Southern Coast of New England

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Southern Coast of New England

Postby Tom&Shelly » Sun Oct 03, 2021 5:05 am

We camped at Burlingame State Park in Rhode Island; a good central place to base for a week while we explored New Bedford MA, RI, and Eastern Conn. The park itself has a beach on a lake, and a camp store, but no hiking trails that we are aware of. Showers take quarters, but don't seem to deliver on the time advertised. The staff at the gate claims the showers are going to be replaced next year, but one of them also claimed the water at the dump station is potable, despite clear warning signs, so I wouldn't trust them.

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,

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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! :thinking: 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.

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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

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Down the river a little, and across, is the US Coast Guard Academy with their training ship, The Eagle

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Tom
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Re: Southern Coast of New England

Postby rjgimp » Sun Oct 03, 2021 10:04 pm

"Southern Coast of New England"

What the...?
<checks map>
Oh... yeah. I guess that makes some sense. Also found in the annals of cartographic curiosities is the city of Windsor Ontario, where you must go north to reach the US, and State Hwy 23 in Minnesota which passes through a quarter mile or so of Wisconsin just before it terminates in Duluth.

" Showers take quarters, but don't seem to deliver on the time advertised. The staff at the gate claims the showers are going to be replaced next year, but one of them also claimed the water at the dump station is potable, despite clear warning signs, so I wouldn't trust them."

Something tells me they've been saying the showers are due for replacement 'next year' for about a decade.
:thumbdown: :NC :roll:
-Rob


I hope to make it to a Procrastinators Anonymous meeting someday...
just as soon as the steering committee gets around to scheduling one!
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Re: Southern Coast of New England

Postby Tom&Shelly » Mon Oct 04, 2021 7:46 am

rjgimp wrote:"Southern Coast of New England"

What the...?
<checks map>
Oh... yeah. I guess that makes some sense. Also found in the annals of cartographic curiosities is the city of Windsor Ontario, where you must go north to reach the US, and State Hwy 23 in Minnesota which passes through a quarter mile or so of Wisconsin just before it terminates in Duluth.

" Showers take quarters, but don't seem to deliver on the time advertised. The staff at the gate claims the showers are going to be replaced next year, but one of them also claimed the water at the dump station is potable, despite clear warning signs, so I wouldn't trust them."

Something tells me they've been saying the showers are due for replacement 'next year' for about a decade.
:thumbdown: :NC :roll:


Well, maybe it would have been better to say the coast of Southern New England. :thinking:

It has a southern flavor, New England style: Sail boats up on blocks in many front yards! (Just funnen' folks. Hope I don't offend anyone!)

Interesting curiosities. We have one here in the Southern Tier (of Upstate NY), where New York 17 went through a few miles of Sayre PA. (It has since become I-86, so lost the curiosity factor.) NY 17 was a limited interchange highway, built in the early 60's. The area of Sayre that it goes through, less than a mile from the NY border, was depressed, with closed factories. Both state legislatures thought the route was a good idea, as did just about everyone in the area, so they built the road that way. NY maintained it until it became an interstate.

The road also terminated at the Western Pennsylvania border, where PA built a road to connect it to I-90 near Erie. They accommodatingly named the road PA-17, despite there already being one, somewhere near Pittsburgh.

Tom
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