New England 2013: Connecticut

The map on the side of our camper is now full.  Our criteria for adding a state to the map is that we camped in the state AND experienced something of the state—a museum, park, natural feature.  Not shopping--we are not big gift shop or souvenir shoppers.  Sorry, nobody gets any trip gifts--except a cool book for the grandsons sometimes.

Mystic Seaport is perhaps the most impressive living museum we have ever seen.  Historic sailing ships and buildings have been acquired from the Connecticut to Massachusetts coast and reassembled and restored at the site of a 19^th century shipyard. 

A keel from an old whaling ship.  Don is standing at the other end of its 100 foot + length.

The Charles W Morgan, launched in 1841, is the only surviving wooden whaling ship from an industry that provided oil for lamps in the 1800’s.  Her masts were being repaired, so this model is a better picture of her. 

She has been completely restored in Mystic Seaport’s Preservation Shipyard which uses X-rays and other state of the art methods to analyze the original construction and the extent of damage. 

 

Then ships are restored using the old methods sometimes enhanced by modern technology to guarantee that the reconstruction is authentic.  The village has restored buildings producing everything needed for the ships to operate.  Sails are created in the sail loft mostly by hand with some assistance from sewing machines over 110 years old.  Barrels are made using old time tools in the cooperage. 

 

Wooden rings for the masts are steamed and bent in the hoop shop. The shipsmith shop purifies bituminous coal to make the pure carbon fuel needed to heat the forge where they make whale harpoons and all the metal work needed for the reconstructions.

 

 

The shipcarver's shop makes signs, decorative carvings, even ship figureheads.  Ropes are made in a 250 foot long ropewalk building by twisting fibers into strands and then twisting the strands into heavy ropes as long as the building. 

The Morgan completed 39 voyages over 80 years, each trip taking 3 to 5 years to process enough whale blubber into whale oil to fill all the barrels in her hold.  In the Pacific, reached by sailing around the Horn, the whaling ships sometimes had to search a long time for the behemoths they sought.  Whaling dories manned by six sailors fanned out from the ship to harpoon and kill a whale.

 

They towed it back to the ship where the valuable parts were stripped out at the side of the ship by men on scaffolding. 

 

The spermaceti, a liquid waxy substance used for lubrication, candles, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and other uses, was gathered from the head.  Baleen, the flexible plates in the whale’s mouth for filtering and catching food as water passes through its mouth, was prized for corset stays, combs, and other products.  The biggest use of the whale was the blubber, cut off the body in heavy, thick strips, hauled aboard, cut into smaller pieces and then cooked down into whale oil for lamps in iron kettles over a brick furnace right on the top deck.

 

During slow times on the long voyages, sailors would carve scrimshaw on whale teeth.

 

Mystic Seaport has a whole village of rescued, restored buildings containing specialized museum collections.  The nautical instrument shop has a collection of sextants, chronometers, and navigation tools second only to Greenwich in England.  The chemist shop has old pharmaceuticals and an old ship captain’s medicine chest full of medicines that might or might not cure various ailments the sailors could suffer.  The figureheads building has an impressive collection of carved wooden figureheads salvaged from old ships. 

 

There are an original oyster house, a lobster shack, a fish house, a lighthouse moved from Nantucket, a chapel, and other display buildings.

Cod was cleaned and salted on the ship.  Ashore it was soaked to remove some of the salt and dried on drying racks.

The harbor features a remarkable collection of old restored ship, dories, fishing boats, training ships for apprentices, and recreational sailing boats.

 

 

We wandered about the entire day, pausing for another lobster roll for lunch before we leave the sea coast.  We are still seeing beautiful fall foliage as we drive.

Boston: Part II

We missed a lot of National Historical sites in Boston because of the government shut-down.   So when the government reopened, we decided to go back.  These states are so small--it was only 45 miles from our campground north of Newport, RI to one on the commuter rail line into Boston.  I would never try to drive my big truck on any street in Boston other than the interstate.  We actually did tow the camper through the heart of Boston a few days ago on I 93, across the bridge and then into the bowels of the city where the interstate goes underground for miles.  Amazing.

