The Great End of Summer Road Trip - Part 3

So with sticker shock behind us from New York tolls and a brief stop in Connecticut for a little seashore adventure, it's time to knock off the last of the three states remaining on out travel map of the Northeast - Rhode Island.

One of the toughest things about RV-ing in Rhode Island is due to the state's size. It's so small that there are not a lot of campgrounds in the state which can accommodate a motorhome of our size that also have the amenities we like to have when traveling. Timing of reservations also comes into play if your stay is going to occur on any given weekend during the last few days of summer vacation.

And while the state's small size makes it easy to get from one area to another, being close to places you want to visit is always a plus.

So we were fortunate to find a campground just about 20 minutes away from the Newport area, given our interest was in visiting some Newport mansions. A few years back Barbara and I took a trip to Asheville, NC to tour the famous Vanderbilt estate of Biltmore (a must-see destination, btw), so naturally we wanted to see how the Vanderbilt's spent their summer months in Newport, RI.

There are Newpost mansion tour deals to be had, where you can tour the Vanderbilt mansion called The Breakers, then add one, two or more other Newport mansions for a discounted price. We opted for the three mansion deal based on time allotted during our 3-day stay in the area.

The Breakers is as stunningly opulent as Biltmore is in typically ostentatious in true Vanderbilt style, but is considerably smaller. It's also nicely preserved with each room still containing original artwork and furniture that gives you some idea of the lifestyle the ultra-rich of that era lived. Mr. Vanderbilt's marble bathtub could float a small fleet of ships in it, and was capable of providing both hot and cold running fresh water or sea water as the master desired. Very weird seeing 4 faucets feeding a tub.

The Breakers from a side view. The landscaping was beautiful even with the heat of the summer.

 

A few rooms had gold leaf accents, while one room had titanium accents! The whole mansion screamed – MONEY! Interestingly, the view of the sea from the property was not as good as the next mansion on our list.

Rosecliff was recommended by my brother, Doug, as a must-see mansion while in Newport. His recommendation was based on his love of the movie, 'The Great Gatsby', which used Rosecliff as the location for the film. While visually stunning, the movie itself was a dud.

So was Rosecliff.

The building itself was not nearly as opulent as The Breakers was, and only the first floor contained any furniture set up the way the owners originally had. The second floor was a not-very-interesting museum of Newport war history. While the ballroom and patio are used today for wedding receptions and other social functions, both are bare. About the only redeeming value to the mansion are the grounds. The sea-side lawn and view of the harbor are the best feature of the home. And Arnold Swarzenegger fans will notice the exterior as being in the opening sequence of his movie 'True Lies'.

Beautiful exterior, but a disappointing tour

 

Other than that, Rosecliff was pretty – meh.

Our final museum wasn't a building at all; it was the Green Animals Topiary Garden well away from Newport proper. It is one of the few remaining topiary gardens left in the U.S., and if you love gardens, it's a great place to visit. The designs are pretty well done, the flowers and tress were very colorful, and a light sea breeze kept the temperatures in the comfortable range even though we were outdoors.

They claim it's a bear, but I swear I'm being attacked by a frog!

 

As we were leaving, Barbara and I were discussing our museum tour and lamented our experience at Rosecliff. One of the guides / docents at the garden overheard us and agreed wholeheartedly with our assessment. She told us to wait, went into a building, and came out with two free passes to any mansion good for a year. While we were leaving the next day and couldn't use them ourselves, we were going to be visiting a classmate of Barbara's at our next stop nearby, so we accepted the tickets.

Interestingly enough, despite it's small size, we could have spent a couple of more days doing the Newport thing, but frankly, the park we were staying at didn't have a pool, and we had other places to be to keep to our itinerary.

A little bit of RV traveling information that usually doesn't affect us is that with so few miles between destinations, and strict check-out and check-in times at northeast campgrounds, we had to leave at the latest times possible, stop in a rest area and sit around for an hour or two with the generator running in order to keep cool, then head to our next campground to check in. But that's the beauty of living in a motorhome where the interior is ALWAYS conditioned as long as you've got fuel to run your generator.

