Sprinting (for us) South with a Visit to Hershey PA…

With our plan to slowly move down the east coast of Massachusetts thwarted by hurricane Jose we decided to move inland. Sharon was also able to get an appointment at the Mayo in Jacksonville Florida earlier than we had planned so we decided since rain was predicted for most of New England for the next two days  we'd just make a beeline south. We traveled like we never have before.

Before moving south though we were able to meet up with Imperial Bonita Estates (IBE) friends, Jean and Roy, whom we first met in Florida. They have a place on a lake in northern New Hampshire so we drove up to visit them. What a nice place they have and what a great day we had visiting them. They even treated us to a pontoon boat ride around the lake they are at. What a treat it was getting back on the water. For those of you that don’t know IBE is just north of Naples Florida and it was hit very hard by Hurricane Irma. Our friends have a place there and it will need a lot of work on it before they can get back to their winter home in Florida.

We moved on three consecutive days traveling about 200 miles each day with the endpoint being back at our friend's farm near Toms Brook Virginia. We usually only like to travel less than 150 miles and stay no less than two nights in order to have some time to explore each area a bit before moving on. Sharon also wants to make a short trip back to Raleigh to be a part of Katie's initial wedding gown shopping.  So by making this mad dash we hoped to make up most of the time we need for a short visit to see Katie and arriving in Jacksonville in October.

Our first day was leaving New Hampshire around New York City into Massachusetts and finally as far as the Danbury Connecticut Welcome Center at Exit on 1 Interstate 84N at Mile Marker 2.5. This would be our first ever stopover for the night in a rest area. What made us choose one was Connecticut allows overnight stays in their rest areas and even has a separate parking area for RV’s away from the truckers.

After traveling 210 miles we were happy to settle in and disconnect the car. We still wanted to check out the nearby towns even though we had less time to do so. Danbury Connecticut is a nice sized town with an interesting downtown area but we didn't;t have time to really explore it. We then drove across the New York state line to Brewster NY. It was not as interesting a downtown and much smaller than Danbury but we did find a brewery called Bull & Barrel Brewery. It had decent though not spectacular beer but was WAY too pricey for our tastes.

The next day we traveled through New York and New Jersey into Pennsylvania driving about 275 miles. We pulled into the Hollywood Casino in Grantville PA. They allow overnight parking in their lot (no hook ups for the 2nd night in a row). We set up and unhooked the car and made the drive over to Hershey PA. We took the free tour at the Hershey Chocolate Factory and really enjoyed it. We couldn’t leave without having some Hershey Ice Cream as we remembered loving the Chocolate Peanut Butter ice cream enjoyed In Pennsylvania during our first year as full-timers. We also ate out at a small diner that was well, underwhelming so no need to mention it especially since it may have been the worse Philly Cheesesteak I ever had! Bummer. Oh well…

The next day we drove the remaining 210 miles south through Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia settling at last at our friend's farm in Virginia… Whew!!! Over 600 miles in three days is traveling fast for us. Normally this would have taken us at least ten days to move this far but at least we are now back on track to continue our slow trek south....…

NOTE: We are near Toms Brook Virginia and will spend about a week here before heading south to spend some time with our daughter who recently got engaged in North Carolina…

Last day in Connecticut and travel day to PA…

With the cutoff low hanging over the Northeast the weather has been anything but predictable. Every day the weatherman says we have 60 percent or more chance or rain and everyday he seems to be wrong. Just in case we don’t stray far and yesterday was no different.

We took a drive to go see a little beach near Groton, CT and along the way we stumbled upon an old fort named Fort Griswold.. don’t go there as it wasn’t the Griswald! The fort is just across the bay from New London CT and when you walk around the site you get a feel for what is was like back then protecting the harbor from the British. Neat place, worth the stop, and we were the only ones there to enjoy it… so sad!

After enjoying the fort we went into New London and were both unimpressed with the town enough that we didn’t stop and headed back to the campground to start preparing for our long journey to Pennsylvania.

