Wednesday, 21 October 2009
Road Trip Day 63
Well, today has been one of those days when I am just covering the distance. The weather has been nice, I've been to two more states and swerved a hotel annoyance, but not really done much.
Smallest State
I'd planned my last few days to take in all of New England and soon after leaving Boston I was in the smallest state in the USA, Rhode Island. There was nothing particularly outstanding that I wanted to go see, so I kept up my tradition of visiting State Capitols. There is no prize for guessing the design...
From Providence I turned towards the coast to pass over two huge bridges across Greenwich Bay. Oddly, that meant crossing back into Massachusetts for a few miles before reaching the east side of the bay. I had intended to visit Newport in Rhode Island too, but an awkward direction from my GPS sent me over a toll bridge before I could get off into the town.
40 Is Your Total
When planning my adventure, my sketchy route took me through between 34 and 36 states depending on how well I thought I would do. Having I entered Connecticut today and racked up my 40th I can safely say I have exceeded my expectations considerably.
To my annoyance, I missed the "Welcome to Connecticut" sign. I'll admit now there have been a few occasions where I have done a U-Turn and driven out and back into a state to get the sign, but having done that already for Rhode Island earlier in the day I wasn't in the mood. Instead I made do with a picture of the Welcome Center.
Quick Break
It's only now, as I write my blog and do my nightly "fact checking" that I learn that I was in the home town of Katherine Hepburn, one of my favourite actresses. She lived in Fenwick, part of the pretty town of Old Saybrook, Connecticut right up to her death in 2003. There's a new arts centre there that I could have stopped by at.
I did at least stop at the point on the southern tip and took a photo of this rather sweet lighthouse.
Don't Got No Internet
My hotel of choice tonight was in Milford, Connecticut. I'd booked online, arrived in good time, checked in and was just turning to get my baggage out of the car when I remembered to ask for the WiFi password.
"Ah" she said, "We're not wireless and we don't have any bridge boxes left, sorry". "Sorry, what's a bridge box?" "You need one to plug in to allow you access to the internet. I only have 20 and they are all out." "Ah, that's a problem..."
Happily, she, Deven, the helpful front desk clerk, was well used to this problem and probably more frustrated by it than I was as it turns out she has to deal with this a lot. She helped me find an alternative hotel. She even had a coupon for me to use which is how I happen to be 8 miles closer to New York city in Stratford, Connecticut.
Thanks Deven.
Nearly There
I am now just 63 miles from Manhattan.
Stats - Day Eighty-Nine
Distance travelled - 212 miles - Boston, MA to Stratford, CT via Providence and Newport, RI and Old Saybrook, CT
States entered - Rhode Island, Connecticut
State count - 40 + DC + B.C.
Room numbers stayed in - 203, 1, 148, 212, 205, 210, 246, 118, 3, 145, 229, 111, 207, 206, 40, 605, "Cowboy", 35, 11, 18, 262, 216, 208, 430, 216, 59, 226, 115 / 110*, 309, 30, 8, 255, 428, 209, "Spare", 105, 207, 227, 126, 112, 4, 16, 229, 115, 108, 106, 522
*room switch
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