walking in new england

 

It doesn't get more New England than this photo, does it?

(The internet, or at least wi-fi, at the hotels stunk. So I couldn't post daily. Heck, I could barely check email!)

It's been a full month since I posted. I'm still lazy and out of shape. God I wish I could find some motivation. I did do a poetry walk about two weeks ago, but there was very little walking. 

This weekend was the Tri-State Lighthouse Walking Festival. I wanted to go since last year when I heard about it, but like everything I talked myself out of it. It's pretty easy to do... driving to Maine for a weekend? Absurd. You spend more time in the car. (We met someone who came up from Florida. they left Mother’s Day.) However, early in April Bonnie asked if I still wanted to go. She wanted to run away from home for a weekend. Their planned trip to Kentucky for her neices graduation was cancelled. I made reservations on the last day and we went.

Volkssporting has a “special program" where you can walk all the states. I'll never finish that book. But I'm doing okay east of the Mississippi. We did the walking weekend in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, plus we walked in Rhode Island. The only state we are missing in the northeastern corner now is Vermont. No way to get Vermont into the weekend.

I picked up Bonnie at 9:15 after work on Thursday and we were off. I planned to go up 33, and then 209, picking up I-84, then picking up CT-9, and finally merging into I-95. I wanted to avoid the George Washington Bridge, and I wasn't a fan of going over the Tappen Zee either. I just wanted to avoid I-95 for as long as possible. Google Maps said this was about 6 hours. Maybe 30 minutes longer than I-95. That's fine with me.

We get to Milford, and pull over. I wanted to turn on the GPS. It didn't talk in my car. So Bonnie and I sat there and figured out how to do Apple Car Play. (Down side—you have to turn the spying bitch Siri on to use it. She's off again.) However, in the process it didn't sync the map on my phone. Instead, it took us all the way back down to the Tappan Zee bridge. Duck. We're doing I-95.  But first it put us on this lovely parkway called the The Merritt Parkway. A controlled-access parkway.  It was designed for Connecticut's Gold Coast, and is known for its scenic layout, its uniquely styled signage, and the architecturally elaborate overpasses along the route. (Wikipedia) My god was it beautiful. Every overpass was a different art deco bridge. There was a part of me that wanted to pull over.

However we soon came to an almost halt. I thought their might be an accident ahead. It wasn't. Forty-five minutes later we saw the problem. 25 feet of grass being mowed!

Someday I’d like to do the Newport mansions walk, or the cliff walk. But frankly that’s too much for a weekend trip. We finally got to Wickford, Rhode Island and parked on the waterfront. It’s south of Providence. I downloaded the walk route before I left. Thankfully there was a port-o-potty. (P-2.5) Hopefully it was cleaned before the weekend. It was full.

We headed out on the route. Wickford Village is one of the oldest preserved colonial seaside towns in the country. The 5K follows 13 interpretive signs highlighting the area’s past – shipbuilding, Narragansett settlers, steamships, grand architecture and more. We didn't go to the Nature Reserve, that was a 3C. Neither of us are in shape for hills, roots and rocks. We got lost more than once. There are few street signs and the directions say intersection not marked. 

One of the most unique elements was a stone pathway that lead to the above church. Each of the stones had name -- mostly of children under 5 -- that had died. 

There were plenty of beautiful second-period houses. Bonnie and I joked that we should have counted how many people had boot scrappers. Or maybe it would be easier to count those who didn't! We ate an early dinner—or a very late lunch—at a seafood restaurant downtown. Then got back in the car to drive toward Boston. We wanted to be about an hour from Glouster. Our walk for Friday morning.

Bonnie and I are horrible at hotel apps. I needed Angel. She is the queen of the discount app. We found a hotel and it had breakfast. It was right outside Boston so it wasn't cheap. But it was what it was. And they had giant cookies. And like everywhere else the internet sucked. It was about an hour away from the start point.

Where the ships go under the draw bridge

We arrived in Glouster with fog. If we couldn't see it for ourselves the GPS kept reminding us. You could not see the three lighthouses in the harbor. Heck, you could barely see the harbor. We signed in and headed out. Since we couldn't see the lighthouses, the other cool part of this walk was the draw bridge. And it was open! I love an open drawbridge. But I was too far away to see what was going under.

Bonnie picking up sea glass.

