Friends & Fall Colors Tour 2018
Part C (Woodstock, VT to Little Compton, RI)
After five days on the Maine coast, we headed west, still in search of fall. Shirtsleeve weather in Maine was surreal as moose season was about to get underway in upstate Maine. A good time to head for Vermont.
We'd planned to meet our friends, Mason & Sherry, at their newly-built home north of Woodstock, VT (Pomfret to be exact). Little did we know it would be their FIRST night in their new Vermont home, so we got to help them move in the rugs, furniture and kitchwares. Sweet!
Sherry's parents owned this vast acreage for 50 years, but it was time for the old homestead to come down; ergo, a year ago demolition and construction began, and their new get-away is a doppleganger for the old home...at least on the outside. -----> -----> ----->
Proceed to Part D: Ocean City (MD) to Chicago...
Part A: Hoodsport to Cooperstown
Part B: Lake Placid to Ogunquit
Part D: Ocean City to Chicago
Part E: Winnipeg to Churchill
Part F: Churchill
Gorgeous! Incredible quality and attention to detail; it has actually gotten Tracy to think, "Maybe we'll buy property in Washington and build to our tastes." I'm there.
The downstairs flooring is from wood harvested from the old home; but the interior is thoroughly modern. It's an all-season home that will get plenty of use. Out back is a paddock and barn for Sherry's horses. Below, the dogs: Corgis Noah & Willow; lab Smudge. Yankee bottom left and Ridley on the right. Beautiful animals all.
While we got our fair share of rain, Sherry took Ridley out for a Sunday ride. Tracy and I watched Yankee go crazy: He raced up and down his large paddock, neighing and snorting loudly, not happy that he'd been left behind (he'd thrown a shoe so was paddock-confined).
Our dear friend and neighbor (Audrey) back home in Washington has been checking our mail, and she sent our new plates to New England. Check them out: Specialty endangered wildlife plates with an easy-to-remember number.
Tracy has an attentive audience as she doles out the last of her peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Good dogs; good dogs!
It was incredibly peaceful and quiet atop the mountain (1,750 feet), thus a shock when we headed to Woodstock (1,040 feet down the hill) on Sunday (of a 3-day Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples Day weekend); plenty of leaf peepers descend upon this quaint, touristy town; New Yorkers seemingly in the majority. I'd been here before (27 years ago); Tracy thinks we may have made it here one summer. But we were hardly prepared for the madhouse. It was San Francisco Wharf-like on a busy day; Yosemite-lite on a crowded 3-day weekend; San Diego Zoo density on any touristy day. We ate, took a quick stroll and headed back up to the Pomfret hide-away.
We DID spend some time in the Simon Pearce glass shop, where they hand-made glass downstairs and sold their wares on the first floor. Not cheap! But exquisite! Keep your hands and arms close to your body. Right next to the shop was a picturesque waterfall and working covered bridge.
Then Sherry went riding, and I went hiking.
On Monday, we all departed for Mason & Sherry's home in Lincoln, MA (18 miles west of Boston); the seven of them took the crowded freeway; we took the crooked, but more scenic back roads.
On Tuesday, we hiked around Walden Pond, just 2.7 miles from their Lincoln doorstep. The Minuteman Trail is close by.
Frankly, it was not the prettiest of the "Welcome to Our State" signs; Mason insists it was the work of a disgruntled and untalented Yankees fan, but I repeat myself.
We continued our Freeman- Haydock Freedom Tour at their 230-year old Lincoln farmhouse, right.
It slaps you in the face when you come across these town limit signs. As westerners, (modern) history seems to begin when James Marshall found a gold nuggest at Sutter's Mill in 1848 - more than 200 years after the founding of Concord.
Then, as long as you're in the Boston area, we suggest you mosey up to Rockport, MA. That town, just NE of Glouster, was settled in 1620. Surrounded on three sides by water, it boasts one of the most photographed buildings in the U.S., Motif #1 (In red).
Expecting to avoid the unusually high temperatures of Lincoln, Concord & Lexington, we had no luck on the coast: It was in the high 80's in Rockport. At left, I'm feeling like a boiled lobster rocking on a cute lobster trap love seat. Below, the second Rockport harbor.
Below, looking west toward the Green Mountains; the other side of the homestead looks east toward the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Sunrise and sunset porches. Did i mention they have an idyllic setting?
We continued our Freeman-Haydock Tour to Little Compton, Rhode Island. This part of the state - the far southeastern part - is a sliver that's attached to southern Massachusetts (a 100-year argument between the two states "settled" in Rhode Island's favor in 1740). It's about 90 minutes south of Boston (or Lincoln at least) and east across the wide mouth of the Sakonnet River; Newport is at the southern part of that island just west of Little Compton (X, see map below). Oh, and all New England states have their own stone wall builders, and they are all talented; Rhode Island, however, seems to have the best - and they are everywhere.
I'm convinced that during a state budget crisis, a fiscal wonk decided the state would outsource their "Welcome to Rhode Island" signs to local jurisdictions. We crossed state lines twice on backroads, and there was no sign announcing our arrval in RI. This is what we got when we went from SE RI into SE Connecticut. Oh, and read the pic lower left. Love the rebuilt honesty!
We spent an afternoon in the Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, lucking into a personal tour of the facility (thanks, Tricia!). Worth a stop when you are in the area. We're not big tennis fans, either, but we enjoyed the afternoon. Great ice cream parlor across the street, too.
X - Little Compton
Rick trivia: I actually lived in Newport for one year: 1957-58; first grade! I recall my dad taking me outide one night to look up at the stars to watch the Soviets' Sputnik cross the sky; this was four years before JFK made his desire known to have the U.S. put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960's. We saw First Man while we were here, and it resonated with me. My friends and I also saw President Eisenhower in his official car drive through our military housing tract on his way to his yacht and Newport residence; he sat in the back with his derby hat, smiling and waving at us on our bikes, no more than five feet away.
Sunsets over the Sakonnet River looking toward Newport from the Little Compton side of the state.
When in Newport, you HAVE to do The Cliff Walk, which takes you 3.5 miles along the west shore of the Sakonnet River, with the big Newport mansions to your west. The church at right was the site of the 1953 marriage of JFK and Jacqueline Lee Bouvier (whose mother lived nearby). The houses below are just a few along the walk.
The place immediately above was converted to a private university - Salve Regina University - in 1934; The co-educational university is set on seven contiguous Gilded Age estates. Enrollment is 2,700 students. Tuition? A tidy $40,000 per year.
Farmers' markets in the area (and they are plentiful) are dominated by pumpkins, squash, corn and assorted fall vegatables. We also found the entire New England area is gaga over Halloween! Decorations everywhere.
Mason & Sherry: THANKS for your tremendous hosplitality! See you in Peru in July!
