East Lyme and Mystic, Connecticut

Visited July 2 - 10, 2022

By Marty

On Saturday, July 2nd we got an early start from the Great Divide Campground in Newton, NJ for our 175 mile journey to the Aces High RV Park in East Lyme, Connecticut. As it was the 4th of July weekend we knew there would be a lot of cars on the road. We skirted north of the NYC metro area before picking up I-95 in Connecticut. Our early jump helped beat the traffic until it got heavy by mid-morning but overall the drive was not too bad.

 We've seen a lot of things in our three years on the road, but this one is a first!

This gentleman made a few laps around the RV park to "exercise" his dogs. After the first lap I had the camera ready when he pedaled by again. If you look carefully you will see three seemingly identical dogs in this photo: two inside the trailer and one in the backpack!

Independence Day dinner (on the 3rd of July that is...)

Mooo?

The Mystic Seaport Museum is home to the Charles W. Morgan, the last wooden whaleship in the world. The Morgan is America's oldest commercial ship still afloat - only the USS Constitution is older. 

Over an 80 year whaling career that began in 1841, the Morgan embarked on 37 voyages with most lasting three years or more. 

The Mystic Seaport Museum includes 18 historic vessels and over 20 authentic buildings in a recreated 1800's seaport village. Each of the buildings (trade shops and businesses) were transported to Mystic Seaport Museum from locations around New England.

 

In the center of the photo is the Mystic Seaport shiplift. The shiplift is used to take vessels, such as the Charles W. Morgan, out of the water for maintenance, repair, or restoration. The platform in the center of the photo with the tracks on it is submerged in the river and the vessel is floated onto cradles and then lifted out of the water. The lift has the capability of lifting 580 long tons (1,299,200 lbs!).  The winches that raise the platform move at about one foot per minute.

 

This vessel was placed on cradles and lifted out of the Mystic River, rolled down the dock and then rolled off the dock on another set of tracks. A handful of craftsmen were working on it's restoration.

We observed shipbuilding and ship repairs from the gallery above the carpenter's shops of the Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard.

Fire Fighter

For 65 years the Fire Fighter was the world's largest and most powerful fire boat. There are eight water cannons visible in this photo.

Fire Fighter spent over seven decades, ending in 2010, protecting New York Harbor in service with the City of New York Fire Department. Fire Fighter played a role in 50 major multi-alarm fires during it's career, including the World Trade Center attacks where it pumped water for two weeks. 

 

 

The Figureheads & Shipcarvings exhibit at the Mystic Seaport Museum. A little creepy don't you think? Though I have to admit I couldn't help but think of Kate Winslet (Rose) in Titanic when I saw this (Kate was definitely not creepy...)

The Mystic River from the Maritime Museum

The Mystic River bascule bridge is a bit of a tourist attraction. A bascule bridge is distinguished by the large and heavy concrete counter weights visible in this photo. The Mystic River bridge is raised at 40 minutes past each hour during daytime hours. Vessels that want to get through need to be poised to float through in the ten minutes that the bridge is lifted, or wait another hour.

The town of Mystic has a charming and bustling shopping and dining district on both sides of the bridge; particularly so behind me as I took this photo. I didn't think to take a photo to show you the village, probably because the street was clogged with cars at the time (and therefore not so charming.)

The locals (Mysticians?) undoubtedly work their car trips around the bridge raising schedule as the streets are congested for about 20 minutes during and after the lifting of the bridge.

 Gramps and the Snowman, December 20, 1919

The Mystic Museum of Art was presenting "Norman Rockwell's Saturday Evening Post Covers: Tell Me a Story"

The exhibit features all 323 of the legendary covers created for The Saturday Evening Post by Norman Rockwell over a 47 year time period beginning in 1916.

Low and Inside - July 8, 1939

Rockwell, at the age of 22, successfully submitted his first cover painting to the Post in 1916.  His last cover for the Post, "Portrait of John F. Kennedy" was published on December 14, 1963, a week after Kennedy's assassination.

Homecoming G.I. - May 26,1945

You couldn't possibly be surprised to learn that Mystic's Main St has a brewery...

or that we visited it... 

 

Bank and Bridge Brewery is in a former bank building, to which this vault will attest. The bridge we have already discussed.

Our research told us that one could get a pretty tasty Lobster Roll in Connecticut so we sought out the highly rated Lobster Landing in Clinton.

The lobster rolls (hot lobster with melted butter) WERE delicious but, at $25 per sandwich for 4 oz of lobster, it was a one and done New England treat for us.  

I read a review that said this lobster roll was $19 last year. I know we are experiencing inflation everywhere these days, but does it really cost 32% more to catch, prepare, and serve 4 oz of lobster on a toasted bun than it did 12 months ago? I suspect there is some opportunism at play here...

 We took a 45 minute narrated cruise around the Thimble Islands on the Sea Mist

The Thimble Islands are a chain of 365 islands - one for every day of the year as the locals say - in Stony Creek Harbor just off the Connecticut coast in Long Island Sound. The sizes of the islands vary greatly from acres wide to small rocks jutting up from the sea. The majority of the "islands" can only be seen during low tide.

23 of the islands are inhabited

 

Only six of the islands have electrical power brought through underwater cables

Refreshments were available on the Sea Mist

There are a total of 81 houses on the inhabited islands

We made a quick stop at the Thimble Island Brewery after the cruise where the beer was just okay but the urinals were quite impressive!

Our RV park was only 20 minutes from the Mohegan Sun casino resort. The resort is quite large (think Vegas resort) in a wooded and seemingly lightly populated part of Connecticut. It's convenient location between Boston (1hr 45 min) and Manhattan (2 hr 15 min) would account for it's popularity and substantial size:

1,563 rooms in two towers, 300,000 sq. ft. of gaming, over 45 restaurants, bars, and lounges and a 10,000 seat concert venue. 

We caught a concert featuring Toad the Wet Sprocket, The Gin Blossoms, and Barenaked Ladies.

Here is a snippet of a Barenaked Ladies hit song from the show:

We had a chance to meet a very stoic Samuel Clemens (AKA Mark Twain) ...

... and tour the Hartford, CT home that he and his wife Livy built and lived in for 17 years (1874 -1891). In this home Twain wrote many of his best known novels: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Life on the Mississippi, The Prince and the Pauper, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and... wait for it... Adventures of Huckleberry Finn! 

Yes Virginia, there is a Mark Twain LEGOs statue...

We all know that Samuel Clemens' pen name is Mark Twain, but some of us (me and Janell for two) did not know how he chose the nom de plume Mark Twain.  For the uninitiated, this is how:

 

Clemens spent time plying the Mississippi River in his early twenties. By April, 1859 he was a fully licensed riverboat pilot before leaving the river when the Civil War broke out in May, 1861. "Mark Twain" is a term from Clemens' days on the river. The term describes the depth of the river (which is vitally important if you are piloting a boat). A "mark" is a fathom, or six feet, and "twain" means two. If the man checking the water depth called out "Mark Twain" it meant a depth of twelve feet, which is "safe water" for riverboats of the day.  

 

There is no truth to the rumor that Clemens' friends called him "12 feet"...