Turkey Point Lighthouse

Posted on November 6, 2012 by Marsha Brecht

We walked out to Turkey Point Lighthouse to see it again. It hasn’t changed since last year. The only difference was that last year it was open when we visited and we were able to go inside and climb up to the top. Today it was all locked up.

Turkey Point Lighthouse

Then we went to the nearby town of North East and had lunch at Woody’s Crab House. I just had to get my fix of Woody’s award-winning crab cakes. I was not disappointed.

I’ve been trying to upload more pictures but it’s just not happening. Perhaps it’s the weather, I don’t know. There is a Nor’easter at our door, maybe it’s that.

About a year ago we spent just over a week here. It was a good stay and I took lots of pictures then. Here’s a link to the first of several posts from that time: Elk Neck 2010

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Elk Neck State Park, MD

Posted on November 5, 2012 by Marsha Brecht

Camping World got our tires all air’d up this morning and we continued our drive south, driving through the tip of Delaware and into Maryland.

We are now in Elk Neck State Park.  It is located towards the very northern tip of the Chesapeake Bay by the little town named North East, Maryland.

Elk Neck State Park, Site #24

The park ranger told us they escaped major damage from Hurricane Sandy, having only about eight trees down and they were without electricity for about two days.  Everything looks fine and beautiful right now.

I remember when we were here last year we had very very poor internet and that has not changed.  I am able to get the blog done but it takes forever to upload the pictures for it.

It’s going to freeze tonight.

The price for our spot, with full hookups, four nights, is $149.96 plus a $18.04 “transaction fee” (what is that??), but with Bernie’s Golden Age Pass we got a $75 discount, so comes to $23.25 per night.

 

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New Jersey Air

Posted on November 4, 2012 by Marsha Brecht

After our morning McDonald’s coffee we got back on the New Jersey Turnpike and headed south again.  The service plazas were all open on the southern half of New Jersey and there were no waiting lines.

There was some road construction, but nothing that slowed us down.  Most of what we drove today was tree-lined.  The sun was out for a while and we could see some nice fall coloring at times.

New Jersey Turnpike

We stopped for gas at one of the service plazas.  Did you know that you cannot pump  your own gas in New Jersey?  It’s one of two states in the country that has a state law forbidding you to pump your own gas.  Oregon is the other state.

The price was $3.57 per gallon, and our total came to $125.  The pump cut us off at that amount and it was almost full so we didn’t bother to re-insert the credit card.

Bernie decided we need air in the rear tires.  Their air hose wasn’t strong enough to pump air into our big truck-sized tires so we went down the road to a Flying J Truck Stop.  They had a stronger  hose, but for some reason the air just would not inflate the tires no matter what Bernie did.

There is a Camping World a few miles away so we went there.  Their service department isn’t open on Sundays but the store employees thought someone should be able to help us in the morning.  So we are spending the night in the Camping World parking lot.

That’s cool though, because I can use their free Guest Wi-Fi all night long.  We’re still in New Jersey, just across the river from Philadelphia, PA.

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New Jersey

Posted on November 3, 2012 by Marsha Brecht

We didn’t get as far as we wanted to today.  When we left the campground we immediately got stuck in traffic due to some road construction.  That ate up an hour of our time.  We passed a sign that said “Travel Advisory, Essential Travel Only” but there was no way out, so there we sat.

Traffic Jam

Shortly after clearing that we stopped for gas and filled up our tank.  $3.81/gallon at TA on the east side of New Haven, for a total of $166.22. No lines.

On the way out of Connecticut we were seeing caravans of utility trucks from states like Illinois, South Carolina and Michigan going in the direction of New York City.  We wondered if they were done with Connecticut and are on their way home, or to New York or New Jersey to help them.  I wish I knew.

A small caravan of utility trucks going south

The drive from SW Connecticut to the west side of New York City was not fun.  But once we got on I-287 and started going south and into New Jersey on the New Jersey Turnpike it was much much better.