We are now sitting in nice state park in Pennsylvania named French Creek State Park. We are just under 300 miles from where we were this morning… why did we drive so far? There really aren’t many interesting spots to spend the night at along the way. It is a bit tricky getting around New York City without getting eaten alive by the traffic. We were given lots of advice, much of it conflicting, some of it was really good.

We drove down I95 through the towns of New Haven, Bridgeport, and Stamford CT. Next it was across the Tappan Zee Bridge which is known for its steep toll but that is only if traveling east on it as we were charged nothing while traveling west on it. Then through White Plains in New York via 287 which turned out to be an $8.50 toll road for 4.5 miles… we had no warning of this one.

We drove through New Jersey on I287 to avoid Newark till we hit I 78 and headed west. There is a toll (a steep one I am told if you are towing) when you cross the bridge into PA. We were told to stop at mile marker 7 and fill up with diesel in NJ since it was a lot cheaper and to disconnect the toad to save big bucks crossing the border into PA.  Diesel was only about 15 cents cheaper but gas was 3.33 which was 45 cents cheaper than CT.

We drove the next 7  miles separately and then just as we crossed the border we paid a toll ($6.50 for the motorhome and $1.00 for the car) and then we stopped at the rest stop just past the toll booth. Then Alice (our GPS) told us to get off I78 and head south to the state park… WOW!!! were we on some bad roads that RV’s our size shouldn’t have been on… We did make it nonetheless and after several glasses of wine and a nice dinner we are settled in nicely here… All in a days work I suppose.

A day in Newport Rhode Island…

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With the low pressure cell hanging around in the northeast you pretty much need to go out earlier in the day since it seems to cloud up and rain later in the day. We thought since we weren’t too far from Newport, Rhode Island that we might as well go see what the cliff walk was all about.

We had read about the Cliff Walk while looking for things to do in the area and the fact that it had been designated a National Recreation Trail made it even more interesting. To get there from here requires one to go over a toll bridge that the internet said would be $2.00 per care each way but when we got to the toll bridge you could see the new signs of $4.00 per car each way – a 100% increase in tolls… WOW!!!

After driving around the Historic Ten Mile drive to take in all the sights that are Newport (the Harbor is really scenic and worth staying a while) we made our way over the the area that is known as the cliff walk. As many reviewers noted and we agreed is that it never seemed clear to us where the cliff walk really ended or began.

We found it by following a sign that took us to a dead end street where it intersected the trail. We would find out later that we were about 1/3 of the way down the trail from the beach. From where we began the the walk the path was paved for a long stretch. We walked about 3/4 of a mile towards the beach and then noticed that that was probably where it ended. So we walked back and then started walking the other direction for about the same distance until we got to the college.

The path was paved all the way to the college and past it so I assume the path eventually ended and you got to walk on natural terrain but we never found it. With the dicey weather we wouldn’t have attempted the whole walk anyhow but after all the accolades I read about this walk I was underwhelmed.

The positives of this walk are that it was an easy walk (at least the part we did) and there are some great views of the ocean and most important is that it was free. However, there were few nice views of the shoreline and fewer opportunities to walk along it and there are lots of huge mansions (if you are into this it would be a positive for you). Sharon enjoyed the experience but I didn’t see what all the hype was all about. I can only hope the part of the trail we didn’t walk was much better than the part we did walk.

So it was back to Mystic where you can always enjoy the free entertainment of watching the Mystic draw bridge go up and down… kind of like this day was…

50 Dollars free and Mystic Pizza…

With the weather being a bit dicey we had some time to think a bit this morning as we planned out the days activity… with rain on the horizon we thought it best to visit one of the nearby casinos on Tuesday. We could either gamble with the weather or just go gambling… but we really don’t like to lose money. So how can we do both?

After surfing the internet we discovered a web site that claimed we could get $50.00 in free slot play at the Mohegan Casino… now this seemed too good to be true. So I filled out the online form and got an email within minutes that said I needed to print out the offer and take it to the promotions booth to get the free slot play. I read all the small print for the gotcha but couldn’t find anything.

