Our Travel Blog

A much clearer and cooler day, still got to the mid 70’s but the humidity has gone. Finally the rain they have been promising for the last week has arrived (1015 at night!).

Not a very productive day at all. Just lounged around the place and did very little…. just like being on vacation really!

Walking around the campsite showed that many of the seasonal campers had packed up their trailers for the year, leaving the place very quiet apart from the bl**dy chipmunks. If the state mascot for Massachusetts isn’t the chipmunk then it should be, they’re everywhere.

The neighbour across the road has us confused. Every day, and some times 2 or 3 times a day he will come out, start up his truck move it 10ft or so then switch off and go back inside. Each time he move it he parks it at a different angle… very intriguing.

Yet again the weather people got it wrong. After a foggy start the morning turned out to be sunny and warm.

After our previous mountaineering experience, we decided to try again. This time we checked the height of the mountain before setting out.

Our destination was Greylock Mountain in the NW corner of the state, a few miles south of the Vermont border. As we headed out westbound initially, the skies got darker to the west and I thought that maybe the weather man had got it right after all and we would get rain. As we turned northbound though the weather cleared again.

Yet again the scenery was great with wooded rolling hills, getting higher as we went north. Once off the freeway, and ignoring the fact the steering wheel was on the wrong side, many of the roads could have been English country roads.

We got to the base of the Greylock which was about 750ft ASL. There was a good road going up the mountain with a few switchbacks thrown in for good measure. We climbed to the summit at 3491ft, the truck handled it fine, but it did suck back the diesel! Unfortunately there was still some fog lingering around, so the views were not as good as we had expected. This was the highest point in the state.

We left the mountain and went in search of Natural Bridge State Park. On the way there we kept seeing signs for Highway 2 detours, which was a little off putting as the next part of the journey was a scenic trip along the Mohawk Way, aka Highway 2. Anyway, we found the park, but the road into it was closed, so we parked at the bottom and started to walk up. We met a Park employee who told us that the road had been washed out following hurricane Irene a few weeks ago, but we could still walk up to the Natural Bridge.

The area is full of marble and was the site of a marble works until 1947, when it burnt down. The Natural  Bridge is a bridge formation caused by the water eroding the marble from the bottom. The falls the water flows over before the bridge are shown below.

Waterfall at Natural Bridge State Park MA

After we left the park we went into the town of Adams in search of a Tourist Info so that we could get some information on the Highway 2 detour. It turns out that Irene had been busy that day, and there were numerous washouts on the highway, causing it to be closed. The Tourist office were well prepared with sheets detailing an alternate route. Next stop was the glacial potholes at Shelburne Falls. The potholes which, you should be able to see in the next picture, were formed at the end of the last ice age by pebbles being caught in a water vortex and wearing away the rock.

Pot Holes, Shelburne Falls MA

We continued along the Mohawk trail, which was scenic, but really no better than we had seen earlier. Perhaps the more scenic part was missed by the detour.

We decided to head home via the back roads rather than the freeway, only to discover a quilt shop along the way……… coincidence???

Well despite the forecast, it turned out a pretty nice day, mostly sunny around 80F.

Lyn headed off to do the laundry while I had the dubious pleasure of washing out the black water (toilet waste!) tank. Actually nowhere as bad as it sounds, I just pull a handle and let it all run out so to speak. Don’t panic the tank is connected via a long pipe to a sewer receptacle. We’re lucky with this trailer as all I have to do when the tank is empty is to connect a hosepipe to an outside connection to flush out the tank with a high pressure spray. The older models required sticking the hosepipe down the toilet to flush out the tank. Just what you all wanted to know.

After lunch it was time to go fly the helicopter, this was a mistake! All that needs to be said is that blood was lost and new parts for the helicopter are on order.

Other than that a quiet day doing very little. The new WiFi gizzmo is doing very well, we have a much better connection, and don’t have to worry about the bandwidth as we did with the 3G USB stick. Skype is still an issue, and I am beginning to think that the campground may have some sort of block on it.

Today was hot, humid but dry. We took advantage of the weather and headed out to Newport, Rhode Island… I know I said Providence yesterday, but today it was Newport.

Newport is about 90 miles away and took us a couple of hours to get there. As we crossed over the large (300ft high) bridge across Narragansett Bay we saw one of the larger Princess cruise ships at anchor. This coupled with the fact that today was the first good day for some time meant the place was likely to be crowded.

First stop was the Tourist Information office, although Lyn had made up a list of things to do and see we still needed local maps. As we started down the main street we saw just how crowded the place was with both cars and people.

Once we had local maps in hand we set out to find lunch, ideally we would have liked to try and find a seafood place on one of the many wharves but parking was at a premium so we moved on a bit further. We finally found a place next door to the International Tennis Hall of Fame. We sat munching overlooking a well kept grass court!

Next stop was to go see the mansions on Bellevue Avenue. These mansions were built as summer homes for New Yorks high society in the late 1800’s. Surprisingly these mansions were built inland and not on the coast. Many of the homes are now open to the public.

Next was a slow drive around the Scenic Ocean Drive. As the name suggests this was a route around the coastline south-east of the city. There were many look-out points and small bays where you could stop and go down to the waters edge, unfortunately there were no sandy beaches. The Scenic Drive finished near the marina area of Newport where there were boats of every shape and size.

Next we went across to the other side of the island to the Cliff Walk. This is a 3.5 mile walk along the cliffs overlooking the Atlantic. The city have created a paved walk right on the cliffs edge.

Once we started walking we saw many more mansions, these with a spectacular ocean view.

We decided that we would sell the trailer and move into one of the mansions, the only problem; which one should we choose?

