Rhode Island - Day 15 - Chafee Nature Preserve

Fishermen’s Memorial State Campground

Monday, 15 October 2018

today's route

The cold got me up sooner than I’d have wanted (I wanted to snuggle under the blankets) because, with no ability to get heat in the RV, I wanted to get the dogs some exercise to warm them up.  The TV weather said it had indeed gotten down into the upper 30s last night, and it sure felt like it to us.  Actually, I started the engine a couple of times so I could run the car heater to get some warmth in here.  Not really a substitute, but we needed something.

I happened to be looking out the window just after first light and saw a deer eating leaves on a bush in the vacant campsite behind us.  It was so pretty I just stood there for several minutes watching it.  Then it picked its way through the bushes and was out of sight – and I could see a pretty decent path worn through the bushes, just big enough for deer or children.  How nice.

Driving away from the campground I was once again struck at how we nearly surrounded by water we are here.  Point Judith sits on Block Island Sound; the campground is near the edge of Point Judith Pond, which isn’t a real pond but an inlet from the Sound; and the Narragansett side of the peninsula faces Rhode Island Sound, which feeds Narragansett Bay that runs all the way up to Providence.  Rhode Island’s nickname is the Ocean State, and now I can see much more clearly why.

This morning I wanted to go first to get propane but knew they wouldn’t be open at the crack of dawn, and I wanted to see if the dogs could be accepted for day care at the Gnarly Dog, which was on the way anyway.

I took them in and they said I could leave them, but I hadn’t even driven away before they called me to say they couldn’t keep Dexter.  Apparently another dog had stuck its muzzle through a chain link fence and Dexter had snapped at it.  Hadn’t hurt it but still, they couldn’t keep him with such an inauspicious start.

So I left Gracie there, thinking she needed it as much as he did and she shouldn’t be penalized for his behavior any more than she already was, and Dexter and I went down the road in search of propane.  At least the regular car heater worked just fine. 

So we went down to the equipment rental place, where I got the unhappy news that they no longer filled onboard tanks like mine, only cylinders.  But the man gave me somewhat involved directions to a place he was certain did sell it and told me “you can’t miss it,” which I’ve always found to be the kiss of death to my chances of finding a place, but I was desperate so off we went.

The first part of the directions had me going down Stony Lane, which I knew from internet research was the road a pet rescue place was on.  Sure enough, we passed it after a bit, and I decided to come back later to see about a pair of cats I’d see online for adoption.

Turns out the man’s directions were good and I found the place just fine – an RV dealership – and they filled me up.  What a relief to know we’d stay warm.

I drove back to the pet rescue and walked Dexter while I waited for them to open.  They didn’t have any dogs but they had lots of cats.  The manager showed me the two I’d been interested in – Benny and Mia – and told me they’d been at the rescue place for 3 years waiting for a home.  The person who’d left them asked that they be adopted together, and the shelter had found several people interested in Benny, who’s the outgoing type, but Mia is shy and stand-offish and people weren’t interested in her.

Mia was shy with me too at first, didn’t want me to touch her until I patted Benny a bit and then went back to her with his smell on my hand, and she accepted me after that.  The manager told me to fill out an application, which I did, and she said she’d call me after the application committee met.

After that, I wanted to give Dexter as good a time as I could, since Gracie was off having fun without him, so I took him to a nature area I’d seen a few days ago.  I had stopped there and walked the dogs around the parking area but was afraid to take them down the narrow trail, not trusting how they’d act if we met another dog – which it was clear we were bound to do, since 2 dogs came out of the trail with 2 different people, and I had to scramble to get my dogs far enough away not to be a problem.

In fact, Dexter and I had a really nice walk by ourselves and he loved it.  We met a couple of dogs on the way and Dexter was great.  One of them he wasn’t sure about, but as soon as I could see that he’d seen the dog I started saying what a nice dog it was and how nice that we’d see a nice dog and so forth, so by the time they met Dexter was in a comfortable frame of mind and it went very well.  I could never have done it with Gracie along - they turn into a pack when they're together.

We got lucky and met a man along the trail who knew a lot about the area and said he’d recently retired from 30+ years of working with Rhode Island’s Department of Environmental Management.  He said this nature trail – the John H. Chafee Nature Preserve – used to be owned by a power company that wanted to use the land for a nuclear power plant back in the ‘70s.  Of course, the neighbors (not to mention the environmentalists) raised a ruckus and waged a huge persistent campaign to stop it, and finally the power company deeded the property to the state for use as a nature area.

It’s such a beautiful area I can’t imagine having it desecrated with a nuclear power plant, even if I thought nuclear power plants were okay, which I don’t after the trouble Washington state has had with theirs.  The trail isn’t all that long and ends up on a rocky beach which is apparently well known for being a haul-out place for seals during this time of year.  I didn’t see any seals, which is just as well what with Dexter and all, but the man pointed out some to me a ways away.

We had a really nice walk and I’ll probably take Dexter back again before we leave.  I didn’t take any photos but I’ve cribbed these off the internet.  I'm also adding a link to information about Sen. Chafee, who looks like an unusual Republican for any age.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Chafee

I went back to the Gnarly Dog to get Gracie, who of course they loved, and we went back to the campground.  I’m glad I got here when I did because the winds – forecast to be very strong tonight – are acting as forecast and we hardly got parked before the wind picked up enough to be moving the RV around.  The gusts are only supposed to get up to 35 mph or so, but I have to say the thought of tying down the RV (which I don’t have equipment to do anyway) has crossed my mind what with the way we’re blowing around.