Long Island, Block Island - Newport, RI
Newport, RI
May 15, Day 39. Long Island, NY
It was fairly nice weather as we headed out onto Long Island today. It was nice to get back on the road again, though our three days in NYC were wonderful.
Of course to get to Long Island from New Jersey, the only direct route is right through the centre of Manhattan. We could have found a way around, which would have been required if we were in a motorhome or a trailer. We soon found ourselves in the Holland tunnel, two narrow lanes of traffic running for about a mile under the Hudson River. As much as I trust dear old Bluwesty, she is 31 years old and has over 366,000 km on her clock, so I do get nervous in such tight situations. One of her weak spots is her water works (those of you over 60 and reading this will sympathize), so I always worry when I see the thermometer creeping up. We were ejected from the tunnel onto the tight streets of Manhattan. Fortunately we had Emily (our Garmin GPS) to wind us through to the Manhattan Bridge, and over to Brooklyn. I was only honked at once, when I discovered I was in the wrong lane and had to push my way into the right lane… but I just adopted the NY attitude of ignoring them.
We were on a pretty well moving freeway for the first 30 minutes or so of Long island, and then peeled off to the north coast at Port Washington which we’d read to be a nice little stopover. Indeed, it was a fairly pretty little leafy green suburb, so we stopped for coffee and our grocery shopping.
We had a good “rude New Yorker” experience as we tried to stop in at a manor house once owned by the Guggenheims. We drove up to the booth.. no one was immediately present but as I looked in an older woman scowls back as if to say whaddya bawthering me for? She was dressed in civvies, so was probably a volunteer. She gets up and looks at our van, and sees the bikes on the back, at which point she snarls, “Ya know ya can't ride those in heah”. We said that was fine, we just want to look around. She then says “its $20 for a van”. We had seen the sign saying $10 per car, so I said, “but we are the same size as a small car”. She says “is it?”, and looks again. She then calls to a gentleman across the road, who appears to be her unfortunate husband… “Peetah! They say their van is that same size as a Cah!” So Peter comes up, takes a quick look and says “it’s a van!” There was no way we were going to pay double the price just because our vehicle was square shaped, so I said, “Well I guess we’ll leave then” expecting them to relent, but they just stood there saying nothing, no apology, no anything, so off we drove. The funny thing was that there was no one else to be seen, we may well have been the only visitors of the morning, but they weren’t going to relent, so instead of the $10 we would have paid, they were willing to get nothing.
We drove on up the Island, on highways and a few prettier byways, ending up at a County Campground on the south coast in the town of Shirley. It is a large campground, fairly rustic, wooded, and very sandy (though we were not on the beach), with sand so white it looked like a dusting of snow. It was a nice peaceful spot, as it was not at all crowded.
May 16, Day 40. The Hamptons, Long island, NY
Today was a relaxing driving tour of the upscale vacation retreat towns called “The Hamptons”. Apparently this is the weekend getaway region for the rich and famous of New York.
Our first stop was Southampton. The town centre comprised about 4 or 5 blocks of swank shops set in mostly small 18th and 19th C storefronts, so it was all very cozy. The shops were still pretty quiet at 10:30 am even though it was Saturday, but they got swinging more as noon approached. Bill, of course, is an amateur automobile sociologist, and so enjoyed watching the cars as much as the nattily dressed people. Virtually every car was a status marque such as Mercedes, Porsche, Cadillac, Jaguar, BMW. What was a true mark of the town, however were a total of five Bentley convertibles spotted within five blocks.
After a lunch at the side of a small inlet canal we toured off toward the beach to see the huge sprawling estates with enormous stately early 20th C mansions. As we approached the Atlantic beachfront, we arrived at Coopers Beach, signposted as “Rated the #1 beach in America”. This beach, like others in the area, is operated by the County, which means there is no commercial development to be seen, which is very nice, but what is not so nice is the sign saying that the fee is $40! This fee is effective from May 15, and this is May 16. However, because there was nobody at the booth, and ************e at the beach on this cool and drizzly day, we parked and had a little look without paying. It is indeed, a beautiful sandy beach over the sheltering dune, stretching as far as could be seen in either direction, with picturesque wind fences spotted along the dune, and a few huge mansions to be seen in the distance, but the best in America? Says who? We drove a little further south, and found a lovely estuary on the inland side of a strip of mansions, demarcated as a wildlife sanctuary, so had a bit of a stroll on the boardwalk provided.
A funny little anecdote from Coopers Beach. As we arrived a couple of carloads of 20 somethings arrived. As they got out, Pat said… “they are a bit of a scruffy bunch”, a bit disdainfully. One guy had tight jeans short at the ankles, a khaki colored wool overcoat, no socks exposing tattooed ankles, and white sneakers. One girls had jeans with many tears at the knees and thighs. Well… you guessed it… pretty soon the cameras came out and the tripods and light reflectors. The “scruffy bunch” were actually models wearing the fashions which were will be on the covers of the fashion mags next month!
Our next stop was East Hampton, which our books had suggested was the best of the towns, but we both felt Southampton was prettier. East Hampton did seem to have a bigger area of nicely kept smaller houses of the 18th C, which gave it a different kind of appeal.
Being a bit disappointed with East Hampton, and having another hour or two before camping time, we decided to carry on to the farthest end of Long Island, and the town of Montauk. This was, as the books suggested, quite a different scene. There were really none of the swank shops, and instead there was row upon row of 1970s style motels… the traditional square two story “Travelodge” style.