Woke up to 70 degree temperatures, but still humid. The good news…. no rain all day. We took a walk around the campground which as full as we had seen it. Quite surprising considering the forecast. After lunch Lyn decided to to go visit the multitude of antique stores in Palmer, one of the local towns. I politely declined her invitation to join her. Instead I spent some time fighting the internet, and trying to work out why, when I finished a Skype contact with somebody their phone would always ring…. very bizarre.

Tonight there must have been some sort of party going on as there was quite a lot of noise as late as 10:30, to put that in perspective, all human noise normally ceases before 8:30. Wild life noise is another thing, this is probably the noisiest place I have been for wild life noise, during the day it is chipmunks (in there hundreds, I’m sure). At night crickets, frogs and other assorted beasties take up the chorus.

Hopefully tomorrow will remain dry and we will head out to Newport, Rhode Island.

No pictures today as the beautiful deep orange sunset photos we took didn’t come out too well.

Another wet day….. it’s worse than being in the UK!

Luckily we both have a number of hobbies to keep us occupied as the forecast is for rain and or showers for the next week. Hopefully we’ll get a few clear days as there are still a couple of trips we’d like to make, as well as some more exploring around the local area.

Although the temperature has gone back up, lows around 60 and highs around 78 the humidity has risen and there was plenty of rain overnight and this morning.

Today was a shopping (groceries) day, apart from that we didn’t go out.

I did receive a new “toy” in the mail, this has helped boost the Wifi Signal to more usable levels, and has increased its throughput which has helped a lot with phone calls.

Unfortunately the forecast for the next week is (so far) pretty consistent. Showers, thunderstorms but at least warm each day.

Summer is back, twenty four hours with no heating!! Woke up to a foggy start to the day, but it soon started to burn off. We headed out to the Mass Turnpike for the 80 mile journey east.

As you should know by now we are early risers, so managed to miss the rush hour traffic…. by arriving after it had died down. Thankfully we had the GPS with us as navigation around Boston would have been a nightmare just map reading (especially as someone forgot the map!).

In recent years we have become firm believers in using the “Hop-on Hop-off” method of guided city tours. The one that we chose used the type of bus/trolley that had higher seating, a bit like the intercity buses. This had the advantage of keeping us above the cars and allowed for easier photo taking. As we left the freeway I had a moment of panic as I realised that I had never taken the truck into a multi-storey parking lot before; I have enough trouble getting it between the lines in the shopping mall. Anyway we found a parking lot (the wrong one as it turned out) and it was fairly empty and easy enough to manoeuvre in. The reason it was the “wrong” lot was due to the fact that the tour company had a deal with another lot for all day parking at $4. We paid a little more than that.

The tour was about 21 miles around Boston and Cambridge, with 25 stops. One of the stops we got off at was the old naval yard where the USS Constitution is moored. At the moment they are busy getting her ready to go back to sea for the first time in 37 years. Evidently she is the oldest naval vessel still afloat anywhere in the world. Any one want to challenge that? HMS Victory maybe, or is she dry docked now?

USS Constitution

After lunch at the shipyard we got back on the bus and eventually completed the tour. A part of the ticket you get a choice of a bonus “free” trip. We elected to take a boat tour on the Charles River. Well worth it, particularly if you remember how we felt about a similar boat trip in Savannah last year. The river went past both MIT and Harvard and was full of  sail boats and rowing boats as the students started practicing for various regattas, felt sorry for the captain trying to avoid all the traffic.

Unfortunately, the boat tour ended very close to The Cheesecake Factory so we just had to go in and try some…. Delicious! We were so full we couldn’t manage dinner when we got back home.

Woke up to the sound of rain falling through the trees and onto the trailer roof. At least the temperature continues to climb. Our decision to postpone Boston by a day was a good one.

Sat around the trailer all morning, and the rain eased off towards lunchtime. Picked up some mail from the office, Lyn had ordered some quilting stuff, unfortunately we knew ahead of time that it was the wrong stuff as we got a phone call from the company saying that they had put the wrong order in the envelope addressed to Lyn, and that her order had been sent to someone in Virginia!! Anyway, it all got sorted and Lyn’s stuff is on it’s way here.

The othe delivery was some radio connectors for me. I left a specific one behind, Radio Shack had one for $4.99…. Ebay had 5 for $3.99 including shipping!!

Lyn is on the JoAnn fabrics mailing list, and received a whole bunc og 40 and 50% off coupons valid this week. Guess where we went this afternoon. Couldn’t let the copons go to waste!!!

On the way back from the store we dropped in at a donut store, while were sitting there munching away a guy walks in and orders a small coffee with 5creams and three sugars…. why bother with the coffee?

The weather is slowly getting warmer although we did have to fill up the propane tank today!

This morning was laundry time for Lyn (lucky girl!), and I finally plucked up the courage to take the helicopter for a flight (for those that don’t know this is a radio control model helicopter!). So far it has only been flown at home and has become well acquainted with the fence, the house, the deck and pretty much any other immovable object it can find. At the campsite there are a couple of large grass fields, this was an ideal area for me to practice in as there was only one tree in the whole field. The helicopter flew fine, and without the obstructions of the backyard I was able to fly it and experiment with out fear of crashing. Well almost with out fear, I did manage to chop a few leaves off the tree at about the 50ft mark, otherwise all went well. My faith has been restored, if I can get enough practice in here, I should have a better feel for the beast in a confined area.

After lunch we headed about 10 miles north to the town of Ware so Lyn could get her hair cut. It gave me time to wander around Lowes, but these days what with having a Lowes in Ottawa and parity + with the $ there are no bargains to be had 🙁

We had planned a trip to Boston tomorrow, but the latest forecast doesn’t look too promising… maybe Wednesday