Rhode Island - Day 28 - carousels, art and chicken

Fishermen’s Memorial State Campground

Sunday, 28 October 2018

Today's route

It got cold overnight, and I can prove it.

The faucet my hose is attached to drips a fair amount and no amount of knob-tightening can shut the drips completely off.  This seems to translate to the connection at my RV, as you can see.

This is my last Sunday in RI, so today I headed to several places that are only open on weekends at this time of year.  As it turned out, I missed out on almost all of them anyway.

Riverside Looff Carousel

I first aimed for Riverside east of Providence, for the Carnival Park Looff Carousel that I got to ride on when Momma and I were here before.  That part of Rhode Island is apparently not interested in labeling its roads, so almost as soon as I got off the interstate I had no idea where I was.  Thank goodness for that Providence city map (which includes about half of RI) because by noting the names of the cross streets I was passing I could figure out the street I was actually on.  It sure made navigation a challenge.

But perseverance won and I did actually find it!  I knew from my memory that there’s a parking area across the street, which turned out to be at a park, so we stopped there and I walked the dogs a bit while waiting for 12:00, when the carousel opened.  

Unfortunately, 12:00 came and went and not a soul except me showed up, inside or out.  I had checked online just today before I drove over and it still said it’d be open at 12:00 today, but it wasn’t.  Daytimes Saturdays and Sundays until the end of October, supposedly, but not really.  I guess it was one more thing that ended its season early this year.  I was truly disappointed.

Pawtucket Looff Carousel

I found quite a few mentions in tourist information, including RI’s official state stuff, about an equally historic Looff carousel in Pawtucket. (Looff was the late-1800s maker of these gorgeous toys.) I found the address online, and it too was supposed to be open weekends until the end of October.  But I was reluctant to get my hopes up because online aerial views didn’t show anything but trees where this thing is supposed to be.  Still, I went.

And in fact, the only thing that’s at the address I got was trees.  Pretty trees, but not exactly a carousel.  So glad I hadn’t pinned my hopes for happiness on this thing but still, another disappointment.

Getting to Woonsocket 

Cumberland City Hall

I next headed back up in Woonsocket, which actually isn’t all that far from Pawtucket, now that I’m up that way.  Of course, first I had to negotiate Pawtucket, which seemed to take it as a challenge to keep me from getting anywhere at all.  Not only does Pawtucket not label its streets very well, but it also throws up detours without labeling them either.  I drove around and around, kept stopping to consult the map and then getting lost again almost instantly, over and over . . . without that Providence map I’d probably still be there.

When I finally got on the street I wanted, I pulled over into the first appropriate resting place for me and the dogs.  It turned out to be the Cumberland City Hall parking lot.  This city hall was built in 1894 and is still in use as the city hall.  Cumberland is the next town along the road from Pawtucket - several towns all seem to run together along here.

At the bus stop near the front of the building was this sign about some underground railroad helpers that once lived across the street (the house is no longer there).  These photos are 2 halves of the sign.  You'll have to blow them up to read them, but it's fairly interesting.

 

St. Ann's Church frescos

Back up to Woonsocket (I'm pretty sure I've never mentioned that the name is pronounced woon-SOCK-et), I found St. Ann’s fairly easily.   But I was again disappointed.  Oh, they were open, all right. But they charge $10 for their tours of the sanctuary ($8 for seniors, but still), the tours are only on Sunday afternoons and last about 45 minutes.  I really wasn’t all that interested in knowing about them – I just wanted to see and admire them.  But the very nice man I met at the entrance explained that all their money to maintain the church comes from these tours and they just can’t allow anybody to just peek in for free.  That all made sense to me, but I still didn’t think it was worth $10 to me, though if I ever find myself back there again, I’ll probably go anyway.  Here’s the link with a teaser photo about what you can see inside.  www.stannartsandculturalcenter.org/

my photo of St. Ann's

Wright’s Chicken Farm Restaurant

They’re open only Thursday & Friday evenings and Saturday & Sunday daytimes.  Not being able to come in the evenings, even when I was staying up this way, that left me with the weekends.  This was, therefore, my last chance to try some fresh Wright’s chicken.

They serve their meals family style, which of course I didn’t have (a family, I mean), and their menu says a pasta dish, a salad and fries are their side dishes, none of which I wanted enough to pay for, so I decided I’d just get some chicken to go.

Their parking lot is enormous – as big as the hotel lot I’ve been staying in: football field size – and it was completely full.  So was the almost-as-big lot around back where the parking attendant directed me.  Someone even came by limo – big black stretch limo.  So I was amazed that they got me my food as quickly as they did – I don’t think it even took the 10 minutes they told me it would.  Back to the RV to smell it all the way back to the other side of the state which, this being Rhode Island, was only a little more than an hour away.  Amazing restaurant.  My friend Deb said so and she was right.

The best part about the day were all the beautiful colors on the trees.  Fall is definitely here, as far as the maples are concerned.  They’re not fully colored yet, so I see some trees that are green in one part and beautiful colors in another.  Lots of green still, and RI has plenty of evergreens, but also lots of vibrant reds and oranges and yellows.  It’s really great, especially when the sun brings out the colors.

I heard an ad on the People’s Radio (it sounds so communist-country to me) for a feline vet clinic in Providence called City Kitty – just call 831-MEOW.  (Rhode Island has only one area code (401) so they don’t bother mentioning it very often.)

Back in the campground and back in my previous campsite, but it was 5:00 by the time we got here and I’m pooped.  I’m not going anywhere tomorrow.  I need to rest.  And I need a little extra time to figure out how I’m going to spend my last little time in RI, and how to find this campground I’m reserved in for Wednesday night, and how to get from there to Connecticut.

My cousin Trish called a day or two ago and suggested we have one last get-together on my way out of the state.  She suggested the Cracker Barrel, where I remember Momma and I met Marian and her husband Bob once.  That’s the only time I’ve been in a Cracker Barrel, but I guess I’ll get one more.  Trish said she’d bring Marian and also bring the genealogy info for me, which is really nice of her.

I was a little worried about the time involved, but I’ve looked at a Connecticut map and I can follow I-95 most of the way to the campground, and it won’t take much more than an hour.  Thank goodness Connecticut is another small state.  I don’t think I want to tackle a big state with November weather in the offing.