New England Trip

Today we had a short drive (just about 150 miles) to North Stonington, Connecticut, where we are staying at a KOA near Mystic Seaport and Newport, Rhode Island. Since we had plenty of time, we drove part of the way on (our friend) US 1, which continues to be a much better highway than it was just south of the Canada border. Most of the time the road was out of sight of the coast, but we took a wrong turn at Narragansett, RI and had a driving adventure out to the coast. The views were great, but the drive through narrow streets looking for a place to turn around a 50-foot rig was the kind of exciting we like to avoid. As it turned out, we made a successful rounding of a couple of city blocks, and got back on our route without even holding up traffic. We did get a lot of strange looks.

On the way, we called America’s Cup Charters, an organization that offers daily sunset cruises out of Newport on board their fleet of 12-meter America’s Cup yachts. Their yachts include seven 12-meters, including three that won the America’s Cup (Weatherly 1962; Intrepid in 1967 and 1970; Freedom in 1980; and also Ted Turner’s American Eagle. We reserved tickets for Friday night, which seems the least likely to be rainy.

We pulled into the KOA around 2:30 p.m., checked in, found our site, and started working on leveling the motorhome when the skies opened up with a spectacular thunderstorm. For about an hour it rained bullfrogs, and the lightning was so close we didn’t dare stand outside the motorhome under the trees. There were several short showers after the big storm rolled through, and there are more storms on radar headed this way. Wish we could send some of this rain to Hartwell. It was interesting watching the downpour and remembering what that looked like in Hartwell so long ago.

Our campsite has a full view through the front windshield of the swimming pool and a “jumping pillow,” a sort of convex trampoline that forms a big mound inside a fenced area. It’s full of kids most of the time, so we’ll have to go out early or late to try it out. The KOA at Niagara Falls had one of these too, but this one looks better. The campground also has a huge field just outside the gate with picnic tables and tent camping sites, which is perfectly empty. Wicket had a wonderful time running his Crazy Ivans there after the rain blew over. It has been about a week since he had a place to run off-leash, and he was thrilled. Since we will be here for several days, this will be one of his favorite places.

Pumpkin is such a trooper. She doesn’t mind the long rides, and when we set up camp, she takes up her viewing station on the dashboard where she can look out the windshield through almost 180 degrees. She especially likes to watch the birds. Unlike Spice (our previous cat), she seems to have little interest in getting outside the motorhome, so we have not had the constant anxiety about escape that we had on our trip out west. She has not hidden in the dashboard again recently, either. She and Wicket have a good time playing together. They are about the same size and weight, so they are a good match.

For dinner we went down to the village of Stonington, which is a charming little town of narrow streets, restaurants and small shops. We ate at the Skipper’s Dock restaurant, recommended by one of the KOA staff. Our table was on a covered pier with wind curtains. It was chilly, and the mist was pretty thick, so there wasn’t much view, but we had a wonderful dinner. We were able to admire a dark blue J/24, and a larger blue sprit boat with a white deck that we couldn’t identify, on moorings in the harbor near the restaurant.

Our GPS, Jack, routed us home expertly in the dark.