Our drive into Connecticut took us via the Cross Bronx Expressway in New York City. Even my “RV Safe” GPS app didn’t warn me about making sure I followed the truck route to the UPPER deck of the George Washington Bridge, even though the road signs indicated COMMERCIAL VEHICLES ONLY FOLLOW THIS ROUTE with signs directing them into another lane. At the last minute, we zigged off the approach lane at the LAST EXIT FOR HIGH VEHICLES sign, the only warning that we would lose the top 2 feet of the trailer speeding onto the lower deck and followed a construction-detoured single lane through a maze and back onto the truck approach ramp. We don’t need any more repairs on this trip, thank you.

We stopped shortly after that in New Rochelle to fill up at Costco and get a couple of $1.50 hotdogs for lunch. It’s the most crowded Costco I’ve ever seen, including the parking lot. We had to go up the street to a Home Depot to park the rig, then walk back. We got a couple thousand steps in anyway. The food court inside was crowded too, but there was a 4-top table with one man sitting at it, and we invited ourselves to share with him. Wendy, as she always does, struck up a conversation and it turns out he is a history buff with a special interest in the RevWar. So we had a lively talk over lunch, and he pointed out a RevWar site close to us, although we wouldn’t attempt to drive there towing the trailer.

The Battle of Glovers Rock (also known as the Battle of Pell’s Point) took place October 18, 1776, on City Island, which is now a small residential town in the Bronx. At the time, Washington had an army encampment that became surrounded and trapped by British forces. Colonel John Glover’s Massachusetts troops used stone walls and delaying tactics as a resistance force to slow a much larger British and Hessian force, buying George Washington’s army time to retreat safely toward White Plains. It was a tactical British victory, but a strategic American success by keeping Washington’s troops from being cut off and severely damaged early in the war.

Happy to have discovered yet another small story inside the larger one, we settled into our camp site at Sunfox Campground in Lisbon, CT. This campground, which is at least 30 years old, has a very new “big rig” section where we are camped. It is family owned and run; their 11-year-old daughter checked us in and helped us to choose a better site than we had been assigned. We love seeing these free-range country kids pulling some weight for their families. The amenities here are numerous: a pool and hot tub, a disc golf course, hiking trails, a playground for kids that includes a giant bouncing cushion, a giant tent event center, sand volleyball courts and more. Tuesday night was high school sand volleyball; we think the local school rents time on their courts.

This stop was primarily intended to visit family in the Hartford area, but we are also fitting in a full day in Rhode Island and a half-day in Hartford, both less than an hour’s drive from Lisbon where we are camped.

Our first stop on Wednesday was the Rhode Island State House. It has either the heaviest or 2^nd heaviest marble dome of any building in the continental United States (the sources conflict, but suffice it to say that thing is ginormous). The state house itself is significantly smaller than others we have toured, and we guess that makes sense because the legislature is proportional to the population, and Rhode Island clocks in 44^th out of 50 on that metric.

Roger Williams founded Rhode Island in 1636 after he was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for his religious dissent. This, to me, is odd because most of the colonists arrived in America to escape religious persecution in England and elsewhere.

We intended to visit the Roger Williams National Memorial, but it was closed on Wednesday. We took advantage of the extra time afforded to us by the closure to drive south to visit the site of the Battle of Rhode Island, the largest RevWar battle in New England. The battle took place on Aquidneck Island near the entrance to Narragansett Bay, perceived to be a strategically critical position by both American and British Forces. The American forces had occupied the island in an attempt to forestall the British fleet from sailing into the bay but were overwhelmed when Hessian forces joined in a pincer attack. The Germans marched up the west road and the British marched up the east road and forced the American troops to retreat back to Tiverton and across the narrows back onto the mainland south of Providence. Again, not an American victory, but one that forced the opposition to expend precious supplies and time.

