01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, September 25, 2005

BY ALAN SOLOMON
Chicago Tribune

"So we say, 'Good morning, everyone . . .' "

It is Day 7 of Trip One in my experiment during last year's leaf-peeping season: to sample two alternate modes of leaf-peeping (other than driving) -- by bus and by ship -- and decide which to recommend. (My personal choice? Driving. But that's just me. Each of the alternatives has its charms, regardless of how you feel about Diane and her early-morning perkiness.)

Microphone in hand, Diane, a tour director with the voice and manner of a preschool librarian, greets us from the front of the bus.

We know the drill. We have successfully put our packed luggage outside our doors by 7:30 a.m., and as promised, it has disappeared, presumably into the coach's bottom. We have, like polite locusts, picked apart the hotel's breakfast buffet.

We have all climbed onto the motor coach by 8:30 a.m., as directed, some more easily than others. We have taken our seats -- as always, two rows up (or back) from the seats we had taken the day before. It's a clockwise rotation that assures everyone eventually sits everywhere, and that every morning, the people across the aisle from us are new.

The bus eases out of the parking lot, and we're on the road again. Diane blows into the microphone. Fwompp. It's on.

"So let's greet our neighbors," says Diane. "Hello, neighbors!"

We turn and look across the aisle, and we comply. We laugh through the "Hello" game now mainly because in a very short time we have come to know and like each other and also because, on a nearly full tour bus, there is no place to hide.

"I'm Bill, and this is Ginny."

"Hi, Ginny and Bill, I'm Don, and this is my wife, Dori . . . ."

"Hello, I'm Lloyd, and this is my wife, Harriet."

"Hi, Lloyd. Hi, Harriet. I'm . . ."

And so it goes.

At risk of making broad generalizations, it's fairly safe to say this: bus people are not like cruise people.

Cruise people are friendly but, when they can, retreat to tighter comfort zones -- to their traveling partners or, when things click, to a small cluster of new friends met at their assigned dinner tables.

Bus people embrace the busload. They almost have to. We almost have to. Within a few days, we know each other's stories:

One passenger is hobbled by a broken foot but couldn't get a refund, so here she is. Another, who hangs back a little, has just been diagnosed with emphysema. Another, a recent widow, is making a trip she'd long planned to take with her husband. Two men have lived together as partners for 21 years. We have a retired airline pilot, a poet, a piano man at a Seattle restaurant, another man who left a successful career as an engineer to become a minister.

We are from Kansas, California, Washington State, Georgia, Arizona, Florida, Texas, Illinois, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska.

One couple has come to Boston from Honolulu. Another, from Juneau, Alaska.

"In Juneau," says Heather Mitchell, "there's only probably about three trees, two of which are evergreens."

Another couple is from the U.K.

"The people have been great," says John Matless, a retired butcher with his wife, Carol, from Norwich on the southeast coast of England.

There are 44 of us. Almost all are retired, including two schoolteachers in their mid-50s. A few, not yet retired, are in their 40s. There are no children.

Some, like Paul Minning, are traveling alone. He is 87. He has done these before.

"The only better way to do it is in your own car, which I used to do quite a bit," he says. "Next to that, a bus is a good way. The bus knows where to go and how to get there and the most interesting places, so it's hard to beat, in my opinion."

At the moment, we are heading east from New Hampshire.

Fwompp.

"WELCOME," Diane says into her mike, "to the state of Maine. And the capital is . . .?"

A few people mutter the word. Every new state -- this is our sixth -- has been introduced the same way. Diane gets an answer.

"Augusta, yes. This is the Pine Tree State . . . ."

Our adventure began in Boston, capital of the Bay State, in the rain. It ended a week later in Boston, when the weather no longer mattered.

In between, we walked Lexington's green and Concord's bridge and saw the rock at Plymouth, toured a Vanderbilt "cottage" at Newport, paced the last of the great wooden whalers at Mystic Seaport and admired all of Norman Rockwell's Four Freedoms.

We saw romantic lighthouses, George Herbert Walker Bush's cozy Kennebunkport bungalow -- and, from time to time (once we escaped rainy Massachusetts), brilliant color.

