Madison, CT – Riverdale Farms Campground
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We really didn't want to leave Turkey Swamp in New Jersey.
We had great times with good friends. We headed out on the highway towards
Connecticut, but in order to get there we had to drive way out west and north
around New York City to avoid all the horrible traffic, bridges, tunnels and so
forth. It was a long 5 hour drive. We drove mostly on turnpikes and
interstates, some parts the roads were good and some parts were not so good. We
finally arrived at our campground, Riverdale Farm Campsite, a very nice
campground away from the highways and back in a nice wooded area. This
campground is just north of Madison Connecticut. After setting up camp we
really kicked back and enjoyed happy hour after the arduous drive.
We had researched the area around Madison and Clinton for
activities and fun things to do. We did find a nearby mountain biking trail,
which we planned to ride and also found out about a tour boat cruise around
some islands off the coast of Guilford.
The next day we decided to head down to Hammonassett State
Park, which is on the beach. Running along the coastline was a very nice
Greenway Trail. We took our bikes there and rode the two and a half miles that
currently exist, which mostly went through the state park. We also rode our
bikes around the state park which was huge and had probably about 500
campsites. We had wanted to camp there, but they don't allow dogs in the summer
as it is a complete boondocking campground. The beaches in the park were really
busy and they were very nice; however they cannot compare with our gorgeous
water in South Florida.
After visiting the state park we decided to take a scenic
drive. We drove around Madison, Clinton and Guilford. These towns are very old
with many historic colonial homes and buildings, very beautiful and quaint. It
was obvious to us that there's a lot of money in this area, after seeing the
huge historic mansions and also all the investment banks around the area. We
also drove down to the inlet area of Guilford which is on Long Island Sound.
This was our first taste of the old New England style harbors.
The next day we decided that we would take the offshore boat
cruise and also go to the mountain biking trails. First we went to the trails
and only Kurt rode them, as the internet described the trails as only advanced,
but when we got there we found there were all levels of trails and I didn't
bring my bike, bummer.
Next, we drove to Branford and the marina where the boat
launches for the Thimble Islands tour. The Thimble Islands is an archipelago
consisting of small islands in Long Island Sound, located in and around the
harbor of Stony Creek in the southeast corner of Branford, Connecticut. The 45 minute
cruise traveled around many of the small pink granite bedrock islands. Most of
the islands are privately owned with houses built on them. There were a couple
of islands that are state owned and have public access. It’s amazing that most
of the houses were built in the 1800’s. A few are mansions and some are smaller
homes. One island was occupied by the pirate Captain Kidd for many years.
Legend says his treasure is hidden on this island.
We only had 3 days in Connecticut, so our activities were
limited. We did see a lot and enjoyed our time there. Our next stop will be in
Newport, Rhode Island.
Friday, July 1st – Wednesday, July 6th
Newport, Rhode Island
– Meadowlark RV Park
After leaving Connecticut we had about a 55 mile drive to
our location here in Rhode Island. We are staying in Middletown Rhode Island on
the east side of Newport in a really nice RV campground. The location is very
centralized to all the things that we wanted to see in this area. We have
friends that are from Rhode Island that advised us of all the wonderful, fun
things to do around here.
The first evening we just drove around to get familiar with
the area. We purposely booked the 4th of July weekend because of the patriotic
celebrations in Bristol Rhode Island. Driving around we looked at all the
beautiful beaches, but they still don't have anything on our beaches in
southeast Florida. We're just so amazed that everywhere up here in New England
they charge to park at the beaches, here they charge $25 on the weekends and $15
during the week. It's a good thing we didn't want to go sit on the beaches with
all the holiday crowds. The Newport area is very friendly to road bikers and
against my best judgment, one day we did ride a couple of miles down towards
the beaches since the traffic was so crazy. Now I know why I mountain bike
instead of road bike, I'd much rather deal with trees than with crazy people
texting in their cars. In various places around town there are these old,
completely painted white bicycles with someone's name on it indicating that
they were killed on their bicycle in that spot on the road. However there are
still many people riding on the roads even where there's only a one foot wide
bike lane. After that two mile ride I promised I would not ride on the roads
here again.
On July 3rd evening we
drove the 14-mile ride up to Bristol to watch the fireworks. They were very nice
but we still have not found Fourth of July fireworks that are quite as good as
the West Palm Beach ones, which are also synchronized with very patriotic
music. The next morning I drove up to Bristol for the historic July 4th parade.
Kurt is not so fond of parades, so he declined to go with me. One of the best
Fourth of July parades I've ever seen, it lasted over 2 hours and was amazing;
full of patriotic displays and performances. Bristol was voted the most
patriotic Fourth of July celebration in the country. Kurt spent the day riding
his bike around the Newport area and hanging out down by the waterfront. Later
that evening I decided to stay home and watched the Fourth of July celebrations
on television, Macy's New York City fireworks, which were absolutely spectacular
with four barges of coordinated fireworks on the East River. Kurt decided he
wanted to watch the fireworks in Newport, so he rode his bicycle back down into
town and watched the fireworks from the waterfront. He said they were very
nice, but still no synchronized music. We were both pretty exhausted at the end
of that day after celebrating the Fourth of July.
The next day we decided to go walk the Cliff Walk along the
rocky Coast. This public path follows the rocky coast lined with many mansions.
We were able to view most of the mansions from the Cliff Walk at various points
on the path. These mansions were built in the 1800, during the “Gilded Age’.
Parts of the Cliff Walk turned into a rugged rock hopping adventure and other
areas were nicely paved and easy. We followed most of the three miles out and
then back to our starting point. What a beautiful walk with the view of the
ocean, the cliffs, the mansions and the views across the bay.
On our last day, we decided to take a boat tour around the
Newport harbor. It was only $10 for the whole day, and you could hop on/off at
any of the 5 stops. We were amazed at all the sail boats moored in the harbor,
or docked at enormous piers. This area is obviously a great sailing area, home
to the original America’s Cup sail boat races. We did get off the boat at Fort
Adams to look around the fort built for the War of 1812. The weather was very
warm and sunny, so we didn’t stay there too long. We continued around the
harbor and ended up at the Newport Shipyards. The tour captain had advised us
of a great restaurant in the shipyard where they made great lobster rolls. So
we ended our afternoon there chomping on lobsta! After returning to our
campsite, we took the dogs for a truck ride around Ocean Avenue and found a
small crescent beach where we could let them run around off leash. It was a
fine way to spend our last evening in Rhode Island.
Our next adventure will be in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. 