Monday, May 22
Woke up relatively early, and had a nice breakfast at the hotel. We had left plenty of time to make our reservations on the 10:00 ferry out of Orient Point, but we saw no reason not to hit the road as soon as we could. Long Island showed a different character that bright but hazy morning as we drove North, then East, past farms, nice rural homes, and several boutique hotels.
We didn’t hurry (we were actually stuck behind some slow-pokes so couldn’t have hurried if we’d wanted to) and had a mellow drive as the end of the Earth got closer and closer. We caught glimpses of the ocean to the left and to the right and finally made it all the way out to Orient Point.
I’d been watching the clock all along (as well as the scenery) and we were thinking that we could kill an hour at the State and County parks out at Orient Point while we waited for the 10:00 ferry. But it was just a minute before 9:00 when we pulled up to the ticket kiosk at the ferry dock, and when I told the guy that we had reservations on the 10:00 boat he said, “I can fit you on the 9:00 boat if you want.” I told him ok (we can see those parks later!), he quickly gave us our tickets, and I floored it out through their parking lot, bee-lining for the ferry, which blew its horn as we approached. They motioned us into the last spot on the automobile deck, and the Susan Anne had left the dock by the time Sarah and I got out of the car.
We hurried up two flights to the open passenger deck, and the trip over to New London CT was as fun as I’d hoped it would be. It was a beautiful but hazy day, still marred by Canadian wildfires but with acceptable visibility. The Orient Point harbor faces South, and the ferry had nosed into the dock, so we had to turn around and then motor around the tip of Long Island, between it and Plum Island. I had my windbreaker on and long pants, and most of the less prepared people went into the enclosed cabin after a short time. But I stayed on deck and just reveled in the sights. We only saw two other boats, both sailboats lazily running down the Sound to the West.
Plum Island has a lighthouse, and beyond it is Gull Island, which has a lighthouse too. When we passed that I could see South to Gardiners Island, and beyond that could just make out Montauk Point, the other Eastern fork of Long Island. The Susan Anne had to fight a stiffening Northeast wind and the incoming tide, but made pretty good time. We passed over the line into Connecticut, with yet another lighthouse, Race Rock, to our starboard and beyond it seemingly huge Fishers Island.
We turned into New London harbor with the historic New London Harbor Light to our port side, and New London Ledge Lighthouse to starboard. The wind had gotten pretty stiff by then, but we were now in the lee of the shore as we motored up the Thames River a bit, past the U.S. Navy submarine base in Groton.
The announcement came over the PA to get back to our cars, but we waited until we were almost docked, since we knew we’d be the last car off anyway. What a fun boat ride and now we were back in New England! One more state to go however. We wound uphill from the harbor a bit and then up the ramp onto 95 by 10:30, over the Thames toward Rhode Island.
We were on the home stretch and it was a lovely day, but we were not stopping until we got back to Woburn. Stayed on 95 up through Providence, passed back into Massachusetts, and took 128 clockwise because we were not at all anxious to get caught in city traffic again. Back to the roads we knew, and soon home to Woburn, not long after noon. The cats were very, very happy to see us and we were just as happy to see them. 148.4 miles on the road that day, and 18 by sea.
So was this a successful vacation or not? It sure was. We’d pretty much hit every part of our ambitious itinerary, though it took a lot of driving. More of the driving than I’d anticipated was harrowing … in all we’d done over 3000 miles, and lots of it was hard traveling through rain, traffic, and trucks. But this was part of the experience. I hadn’t really been out on the road in years, and I had been itching to get out there in 2023, see the road, the country, and perhaps the traffic and the bad sides of cities. And that itch sure was scratched! I’m not anxious to get out on the road again for a while.
And many of the places we saw were delightful and touched my intellect and my spirit. That was what we’d hoped for and we succeeded in remaining open to wonder all trip. We got hotels where and when we wanted, had quite a variety of meals (we went to a Cracker Barrel!), and didn’t get lost, catch COVID, or get shot by rednecks. There are beautiful sights and nice people everywhere and we’d just been lucky enough to experience two weeks of them. Now we could go back into our cocoon for a while!
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