And from interstates and two-lanes, we saw a lot of country. It's not easy to fully appreciate the gentle sweetness of New England, its villages and its smells and its people when so much of it is seen flying by from inside a sealed bus.

But it was good to be here, especially with these people.

Bill Darrow, the former airline pilot living in Hawaii, and his wife, Sharon, had done cruises but never this.

"I'd wanted to do the fall foliage thing for many years," Bill said. "I knew it could be a hassle trying to get reservations and rent a car and all that business."

So they chose the motor coach.

"I just figured at its worst, it couldn't be too bad -- and at best, it could be pretty good."

And? He smiled.

"I don't have to worry about a thing. It's all done for me. I don't have to drive. I can look out the window. I can take a nap when I want to . . . ."

Our lodgings, aside from the big-city Boston Park Plaza and the very fine Nonantum Resort in Kennebunkport, were the equivalent of sprawling motor inns. All were acceptable. Just one -- Nonantum -- would be an independent choice next time.

All provided ample buffet breakfasts (included with the tour). The four group dinners were okay -- particularly (again) the Nonantum's Maine lobster feed.

There were photo stops, but not enough.

"I thought we'd get off the bus more," said Chris Gunn, 44, from California, taking the trip with partner Steve Baker and Steve's mother and sister. "At the same time, I see why we don't."

It can be tough for a 45-foot bus to find room to pull over for a photo-op.

"But the fall colors have been great. From the brochure and what it said we were going to do, we've done everything it said we were going to do -- so I'm not disappointed."

THE SIGHTSEEING tours -- which would be extra-cost shore excursions on a cruise -- were consistently satisfying, especially local guides who joined us on the bus.

"We are coming to the Jaws bridge," said Delores Larque, our walk-on guide for Martha's Vineyard. "Jaws came right underneath the bridge . . . . This is where John Belushi is buried. They keep it quiet as to where he is, because they were leaving all kinds of 'stuff' there. You can just imagine what they would leave on John Belushi's grave . . . ."

And there were surprises -- like at the lunch stop in New Hampshire ("The Granite State . . . and the capital is . . .?"), when some of us on the porch of the deli were interrupted.

"Could you excuse us?" said a man, helping drag something toward a scale. "We have to weigh a bear."

(It was, gutted, 108 pounds.)

The coach, lavatory-equipped, was comfortable. But unlike a cruise, where ships themselves are as much the stars as the ports, the motor coach, on a bus trip, is the least of it.

Jerry Zimmerman brought his wife, Bobbi, here from Seattle.

"This," she said, "was my dream trip."

"Getting close to nature, like we've done -- it's a magnificent thing," he said. "The scenery and the water and the leaves and the trees."

And the people. On the last night, the people surrounded him in the bar at Nonantum. Those who hadn't known Jerry Zimmerman plays piano in the lounge at the Canlis, one of Seattle's premier restaurants, knew it now.

"It was really nice," he said, "because everybody was listening so intently, you know?"

Next morning, for the last time, the luggage was outside the doors. Then it disappeared. Then, too soon, Boston.

Fwompp. Diane, one last time:

"And I always want to say: 'Thank you for another fine day of driving, Gordon.' "

If you go

Caravan Tours' eight-day New England Fall Colors tour is priced this year at $995 per person, including all breakfasts and some dinners. Lunches all on our own. For details, call (800) 227-2826 or visit www.caravantours.com.

The itinerary:

DAY 1

Boston.

"Welcome" briefing in hotel, then passengers go their separate ways. Dinner, on my own: Clam chowder, grilled "everything" tuna, $25.90; Legal Sea Foods, Boston. Overnight: Boston Park Plaza Hotel. Classic vintage hotel.

DAY 2

Boston, Lexington, Concord, Plymouth, Hyannis.

The drive: Quick spin past Boston highlights (slowed at the start by rain-muddled traffic), then up to Lexington (very brief restroom stop) and Concord (even briefer), back to Boston for lunch and a visit to the Old North Church, then a stop at Plymouth Rock (which always disappoints) before heading for the Cape.

Lunch (group stop, Faneuil Hall food court.)

