Connecticut - Day 19 - Hartford

Mystic KOA

Monday, 19 November 2018

today's route

more recent version

Several times I’ve passed this church and today I stopped to take its picture.  It had seemed to me so New England-y when I’ve passed it before, and I’m sorry that doesn’t seem to have come out in the photo. 

There’s a long stretch of grass in front that contributes to the picturesqueness and that doesn’t seem to be in the photo.  And today was overcast so the light wasn’t very cheerful.  Plus plus most of the leaves have gone from the trees since I first saw it, making it look more winter-y than autumn-y but without enough snow on the ground to make it look Christmas-y which would be picturesque for another reason.  Oh well. 

earlier version

It’s the First Baptist Church of North Stonington.  Right next door protected by a 3’ tall rock wall is what's apparently an earlier iteration, with a sign saying it was the First Baptist Church on Pendleton Hill, organized 1743.  Too bad about the overcast sky and lower light level.

First stop was to drop off the dogs at day care.  And boy were they ready for it, having gotten only one day last week and sitting around in camp so much due to weather.  Dexter’s learned to recognize the turn-off from the main road and starts jumping around and nearly hyperventilating he’s so excited.  Don’t know why he doesn’t do more bouncing around once he’s there, given all that excitement.

Today I wanted to get to Hartford if the roads were clear enough, and it turned out they were.  I saw plenty of snow on the ground, but it had had time to clear off the roads and they were fine.

The snow started showing up in greater quantities the farther away from the coast I moved.  And for a while I thought there was significantly less snow in places where there was grass, but later I saw plenty of snow covering big lawns and decided some people with lawns also had snow-blowers.

I saw an actual chipmunk sitting on a rock this morning.  I guess all I have to do is say I’m not seeing something in order to make it appear.  Cute little guy.

On the map Windham and Willimantic are labeled as distinct towns, and wikipedia says they’re separate too.  But on the road I can’t tell where the line is.  I know that I passed the Windham Textile and Historic Museum, which I’d like to visit except it’s only open for limited hours on weekends.  It’s right across the road from a building that obviously was once a mill but has been seriously renovated and is now used as apartments and offices and is very attractive.  Then just around the corner is that frog bridge that is apparently claimed by Willimantic, which is one reason I can’t figure out which town is which.  Oh well.  I guess they know.

I heard a program on public radio about wild turkeys and how they’d gone extinct in CT long ago.  Probably way overhunted, though they didn’t say so.  What they did say was that in the early 1800s CT was 95% forested but by the 1850s it was down to 30%, thus substantially reducing turkey habitat.  They repopulated CT using turkeys from New York in the border area.  They’ve finally gotten the population up enough to allow hunting again, and a few years ago they issued 400+ permits for the season.  Turns out wild turkeys are very wily and only 21 were harvested.  They can fly 50 mph (I had no idea).  What they didn’t say but my Momma did often is that Benjamin Franklin kept pushing for the wild turkey to be named the national bird.

All the way along the road I'm seeing a real difference since I came to the state 3 weeks ago.  Now there's almost no colored leaves, unless you count brown dead ones as colored, and most trees are completely bare.  Definitely late autumn, I'd say.

CT state capitol

I made it to Hartford just fine and managed to find the capitol pretty much where the map said it'd be.  

I'm using my photo instead of one off the internet, partly because I had to go to a lot of trouble to get this, and partly because mine's a closer view than the others.  I hope you can blow this up to see the detail in the stonework.  It's like a fairy castle.  Really charming.

On the way back to the day care, I passed Andover (CT) which claims to be the birthplace of Nathan Hale.  He's the one who was a spy in the Revolutionary War and supposedly said, "I regret that I have but one life to give for my country" (though since I've been here, I've heard that what he actually said wasn't nearly as quotable).  He's been designated the CT official state hero.

I passed several Christmas tree farms today, one of which had a sign posted that offered a $500 reward for information regarding thefts of trees.  Hadn't occurred to me that it'd be a problem, but of course it would.

The dogs and I got back on the road about 3:30 and by the time we got back to the campground it was definitely dusk.  I was starting to notice that my headlights were being useful (I always drive with them on).  And we're still a month from the solstice.  But next month I'll be farther south, which should help.