20020511

May 11, 2002

Start: Tri-State RV Park, Matamoros, PA
End: Witch Meadow Lake Campground, Salem CT
Miles: 171

We got our reminder today of what New England driving is like. Actually, it wasn’t too bad a refresher course, since it’s Saturday and most of the trucks are off the road.

It was another nice day, still with a breeze out of the northwest.

We left the campground and entered New York immediately. Then we crossed over a few more ridges with nice woods and ponds and very few people. Then we dropped down into the Hudson Valley. The river is gorgeous from the big bridge at Newburgh-East Fishkill. 

Then we crawled up out of the valley in the company of lots of cars and went over more ridges heading east into Connecticut. The ridges got lower in Connecticut, but we were still traveling across the grain – the river valleys all run north-south and we were heading east.

We arrived at the campground just after noon and set up, not without some difficulty. The campground is rocky with trees, so finding a place one can back into safely and then be somewhat near level took some much-needing walking.

We were stationed here in New London, CT for almost seven years in the 70’s. So we chose to come here for a day and a couple of nights to see it again.

After settling, we drove over to the location of our first house. It looks good even in a different color. The garden we started has been expanded (when we finished digging the rocks out of that garden plot, it was six inches lower than the surrounding ground and we started a rock wall). The rock wall at the roadside has been finished. We took pictures and went on.

Dolores wanted to see the school the kids attended there, so we headed that way. I’d forgotten the traffic pattern and ran into a do-not-enter sign. I turned around in a driveway and headed around the block to go in the other way. At the first stop sign, somebody started honking like mad and blinking their lights. I pulled over and then I saw Ed Randolph. It turns out I turned around in his driveway and he recognized our truck.

Ed was (and still is) the Electric Boat (submarine builders here) rep at the Lockheed facility in Manassas. He’s also a retired submariner, so we had a lot of fun working together there. 

He knew I was going to be in the area, but not that I would turn around in his driveway. After chatting for a while, he had to leave to finish some chores. We agreed we’d find him in Manassas after the trip and tell him about it.

We went on to the submarine base (tremendous security, including a marine in a anti-tank gun vehicle just inside the gate, with gun pointed just off to one side). We weren’t searched, but our ID’s were compared with our faces closely before we were admitted.

We went to the Navy Exchange to pick up some of the items we forgot to bring, and to the commissary for more. Then we took a ride around the parts of the base you can get to, reminding ourselves of what was where and wondering what the new buildings provide.

Off then, to Mystic Village, a shopping center that is made up of many small buildings on walks that is supposed to resemble an early New England town center. The parking is around the periphery. There’s a creek running through the middle of the town. Several broods of ducklings were swimming and chasing around their parents– cute as anything. We bought a few goodies and then decided it was time to do an early dinner.

We’d decided to do Mother’s Day dinner today rather than tomorrow, since tomorrow might have rain. We went to the Fisherman in Groton Long Point, a favorite (still) of the locals. We had brought my mom here when she visited once. She ordered a fisherman’s platter, thinking of the midwest version of that dish. Here, she got a broiled fresh fish, some scallops, some steamed clams and a whole mess of steamed 
mussels on top of that, plus potatoes and salad on the side. You should have seen her eyes when they put it down.

Dinner (Dolores had her first lobster of the trip) was fine and the view out toward the sound was very nice. The place was really busy; it appeared lots of folks had the same idea we had. 

After dinner, we took a ride around Norwich and then back out to the campground. While riding, we saw our first wildlife of the trip – a deer grazing at the side of the road.

This certainly is a family-oriented campground. It appears most of the trailers are set up here for the season. Families come out for the weekends until school is out, then full-time (except the dads go off to work) for the summer. There’s a good-sized pond with all sort of watercraft and a good beach. There are many playgrounds and a large recreation hall. The hall has machines on one end, and lots of tables on the other where bingo is held several times a week. There’s live entertainment on Saturdays (country duet tonight). Kids ride bicycles everywhere, usually as fast as they can go. With the gated security here, the parents give the kids a lot of freedom, which they look as though they’re enjoying fully.

Our noses tell us it’s spring again. We’ve come north far enough that we’re at the stage Virginia was three weeks ago. There’s tree pollen all over the truck. The dogwoods are open and the tulips and lilacs are out. I suppose we’ll continue having spring as we go north.

We walked around the campground observing all this and then settled in for the evening. Rain is in the forecast for tomorrow.