It’s hard to believe we’ve reached the end of our marathon trip! We woke early in Hyannis and after breakfast packed up the car again for the last full day drive. ( As an aside, this hotel wasn’t our favourite. It was clean and spacious but a bit old and had a distinctly musty smell, but it did the job for us) Not long after we crossed the bridge that marks the entance to Cape Cod we arrived at the border of Rhode Island, which is the smallest state in the Union.
We had driven across it previously on our 2008 trip but never actually set foot on the ground. We didn’t have much planned for R.I. other than a visit to the town of Newport. I was interested in taking a look at some of the Gilded Age mansions lining Bellevue Avenue, some of which are now museums. The most famous is The Breakers, an 1895 mansion patterned after a Renaissance palace which was built by Cornelius Vanderbilt II. These fabulous mansions originally called “cottages” — were built as summer homes in the 1850s to 1900 by wealthy tycoons of New York and Philadelphia. We had originally planned to tour ‘The Breakers” but at this end of the trip we’ve kind of reached “museum burnout” ( and also, having forked out a hefty sum to the Vanderbilt family coffers at Biltmore we decided they didn’t need any more of our funds!)
Instead we went for a walk along the “Cliff path” that runs along the shore behind the mansions. The path dates back to 1663, when the charter granted by King Charles II promised Rhode Island colonists the right to fish along the shoreline. The coastline remained undeveloped until around 1880, when owners of the Gilded Age mansions started building a simple path along the coast. Over the decades, many disputes erupted between landowners and the public about access to the walk, with wealthy owners sometimes erecting fences, boulders, or walls along the route, but the rights of the public overruled and today you can walk along and peer into their backyards. Most of the mansions are no longer privately owned, but have become museums or are now used by the Salve Regina university.
It was a goreous sunny day for the walk, quite warm!
After our walk we continued south and before long we found ourselves in Connecticut!
We stopped at the State Welcome center rest Area to have a light snack and to enjoy a bit more of the fall foliage.
We decided to drop in to one last Outlet center ( on a hunt for a couple of things!) as I’d seen one on the map called Foxwoods. However, it turned out the Foxwoods Outlets were in the middle of a huge Casino resort! We resisted the opportunity to gamble on our way out..
It was alovely drive down pretty country roads to the little town of Mystic where we would be spending our last night of the trip.
Mystic is a pretty little village on the mouth of the Mystic River. From the 17th to the 19th century it was a noted shipbuilding and whaling centre and home to a large Museum called Mystic Seaport. We had planned to visit it but it was later in the afternoon when we arrived and we decided we would really prefer just to stroll around the pretty town and relax and enjoy our nice hotel room. I’d booked us into the Steamboat Inn, a really nice boutique hotel right on the river, for our final night. As we walked through the town we were at the right time to see the opening bridge that spans the river in action. It’s a bascule bridge, with two enormous concrete counterweights to balance the bridge as it opens to allow river traffic to pass through.
For dinner we ate at a very nice Italian restaurant. Our waiter had visited Australia ( but only the Gold Coast) and new Zealand was interested to hear about our travels.
This morning we set off for the roughlly 2 and a half hour drive to new York to start the long haul home. We checked in for our American Airlines flight to Los Angeles and negoriated their chaotic security line. The flight was not too bad, we had exit row seats so plenty of leg room.
Now we are relaxing in the Star Alliance lounge at the Tom Bradly international termial, waiting for our flight to Nadi, a then on to Sydney. We’re pretty tired and hope to sleep on the flight, fingers crossed.
It’s been a fabulous trip, a wonderful return to international travel after the two years of pandemic isolation. The USA continues to delight us ( and to perplex us on occasion!) Looking forward to coming back net year to complete the 50 states mission!
