New England here we come – Starting in Connecticut

July 6 - 8, 2016:  

Great day to travel, nice 80 degree day with clear blue sky!  We took our time packing up in NJ before our 200 mile trip to the Mystic Seaport area of Connecticut.  If we have been stationary in one place over a week or so, as we have been, we get fully unpacked and we were this time too.  We also needed to dump our tanks before we started out.  And since our hosts are having a tile patio put in this morning directly in the path of the sewer, I dumped at 7:30am.  That got us started and we were ready to leave by a little after 11 am.

Just started to remove the grass and dirt for the patio.

We will see the finished product at the end of September when are back.

We picked a low stress route around Manhattan using interstate 287 up to the Tappan Zee Bridge over the Hudson River.  I wasn’t entirely sure how the bridge traffic would be due to the construction of the replacement bridge going on next to the current bridge.  It turned out pretty good with just moderate traffic.  However, don’t think I would want to do this at rush hour!

Heading on to the Tappan Zee from the West.  Note the construction cranes on the left side of the bridge.

A piece of the new bridge being floated out on the Hudson River for the construction cranes.

Looks like the new bridge will be a little higher.  This picture doesn't do justice to the HUGE construction crane being used here to lift a 40 to 50 foot section of bridge into place.

We hopped onto interstate 95 just before the CT border in New York.  The ride up was uneventful except for the traffic.  We were surprised at the volume of traffic on a Wednesday at 2 in the afternoon.  We arrived at our destination site at the Seaport RV Resort around 4 pm.

That trip from New Jersey to Connecticut of just over 200 miles will be the longest trip we will make until we head into Canada near the end of the month.  The six states we plan to visit to complete our New England trip are very close together.  So for the next few weeks we will only travel under a hundred miles each time we move.  Sounds like a fun time!

The Seaport RV resort is very near the town of Old Mystic and the tourist attraction of the Mystic Seaport.  This RV Park is very well suited for a place to stay to explore the Mystic area.  We had a nice back-in site with loads of shade.   We also had very nice neighbors that we got to know, always a plus!  The Park is very well maintained and we would certainly stay here again!

The office, store and clubhouse at the Seaport RV Resort.

The swimming pool at the RV Resort.  Note that the pool has one of those large buckets that fill with water before dumping it on the people in the pool.

Our site at the Seaport RV Resort.  The sites are very large for a commercial RV park.

Just a picture showing our sign that we have not had out for the past year.  We left it at a park in Indiana last year.  The park owner sent it back to us at our address in Buffalo NY after we left. Patty's sister Cheryl brought it to us last week on her birthday.  It's looking a little ratty so we are going to refinish it soon.  Oh yeah, the cans of Barq's root beer we are giving away next to the sign.  I couldn't find my A&W so I got some Barq's.  Barq's is the worst root beer I have ever tasted, couldn't drink even one of them!

So, on our first full day here we decided to explore the Mystic Seaport.  We have both been to the Mystic Seaport many years ago in other lives.  I didn’t remember much about the place and now I know why, not very exciting!

The cost to enter is $28 each and this will allow you to re-enter the next day if you need more time to explore.  We both have seen and been on board old ships as are docked here in other places around the country so this wasn’t novel for us either.  We spent about 2 hours here before we decided we had enough.

The Seaport has many houses and shops set up as they would have been in the colonial period.

Highlights of the visit to the Seaport, first was the very nice lunch we had at the Latitudes just outside the entrance gate to the Seaport.  The Latitudes overlooks the Mystic Harbor with the old sailing ships and colonial buildings, very nice! 

Before going into the Seaport, we had lunch here.

Inside the Seaport I liked the old sun dial that actually worked!  I also liked the fact that most of the buildings had a representative who was knowledgeable about the building and the services performed there if it was a business.  That makes the Mystic Seaport a very nice place to take kids as well as adults who have not been exposed to these sorts of things before.  As for us, the Mystic Seaport wasn’t worth the $56 to visit.  At least now we can remember it!

Old sundial that works!

The time was 1:50 pm due to daylight savings time.  It's where the shadow is on the bright ring to the right.  Numbers are roman numerals.

Demonstrating a printing press.

Just for fun!

Our second day in the area we went to the town of Mystic and just roamed around.  Actually we did a fair amount of shopping!  It really is a very nice area to shop.  As with most of these type of places there are many with very high prices; really, a shirt for $120!!  But we found more than just a few with reasonable prices and many, many novel shops that made the trip just fun.

Old Mystic Bascule draw bridge.

These concrete weights are HUGE!  They weigh 230 tons each!!

Cool, Mystic Pizza!

We ended the day with a nice ice cream cone before heading back to our RV for dinner.

OK, now we are ready to move on to Rhode Island about 80 miles up the road.

Stay Tuned!