We spent a few hours at the JF Kennedy library.  I was reminded of Obama--not just the inspirational speeches, but the insight, the commitment to making the US a better place, the concern for the underprivileged, improving the reputation of the US abroad, using wisdom, strength and patience in crises.  Can you imagine if Bush had been President during the Cuban missile crisis?  Half the world would have been blown up.  I was stricken anew at the tragedy of JFK being cut off so young when he was doing so much good.

We walked in the footsteps of the British through Charlestown, the area on the north side of the Charles River which is also Boston harbor.  They marched 2200 strong to quell those ragtag colonists who were trying to rebel against His Majesty's care of them.  The colonists had entrenched on Breed's Hill, deciding on the last day that it was higher and more defensible than Bunker Hill nearby.  In three onslaughts the Redcoats managed to repel the rebels, but at the cost of half their men.  The colonial militia lost the battle, but lost only 400-600 men.  The war had begun. 

The memorial obelisk may seem strange where the militia was defeated, but the battler here showed the colonists that they could effectively engage the powerful British army.  It became a rallying point and a symbol of patriotism.

We had a wonderful lunch at Warren's Tavern, a pub Paul Revere enjoyed until his friend Dr. Joseph Warren lost his life on Breed's Hill.

The USS Constitution is the oldest commissioned warship in the world still afloat.  She was built in Boston's North End in 1797 with a white oak and live oak hull 24 to 36 inches thick.  Paul Revere invented a way to make copper sheathing which was applied to her lower hull.  In the War of 1812 British cannonballs bounced off her, gaining her the nickname "Old Ironsides."  She never lost a battle. 

 

Meandering back to the commuter rail station to get home to the condo-on-wheels, we visited Old South Church where Sam Adams gave the order to dump the tea for the Boston Tea Party.

We also saw Trinity Church near Back Bay.  Breath-taking.

 

 

New England 2013: Rhode Island

It’s official!  We have now been to 49 states.  Somehow when we visited New England for our belated honeymoon 43 years ago, we missed Rhode Island. 

 Today we wandered around Newport looking at the summer mansions of the millionaires in 1900.  I cannot imagine the wealth in this rocky ocean cliff town back then.  The Vanderbilt’s Breakers was a summer cottage of 70 rooms with an enormous ballroom overlooking the ocean crashing on the rocks, gilt and platinum wall covering panels, 40 servants, and 20 bathrooms at a time when most houses in the US didn’t have any.  Cornelius’s hobby was building opulent, state of the art homes to dazzle the wealthiest people in the country.

View of the back from the Cliff Walk.

 

At The Breakers yardmen use a lawn mower that cuts an 11 foot swath. 

We also toured Rosecliff, Tessie Oelrichs’ neuveau riche fantasy house.  She was determined to make hers the best party house Newport had seen.  When the Gilded Age faded, she missed the social life, lost touch with reality, and wandered about her house talking to imaginary party guests. 

The Cliff Walk is 3 ½ miles of paved path along the ocean cliff below the mansions.  Billed as a walk through their front yards, in reality most of them had impenetrable hedges to protect their privacy.  It was a lovely ocean side walk though.

We camped two night here, paying more than we probably have paid anywhere to camp.  Nice nature walk in the park.

 

New England 2013: Massachusetts

We are now in the cradle of liberty.  In Lexington we took a trolley tour with Pat, a wonderful guide who prattled on for an hour and a half about Paul Revere (Dawes and Prescott are not remembered as much because Longfellow chose the one whose name rhymed easily), the call that “the regulars are coming” (not “the British are coming”—everyone was a British citizen) the Minutemen, and the shot heard round the world in Lexington (no one ever knew which side fired the first shot), and the REAL shot heard round the world in Concord (where for the first time, the order was given to fire on the royal soldiers. 

 

At the North Bridge in Concord, the colonists sent the British regulars back to Boston, suffering sniper fire along the way.

The Old Manse was the Emerson home where Ralph Waldo spent time with his grandparents.  It later became Nathanial Hawthorne’s first home after his marriage.  It also overlooked the North Bridge battle, so Rev. William Emerson’s wife and children were hiding while the preacher fought in the battle.

 
First Parish in Lexington Unitarian where in 1773, citizens met and agreed to the Lexington Pledge "We shall be ready to sacrifice our estates and everything dear, yea, and life itself in support of the common cause."

The Minutemen received some pay to train and carry with them their musket and ammunition and three days rations everywhere they went so they would be ready in a minute.  The famous statue shows him with one hand on his plow and the other with his musket.