There was not much damage to see, as what trees that had been downed have been removed along the highway.  As tempting it was to go see the damage along the coast we knew we did not belong there.

National Guard Caravan

We passed a few Service Plazas that were closed because they had no gas.  Then the next one we saw had long lines backed out to the highway waiting to buy gas.  We still had 3/4 tank, so no problem for us.

We only drove 180 miles but that was enough for today.  We found a Walmart near Trenton, NJ, and will park here overnight.  There are two other RV’s in the lot with us.

There are still 1.2 million people in New Jersey without power today and gas is in short supply.  Twelve counties in New Jersey are rationing gasoline based on their license plate number.  Even numbers can buy gas on even-numbered days, and odd numbers can buy gas on odd-numbered days.

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Rocky Neck State Park

Posted on November 2, 2012 by Marsha Brecht

The nights are getting colder and now a nor’easter is predicted in the next several days.  This is a winter storm that is headed for New York and New England.  We think it’s about time for us to move south so we left our free comfy spot at Mohegan Sun Casino and went south.  OK, so we only went about 15 miles to Aces High RV Park in East Lyme, CT.  This is one of very few RV parks in Connecticut that is open all year round.  All other campgrounds have closed for the season.  They said their electricity was restored just last night.

We wanted to spend a night with full hookups and electric heat and get all our tanks emptied or filled before driving south into the Hurricane Sandy more seriously affected areas as we don’t know what we will find for our RV needs down that way.  It’s $50 for one night here and we topped off our propane tank, 6.8 gallons for a total of $28.97.  We’ll look for gas tomorrow.

Aces High RV Park 

Some areas around here are still without power.  We did see several tree-trimming trucks and several utility trucks out working.  We found one gas station that had a big sign out saying they had no gas.  But the other stations we saw did have gas.  Some stations have gas, but can’t pump it because they don’t have the electricity. Several traffic lights are still not working.

Rocky Neck State Park on Long Island Sound took on some damage.  The beach used to have a nice long boardwalk that got ripped out, some trees were damaged and the nice sandy beach was full of debris.  Workers had cleaned up a lot of it by the time we got there.  What was left of the boardwalk had been shoveled out.

Boardwalk

There is a big beautiful shelter and terraces built by Works Progress Administration in 1936 that was blocked off.  Roof Slates have slid off the roof.

Area Closed!!  Keep Away From Building, Falling Roof Slates May Kill You!!

Broken Boardwalk

Boardwalk Pieces Piled up Neatly

Family of Swans

Dark Clouds

Missing Boardwalk Parts

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Getting Colder

Posted on November 1, 2012 by Marsha Brecht

We are discussing moving south.  The nights here are getting cold, being in the lower 30’s.  We’ve been running the generator more and more every day.  We have enough gas to run the generator and enough propane to run the furnace for a few more days.  We also have enough water for a while since we use the casino’s facilities as much as we can and buy bottled water for drinking.  But what we really need is electricity to run the electric heaters and we will eventually need some fresh water, and to find a sanitary dump.

We’d like to wait a few more days to give this area time to recover from Hurricane Sandy before we go looking for a more southern campground that might be open year-round.  Last year at this time we were in Maryland.  Many on the east coast are still without power and the traffic is extra bad around New York City while the public transportation systems are down.

As for today, we didn’t do much…slept in, watched TV, walked around the casino again just to get some exercise, and now watching more TV.  Four additional RV’s joined us in the parking lot today.  No pictures for the blog today.

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Halloween 2012

Posted on October 31, 2012 by Marsha Brecht

It’s another cloudy gloomy day here in Connecticut.  We spent most of the day watching TV reports of the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Many areas around here are still without power.

Things are getting back to normal at the casino, the shops are open and lots of tour busses of people have arrived.  I put $20 in a slot machine this morning and left with $31.  Yay for me!