Our next destination on the Great End of Summer Road Trip is a strange one given that both Barbara and I grew up in Massachusetts. Keep an eye out for the next installment in Parental Parolees!

The Great End of Summer Road Trip – Part 2

Wake up call in the Northeast.

We last left our fellow Parolees wondering if you can get a decent Philly cheesesteak in south-central New Jersey (you can) and just how much the toll system was going to take us a for a ride driving I-95 through New York City.

We made our way north from DC to a nice little KOA campground we had stayed in a few years ago in Clarksboro, NJ. Unfortunately, our expected meeting with long-time friends Tom and Bobbie Barbarese didn't happen due to their vacation plans on the Jersey shore. But the pool onsite was nice and the cheesesteak search was underway.

If you ever tried to order a cheesesteak at Pat's Steaks in south Philly, you know there are only two ways to order them; Wid or Widout. Wid is with peppers and onions, and Widout is plain steak and cheese. Failure to order in this exact manner at the window gets you sent unceremoniously to the back of the line, and there is no appeal. Back when I was in the Air Force, my great friend Dan Barbarese introduced me to Pat's but failed to mention the proper way to order, leaving him laughing his head off at my expense.

I bring this episode up because while in New Jersey last week, we found a cheesesteak place called Whit or Whitout, which – while not honoring the method of ordering as with Pat's Steaks – comes close to honoring the quality of the cheesesteak itself.

So yes, you CAN get a pretty good cheesesteak in New Jersey.

Heading north after a relaxing 3 nights at the KOA, we attack the infamous Northeast corridor of I-95 consisting of the northern leg of the Jersey Turnpike, the George Washington Bridge and various and sundry tolls into and through Connecticut and Rhode Island.

Understand, this is a route I had always vowed to NEVER drive in a motorhome, but the alternative to visit places on the coastline meant hours and miles of detours both north and east if I tried to avoid I-95.

So we bit the bullet.

The smallest state with tolls, Delaware, charged us $24.00 to drive about 30 minutes in their state. Normally $5 for a car.

New Jersey hit us up for $26.90 for a heck of a lot more miles and time from Clarksboro to the George Washington Bridge exit on the Jersey Turnpike.

Drove through New York during what is called “non-peak” hours (middle of the day) and thought we'd get a break on the tolls due to us having an EZ-Pass transponder on both the RV and the Jeep. Come to find out later that EZ-Pass discounts are only given to people who bought their transponders from either NY or NJ, and screw every other EZ-Pass customer across the rest of the country!

And here's the sticker shock: For an RV with a tow vehicle with a total of 4 axles (two on the RV and two on the Jeep), the great state of New York charged us - $102.68!!!!!!! Just to CROSS the George Washington Bridge! During NON-PEAK HOURS! Then they tacked on ANOTHER $8.73 to LEAVE the state after crossing the bridge!

Oh, and they also tried to charge us an additional $23.30 for a car when their system picked up our Jeep transponder behind the motorhome, but I disputed that since they had already charged us for the extra 2 axles in the initial $102 toll. Snakes.

I paid $102.68 for THIS?

 

I should have kept my vow and never driven this route . . .

Fortunately, the rest of our trip across Connecticut was uneventful, and our three days in Mystic, CT were very nice, with a visit to the USS Nautilus and downtown Mystic. I was fascinated by their second epic voyage back when I was just 9 years old, so it was really cool to see what captured my attention more than 60 years ago. The Sun Outdoors park we stayed at had a very nice pool, and I got to speak with some locals who gave us good suggestions for places to see while we were there.

Realizing a boyhood dream . . .

 

Next, we're off to the last state in the Northeast we haven't stayed in - Rhode Island - and a short trip to Bourne, MA on the Cape. Can't wait to see what is ahead of us in the next Parental Parolees installment!

