Day 48 Rhode Island

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Heh, heh…it poured all night and came down even harder this morning. Of course, with the rain came cooler temperatures, down in the mid 50’s again. We were supposed to go for a boat ride with friends. Too bad the weather didn’t cooperate.
Move on to Plan B. Go walk around Newport.

The rain stopped and it the weather called for mostly sunny so we headed over Newport Bridge.I remember when we had to take a ferry to get to Newport from Jamestown and the building of the bridge was a VERY big deal. In fact, when my daughter was born in August 1968 I shared a room with a girl whose husband was an iron worker who had been injured during the bridge construction. That is how I always remember the age of the bridge.

We enjoyed a couple of hours of walking around this colonial town. Many of the homes are of the same colonial period as Charleston, but smaller, with definitely smaller windows. After all, they wanted to maintain the heat and Charleston wanted to try to stay cool in those days of now central heat and air.

The sun came out and people began to fill the touristy city. Luckily, we were almost ready to leave by the time it got crowded.

We drove over to Westerly, RI, the coastal city sitting on the Connecticut line. At one time, this seemed like another state all together, Westerly was sooooooo far away, almost an hour drive! Now, with the newer highways, it’s a shorter ride, but people still consider it a journey.

These cousins raise shih tzus, as I once did. They had a litter of week old puppies, I miss my puppies now that we don’t breed anymore. How cute they were! We left for a wonderful dock lunch and then they showed us around parts of Westerly and adjacent Stonington Ct, which we’d never done more than pass by before. Imagine, we lived over half our lives and there are places so close we’d never seen. They showed us some amazing oceanfront homes.

We said goodbye and returned to the RV, but not before a stop at the Stop and Shop supermarket to stock up a bit. Somehow, we always find more than we went in for.

Tomorrow, Jim golfs and if I can locate some phone numbers I may visit an old friend…if not, laundry calls!

Rhode Island

Day 47 Rhode Island

Saturday, June 13

SUNSHINE!

We awoke to sunshine, blue skies, birds singing, and warm temperatures today! Yessssss!

The healthy breakfast we ate is about the only meal that is smart lately…this is part of visiting RI. We know that we won’t be able to enjoy certain foods when we leave, so we enjoy ourselves without guilt. We will repent at home, oh yes…we will.

The weather was perfect for a bike ride so we biked down what is called the Galilee Escape Road (built after Hurricane Carol in 1954) toward the fishing docks. Before we got that far, we turned right onto Great Island. Biked over the little bridge and into another world. Quaint. This is what the New England Seaside is to me. At one time these were almost all summer ‘camps’ as they were called. They were mostly summer cottages for people from the city, and some full time residents, probably fishermen and people who worked in the fish processing factory. Now, they are interspersed with some large lovely homes.

Then we biked into the village. The ferry was loading up for a trip to Block Island, about 10 miles offshore. We walked out on the pier and watched the fishing boats dock. I noticed that all the deck hands were smoking…they must be doing well, cigarettes are over $8.00 pack here!
We stopped at a tee shirt shop that I always hit while I’m here. Then on to the end of the village, a beach and some jetties that line the channel between the ocean and the harbor. There is a reconstruction project going on that has taken over the beach and made the jetties inaccessible. This will be a sad summer for some who love this area. The jetty/beach/parking lot area is a place where many ocean loving, but not ‘beachy’ people love to come to sit in the parking lot at the edge of the jetty. There they may pull out a lawn chair, or just sit on the rocks watching boats of all sizes return to port, or to go fishing. Last time we were here in the summertime we noticed some even people tailgating, grilling sausage and peppers (RI is mostly Italian) that smelled so good, while watching the boats. This summer that won’t be happening…

Later we visited yet another cousin and her husband. I actually knew this cousin before I knew Jim. Her large family lived across from my aunt and uncle and their large family. Later I went to high school with her and her younger sister who was my age.

We enjoyed a few hours of reminiscing. Her husband is a few years older than Jim, but they’ve known each other’s families for years and he and Jim talked about the old gang. Back then, everyone knew everyone and neighbors all helped raise each other’s kids. Everyone was poor, and nobody noticed or cared.
After a lunch, many laughs, a stroll down the gorgeous beach at Matunuck and a lot of catching up on lives later we left. All nearing retirement, it felt like just yesterday we were all getting married, choosing careers and starting families. The years fly by, don’t they?

The weather was still great, and there was still a good deal of daylight left when we left at 4:30 so we headed back to the middle of the state (a 20 minute ride…RI is small!) to the city where we raised our family and where Jim had been a cop. We drove a big loop through town, past the two houses and neighborhoods that we’d lived. And also through the areas where Jim had spent most of the time on certain police beats. Many things have changed, many things exactly the same. Sweeping changes around the airport and most of an entire neighborhood gone for airport expansion. The houses are gone, only the trees remain…and they are SO much bigger than we remembered. Trees grow a LOT in twenty years!
Jim wanted some Italian bread to go with his to-go box from last night. We passed an Italian Bakery. If you are familiar with this part of the country, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. I wanted to stay in the car, but he insisted I accompany him into the bakery. Gorgeous pastries, and of course bread. And don’t forget the ‘tomato bread’ pizza strips…we only got one strip ‘for the road’.

