RVing With a Purpose

Thursday, August 24, 2023

We left early this morning to be out of the way as our hosts prepared for their big (about 1,000 guests) event.  It was a great place to overnight and they have a great space for events.  Supper friendly and helpful.  We recommend The Farm at Carter Hill for anyone visiting in the area.

We made a quick grocery store stop and walked a couple blocks to find a cache and were then on the road to New Jersey.  Of course, Google in its great wisdom routed us directly through downtown New York City.  We did not follow that wisdom and instead took a route around NYC.  It was a little longer but was a pleasant drive.  Traffic was not nearly as bad as we feared.

After about 3 hours it was time for a stretch and walk and just then we came upon a nice-looking park in Piscataway, NJ.  There was a nice, paved walking trail where we got most of our steps for the day.  There was also the East Jersey Old Town Village in the park.  It is a collection of 16 historical structures that were relocated to the park and restored/rebuilt.  We didn’t have time to go through all the buildings but what we saw was well done.

We then went on to our host for tonight in Medford Township, NJ.  Super nice couple who just happen to be in the market for a Beyond.  They have already looked and talked to a dealer.  They plan to order a Beyond as soon as they sell their R-Pod trailer.  They were very excited to see us and BB.  We had a great time getting to know them and hope to see them on the road in their new Beyond soon.  It was an uneventful travel day, so it was a very good day!

Wednesday, August 23, 2023

Today was another meandering generally southward day as we add more states to our “RV’ed in” map. We started out by finding a nearby hiking trail to get the majority of our walking early in the day. The New London Turnpike trail follows the old route of a road that was built in 1835 to connect Providence, RI to New London, CT.  As such it was one of the first interstate highways. It is listed as a 2.6 mile out and back trail. However, about midway it was flooded so we walked back to the parking area and drove to the other trailhead to walk the lower part of the trail.

After our hike we headed to Connecticut to spend tonight (remember, the map?). On the way we stopped at a local cemetery to find a geocache in the state. We are glad we did. Not for the cache but to find the oddest grave marker we have ever seen. Even Google had no idea about its history.

We arrived at our Harvest Hosts location early afternoon. The Farm at Carter Hill is an interesting event venue. We spent the first half hour just walking around looking at the buildings and displays. When we made the reservation, the host asked us to be gone early tomorrow because they are expecting over 1,000 people for an event. With that many people coming in we will definitely be gone. (Actually we volunteered to stay and help if they needed us to, but they declined.)

Now we are comfortably preparing for our Wednesday night online small group Bible study.

Tuesday, August 22, 2023

First thing this morning we headed to the town of Provincetown, a small quaint New England town at the very end of the Cape.  It’s New England to the max.  There is quite a long jetty made of huge granite boulders like the one in Rockland that we walked our first day in Maine back in July. People were getting their exercise on this jetty this morning and it’s a great way to exercise.  We got a workout there today too.  Across the street from the jetty is a monument to the Pilgrims and per that monument it was the first landing place of the Pilgrims, and the Pilgrims went from Cap Code to Plymouth.  From there we went by the “Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum (PMPM)” located in the center of Provincetown.  It is closed on Tuesday, but we still wanted to see the huge tower and read some of the literature.  The tower is 252 feet 7.5 inches tall and rises 350 feet above sea level.  It is 116 steps and 60 ramps to the top and takes about 10 minutes for the heart healthy.  The monument is the tallest all-granite structure in the United States.  You don’t miss it when you drive into Provincetown.  Maybe we can visit the inside of the monument and museum another year.

Next, we went to the Province Lands Visitor Center at the Cape Cod National Seashore.  Recall we visited the other visitor center in Eastham yesterday. There was another movie to watch today that was again quite well done. The viewing platform off the rear of the center was a great place to get the overview of the area and decide which trails we wanted to hike.  We hiked to the beach where we saw close to 25 RVs camping in the sand.  The sand and Atlantic beach on Cape Cod is similar to our Gulf Coast beaches.  We really enjoyed our time there this morning.  We also saw some whales at a distance.  Too far for good pictures.  We could come spend a week or two here – but not this year.

Early afternoon it was time to say goodbye to the cape and head west. We drove to Coventry, Rhode Island (another state on our map.) where we will spend the night and tomorrow do some more hiking.  BTW, the weather has been delightful.  Sunny, high of 76, light breeze, low tonight predicted to be 56. It’s making it hard to head further south with a high of 96, fells like 100 back in Alabama.

Monday, August 21, 2023

This morning we left our Harvest Host spot for the night and headed to Concord, MA to the North Bridge Visitor Center.  It is the location of the Minute Man National Historical Park.  We were there before they opened so we walked to the North Bridge where the “shot heard round the world” was fired.  According to the park service it was the first time the colonists fired against and killed Red Coats.  The Red Coats fired against and killed some of the colonists earlier in the day at Lexington.  The park has two very good movies to help everyone refresh their memory of the Revolutionary War, one at the North Bridge Visitors Center and the other at the Minute Man Visitor Center.  We of course got our NPS passport stamped at both locations.  The park is very well maintained and the trails are easy to walk.  If you walk them all you will do about 15 miles of walking so we didn’t take the time to do that today but the Boston area could be an area we return to and stay several days.  There is so much history in the area.

Next we drove about an hour to Plymouth, MA.  Traffic was pretty heavy every where we were for the remainder of the day.  Of course, in Plymouth we had to go take a picture of Plymouth Rock and the Mayflower.  Yes, we know that the exact location of the landing is not known and is disputed but we think that commemorating the bravery of the people who made that journey and made a new home in what became the USA is appropriate, wherever the exact location might be.  The marina and surrounding area in Plymouth is beautiful.  There are some great boats in that harbor as well as some beautiful homes in the area.

The last leg of today’s journey took us to Cape Cod – another bucket list location.  Again, the beauty of the various marinas and boats in the different harbors was very impressive, along with just driving along the coastline.  There are some gorgeous homes on the Cape too.  We stopped and celebrated our 41^st anniversary at a recommended restaurant, the Skipper Chowder House, on the Cape.  The food was excellent and after dinner we celebrated Donna and Barry’s anniversary by having a big ice cream sundae. Happy Anniversary, Barry and Donna!  We love y’all.  Yes, two of our very best friends who are also our cousins, have the same Anniversary day as us, just different years.  Today was a wonderful day.  We thank God for blessing us with life together.