Mohegan Sun Haunted House

I think we will go back inside the casino later tonight and see if the ghouls and goblins are there.

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Hurricane Sandy

Posted on October 30, 2012 by Marsha Brecht

Well, I guess we missed it.  Either it wasn’t all that bad where we are or we just were oblivious to it while we were inside the casino.

The first time we drove out to see if the RV was OK we found it was very much OK  so we didn’t worry about it too much.  Then at 10pm, after the worst of the hurricane was to have occurred, we drove out to see again.  Nothing…wasn’t raining, no wind, it was fine.

After

We had been watching the news reports on the TV’s inside the casino so we knew there was some bad stuff happening out there but when we saw everything was fine here we decided we did not have to sleep in the hotel lobby after all.  It was a quiet night and we slept well in the RV, counting our blessings.

In the morning we saw the bad reports to the west of us in New York City, to the south of us in Long Island and New Jersey, and to the east of us in Rhode Island.  We drove the Jeep into town to get Bernie’s morning coffee at McDonald’s.  The place was packed, and there was a long line at the drive-thru.  Apparently half the town and some of the small communities in the area are without power and people were coming here for a hot breakfast.

We did not see any damage on the one mile route to McD’s and decided we should be considerate not go gawking so we came right back.

Security asked us to move our RV back to the upper lot now that the storm is over, so we’re back in our regular spot.  We’re feeling quite at home here since we’ve been here two and half weeks (except for the 3 days we went to New Haven).  We do want to go south, but there are still many roads closed around New York City and that is the direction we need to go to get where we want to be so we will wait a few days before we go.

Everyone at Mohegan Sun Casino has been very nice, the security guard said they want us to be happy and we were very welcome to stay here as long as we want.

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Hurricane Sandy

Posted on October 29, 2012 by Marsha Brecht

So far what we have experienced of this “Frankenstorm” hasn’t been any worse than any storm we’ve ever experienced in Minnesota.  Maybe that’s because we’re in a sweet location.  Sandy’s route hits land in New Jersey and goes west inland and right around Connecticut, so we will miss out on the worst of it.  But it ain’t over yet.

We slept well in the RV overnight.  Since the storm was supposed to start getting bad we took our valuables and blankets and pillows drove the Jeep to one of the parking ramps at the casino.  We’ve been hanging out inside the casino for most of the day.  We went to the Monday 2-for-1 buffet for breakfast and just stayed there through lunch!  What a deal 🙂  Then we just walked around the casino.  There are no windows to the outside and we can’t hear anything over the noise of the slot machines and music playing.

The only place to see the weather activity is through the Valet Parking entrance.  The Governor of Connecticut has closed the state highways, but people were still wanting their cars.  The Valet drivers were getting soaked and blown away as there was a wind tunnel effect under the awning there.

Valet Parking Wind Tunnel

We were curious how the motor home was holding up so we took the Jeep for a little ride around the grounds.  The weather didn’t seem so bad, really.  A little rain, some wind, a few sticks on the road, but nothing worrisome.

Thames River View

The motor home was just fine.  There was hardly any wind at all at this time where it is parked.  There were three other motor homes that had been in other lots that have joined us here now.  Hopefully they will all be safe here.

There Are Four of us Now

The worst part of the storm has not hit us yet and is due tonight.

The news media make it all sound so horrible, and I’m sure it is for many people, but so far for us, no big deal.  I hope I haven’t jinxed it now by having said that.  We haven’t decided yet if we will sleep in the motor home tonight or if we’ll sleep in the casino lobby or the Jeep.  The hotel is booked up, but that’s ok, I didn’t want to spend $300 anyway.  I’ll let you know tomorrow.

There are already about a dozen people sleeping in one of the bus lobbys.  All of the shops have closed (it’s like a mall here) but there are a few restaurants still open.  The Krispy Kreme shops and the Dunkin Donut shops are still open too so that’s good.  There’s a little sports bar here with a very large TV screen that has been playing all the weather reports.  The casino has closed off many of the gambling areas, and they are running on a skeleton crew.