This was pretty much an out and back for the 5K. You went out the main street with the waterfront on the left,  and came back thru the park with the waterfront now on your left. They were maybe a block apart.  (P-4.5 in parking lot.) There was several openings in the fencing to go down to the beach. This is not a Jersey beach. These are pebbles, not sand. Most beaches in this area I would say are boulders. 

The 10K went into town, and near to one of the lighthouses that were out into the ocean. We took the car to see our the Eastern Point Lighthouse. By that time the fog had lifted. Although operational it looks really abandoned and unloved. It apparently still works. But everything was fenced off. What was really interesting is you had to go down several streets marked "private" or "members only" to reach it. But when you did there were all sorts of signs that indicated that this was a wildlife reserve, and a important site. In facet, as you traveled down the “private” road there was Lighthouse with an arrow signs like any tourist would follow. 

Our next stop was Maine. We stayed at the Lighthouse Inn that had no view of the lighthouse, but it was close to the beach. Since we had eaten a large meal mid-afternoon in Glouster we decided on ice cream for dinner. After signing in at the Inn, we headed to the lighthouse.

The Nubble Point light

By this time is was a gorgeous mid-May day. The area just before the park had an ice cream stand and a lobster shack. We went with ice cream. Like all food in New England it was expensive, but delicious. And then we went to the beach. Paid parking started that day. Bummer. Apparently the season opens this weekend so there were plenty of places to park. This beach actually had sand. 

Saturday was the walks in Cape Elizabeth, just south of Portland. It began at the Portland Head Light. The fog was so dense you almost needed to be standing right in front of it to see it. And it didn’t lift all day. There was a constant drizzle. We actually had to ask someone which way to the light because you couldn't see it! We spent the day in "Brigadoon". A lot of the walk was in the park. We did not do the town portion. We went lighthouse hoping instead.  The museum did not open till next week or we would have went in. You know I’m a sucker for a lighthouse.

I promise you, there is an ocean there.

From the Portland Head Lamp we were supposed to be able to see the Ram Island Ledge light, but it was too foggy.

We hopped in the car and our next stop was Southern Maine Community College. Yep, they have a lighthouse. This was the Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse, and you needed to walk out on a jetty to get up close. I tried the stairs and almost fell. That’s why there was a hazard warning sign. I should have packed my walking stick. Clearly we didn’t go. The steps were the worse of it. They just need a rail. As we were leaving we saw the guy from Portland that gave us directions. Here we discover he runs lighthouse tours. He said I guess we'll see you at the "bug light”?

When we got in the car we put in "bug light" and the directions for the Portland Breakwater  Light. This also had a jetty, but it had railings and no steps to get on the jetty. This one we walked out to. I was terrified I'd drop my keys. 

In the parking lot was this odd sculpture. It looked like a boat. We went over. It was the Liberty Ship Memorial. Men AND women built 200 ships in two years during WWII. They even worked in the snow.

As we were getting ready to leave, there was that guy again. He was done with his tour and heading back to home base. Then we stopped at the little museum right outside the park. It was dedicated to the Light and the Liberty Ships. After talking a bit, the docent asked if  we began our adventure at the Two Lights and we said no. He told us where to find them. We headed out for yet another lighthouse(s). But we never saw them. (One works, one is a private home.) Everyone is standing in the parking lot looking to see them, and there is a white wall. They are totally fogged in. We could almost see a house. And the driveway was closed. My guess is that the Coast Guard didn't want anyone falling into the ocean trying to see the light.

Then we headed back to York. Our initial plan was to do a whale watch or some other water tour but they were way out of our league. The last time I did a whale watch it was like thirty bucks. It was one hundred. And frankly, with the fog we wouldn’t have seen anything. 

Our first stop was the host hotel to get our books stamped and Bonnie loaded up on snacks. Then we did the tacky tourist thing and walked around their little "town". We even bought salt water taffy. They were making it in the window. And for a design geek, they don't make signs like this anymore.

or packages like this. My guess is this logo was hand-rendered back in 1900.

I don't know how far we walked this weekend. We walked a lot whether it was on course or not. My upper thighs were screaming. Still are. If nothing else this trip proved to me how out of shape I am.

We did get to see lots of wildlife including a group of five turkeys, and at least one was male. Heard lots of woodpeckers. And at least six varieties of gulls. Plus some “mutt” ducks.