The Great End of Summer Road Trip – Part 1

So first off, while we didn't have a summer trip with Jace this year, we did get to enjoy him for weeks during our stay in North Georgia while he was on summer vacation. In retrospect, it was a good thing our initial plans for his trip to Maryland and DC were put on hold, as we completely forgot about the 250^th anniversary celebrations going on in our nation's capital, which would have been brutal for both reservations and sightseeing.

But with Jace heading back to school, it was time to get ourselves back on the road to cross off a couple of pesky states which have been eluding us for 7 years; Maryland, Connecticut and Rhode Island. We had lots of visits to New England during the previous 7 years, but our travels always took us away from the I-95 corridor – mostly due to the congestion and toll prices charged for RV's on that interstate.

But we decided to bite the bullet and check off these three states.

The motor home was in great shape due to new front shocks that should handle rough Northeast roads, new house batteries and recent semi-annual service on the chassis.

Our first stop was a boondocking night in Henderson, NC at a very quiet Cracker Barrel. Cracker-docking is a great way to have a pleasant stay at a great restaurant for an overnight, because the company usually has large parking areas away from the building which provide plenty of room for motor homes like ours, and this one was no different. We make sure to reward the restaurant the next morning by having breakfast with them, and everybody is happy.

Plus, where else can you get a lighted glittering squirrel?

And, no, we didn't buy him - yet . . .

 

Our next stop was the dreaded drive through Washington, DC traffic to stay at a really nice resort just outside the Beltway. Cherry Hill Park is one of the best places we've every stayed at in 7 years on the road. This would have been a great resort to stay had we had Jace with us, because there were two pools, a splash pad, mini-golf, playgrounds, and a cafe where you could order some pretty good food.

In addition, it was 15 minutes away from a local Metro station which got you into DC in about 20 minutes via subway. The Cherry Hill Park sold half-price senior passes for the Metro on-site, and provided a shuttle to and from the station if you didn't want to pay for parking there.

Barbara and I decided to walk the Washington Mall (or a good portion of it), to see some sights that weren't there the last time we visited the DC area and to see some other sights again. The biggest difference was in our ages and respective shape we are in now vs. when we were there about 30 years ago.

In short, walking the Mall in Summer at 70+ years old is a chore. To put it mildly. We were sore for the next 3 days. Even worse were the leg and ankle cramps at night.

Some observations from our walk:

The Lincoln Memorial is still the best place to visit on the Mall. The only downside are the younger people sitting on the steps up and down tucked right up against the railings needed by older people for support on the steps. Sure, they moved when asked, but no one should have to ask. It's just common sense.

 

The Vietnam Memorial Wall is depressing. Especially given how useless that war was.

The refurbished Reflecting Pool was covered like a giant backyard pool in winter due to the vandalism by certain people of a certain political persuasion. It was also fenced off so you couldn't get near it. Not a good look for those who would vandalize instead of celebrate.

While the view of Barbara is very nice, that's NOT the view of the Reflecting Pool you expect when visiting Washington, DC!

 

The proliferation of refurbished fountains and memorials in the city by the Trump administration is astounding, and very much welcome. Brings some life back to a city that has been ignored for decades. And the city was noticeably cleaner all around than it was last time we were there.

I don't care if someone is offended by this, but any religion which allows their men to walk around in shorts and t-shirts in 90-degree weather while the women have to be fully clothed from head to toe is an uncivilized religion.

The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum never disappoints. Ever. Especially since it has the original model of Star Trek's USS Enterprise proudly and prominently on display.

 

The presence of the DC National Guard was everywhere, and comforting without being oppressive. Alert for threats, taking their jobs seriously, but more than willing to talk to folks like us when we had questions. Fully decked out in 25-50 lbs of gear and uniforms in 90-degree heat. Every group of three took the time to thank me for my service as we thanked them for protecting us. 

So Maryland is officially checked off and the open space on our map is filled!

Our next quest: Can we get a good Philly cheesesteak in New Jersey? And what does it cost in tolls to take the Jersey Turnpike and cross the George Washington Bridge in a 38-foot Class A motor home?

I'm dreading THAT answer in our next installment of Parental Parolees!