices here in the Northeast.

After gassing up and getting coffee, It was off to my first stop of the day. The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts. I was here back in 2009 when I spent a couple of weeks touring New England with Stephanie Young and her family.

Senior Admission to the Hall of Fame is $25. If I was still young admission would have been $34.  I have been to all of the major sports Hall of Fames, (Baseball, Football and Basketball) and of the three the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame is my least favorite.

To me there is very little that is special about this Hall of Fame. At the Baseball Hall of Fame you have all the memorabilia and the Hall of Fame Plaques that makes it really special. The same with the NFL Hall of Fame. It has an abundance of Memorabilia and the Hall of Fame Busts.

Here, there is nothing really that special. The memorabilia that is on display is mostly ceremonial basketball, some game worn uniforms and a lot of sneakers. There is nothing special about the Hall of Honor or whatever it’s called. There are no plaques or busts honoring those who have been inducted. It is only a list of names on a glass wall. Really very plain.

I didn’t spent much time at the Hall of Fame, I did have lunch in one of the adjacent sports themed restaurants. While the food was pretty good, it was nothing to write home about.

After visiting the hall of fame and having lunch, I made my way back to Interstate 90 and headed east across the northern part of Massachusetts. This was really a pretty boring drive, nothing to see or do along the way. So, I just clicked off the miles.

Just east of Worcester, Massachusetts I left Interstate 90 and headed north on Interstate 495 and traveled up to Interstate 93 which took me into the State of New Hampshire.

A few miles in to New Hampshire I left the interstate and traveled to the Forest Hills Cemetery in East Derry, New Hampshire. I wanted to come here and visit the grave of Alan B. Shepard, the first American to fly into space.

He became a naval aviator in 1947, and a test pilot in 1950. He was selected as one of NASA's original Mercury Seven astronauts in 1959, and in May 1961 he made the first crewed Project Mercury flight, in a spacecraft he named Freedom 7. His Technically entered space, but was not capable of achieving orbit. He became the second person, and the first American, to travel into space.

Just for the Record, Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet cosmonaut, became the first person in space on April 12, 1961.

Alan Shepard made his second space flight as commander of Apollo 14 from January 31 to February 9, 1971. It was America's third successful lunar landing mission. He became the fifth and, at the age of 47, the oldest man to walk on the Moon, and the only one of the Mercury Seven astronauts to walk on the surface of the moon.

Alan Shepard was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in 1996 and died from complications of the disease in on July 21, 1998. He is resting in the family plot in Forest Hills Cemetery in his hometown of Derry, New Hampshire.

While I was in this cemetery, I discovered that there was another notable person resting here. So, I made my way down to the far end of the cemetery and found the grave of murder victim Gregory Smart.

Greg Smart married Pamela Smart in 1989 and the couple lived here in Derry, New Hampshire. Gregg was 24-year-old insurance agent, and Pam was the director of media services at Winnacunnet High School in nearby Hampton, New Hampshire.

It was at the high school that Pam met and seduced a15-year old student named Billy Flynn. In order to sustain the relationship and not lose possession of her dog, furniture, and condo in a divorce, Pam conspired with Flynn to murder her husband.

On May 1, 1990, six days before the couple's first wedding anniversary, Billy Flynn used a handgun to kill Gregg Smart execution style as Gregg entered the condominium.

What followed was a sensational murder trial. It was one of the first murder trials that I followed closely on the old Court TV Channel.

Pam Smart was convicted of murder-conspiracy and accomplice to murder. She was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. The case received international media coverage and inspired the made for TV movie "Murder in New Hampshire."

Billy Flynn pled guilty to Second Degree Murder and was sentenced to 28 years to life in Prison. In 2015 at the age of 41, Flynn was granted parole and was released from Prison. Today, he is more or less living a quiet life in Maine with his wife Kelly, whom he married while incarcerated.

After finishing my visit to Forest Hills Cemetery I made my way back to the interstate and headed toward the Holiday Inn Express in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Before checking into the Holiday Inn Express, I stopped at a nearby Olive Garden for supper. Then it was off to my room to finalize my plans for the next couple of days.