For the next seven days we will be traveling through three states; and we will be visiting the Cape Cod area in MASSACHUSETTS, touring the Newport Mansions in RHODE ISLAND, and visiting the Mystic Seaport in CONNECTICUT.
DAY 89-91: OCT 6-8 ~ MASSACHUSETTS
The Citizens of Massachusetts have worn many hats during the state’s long history. The Pilgrims arrived in a strange land wearing broad-brimmed hats in 1620. Picture the pointed black hats of the 19 people falsely accused and executed for practicing witchcraft in 1692. Envision Paul Revere clutching his 3-cornered hat as he sped through the night to warn the citizens of the advancing British army. And tassels that covered heads of the many graduates from the more than 50 colleges and universities in the Boston area alone, including Harvard, the oldest university in the nation founded in 1636. Other greats of Massachusetts are Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe and John F. Kennedy. Massachusetts has a population of 6,349,097 and is 8,257 square miles.
Other facts for MASSACHUSETTS are: Nickname; “Bay State”, License plate; “Spirit of America”, State Motto; “By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty”, (funny); “Now with 30% Fewer Kennedys!”, State Flower; Mayflower (1918), State Bird; Chickadee (1941), State Tree; American Elm (1941), and State Gem; Rhodonite (1979).
We will be spending three days visiting the Cape Cod area in Massachusetts. We have visited this state several times in the past, but this will be the first visit with the trailer; five down, six to go. After 5 hours and 239 miles we arrived at Cape Cod Camping Resort.
CAPE CODE CAMPRESORT
This is a very nice park and a wonderful place for families. The place was full of permanent and seasonal trailers and on the weekends and summer months the place would be packed and busy with families having fun. There are a lot of facilities for fun and a lot of planned activities. This is not a place for relaxing. Most of the sites are spacious with paved pads, picnic table and fire ring. However, the people packed themselves and their stuff and friends and family into these sites that they will crowd and invade your space. The park is clean and nicely maintained. There are lots of trees around and lots of shade. A great place for families but an awful place for older people looking for peace and quiet.
CAPE COD
Cape Cod is an island connected to the mainland of Massachusetts by two bridges. We drove over the Bourne Bridge when we arrived at Cape Cod and over Sagamore Bridge when we departed.
We spent a day driving from Falmouth to Hyannis and then along the shores of Cape Cod Bay. We drove into Cape Cod National Seashore and visited the visitor center, then drove through the park to the outer point of Cape Cod to visit Provincetown.
HYANNIS
We had lunch in Hyannis and visited the John F. Kennedy Museum. Hyannis is where the Kennedy family home was located and where the growing Kennedy family spent a lot of time. The museum is small and contains mostly family pictures and mementos. The big Kennedy Presidential Museum is in Boston.
CAPE COD NATIONAL SEASHORE
Occupies 40 miles along Cape Cod’s coastline and is 43,608 acres of marshland, glacial cliffs and dense forests. We visited the visitor center and drove through the park to the tip of Cape Cod to Provincetown.
Red Maple Swamp by Joan Andrews Sand Sea and Sky by Libby Hall
PROVINCETOWN
This is a real funky and fun town full of new age and people left over from the 60’s. It’s also a seaport resort with bed and breakfasts and lots of seafood restaurants.
Provincetown is the first town where the Mayflower landed before they went on to Plymouth. There is a 252 foot tower that was erected in 1910 to honor the Pilgrims from the Mayflower. There is also a large bronze mural and another plaque in a small park near the base of the tower. Provincetown is a sandy island and was not a desirable place to live and farm so the Pilgrims left to find more fertile land across the bay.
PLYMOUTH
PLYMOUTH
Plymouth is about 25 miles north of Cape Cod. We visited the town to view the Plymouth Rock. The “rock” is a huge boulder that sits on the beach with 1620 carved into it. It lies on the site of the Mayflower landing. There is a granite portico built around the rock so visitors can only view it and take pictures, but never touch it.
The portico was built in 1921 to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the Pilgrims arrival in Plymouth. The Pilgrims landed in December 1620 and founded the second permanent English settlement on the North American continent. During the first winter, half of the 102 people brought by the Mayflower died of exposure, cold and hunger.
PLIMOUTH PLANTATION
Nearby is the Plimouth Plantation. No, it is not a typo. This is the way it is spelled. Plimoth Plantation is a living history musium of 17th century Plymouth. Costumed interpreters portray settlers in the 1627 English Village, with homes, barns, gardens and a fort. Nearby is a re-creation of a Wampanoag home site. There is a craft center where artisans demonstrate crafts such as pottery, furniture making, etc. We spent a couple of hours wondering around the village, taking a peek into some of the homes and listening to some of the villagers talk about a day in their life in 17th century Plymouth. This is a very interesting museum and well worth a visit.
The next day we leave Massachusetts and drive into Rhode Island. We will be spending only two nights and one day in this state. That is all we have time for. We had visited Rhode Island once about 20 years ago, but this will be the first visit with the trailer; six down, five to go.
