Day 126 — August 4, 2003 — Monday
Plymouth Rock Rain
I checked the weather forecast for Massachusetts — Rhode Island — Connecticut — and New York. It doesn’t look good. Rain clouds across the board all week. I decided to drive to Plymouth, Massachusetts in hopes the rain would stop. It didn’t.
John got me checked out of the Comfort Inn. He gave me great leads last night on the best places to eat dinner and pie in Rhode Island.
I had to see Plymouth Rock — rain or shine. I was soaked after I parked, found out where it was, walked down the street, shot a few photos, tried to find some pie, and got back to the car. And I had an umbrella.
Colleen at the Visitor Information office gave me directions to the rock and to the various tourist trap attractions for which she was selling tickets. The rock is bigger than it looks in my photo as I zoomed in on it. There’s a Memorial structure built over the rock, and it is 20 feet or so away from all the tourists. The rock has the year engraved in it, so it is obviously not THE Plymouth Rock, if there even was such a rock. Mayflower II is nearby as well as a number of statues and memorials and the Wax Museum, etc. There were 104 pilgrims on the Mayflower, and according to my count on a memorial plaque, 45 of them did not live through the first year.
Colleen also suggested a place for pie, but the lady there was very unfriendly and had only apple pie to sell whole. I passed. I wanted to include Massachusetts in the Best Pie in the Country contest, but I tried three places, and none of them had any pie.
I wasn’t charmed by Plymouth. I’m sure the weather had a lot to do with it…and the bad drivers. Boston, Massachusetts has the worst roads in the United States, and Massachusetts will definitely be nominated for Worst Drivers. They tailgate, cut in line ahead of cars that were properly queued, swerve in and out of lanes, and more. Maddening…especially when it happens again and again and again.
Newport was next. I tried a few places for pie, but no luck. I had lunch at a place that looked like a good local restaurant — Persy’s Place. From all the framed newspaper reviews on the walls, I suspect their breakfast is great. I had Seafood Chowder, but all I found floating in my fish-flavored broth was potato. The waitress was Lise. I stopped at a Bess Eaton Donut Shop where I met Jason and Tami. I told them I was a donut connoisseur, and they quickly advised me that all of their donuts are now bought frozen from a place in New York. The donuts were not much better than what you can buy in a cellophane package off the shelf at any convenience store. I gave Massachusetts one additional try for a dessert, and the Super Chipper that I got from Newport Creameries was also poor. So, disappointing lunch and two weak “desserts.” I’m afraid Massachusetts will be the runner-up to Alaska for Worst Food on the trip.
It rained all the way to Newport and then off and on while I was there. I stopped along the way to ship 57 pounds of accumulated stuff back to Atlanta. Tim helped me.
Newport is gorgeous when the sun is shining. It wasn’t very pretty in the gray of today. I drove down Bellevue Avenue to see the spectacular mansions — the most impressive group of mansions on one street that I’ve ever seen. Boz and I saw Bellevue Avenue a few years ago. I was surprised today to see that many of the mansions had For Sale signs. It looks like the economy has taken its toll on some of the folks who shared ownership of property along there with a bank or mortgage company.
From Newport, I drove over the bridge and on Highway 1. Connecticut became state #43.
Bozzie Jane and I really enjoyed the movie “Mystic Pizza,” so Mystic, Connecticut was a must-see. It’s a small seaport town with a main street filled with tourist-oriented shops. The big draw is the Mystic Pizza restaurant. The movie was named after the restaurant, and the movie was filmed in and around the restaurant. I had the House Special Pizza, and it was very good. Joselyn was my waitress. I walked around town after dinner and saw the sights. I couldn’t find any pie in Mystic, so I’ll have to work at it early tomorrow before I hit New York. I’m trying to have pie in as many states as possible.
The day ended in New Haven, Connecticut. Yale land. The plan for tomorrow is to park the car at a train depot and ride a train into New York City. Since Bozzie Jane is not with me, I’m just going to pop into the city to visit Ground Zero and then visit a pie place that my research has turned up. Then back on the train and into the car. I’ll spend the next two nights in Atlantic City. I’ve got $100 destined for Red. If I win, we are essentially back to even for the trip on gambling.
I will add to this report as time permits.
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Each day, we collect our thoughts on a web page just like this. We drop in some of the photos from the day. Our goal with the Daily Journal is to write about the towns we visit, the sights we see, the people we meet, and the pie we eat. We write about where we are, where we’ve been, and where we are going, but we also make observations about what we’ve seen and done as well as about life in general.
You can follow our travels from the Daily Journal section of this web site. Other pages of interest include the running report of “vital statistics” on the Trip Scorecard, our nominations for the Best & Worst of the trip, as well as a running rating the pie we eat. If you’d like to see information for a specific state or town, click here, and then click on the state of interest and the full itinerary is shown.