Dinner (included, group): Baked scrod and breaded chicken breast (set menu); Sheraton Hyannis Resort dining room. Not great, but acceptable.

Overnight: Sheraton Hyannis Resort, Hyannis. Good motel-style room in sprawling property; great pillows.

DAY 3

Martha's Vineyard, Cape Cod.

The drive: To the ferry, across to Martha's Vineyard with guided commentary (excellent guide), a photo-op at Gay Head (lighthouse, pretty seacoast) and a shopping or lunch stop at Edgartown before returning to Hyannis.

Lunch: Stuffed quahog, mussels Portuguese, $15.50; Navigator Restaurant, Edgartown.

Dinner, on my own: Lobster bisque, baked gray sole with a cranberry and thyme crust, $25.90; The Paddock, Hyannis.

Overnight: Sheraton Hyannis Resort, Hyannis.

DAY 4

Newport and Mystic.

The drive: Straight to Newport for a terrific guided tour of the Breakers (a Vanderbilt "cottage"), a too-brief lunch or restroom stop on the waterfront, a guided stroll along the Cliff Walk (more mansions), back on the bus for more Newport highlights, then on to Mystic.

Lunch: Clam chowder, $4.50; Black Pearl, Newport.

Dinner (included, group): Clam chowder, seafood pasta (semi-set menu; choice of hangar steak, scrod or seafood pasta entree); Go Fish Restaurant, Mystic. For a mass feed, very good.

Overnight: Mystic Hilton, Mystic. Similar to the Sheraton, above.

DAY 5

Mystic Seaport, the Berkshires (Mass.), Norman Rockwell Museum (Stockbridge, Mass.), Green Mountains (Vt.).

The drive: To nearby Mystic Seaport and time for leisurely, independent enjoyment of one of America's finest outdoor museums, then into pleasant western Massachusetts to commune with Rockwell (and see his studio; a very good stop) and, through the rain (which eliminated photo ops), into Vermont.

Lunch (group stop): Crispy chicken meal, $5.93; McDonald's, Hartford. (Group was given a choice between neighboring Burger King and McDonald's -- both with clean restrooms -- at a stop off the interstate. No one grumbled.)

Dinner (not included): Grilled chicken corn chowder, baby back ribs, $25.48; Mulligans, Stratton Mountain.

Overnight: Stratton Mountain Lodge, Stratton Mountain, Vt. A large ski-development property with thin-walled rooms in need of a cleanup. (Diners who chose the Lodge restaurant were not happy; overall, an acceptable lodging but disappointing -- especially for Vermont.)

DAY 6

Woodstock (Vt.) and Bath, White Mountains, the Kancamagus Highway and North Conway (all in N.H.).

The drive: Some quality morning time in charming Woodstock, onward to the long covered bridge at Bath, a brief stop for photos in the White Mountains and, too quickly, along the Kancamagus Highway (not enough stops) and other roads into North Conway.

Lunch (group stop): Sandwiches (local cheese and smoked sausage), $9.40 (I shared), improvised from groceries at the Brick House, a country store in Bath that evidently wasn't expecting company. A mess, but the group dealt with it good-naturedly.

Dinner (included, group): Clam chowder, salmon with a mustard sauce (set menu; steak an entree option); Fox Ridge Resort dining room. Excellent.

Overnight: Fox Ridge Resort, North Conway. Very good.

DAY 7

Portland, Kennebunk and Kennebunkport, Maine.

The drive: After a false start due to heavy, fair-related traffic, an unexceptional entry into Maine, with a stop in Portland for lunch and another handsome lighthouse, then on to the famous summer resort area.

Lunch (group stop): Lobster roll, $14.95; Scales Seafood Market and Restaurant, Portland Public Market (basically, a food court), Portland.

Dinner (included, group): Clam chowder, whole Maine lobster with corn on the cob, baked potato, blueberry cobbler (set menu; steak entree an option). The Nonantum Resort, Kennebunkport. Perfect.

Overnight: The Nonantum Resort, Kennebunkport. A near-deluxe resort on water, the best lodging of the trip.

DAY 8

Maine, back to Boston.

The drive: Mostly on the interstate.