DAY 92 & 93: OCT 9 & 10 ~ RHODE ISLAND
Rhode Island is the smallest state in the US. It is 48 miles long and 37 miles wide. And it has 400 miles of shoreline. Look at it on a map. You will see many inlets and the deep Narragansett Bay. Rhode Island; “Little Rhody” has the longest name of any state: State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantation.
In 1524 Rhode Island’s first known explorer, Giovanni da Verrazano reaches Narragansett Bay. In 1636, Roger Williams established the first permanent settlement. In 1774, this state becomes the first to prohibit the importation of slaves. In 1794 extensive production of fashion jewelry begins when a Providence goldsmith develops a process for plating base metal with gold. In 1930 the America’s Cup race is held in Newport for the first time. In 1995, Chessie the manatee, tracked with radio and satellite transmitters, breaks manatee travel records by swimming from Florida to Point Judith, RI. RHODE ISLAND has a population of 1,048,319 and is 1,214 square miles.
Other facts for RHODE ISLAND are: Nickname; “Ocean State”, State Motto; “Hope”, (funny); “Small, Yes, But We Know What to Do with It!”, State Flower; Carolina Yellow Jessamine (1924), State Bird; Rhode Island Red Hen (1954), State Tree; Palmetto Tree (1939), and State Gem; Serpentine (1966).
After 2.5 hours and 83 miles we arrived at Holiday Acres Camping Resort in North Scituate.
HOLIDAY ACRES CAMPING RESORT
This RV park is impressive at first sight with a nice sign and lawns in front, with a lake. It is located off of a country road and you can see forests all around. But this place turned out to be what I refer to as “a nightmare”. The interior roads are dirt, rocky, narrow and steep. The sites are uneven and very primitive with no clear borders. It is full of permanent trailers that are set up sideways, this way or that way. The trailers are empty, some are trashy with junk lying around. The trailer owners come on weekends or in the summer. Overnighters are assigned sites in between these permanent trailers and those trailers may intrude into your site space and actually make your site disappear. We arrived on the Sunday of Columbus Day weekend and this place was packed full of weekenders; large families visiting with each other, partying and having a good time. They were loud and unfriendly. We had confirmed reservations, but they had no where to put us.
Every site they assigned to us had a trailer or cars on it. We wasted two hours trying to get settled into this place. We asked for a refund and tried to find another RV Park. But either they were closed for the season or full. Finally they put us out in an open field by ourselves. There were sites with hookups, but the area was only used for storage. We had two empty trailers as neighbors and we shared the field with two horses in a coral. It was peaceful and comfortable. Despite the junk, the area was scenic with a pond next door and trees turning color.
We had planned on spending the afternoon visiting nearby Providence. There was a small zoo and an art museum I wanted to see. But because we had so much trouble getting a decent site at the RV park, by the time we got something to eat and drove into Providence, these places were closed.
PROVIDENCE
Separatist minister Roger Williams was banished from Plymouth County, Massachusetts in 1636. His progressive uncompromising views – that each person had a right to worship without interference or regulation by the state – almost caused his deportation. Fearing arrest, he fled the colony and spent the winter with Wampanoag Indians. Later that year, the Narragansett Indians gave him land near a salty cove on which Providence was founded. Williams chose the name in gratitude “for God’s merciful providence unto me in my distress”. Providence became the capital of Rhode Island in 1790 when RI entered the Union.
We arrived into the city around 4pm on a Sunday afternoon and of course everything was closed. We parked at the Capital building and walked around the grounds. There was a park nearby and they were setting up for a Columbus Day event the next day. We did not go inside the Capital because it is closed on Sundays. This building was constructed from 1895 to 1904. It is composed of 327,000 cubic feet of white Georgia marble, and 15 million bricks. The marble dome is said to be the fourth largest unsupported dome in the world. A gilded bronze statue, “Independent Man” (originally named “Hope”), stands atop the dome. The statue weights 500 pounds.
NEWPORT
Newport was settled in 1639 as a small agricultural outpost and soon established itself as a shipbuilding center. By the 1760’s Newport was one of America’s top seaports. Trade all but stopped when the British occupied Newport in the late 1770’s, limiting access to the harbor. The area was reborn as a resort town when the country’s wealthiest citizens recognized its promise as a vacation spot and begin building ‘summer’ homes. Today, with the help of the Preservation Society of Newport County, those “summer” homes were saved from destruction and are now opened to the public.
We purchased a pass to tour five of the nine mansions or the Arboretum that are maintained by the Preservation Society. The tours are self guided. When you enter each mansion that you choose from the list, you are given an audio piece and you just follow the directions that the audio tour gives you. The audio includes the voices of people who lived and worked in these mansions. We only had time to tour 3 of these homes. The pass never expires, so we can tour the other two the next time we visit Newport. No photographs were allowed inside the house. So I am sharing with you some exterior photos. The three homes we toured were:
THE BREAKERS
This is a 70-room summer estate of the Vanderbilts. This place is awesome. It’s 3 stories high. The walls panels and ceilings are ornate with lots of gold leaf and platinum leaf (better than gold as it won’t tarnish), rare marble, alabaster, and gilded woods.