The short 30 minute drive north to the casino in the grey overcast skies that were treating us to intermittent drizzle along the way was scenic and enjoyable. Once we got to the casino we went to the  promotions booth and I gave them the form I filled out along with my drivers license. After punching stuff into his computer for about 5 minutes the fellow gave me a player’s club card and directions on how to access the $50.00 free slot play… So we are still looking for the catch?

There doesn’t appear to be one… We walked around the huge casino that was themed in a native American design. We particularly liked the use of the birch trees and birch bark throughout the facility. I played some Jacks or Better video poker in the casino and at a bar and Sharon played some nickel slots for about three hours. Now we did this on the $50.00 free slot play house money. The only thing you can't do is cash out your free slot money into cash. However, once you have played your free money on a machine any winnings from then on can be cashed out.

We cashed out our winnings and at the end of the day we had netted about $22.00 in cash to take home even after tipping the staff for several free adult beverages. Score!!!So we not only had a good afternoon’s worth of fun but in a way we also got paid for it…

After the day’s fun we decided we would celebrate so it was off to Mystic, CT for pizza and celebratory beverages …

It is suppose to rain off and on here over the next seven days with some scattered hours of sunshine as well so we may be going back to the casino again on one of the rainy days… I think Sharon may have to apply for a $50.00 slot credit as well…

Woods Hole, MA, a wedding and a travel day…

Our last day in Massachusetts was another chilly day so we decided that we would drive down to the south end of Cape Cod and visit Woods Hole, home of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Back in my biologist days this was a place I considered trying to find work at and since we were close by we decided to visit the town.

Woods Hole itself is not actually a town as it is part of Falmouth, MA but has become the hub of Marine Science study in the Northeastern USA. It is also the closet spot to get to the islands of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. One of the highlights of the area that we wanted to see is the Woods Hole Science Aquarium. This free aquarium (they do accept donations) has a nice assortment of indigenous sea life found in the area and is really worth a visit and your time.

If you are wondering about the header picture it is a one of a trolley (Trolley’s by Tes) that had a wedding party in it. Trolleys are apparently a popular way to see the cape after a wedding here. Now we were parked just to the right of the fellows in the white shirts (in the header picture) when the trolley arrived. As we were sitting there watching the surf and eating lunch the wedding party had gotten out of the trolley with drinks in hand and began to take wedding pictures on the beach (notice the Ultra cans in the foreground of the picture above).  All this was going on right in front of us…

The father of the bride sauntered over to us and announced that his son had just gotten married and they came back to this spot that they had first met to take pictures. Then he introduced us to some of his immediate family and told them we were his cousins from Texas… what a hoot that was…

We have enjoyed our time in Massachusetts and just loved the Cape Cod area. We even got to watch our first ever lobster race in Massachusetts when we accidentally stumbled upon the rescheduled (due to hurricane Irene) Chowder Festival held in New Bedford, MA while we were touring.

Well with all the fun in MA. behind us we spend the last part of our last day putting things away for our journey to Connecticut. Our drive was just a tad over 100 miles so we didn’t depart until around 10:30 am on Monday.

After a diesel stop nearby ($3.859 per gallon) we left the park and Cape Cod on I195 north towards Providence, RI where the traffic was pretty heavy and the drivers seemed to all be in quite the hurry… the beauty of our lifestyle is we never are!!!

Once we hit I95 in downtown Providence we took it south till we saw our exit for Seaport RV Park in Mystic, Connecticut. We weren’t in Rhode Island very long but we did drive through most of the state :) .

      

Seaport RV Park is part of Morgan Resorts but they had a decent price for the week ($186.00) and we wanted to spend some time in this area. The park itself is in a great location for our needs. The entry to the park is a bit rough as the road has deteriorated and the roads in the park are gravel. The sites for RV’s are fairly large and most are fairly wide. The facilities are okay but they seem to be neglecting some cleaning chores now that they are in off season mode and their WIFI is down for the season. However, despite its shortcomings we will call it home for the next seven days…

So on this Tuesday morning I am sitting here in Mystic, Connecticut enjoying some freshly ground coffee watching a beautiful sun rise and can see and hear geese that seem to be  grouping as if they are readying for their own travels down south… we too eventually are heading the same way they are… life is grand!!!