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Shantok, Village of Uncas

Posted on October 28, 2012 by Marsha Brecht

Fort Shantok State Park was purchased by the Mohegan Tribe and renamed Shantok, Village of Uncas.  Just across the highway from the Mohegan Sun Casino it is the location of an old Indian village and a burial ground and is a very beautiful park.   Bernie and I went to see it today.

The Leaves are Falling

There are some very nice picnic areas and hiking trails.  We walked along the Freedom Forest trail.  This took us around a pond and through the woods on a nice wide well groomed gravel trail approximately a half mile long.

Freedom Forest Trail

Freedom Forest Trail

The Freedom Forest Trail was created in 2006 as a memorial to the Connecticut residents who served in the Persian Gulf war, 5 of whom lost their lives during Operation Desert Storm.  There is a plaque at the beginning of the trail explaining it all and listing all the names.

It’s a very cloudy day, but not much wind yet.  The casino security people relocated us to a lower parking lot that might provide better shelter from the predicted high winds of Hurricane Sandy that should begin tomorrow. We lost our nice view of the tree-lined river below, but hopefully it will be safer here.  There is a large parking ramp behind us that should block the wind.

Home Again

 

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Return to Mohegan Sun Casino

Posted on October 27, 2012 by Marsha Brecht

The campground we were in was very close to the coast, on a river, had lots of trees, utility poles and lots of wires.  In light of the on-coming severe weather we thought we should leave.  Another party at the campground decided to leave too, but they were going to try to get south before the storm hits land here.  Bernie decided we should go north instead.  OK, fine, let’s just get away from the coast.

Mohegan Sun Casino

Well, here we are back at Mohegan Sun Casino.  Yes, it’s north of the coast all right, but it’s only 11 miles north.  Bernie says it’s far enough.   I asked the security guard here what he thought and he thought we would be fine here.

My iPhone WeatherBug app predicts only 32 mph winds for us here for Monday night into Tuesday when it should be at its worst.  There are no overhead wires, no trees, and we are high above the nearby river.  We should be fine, but if  we get too worried we can always check into the casino hotel for a night or two.  Right now it’s cloudy, but not windy at all.

The Latest Storm Route

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Pizza and Sandy

Posted on October 26, 2012 by Marsha Brecht

We met our daughter, Teresa, for lunch in New Haven, CT, today.  She took us downtown where we had mashed potato pizza (mashed potatoes, bacon, garlic, and a little cheese).  That was something new for us, and we liked it.

New Haven-style pizza is often called apizza and it has a very thin and very crispy crust, usually cooked in a brick oven.

Mashed Potato Pizza

Teresa had to get back to work, so we went home, didn’t do much other than walk around the campground and watch TV.

Hurricane Sandy is making her way here.   It looks like she will head inland around Delaware and go into Pennsylvania, although they still don’t know for sure where she will land.   Once that happens she will blend with an incoming cold front and could possibly spin in place for several days.  I’m hearing terms like “the storm of the century”, “Frankenstorm”, “unprecedented superstorm” “historic”.  But they said it won’t be snow.

I think there will be no escaping it.

Tomorrow morning we will leave where we are and go north, hopefully it won’t be quite as severe up that way.  We just want to get away from the shore, and away from any rivers that might flood. We will have a full tank of water and a full tank of gas, lots of food and TP and our own generator, we’ll be fine.

Hurricane Sandy

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Wash Walk and Watch

Posted on October 25, 2012 by Marsha Brecht

It’s laundry day today. Riverdale Farm Campsite has a small laundry, so that’s how we spent our morning. The good part about it is that I can use four washing machines all at once and they had a nice comfortable bench outside to sit on and enjoy the view while waiting for the machines to do the work ($2.25/load).