The town was swarming with more casual people, families and young people, baseball caps and jeans. All day long we had been sharing the road with hundreds of road cyclists who appeared to be in some sort of loosely organized event, and many of them had arrived in Montauk by this late afternoon. We then noticed a tent and big crowd in the central grass circle of the town… our serendipity bunny had brought us to a music festival! We parked, bought a beer at the tent, and joined the crowd. In progress was a pretty good rock band playing some pretty loud rock. We noticed a girl group preparing on the second stage, so stuck around to see what was up. They turned out to be a fabulous 9 piece group singing alt-country for about 40 minutes. The lead singer and songwriter was Jessica Lynn, accompanied by two female backup singers, two guitars, a bassist, an electric double bass, a steel slide guitar and a guy on a percussion box. They were very professional… the women had well practiced routines, and there was lots of great energy from the whole bunch. Apparently they have a PBS TV show which we hope to check out some time if we ever see a TV set again. Google Jessica Lynn if you want to check her out.
This evening we are in another large, peaceful, uncrowded sandy County Park at a reasonably $30 per night, but again no wifi, so you will be getting a lengthy posting!
May 17, Day 41. Galilee, Rhode Island
Interesting that we are camping at Galilee, because we have also camped at the real Sea of Galilee in Jordan in January of 2011. It was when we were living with Michelle and the grandkids in Amman for three months, and we took a little trip with Julian to north Jordan. I wouldn't say there is much to compare. That night we were camped on a hillside in a kind of adhoc picnic area. Tonight we are in one of the nicest campsites of our trip, in a County park… very clean and grassy, with paved roads and shower/restroom a few meters away. The campground is maybe one fifth full, so there are no other occupied sites to be seen from this one. It is also the cheapest site we have ever had, at $20. We don’t have any hookups, nor wifi, so this posting will just have to grow longer and longer before you get it.
Our drive today was from the southern fork of the eastern tip of Long Island. To get to the mainland, at Connecticut, we had a first ferry, 10 minute ride over to Shelter Island ($14), then 15 minute drive across Shelter Island to a slightly longer ferry ($12) which took us to the north fork of the tip of Long Island, then a 20 minute drive to the far north-east tip of Long Island where we caught a 1 hour 20 minute ferry to Greenpoint, Connecticut ($70US, which is about equivalent to our Vancouver Island ferries).
It a very lovely trip the whole way… Shelter Island was very reminiscent of Saltspring Island, with winding roads, small towns, farmland, but with the addition of some spectacularly beautiful old 18th and 19th C houses, churches and shops.
The day didn’t end with ferries though, as we still had a great afternoon touring small towns on the Connecticut, Rhode Island coast. The first stop was Mystic, CT, a small historic whaling town on the Mystic River. It is now a tourist mecca, with a large maritime Museum complex, and a pretty little downtown row of shops and galleries alongside a very pretty little historic drawbridge. The Museum would have cost us $24 each, so we skipped that and opted for a bike ride five miles up the south bank of the Mystic River to Old Mystic, and then back down the north side. Of course what we got, for free, was better views of the old ships in the Museum complex than the paying tourists would have. We often find this… the expensive carriages in the historic towns are much prettier to see from across the road than from the horse’s backside, the Statue of Liberty and skyscrapers were much prettier from the land side viewpoints and ferry boats, and the money we save can be used for the occasional dinner out at a nice little restaurant of tavern.
We also drove in and around Watch Hill, with little stop at the beach there. This area is a very high end vacation mecca, with dozens and dozens of huge old lodges and private homes of the rich and famous from the 19th C. It also has a small waterfront strip of shops, restaurants and marines catering to the botox and luxury yacht set.
We hadn't really clued in that the campground we are in is within a 10 minute bike ride of the ferry to Block Island, which is recommended as a day trip in our Lonely Planet guide… so we have booked a second night here so that we can take our bikes on the Block Island ferry and spend the day touring over there. Will report tomorrow….
May 18, Day 42: Block Island RI.
It was quite cold and cloudy when we got up, so with sweaters and long pants, we hopped on our bikes and rode on down about 2 miles to the harbourfront to catch the Block Island Ferry. The ferry dock was nestled amongst the fishing docks in a very snug little harbour inlet from the ocean. The ferry was smallish, less than half the capacity of the Queen of Surrey and older.. maybe 1960s, and designed more for the heavy seas of the Atlantic. But it was comfortable enough for the one hour crossing.
Block Island was really quite delightful, about the size of Galiano Island. The little “Old Harbor” was the commercial centre, very tourist oriented with numerous bicycle and moped rental shops as well as the usual galleries, ice cream shops and souvenir outlets. What was charming about the whole island, however, was that virtually all of the shops, Inns, cafes, farmhouses appeared to be authentically at least 100 years old. Most were clad in weathered shake siding or white slat siding. The morning ride was most fun, up around the north end of the island, with a stop at the 150 year old lighthouse, through absolutely idyllic rolling farm fields with many small lakes and marshlands.
In the afternoon we rode southward through more flat and open country on a road that paralleled the coastline. At the south end was a marshland nature preserve and another old lighthouse at the end of the southern spit.
The weather had warmed up and the sun had burned through by noon, so altogether a delightful day.
We caught the 3 pm return ferry, and upon return to Galilee Harbor we explored a bit more on our bikes. Pat and been wanting a lobster dinner since arriving on the east coast, so this turned out to be the evening for it. We found a nice little spot right on the opening to the harbour. It was an informal self-service kind of place, which kept the price down… though a lobster and fries with a tiny cup of coleslaw was still $23 US… we shared one order. The beer was particularly nice too, a draft ale, served in plastic cups, but who cares!
Back to the campsite by 6:30 to relax and recover a bit from probably 15 miles of biking today.