It was warm and rainy when we arrived, and the mosquitos were fierce. After suffering the same thing at Lake Tughkanic State Park in NY a week earlier, Shelly ordered a net, which helped a lot,
although I didn't realize how the sun shining on it would affect the automatic exposure setting on my camera! At this time of year, the camp only had a few inmates. I'd hate to have stayed with the next door sites full.
No power at any of the sites, and between the rain and trees, we never got more than 1% of the battery capacity back each day from the solar panel. We often used the fan all night (it turned much cooler while we were there, which helped) which takes about 5% of our capacity. In the end, we were down to 75% which we didn't quite get back from the TV after the 5.5 hour return trip. But so much for the interesting stats!
Now on to what we saw!We went to New Bedford, Massachusetts mainly to visit a doll house store, which disappointed Shelly. (Lot's of poor workmanship in the houses on display--she thinks they simply bought up anything at garage sales etc.) However, we had a nice sea food lunch and spent the afternoon at the Whaling museum, which I enjoyed. We detoured to Narraganset Point RI for ice cream and pictures on the way back.
Nice warm evening there, but raining back at the campsite. I think we tried a boil-in-the-bag dinner of some sort, under the net. (Our own cooking was at a low on this trip. We ate out a lot, and sometimes skipped meals at the camp if the weather wasn't nice. More time for site seeing means, for us, less back at camping cooking and eating high quality "camp meals". Ah, well.)
Saturday morning, we went to Windsor Connecticut to a doll house convention (the reason for this trip in the first place). Shelly had a great time, and I learned a little about pricing (just in case I want to try building something; but Shelly is the miniature maker in our family). Then, we spent the afternoon at the radio and communications museum in Windsor. Good selection of radios, televisions, juke boxes, and assorted other electronics from the past hundred + years.
The next day we visited the Submarine Force museum in Groton Conn. Turned out to be free entry and not even a guard at the door. Gave a good overview of the history of this military weapon
Down the river a little, and across, is the US Coast Guard Academy with their training ship, The Eagle
When I was 16, I spent three days at the Academy learning how cadets live. I applied, but didn't make it,
and wound up in the Air Force. Always wonder what might have been...The next two days, we visited Mystic Aquarium and the Mystic museum. Both worth the visit, and the museum is large enough to consider a day and a half, or even two
You can tour a whale boat, and there are many buildings representing the crafts present in New England ports in the 19th century. We got caught in a large thunderstorm the 2nd day, but happened to be near the cafe at the time, so that's where we had lunch.
Oh, at the aquarium, they are having a lottery, where you can pay to have a name of your choice considered for the new beluga whale. I don't believe in paying for such things, but if I did, my entry would be "Beluga Lugosi".
Our last day, we took a tour of Ft Adams State Park in Rhode Island. The volunteer tour guide pointed out that if Ft Adams had been attacked, it would be a National Park, but because it was successful in its mission of deterrence, the voluntary organization for its preservation struggles for funds. It was active from after the War of 1812 until the mid-1950s.
The tour includes a walk among some shallow tunnels around the fort used as listening posts to deter sappers.
Took these in the harbor around the fort. Don't know the story of that sailing ship. Not even sure why I took the picture of the cable crossing sign; just not something one would think of there, I guess.
Finally, we found a free public beach run by the village of Westerly RI (a state beach nearby charges to enter). Shelly wanted to walk on a beach on this trip, but her idea of beaches ran more along the lines of Wildwood, or the beaches in California, so we were finally able to find one to her liking.
Tom
