In 2020, when the world shuddered to a pandemic-induced halt, Jenny McBride and Jo Gray needed a distraction.
The couple from Newton, Mass., lost their business and found themselves stuck in a rut.
“We found ourselves, like everyone, trying to pick up the pieces, figure out what was next, and going for walks,” McBride told Ocean State Media’s Luis Hernandez. “And we were getting kind of bored of our neighborhood walks. We weren’t talking to each other. We were kind of grumpy.”
With limited options due to the lockdown, they decided their next walk would be somewhere else. Just a few miles away, in a nearby town. That lit a spark, and eventually turned into a mission: visit all 351 towns in Massachusetts.
“It just felt like an opportunity to engage and be positive during a time that was just not great for us,” Gray said.
The couple decided that for a trip to “count,” there were three rules: they would have to be together; they would have to try to contribute to the local economy; and they would have to actually do something in the town, not just drive through. And they started cataloguing their trips on a blog, Massachusetts 351.
In January 2021, they officially started their quest. In December 2025, they finally reached their goal. From the tip of the Cape to the snowy Berkshires, they visited all 351 towns.
Along the way, they enjoyed the South Coast: eating at a Portuguese restaurant in New Bedford, kayaking the Westport River, and watching farmers harvest their cranberry crop in Wareham.
“I think in terms of the South Coast, the coastline around Buzzards Bay is really surprising and interesting, and so intricate with all the coves and nooks and crannies,” McBride said. “The diversity of people – the South Coast has such a strong Portuguese influence and a pocket of West African folks. And they’re like, ‘You got to go to this grocery store. You got to go to this restaurant.’ And that was really neat and surprising.”
They learned a lot on their quest, the two said, about exploring the unexpected and about the character of Massachusetts.
“I was really taken by how many farms there are and how many small towns there are,” Gray said. “I really love how the towns support each other.”