 Walden Pond is 1 ½ miles from Concord.  Henry David Thoreau built his little cabin and lived there for two years, two months, and two days as an experiment in living simply.  “I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society.”  

 

 

As we walked around Walden Pond, I told Don how much I enjoyed teaching “Civil Disobedience” at Concordia.  Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. both read Thoreau and were inspired by Thoreau’s willingness to go to jail rather than pay tax to a government that allowed slavery.

 

 

 

 On Sunday we walked the Freedom Trail in old Boston.

 We attended services at Old North Church in Boston where the signal was given to Paul Revere "two if by sea" that the British regulars were moving toward Concord.  It was a privilege to worship in this old Episcopal church and hear their new pastor's first sermon--a meaningful one.  "When were you saved?  Can you tell about that moment?" Answer:  It was the same Good Friday afternoon when you and all of us were saved.  The 10^th leper who gave thanks was really recognizing that Jesus had made him whole, saved, not just healed.  She is going to be a good pastor.

 

Paul Revere’s home is the oldest existing house in Boston.

A bell that Revere cast.

 

The cemeteries in this oldest part of Boston have graves dating to the 1600’s.  Since the headstones have been moved around a few times, paths created, and even cemetery walls moved, the stones no longer correspond with the bones beneath.

 

Faneuil Hall was one of the meeting places where colonists met and discussed their growing frustration with British rule.  One test to ferret out traitors was to ask what the weather vane was atop Faneuil Hall.  If the man didn’t know it was a grasshopper, he was not a true Bostonian.

 

 The Old State House was the site of the Boston Massacre and where Sam Adams, John Hancock, John Adams and others talked about self-governance for the colonies and revolting against the crown.

 It was exciting to follow how the early patriots moved from being loyal to the crown to wanting to govern themselves.  It was awe-inspiring to realize how zealous they were about justice and fairness as they argued about the colonies relationship with England.  It was sobering to realize how much they risked.  We saw various buildings where the citizens met to debate the issues.  We saw the churches where preachers encouraged the patriots, and where later, their successors denounced slavery and encouraged Massachusetts to be the first state to abolish it.

 

We left the city for the charming port town of Plymouth and a lovely campground under the pines.  Don is not happy that there are too many trees to get his satellite dish in, but I think the sunset made up for that.

Plymouth Rock moved around town a few times, got chipped away, and cracked wide open before it was finally settled into its protective memorial on the beach just above sea level. 

 

 

The Mayflower II was built in England to match all that is known about the original ship, and it sailed to Plymouth in 1957 entirely by sail, no modern assistance.  In 1620 the 102 passengers lived in the hold with a few chickens, sheep, goats and pigs to start farming in the New World.  They seldom had light, since fire is the greatest danger in a wooden ship.  The voyage was delayed in fall with the passengers aboard; then after a two month voyage, they arrived in the lee of Cape Cod in November.  They still had to live on board while they built small houses, one by one.

 

Plimouth Plantation is a wonderful living museum in Plymouth.  Native people work in the Wampanoag home-site, dressed authentically, explaining how they lived in the 1600’s and how the native people continue today to preserve their heritage. 

 

The Pilgrim village is as authentic as possible with the role players staying in character as they work around their homes and answer questions.  Many of us have visited 19^th century living museums, but 1627 is a whole different life.  These settlers had to stay for seven years in the village working to send salted cod and other products back to England in return for their passage to the “New” England.  After that time they were given land to work for themselves instead of for the investors.  It was fascinating to hear the women defend the dirt floors as no problem and to vehemently declare that it was enough to wash hands and face and maybe a bit of a sponge bath now and then all winter, but never wash your hair!  If it is greasy, the lice won’t come. 

 

 

 

 

The natives and the colonists distrusted each other, but the English made a treaty with the Wampanoag to be allies in case of outside attack.  The Wampanoag had already been weakened by English diseases brought by earlier explorers and traders.  The first Thanksgiving was not the way we picture it.  Stereotypes of the appearance of both groups are not accurate.  The settlers did receive advice and corn seed from the Wampanoag, and they had a good harvest the first full year there.  The men shot many fowl, and the natives heard that the English were celebrating, so they arrived to share the feast time, bringing five deer and their families.  They held skill contests together and shared food.