Jump to page: << 1 2 >>

Connecticut and Rhose Island, United States of America (30 - 31 March 2013)

Easter again, and Kristina, who usually works one day a weekend, had the whole weekend off for a change so we made the most of that and the (border-line) spring weather and hit the road! The northeast corner of the US consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut is known as New England. In one of the earliest English settlements in North America, Pilgrims from England first settled in New England in 1620. And, as I was to discover, they brought all of their favourite English place names with them; I lost count of the number of English town, city, and county names I recognised. The whole area is considered to be a particularly beautiful part of the country, especially in the summer and autumn. And although we're still struggling to shrug winter off, it seemed like an ideal spot to get away for a couple days and start ticking off some New England boxes.

We collected a rental car first-thing Saturday, headed north through the far west of Connecticut, then across to Providence in Rhode Island for the night, and back to New York on Sunday along the south coast.

While walking down to our subway station on the way to collecting the car, police were directing traffic and there a lot of commotion going on. Turns out filming was taking place for the pilot episode of a new series called Lucky Seven.		We got there just in time to see the filming of what looked to be a car chase scene or a getaway scene. These skid marks are the result of a large black SUV over-steering while screaming round the corner - awesome!		This Bentley was also involved along with several NYPD cop cars. We were standing on the steps leading up to the subway station, out of shot I assume else we'd be told to move along.

And action! They reshot the scene a couple time while we were there. You can see the Bentley and the black SUV in the distance. Exciting stuff!		We eventually hit the road and reached our first stop about an hour later. This is the town of Greenwich, Connecticut, named after the borough of London (no surprises there). I had this on my list of places to bring the bike for exploring and almost came here last summer, but after seeing how damn hilly it is I don't think I'll bother.
Greenwich is apparently one of the wealthiest communities in America, and is full of large and impressive homes such as these (the first of many we were to find on this trip). In 2005, Greenwich was ranked as number 1 in Money Magazine's annual "America's Best Places to Live".

Shortly thereafter we passed through Newtown and into the village of Sandy Hook, which those in America will definitely know of and those outside of America have probably heard about.

The village itself is very cute and quiet but back in December, just days before Christmas, the town and indeed the country was rocked by the second-deadliest school shooting in US history. Adam Lanza shot his mother at home before then killed 26 people (20 children and 6 staff) and himself at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The shooting prompted renewed and fierce debate about gun control in the United States, and a proposal for new legislation banning the sale and manufacture of certain types of semi-automatic weapons and magazines with more than ten rounds of ammunition. The road leading to the school has since been blocked off.

This wasn't our car for the trip ;) My workmate lives in Newtown, just a couple miles from Sandy Hook in fact. Her son was at high school in the area which went into lock down on the day of the shooting. Scary stuff. Anyway, this is her car hahaha!		This was our little beasty - a Mazda 6. Not bad except for being an automatic; you just can't hire manuals (or sticks) in this country - it sucks!
We continued north out of Sandy Hook and through a bit of horse country. It's not exactly Lexington, Kentucky material but never mind.

Next stop was the small town of Litchfield for lunch. I say small, but back in the day (early 1800s), Litchfield was the state's fourth-largest town. How things have changed. Several people recommended this place for visiting, and as nice as it is, I think the whole area really needs to be seen in summer.

The late author Sinclair Lewis once said of Litchfield, "The only street in America more beautiful than North Street in Litchfield is South Street in Litchfield" hehe. Well North Street didn't turn me on all that much, so here's South Street instead - bit nicer, and full of more of those large wooden homes like we saw back in Greenwich.
Nearly into April when spring is meant to be in full swing, and the lakes are still covered with ice.		We'd been seeing a lot of motorbikes on the roads, and then we found where they were all going.

This is Kent, another small town with an English name and evidently a big hit with the bikies.				You would have to be a dog person to appreciate this I guess, because frankly this just looks weird.

As nice as these wee places are, I couldn't live in one. I'd be bored stiff. I prefer the New York City pace (chaotic :)				Bored or not, I'd never get sick of these roads. Hilly and winding, just the way I like it!

Waterfall!		Late afternoon now as we reached the red covered bridge of Cornwall (more English names), dating back to an estimated 1864. It sounds as though it's about to collapse into the river below when you drive through it, and in fact a tanker truck did plunge through it back in 1940 hehe. Safe as houses ;)

The bridge crosses the Housatonic River and into the village of West Cornwall. Not much here besides a train station. I do quite like small-town America :)

From bridges to barns. I do quite like rural America too ;)

The final visit of the day as the sun was setting was the town of Canaan in the northwest corner of the state. Bugger all going on here either, although there were signs out for a cover band due to start playing here at 8pm. I'm sure that brought all of the town's 1,000 residents out in droves for a rowdy old time.

And that was that for the day. From Canaan we headed straight through to America's smallest state of Rhode Island for the night. The route there took us through the middle of Hartford, Connecticut, and man what a ghetto that place is! Didn't even want to get my camera out. We spent the night in Providence, Rhode Island, where our hotel gave us the choice of city views or (for $10 more) harbour views. We opted for the city view and this was it hehe. The harbour view wasn't much better.

Jump to page: << 1 2 >>

Page Comments