Rhode Island - Day 24 - Newport

Fishermen’s Memorial State Campground

Wednesday, 24 October 2018

Today’s TV weather report said I wasn’t wrong about the power of that wind last night: not only was all of Rhode Island dealing with the aftermath of a big wind storm (downed trees, lost electricity) but Lincoln, immediately north of Providence, actually had a tornado that was already confirmed when I got up. And that weather system is dropping heavy snow in Maine. At this rate, I may find part of my November in Connecticut is stuck in one place because of snow. We’ll see.

On the morning news was also word that a large fire yesterday destroyed the Misquamicut Beach Pavilion – that’s over by Watch Hill where Dexter and I went just a week ago. I’m glad we went when we did, because it was an attractive building.

Also on the news is a report that there’s so much rain in Texas that even the city of Austin has sent out a citywide “boil water” alert. Incredible.

And I didn’t need the news to tell me it’s really cold in my RV this morning. We didn’t get snow down here, but we sure got cold. I had to keep running the heater just to get the RV’s internal temp into the 50s.

today's route

I dropped Gracie off at day care and tried to find something new for me and someplace interesting to walk for Dexter in the 5 hours we had before I had to pick Gracie back up.

We went first across the Jamestown-Verazano Bridge to Conanicut Island, the 2^nd largest island in Newport Bay (Aquidneck Island, aka Rhode Island (really), where Newport is, being the largest).  The only real town on Conanicut Island is Jamestown – historic Jamestown, they say, and since it was founded in 1648, I guess it is historic.  I’m not sure why the bridge includes Verazano in its name, because I don’t think that explorer ever wandered up this far, unlike the Verrazano Narrows in New York where he really did go.  And people use the full name when they refer to the bridge.  I think in Texas we'd shorten it.

looking across to Newport

a piece of Jamestown across its harbor

Apparently most people don’t bother checking Jamestown out, but instead see it as a pass-through between the mainland and Newport, but they’re missing something nice.  It’s a lovely little town where most houses look affordable only if you have a very large income, which is why it's so pretty.  But the surrounding rural areas on the island look like where regular folks live, and that's very pretty too so money doesn't buy everything.  Not far north of town I saw a sign saying Goose Crossing.  Not something you see everywhere.

Conanicut Island was named for Conanicus, a Narragansett chief who eventually befriended Roger Williams specifically and European settlers in general.  He gave Roger Williams the land that became Providence Plantation.  You do know, of course, that the official name of the state is The State of Rhode Island and the Providence Plantations?  (Apparently there was a statewide referendum in 2010 to shorten the official name and, Rhode Islanders being sticklers for tradition voted overwhelming in favor of keeping it like it was.)  It’s the longest official name of any of the states.  I guess to match it being the smallest in size.

Dexter and I had a nice little walk around downtown (aka the harbor area) and he got to sniff lots of harbor stuff and I got to not worry much about him meeting other dogs, since he’s usually okay when Gracie’s not around.

We went from there across the Pell Bridge, which is a toll bridge, over to Newport.  I’d hoped to avoid the town itself because I remember how extremely narrow some of the streets are from when Momma and I came over here.  But the bridge decants us right in town, so there we were.  After a couple of wrong turns and map-consulting, I ended up on the right road by accident, which was reassuring.

I wanted to go to at least one beach because Dexter enjoys them so much and I wanted to give him something in return for him not getting a day care day.  Once again by accident I ended up at Easton’s Beach, which was on the way to where I was aiming, and it was a nice beach for us.

Easton's Beach

Almost no dogs anywhere, for some reason, so I could relax.  Sand seems to make Dexter want to run. I just wish I trusted him enough to let him off the leash, though I did run along with him for a bit, but I’m out of running shape these days.  We went out before and after lunch, though the wind was really blowing and too chilly to be comfortable.  But we braved it happily anyway.

This beach must be packed all summer and I can imagine the locals are happy when the summer crowd finally leaves.

On Aquidneck Island besides Newport are Middletown, Portsmouth (formed in the compact of 1638, a sign informed me, though I’m not sure what compact), South Portsmouth and Island Park.  And still have room for corn fields.  You’d think it was a really big island except that these towns are all really small.  Although it is a pretty good sized island.

Now at the north end of the island, we crossed into Bristol on the Mount Hope Bridge.  Mt. Hope, it turns out, is a mountain only in Rhode Island.  Everywhere else it would be a hill, being only 209’ tall, though Rhode Island’s 2^nd tallest.  I bet the bridge is at least as tall as the mountain.

Just on the north side of the bridge is Roger Williams University, which seems to be pretty good sized and very attractive.  I had to drive around the campus a bit because I took a wrong turn and needed to get back where I’d been.

Bristol is on the south end of some land that I guess is attached to the mainland, but only by a really narrow neck that is mostly attached to Massachusetts.  Which is fair since Newport originally belonged to the Massachusetts Bay Colony and didn’t get transferred to Rhode Island until the 1746 – practically recent, by New England standards.

Bristol has signs saying it was established in 1680 and is the home of the oldest 4^th of July festival in the US.  I hear they really do it up big.

There are several small towns north of Bristol on the road up to East Providence on the interstate.  One of them is Riverside and I hope to get back to it this weekend because it has a Looff Carousel, built in 1895, that is still running.  I remember getting a ride on it when Momma and I were here and I’d like another one, though they’re only open on weekends this time of year.

We had to come through Providence but got lucky on the traffic.  

I wished I could stop and walk Dexter again but was really pushing it to get back in time to not have to pay extra for Gracie.  I stopped to take them both out before we got back to the campground, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as they did – small craft advisory doesn’t just mean winds only for small craft, especially when you’re staying at the coast.