We love the East Coast! It's so easy to jump from state to state & feel like we're making progress. We headed toward Boston for a week to let the leaves start changing color up north. Maybe they'll feel less pressure if we aren't staring at the
m all day, every day. We stopped at the Battle Road visitor center which had a great presentation on the running battle between Lexington & Concord that began the Revolutionary War. Lit maps showing troop movement supplemented the video. Walking on the Battle Road was beautiful, but eerie. Our RV park was 30 miles south of Boston & offered limo service to the commuter rail station
.
A
r
eal limo! The train & subway worked wonderfully. We walked the Freedom Trail; 2.5 miles each way following a line of bricks set in the sidewalk. We saw many historic sights including Boston Common, Faneuil Hall, Paul Revere's home, Old North Church, Bunker Hill & USS Constitution. The route led us thru the North End, Boston's Italian neighborhood. We ate pastries in the morning & pasta in the afternoon. Hey, we walked 5 miles! It really struck us that this large city was so quiet. No honking horns, yelling people, car alarms. It was downright peaceful & totally unexpected. We drove to Boston for more sightseeing & can offer this recommendation - use public transit! We couldn't park so we had to "drive-by tourist" Beacon Hill, Harvard, Fenway Park & the Cheers bar. We think we drove through the Big Dig. Rhode Island is closer to our campgrou
nd than downtown Phoenix is to our home. We toured The Breakers 70 room Vanderbilt mansion on our visit to Newport. Barb thought the 5 mansion tour sounded fun, Dennis not so much. Oh well, the others might look like shacks after The Breakers. Gold & platinum (!!) leaf everywhere, plus ornate moldings, mosaic tile ceilings & library walls that looked like the spines of leather bound books. Completely over the top, but incredible!
No pictures were allowed indoors. Mystic, CT was our next stop. We skipped Mystic Pizza after learning it wasn't used in the film. We walked along the river & waited for the drawbridge to raise but no boats were around. The drawbridge has two 230-ton counter weights & opens 2,200 times a year, just not for us. We capped the day off with a pilgrimage to Foxwoods casino, of World Poker Tour fame. Too smoky so we headed to the much prettier Mohegan Sun, where Dennis made $2 & Barb did not. Saturday f
o
und us trekking all 15 miles back to Rhode Island for Waterfire in Providence. The town is beautiful to start with but then they line the river with wood fires after sundown. People dressed in black float down the river in black boats to restock the huge fires. It looked & smelled wonderful. We walked the whole riverwalk & found candlelit chandeliers under all the bridges & in gazebos. We drove around Brown University before sunset & it is the prettiest school. Newport has a Catholic university that is completely housed in mansions. If Barb wins the lottery, she'll consider paying the $40,000 annual tuition just so she can flunk out of each gorgeous school. Cape Cod was more of a place to sit for a week than see in a day. We drove to Provincetown at the end of the road, a lively place. Everything else is pretty sleepy. We saw the site where Marconi sent the first transatlantic wireless message from Theodore Roosevelt to King
Edw
ard VII. Dennis says "Teddy to Eddy". We toured Plimoth Plantation & Mayflower II where people dressed in period costumes gave us a flavor of Pilgrim & Native life. The work of the day included preparing a large fire pit to make charcoal for the iron forge. The Mayflower crossing took 3 attempts & landed at the tip of Cape Cod but moved to Plymouth when scouts determined it was a better location. We saw Plymouth Rock, which looked nothing like our history books depicted. It's a small rock near the edge of the cove & the myth of stepping on the rock didn't come to fruition until 120 years later. Jeez, we would have been better off at recess than spending time in history class that day! Our Boston swing has been busy & fun but now we're off in search of Fall colors!
m all day, every day. We stopped at the Battle Road visitor center which had a great presentation on the running battle between Lexington & Concord that began the Revolutionary War. Lit maps showing troop movement supplemented the video. Walking on the Battle Road was beautiful, but eerie. Our RV park was 30 miles south of Boston & offered limo service to the commuter rail station
.
A
r
eal limo! The train & subway worked wonderfully. We walked the Freedom Trail; 2.5 miles each way following a line of bricks set in the sidewalk. We saw many historic sights including Boston Common, Faneuil Hall, Paul Revere's home, Old North Church, Bunker Hill & USS Constitution. The route led us thru the North End, Boston's Italian neighborhood. We ate pastries in the morning & pasta in the afternoon. Hey, we walked 5 miles! It really struck us that this large city was so quiet. No honking horns, yelling people, car alarms. It was downright peaceful & totally unexpected. We drove to Boston for more sightseeing & can offer this recommendation - use public transit! We couldn't park so we had to "drive-by tourist" Beacon Hill, Harvard, Fenway Park & the Cheers bar. We think we drove through the Big Dig. Rhode Island is closer to our campgrou
nd than downtown Phoenix is to our home. We toured The Breakers 70 room Vanderbilt mansion on our visit to Newport. Barb thought the 5 mansion tour sounded fun, Dennis not so much. Oh well, the others might look like shacks after The Breakers. Gold & platinum (!!) leaf everywhere, plus ornate moldings, mosaic tile ceilings & library walls that looked like the spines of leather bound books. Completely over the top, but incredible! 
No pictures were allowed indoors. Mystic, CT was our next stop. We skipped Mystic Pizza after learning it wasn't used in the film. We walked along the river & waited for the drawbridge to raise but no boats were around. The drawbridge has two 230-ton counter weights & opens 2,200 times a year, just not for us. We capped the day off with a pilgrimage to Foxwoods casino, of World Poker Tour fame. Too smoky so we headed to the much prettier Mohegan Sun, where Dennis made $2 & Barb did not. Saturday f
o
und us trekking all 15 miles back to Rhode Island for Waterfire in Providence. The town is beautiful to start with but then they line the river with wood fires after sundown. People dressed in black float down the river in black boats to restock the huge fires. It looked & smelled wonderful. We walked the whole riverwalk & found candlelit chandeliers under all the bridges & in gazebos. We drove around Brown University before sunset & it is the prettiest school. Newport has a Catholic university that is completely housed in mansions. If Barb wins the lottery, she'll consider paying the $40,000 annual tuition just so she can flunk out of each gorgeous school. Cape Cod was more of a place to sit for a week than see in a day. We drove to Provincetown at the end of the road, a lively place. Everything else is pretty sleepy. We saw the site where Marconi sent the first transatlantic wireless message from Theodore Roosevelt to King
Edw
ard VII. Dennis says "Teddy to Eddy". We toured Plimoth Plantation & Mayflower II where people dressed in period costumes gave us a flavor of Pilgrim & Native life. The work of the day included preparing a large fire pit to make charcoal for the iron forge. The Mayflower crossing took 3 attempts & landed at the tip of Cape Cod but moved to Plymouth when scouts determined it was a better location. We saw Plymouth Rock, which looked nothing like our history books depicted. It's a small rock near the edge of the cove & the myth of stepping on the rock didn't come to fruition until 120 years later. Jeez, we would have been better off at recess than spending time in history class that day! Our Boston swing has been busy & fun but now we're off in search of Fall colors!
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