Wednesday,
17 October 2018
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| today's route |
I heard on The Public’s Radio this
morning that the National Sailing Hall of Fame is moving from Anapolis to Newport. Apparently Newport regards this as something of a coup and shows the
superiority of Rhode Island’s sailing community or something. Anyway, it was a big deal in today’s local (i.e. Rhode Island)
news.
I dropped Gracie off at the Gnarly Dog
and took Dexter off to see if we could find a beach somewhere. All
this time I’ve been in RI and not once have I been to any of the southern beaches.
We went on Route 1 and, luckily for my
temper, it’s been newly paved so our ride was absolutely smooth.
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| blow this up to see the butterflies |
We stopped first at Blue Shutters
Beach, which seems to be a town beach, and signs said Dexter wasn’t
allowed there, so we walked around the area a bit. We saw this mound
of flowers and nearly a dozen butterflies working on them. I don’t
know what they were doing here this time of year, but they sure were
pretty.
We went on to Watch Hill, RI’s westernmost community. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watch_Hill,_Rhode_Island It obviously sees itself primarily
as a resort town because all I found open were 3 real estate offices,
several dress shops and a few restaurants that open on weekends.
In this photo
across the Watch Hill Harbor there in town, I’m pretty sure what
you’re seeing is Connecticut, across Little Narragansett Bay. In
the foreground, I think that forest of white poles sticking out of
the water must be mooring buoys – given the yacht club (see below)
I’m guessing they have an awful lot of boats through here in the
summer.
That statue is on a large green area
that stretches all in front of the harbor. It must be to
commemorate the Niantic Indians who came here in the 1600s to fish.
I’d hoped to see the carousel but
there was nothing there except the building. I hope they just
dismantle it during the winter to protect it, and they aren’t
closed forever. I saw it once with Momma, but it was running only on
weekends, which we weren’t there on. Now it’s not there at all. But the sign said I couldn’t have ridden it anyway because they
don’t want anyone taller than 5’ or heavier than 100 pounds. I’m
guessing it’s because it’s so old, and they’re afraid it’ll
fall apart. It dates from the 1880s and is the US's oldest operating suspended horse carousel.
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| harbor |
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| harbor |
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| yacht club |
The wind was really blowing. Here are
some photos of the harbor, and you can see that the water’s pretty
choppy; the boats were really rocking around.
The Watch Hill Yacht Club was on the same small harbor, and I was
surprised at how large a building they had. I took this
second photo because of the entrances – you probably can’t
read their signs: the large door on the left is labeled “seniors,”
the small door on the right is labeled “juniors,” and the center
door is labeled “members.” I guess that’s a little sample of
their humor.
I stopped at Jan’s Boutique (one of
the few open stores) to check out their t-shirt selection, and spent
time talking to the owner who said he came here from Italy 42 years
ago. He was amazed I had the nerve to drive the RV such a long
distance because he didn’t like driving on highways at all. Said
he’d once wanted to travel around the area more but supposed now he
never would because he was getting old. He didn’t look that old to
me, but sometimes “old” is in your mind.
I walked Dexter around town for a bit
and was pleased that he did as well as he did in meeting other dogs. This gave me more courage to take him on a beach, so we went back
west a little way to Misquamicut State Beach, Watch Hill’s main
attraction, according to the Italian transplant. And it is a very
nice beach – quite large – and because it’s a state beach,
Dexter is allowed on it (only from Oct. 1 to March 31, but that’s
good enough for us). He loves sandy beaches and he wanted to
run and play and tried very hard to turn me into a dog to play with. And I really wanted to be one for him and tried, but I just couldn’t
pull it off. Anyway, we had fun and I’ll try again in a few days.
We drove along a shore road beside
Winnapaug Pond where I was stunned to see as many as 18 Great Egrets
and Great Blue Herons. I tried to take photos but my limited
knowledge of the capabilities of this camera only ended up with
these.
We barely made it back to the day care
in time to avoid an all-day charge (instead of half-day) for Gracie. She’d had a great time and fell asleep almost immediately. Even
day care won’t knock out Dexter that much, but I was really sorry
he couldn’t enjoy it too.
When we got back to the campground, I
made another concerted attempt to reach the dog trainer I’d heard
about, hoping to get some help or at least tips on socializing
Dexter. Still no luck but I’ll keep trying.
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