THE ELMS
This is the summer retreat of the Berwinds. The Elms is another ornate estate with tapestries and wall-sized Venetian paintings.
We saw this most beautiful tree with draping branches on the Elm's grounds. I walked under the canapy and found that this tree is actually four trees; Euopean Weeping Beech.
ROSECLIFF
This house is made with terra cotta. This mansion was saved just days before it was to be demolished. The Oelrichs built the estate and the Monroes also owned and lived in it. This estate does an annual fashion exhibit. This year they were doing 70 years of wedding dresses of the many brides that walked down the heart-shaped staircase.
This house is made with terra cotta. This mansion was saved just days before it was to be demolished. The Oelrichs built the estate and the Monroes also owned and lived in it. This estate does an annual fashion exhibit. This year they were doing 70 years of wedding dresses of the many brides that walked down the heart-shaped staircase.
The next day we leave Rhode Island and drive into Connecticut. We will be spending two nights and two days in this state (we will arrive early enough in the day to do sightseeing on the same day). We visited Connecticut about 20 years ago, but this will be the first visit with the trailer; seven down, four to go.
DAY 94 & 95: OCT 11 & 12 ~ CONNECTICUT
Dutch explorer Adriaen Block maps the Connecticut coastline in 1614. In 1662 Governor John Winthrop Jr. obtains a royal charter for the colony. In 1806 Noah Webster of West Hartford publishes the first American dictionary. In 1901 Connecticut enacts the first automobile speed limit – 12 mph. In 1999 the Connecticut legislature passes one of the nation’s strictest gun seizure laws. Connecticut has a population of 3,405,565 and is 5,009 square miles.
Other facts for CONNECTICUT are: Nickname; “Constitution State”, State Motto; “He who is transplanted still sustains”, (funny); “The Middle C is silent”, State Flower; Mountain Laurel (1907), State Bird; American Robin (1943), State Animal; Sperm Whale, State Tree; White Oak (1947), and State Gem; Garnet(1977).
After 2 hours and 102 miles we arrived at the Mystic KOA in North Stonington which is about 10 miles outside of Mystic.
MYSTIC KOA
The grounds to this park were nicely laid out. Even rows that looked pretty level. The sites were a bit too close together and not private. But the park was almost empty when we were there and we had no neighbors on either side of us. There were a lot of sites with trailers that are permanent, but they are seasonal and were empty at the time of our visit. The bathrooms are in need of work. They were old and run down. The showers were worse and looked dirty.
MYSTIC
Mystic is known for its ship building. The fast clipper ships in the country were built here. This is the only city we have time to visit while in Connecticut. We will visit the Maritime Museum and the Mystic Aquarium.
MYSTIC SEAPORT
Mystic Seaport is a Maritime museum that was started in 1929. Today it is 17 acres of maritime collections, watercrafts and buildings and exhibits depicting coastal like in New England in the 19th century. The museum shows such maritime skills such as shipbuilding, rope making, and everyday life of home and businesses. There are homes, churches, printing shop, smoke shop, taverns, etc.
The most interesting part of this museum is the restoration of the Charles W. Morgan, the last wooden whale ship in the world. It was built in 1841 and had an 80-year whaling career. She made 37 voyages before retiring in 1921. After she retired she even spent some time docked in San Francisco. She was returned to the New England area and was basically left to rot. Her final resting place is Mystic Seaport, where she has gone through 3 decades of two regimes of partial restoration and annual maintenance. The visitors are able to board her while she is constantly being worked on.
Lights below a vessel's deck was provided by candles, oil and kerosene lamps; all dangerous aboard a wooden ship. Small deck prisms were an innovative solution. Laid flush into the deck, they drew light below without weakening the planks. Replica solid glass prisms were available for sale in the gift shop. We bought a few in colors of green, turquoise and cobalt blue. They will look beautiful on a window sill.
This aquarium is very pricy; $26 and that is the senior rate. The aquarium was impressive, but not for the price we paid. The aquarium opened in 1973 and is home to more than 12,000 ocean animals and the country’s largest outdoor beluga whale exhibit.
The Beluga's were the first thing we saw when we entered the grounds. There is a 9 year old beluga that was right at the view window playing with the visitors. He would swim by the window, stop at where you are standing, stare at you then shake his head and open his mouth. He especially did it with the kids because they were animated with their reaction. He seemed to enjoy their laughing. It was amazing to see an animal show so much personality outside of seeing them in shows.
Now we leave for New Jersey. We will be spending two nights and one day here. Time is short now, so we have to do only one or two day visits for the rest of this trip. This will be our very first visit in this state, and our first visit with the trailer; eight down, three to go.
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