Newport sits at the southern tip of Aquidneck Island. It’s a beautiful city, dripping with money and expensive yachts, so it felt like a good idea to stop and have lunch on the waterfront. On our way through the city we discovered Cardines Field, a small ballpark named after World War One hero Bernado Cardines. It is one of the oldest ballparks in the country, located right downtown in Newport, and hosts MLB Collegiate League games 3 nights a week in summer. True Americana here, summer ball in a tiny ballpark, beer and dogs and fun.

Our return drive took us across country on back roads, where at one point Wendy noticed a street sign reading “Purgatory Road”. “Who in the heck would name a street like that?” she wondered, and further research turned up a plausible story. In the late 1800’s, tuberculosis, then known as “consumption”, plagued the small town of Exeter, Rhode Island. There was no known cure and the deaths, which were frequent with an 80% fatality rate, were gruesome. The terror of these sights fed hysteria in the population, and when the family of Mercy Brown started dying off one by one, the townspeople succumbed to a rumor that Mercy was to blame, even though she had been dead and buried for 4 months. The theory was that she was a vampire, and was consuming the life of her relatives, so of course they exhumed her and a few of her relatives to prove the point. Her body was pretty well preserved while the others were in advanced stages of decomposition, and this became proof of the theory. In actuality, Mercy had been buried in winter, and the nearly frozen earth of her grave had probably preserved her quite well, but this was ignored so the townspeople could justify cutting out her heart and liver and burning them to ashes to break the curse. Her brother was still alive, but ailing, so they made a potion from the ashes and fed it to him, and he died shortly thereafter, go figure. I can easily see a future documentary on this added to AppleTV, and I’m claiming some sort of rights to it right now.

We’re adding a plug for colonial Jews since Newport had the heaviest concentration of them in colonial times (heck, that might still be true). There were about 1,500 Jews in the 13 colonies (200 lived in Newport, RI). They weren’t a significant part of the fighting forces, only about 100 in total joined the ranks, but they were a wealthy population and made sizeable financial contributions to the war effort. A lot of them were completely bankrupted by the war. We thank them for their service. Now quick, tell me where you saw THAT in your history books!

We had a very nice visit with family, Wendy’s sister Julie and husband Glenn, niece Amber, grandnephew Xavier, and grandniece Viviana. The kids are great and always a delight. At 6 and 4 years old respectively, they are becoming immersed in non-school activities like T-Ball (Xavier) and dance (Vivi, we met up and attended one of her rehearsals for an upcoming recital). Mom Amber is becoming immersed in supporting all of their activities and her career, which only requires about 23 hours of each day.

Travel Update: it’s always something with an RV. Our trailer has two slides that expand when we’re camped to give us extra room. Each slide has a power cord that feeds it from the main chassis, and this cord is kept suspended by a long spring that extends and retracts with the cord when the slide goes out or in, to keep the loose cord from dangling below while were driving. The originals were made of regular steel and of course have rusted to the point of breaking, which lets all the electrical cords dangle down underneath the trailer waiting for something to catch them and rip them out while we are motoring. I needed 2 new ones, and you guessed right! Amazon!

Wendy took advantage of the shipment, too. We collect magnets from places we visit and have been using our range hood to display them but have run out of space. She found some stainless steel panels that fit the side of our pantry cabinet, and the problem is solved. One note about magnets: magnets are a popular tourist collectible, and we have had no problem finding them for roughly $4 each everywhere we go, except Newport Rhode Island, where the cheapest one was a handmade whalebone scrimshaw specimen at $14.95. Yes, I did look for the “Made in China” label (didn’t find one); no, it didn’t end up in our collection.

Thank God for overnight delivery when you are only going to be someplace for 2 days.

Next up, Lobstah! Portsmouth, New Hampshire

Onward!

Another annoying Legal Notice: Tippy is still in negotiations. I’m sure none of you care, but why would an unmarried zoo animal need Parental Leave? It ain’t gonna happen. Chester the Scab has offered to stay on as long as he is needed and wanted. I am sort of tiring of throwing the ball and walking him at midnight, however. In the meantime, seemingly as the only leverage I can manifest in negotiations, Chester gets top billing.