Two More States!

We left Auntie Violet parked at Sturbridge Campground this morning while we went with the Toad to visit Connecticut and Rhode Island. We headed south to New London and ended up stopping in Old Mystic Seaport. We made a contribution to the Connecticut economy by purchasing a half pound each of Maple Nut and Chocolate Pecan fudge. It was a cool morning, but there were already lots of people enjoying the beach.

I had been reading in Lonely Planet's New England Trips about the mansions in Newport, Rhode Island, so we decided that would be our venture in that state. We took Highway 1 along the coast, then drove up Highway 138 and across the Newport Toll Bridge --

Newport is an historic seaport, founded in 1639.

There are nine beautiful historic mansions located along Newport's Bellevue Avenue that are now owned and managed by The Preservation Society of Newport County. The one I had heard about the most is The Breakers, built in 1895 for Cornelius Vanderbilt II.

Vanderbilt was the President of the New York Central Railroad and the head of one of the richest families in America in the Gilded Age.

This "summer cottage" is a 70 room Italianate-style villa, created by legendary American architect Richard Morris Hunt. It took only two years to build. The house is built around a 50 foot high Great Hall with rich imported marble and trim gilded with gold leaf. There are 20 bathrooms in the house, many with marble bathtubs that had to be filled and emptied several times in order to warm the tub up enough to bath in it. And of course, you could have your bath with either fresh or salt water...!

Unfortunately, photography is not allowed in the house itself... The third and fourth floors have bedrooms for the many servants it took to run a mansion of this size. This is a portion of the ocean side of the house --

And this is the view from that second floor portico overlooking the expanse of lawn leading down to the Rhode Island Sound. The name, The Breakers, came from the action of the waves braking against the cliffs below --

After our tour of the mansion, we drove along the shore to Anthony's Seafood in Middletown. Anthony's is recommended as "THE place to go after a day at the beach." You order at the counter, then take your drinks and silverware and a number card to a table and wait for your food. I had some really good baked stuffed shrimp and Forry said his calamari was great. Just watching, I'd say about 75% of their food was take-out.

The nice thing about these nice long days (the summer solstice is this week) is that we were home before it was totally dark!

Sturbridge Campground

I'm not sure what the history of this campground is. It's part of Thousand Trails, but the sign and the literature all say Outdoor World. It functions like one of the Thousand Trails. You are supposed to figure out and pick a site before you actually register. When we arrived, they told us the only area big enough for our motor home was in the "D" section -- up on the hill.

They told us to walk up and pick out a site. There were actually only two possible spots. The RVs are parked back to back with less than a foot between them. There is a bit of grass between sites, but they are really close together. But, there is enough open area for Auntie Violet's satellite dish to get its fix. (Not so sure that's a good thing as we have been watching golf all day...)

The sites are all back ins and there is no escort to or assistance at the site. We are using Passport America for five of the seven nights of our stay (they don't honor it on Friday and Saturday.). Even at the 50% discount for PA, it's a lot to charge for a rather old run-down looking place with rutty dirt roads and no gravel or concrete pads. And then they add a $3 per day "resort fee!" We will use it for a base camp while we explore Connecticut and Rhode Island this week as well as a road trip to Salem, so we thankfully won't be spending much time here.

We did drive into Sturbridge late this afternoon to pick up milk and orange juice.

We stopped at a small local fresh market that had homemade meat pies. We picked up a chicken pot pie, stuck it in a 325 degree oven for half an hour and had a great meal. I wonder what one would be like if you froze it...?

Another Quiet Day

We seriously thought about going to look at Abe Lincoln's birthplace and childhood home this afternoon, but knew that the Bull Riding Finals in Las Vegas were on TV at 4 PM.  That was all the incentive we needed to spend a quiet day at home!

We've only gotten to watch the PBR (Professional Bull Riding) live one time back in Tacoma, but we almost always manage to catch them on TV. (One of my dreams is to see the Finals in person someday...) I found it quite interesting that of the forty top riders who made it to the Finals, ten of them are from Brazil.  This year's top rider and also the winner of the Finals are both Brazilians. The incredible bull named Bushwacker was named Bull of the Year.

It was a good weekend for catching up with family and friends.  We talked with Granddaughter Havela and her family last night; Sister Sherry yesterday and today; Tom and Juni earlier this afternoon; and Bill and Leslie this evening.

While there was frost on the grass again this morning, it was a very nice sunny day.  Quite a contrast to all of the snow in the northeast we were seeing on TV today!  That early nor'easter has really reeked havoc -- with thirty inches of snow in Connecticut.