Back to the campground, but not before I decided that I was ready for fried clams. Jim enjoyed his veal and Italian bread, I had my fried clams…a perfect day.

Tomorrow, rain forecasted….again…who knows? We are visiting yet ANOTHER cousin in the afternoon!

Rhode Island

Day 46 Rhode Island

Friday, June 12, 2009

The fog rolled in last evening and the fog horn sounded about every ten seconds, every ten seconds, every ten seconds. At some point during the night the showers turned into torrents, it rained hard. That’s okay, as long as it’s not thunder and lightning, the dogs are fine…and we can sleep!

Morning, was grey, foggy and cool….again. BUT it warmed up and I was happy. We headed up to my hometown, Johnston, to visit one of Jim’s fifty-something cousins. Yes, you read that right. Jim has over 50 FIRST cousins. I thought it was something like 54, but the family historian, who we were visiting with, said 58 and I’ll take her word for it. During our visit and our trip to a restaurant for lunch, she filled us in about all the relatives. I don’t know how she keeps track. Of course, I only have a handful of relatives, so I didn’t grow up with it.

The clouds were thinning out and on our way back to Narragansett the sun came out! We grabbed the bikes and headed just a mile or so down the road to Galilee, a sleepy little fishing village. It hasn’t changed much over the years.
Galilee was my dad’s chosen spot for clamming. If the weather was warm and the tide was right, that is where we would be in the summer. A little inlet a tidal pond, a good low tide and mud is all you needed for bucket of calms. Just up the road was a beautiful sandy beach, complete with a playground. What more could a kid want, this was heaven! This state park looks out over the salt pond and when the wind catches the salt breeze along with the wild beach roses in full bloom, I am immediately transported back over fifty years. It is a good feeling, even if only for a brief moment.

Thankfully, we managed to squeeze that exercise in because later we joined long time friends for an Italian dinner at a restaurant that has been in business for many years…and known for ridiculously large portions. We took most of the meal home.
Tomorrow, the weather is supposed to improve. We are going to meet with another of Jim’s first cousins, who lives near where we are staying. They live in Florida, but spend summer’s at the beach here…the best of both worlds

Day 45 Meredith NH to Narragansett RI
Thursday, June 11, 2009

Cold and drizzly this morning…surprise! No wonder everything is so green this year.

We left the mosquito coast…um, I mean Meredith a little after nine o’clock, gassed up and headed to I93 south. Years ago, this trip would take hours on the state road. The state roads wound through the forest, farms, villages and cities. Now, it’s a straight shot to Massachusetts. Tom Tom wanted us to go straight through Boston…obviously Tom Tom has never been to Boston! We have, so we opted to drive I495 around the whole mess of insane traffic. We laughed at how this stretch of highway through the state used to see soooooooo long when we lived in RI. As I mentioned earlier posts, in RI anything over 15 miles is a journey.
The weather continued with heavy cloud cover and drizzle, we didn’t actually see the sun all day. I guess it saves wear and tear on our sunglasses.

Jim thought he’d drive I95 through Pawtucket, Providence, Cranston because ‘he hadn’t done that in so long’…until he came to his senses with the traffic increasing. Thankfully (for my nerves) we took I295 around the metropolitan area.

There is a regional food here in RI, that is very specialized, ‘New York System Hot Wieners. One of those food that, if you didn’t grow up eating them, you probably wouldn’t even like them. Basically a hot wiener is a hot dog with a difference. It comes on a steamed bun, covered with a Coney Island type meat sauce (there lies the ‘secret) covered with onions, mustard and some of the time, celery salt. They were sold in working class neighborhoods in diners. You get your food fast. When a person only gets 30 minutes for lunch, you better get their food to them fast. We can be away for years and when we walk into one of these places, it’s like nothing ever changed.

Narragansett was our next stop to the Fisherman’s Memorial State Park. We’ve got a very nice spot….a little slant, it took a bit, but we’ve leveled. The longer we’re on the highway, the harder it is to ‘feel’ which way is perfectly level, the bubble level things don’t always agree with what we feel. We took a bike ride around the campground…I was too cold, so it wasn’t a long ride. There are so many rabbits here that I was afraid I would run over one. It makes walking the dogs harder too, Brandy aka Little Dummy, tries to catch them and takes off after them. The entire length of leash zips out before I even know what’s going on. She looks smart for 20 feet anyway!

Later we went for my ‘absolutely must have’ steamers (steamed clams) and a boiled lobster. YUMMO!

We switched our TV with our converter box over and we are amazed at the great reception and picture ! That’s a good thing, because with the weather forecast, we may not be doing much else!

Tomorrow, meeting up with friends and relatives, and dodging the raindrops.