Pretty Tree

Nearby Hammonasset State Park , where we stayed in August, has already closed their campground for the season. We drove the Jeep over there to have a look around. We could not get into the campground, but we could see several cars in the parking lot. This is a popular place for people to walk their dogs.

We drove out to the Nature Center and went inside. We saw turtles and snakes in tanks and watched while they were being fed.

Near the Nature Center we saw this van with a really big antenna. I thought perhaps they were tracking sea life in the ocean, but turns out they are ham radio operators. Then we just walked along the beach and a short hiking trail we found.

Ham Radio Operators

Hammonasset State Park

Hammonasset State Park

It’s very calm now, but the news media is all abuzz about Hurricane Sandy on her way. People are bring ashore their boats and tucking things in, the utility companies and the Emergency Management Teams are gearing up. Our plan right now is to wait until we have more information early Saturday morning and then decide which direction we should go.

The Blue Dot is Where We Are

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Recycle and Return

Posted on October 24, 2012 by Marsha Brecht

After spending 9 days in the casino parking lot it’s time to move on.  We are getting low on water and we’re ready for a change of scenery.  As if we haven’t spent enough time in Walmarts the last few months we made a grocery run to the nearest Walmart Supercenter before we left town.  In Connecticut recycling is mandatory for everyone, it’s the law.  We found these reverse vending machines at Walmart.  You put your recycling in and it pays you…not in cash, but a voucher that you can redeem in the store.  It’s not something we see in Minnesota.

Reverse Vending Machines

Our plans were to return to Riverdale Farm Campsite, where we were before we came to the casino.  It was only an hour away, but they said if we checked in before 3:00 we would have to pay an early registration fee.  Forget that, we stopped at the Tanger Outlet Mall and hung out there until 3:00.  They had a really large parking lot and not many customers, so it was no problem parking this big rig there for a few hours.

While we were looking around we ran across this sign.   It’s so true.

Ain’t That The Truth

We’re back in Riverdale Farm Camp now, in a different spot than we were last time.  There are several motor homes here but I don’t think anyone is in them.  They look like they’re closed up for the winter.  This campground closes on November 1, which is approaching quickly.  Many other campgrounds have already closed for the winter, and more will close by November 1 making it very difficult for us to stay this far north.

Home Sweet Home

We are keeping an eye on Hurricane Sandy.

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Wicked Good

Posted on October 22, 2012 by Marsha Brecht

We’re still in the Mohegan Sun Casino RV parking lot.  It’s been a very pleasant stay but we’ve been here a week now and it’s time to move on.  We’ll think about that tomorrow.

Today we went for a walk inside the casino.  The casino has incentives for people to be here on Mondays.  It’s 2 for 1 at the buffet again, so we took advantage of that.  Also, they have a free gift for the first 2,500 guests, so we got that too.  This week’s gift was a nice collapsible two-compartment bag (box?) to put in the car to keep loose stuff from rolling around.  We can use that.

I overheard someone say something was “wicked good” today.  I have seen several signs and products using “wicked good” or “wicked hot” or other adjectives.  This is apparently a New England regional expression.  According to Urban Dictionary on the internet “If you’re from Iowa (or anywhere that isn’t New England) and you use this word, you sound like a dumb ass.”

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Bluff Point State Park, CT

Posted on October 21, 2012 by Marsha Brecht

Bluff Point State Park is a 1.5 mile long peninsula of undeveloped land on Long Island Sound.  It’s an awesome place for a nature walk.  There is a nice wide easy-walking main trail that loops around the entire park, good for walking the dog, hiking, biking, running, even horseback riding.  No motorized vehicles allowed.  There is also a mesh of narrow dirt trails leading off in all directions from the main trail, many lead to the water’s edge.

Bluff Point State Park

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The tip of the peninsula, on Long Island Sound

An Old Foundation

Other than some bathrooms along the trail, there are no buildings here.  There are remains of old dwellings and several rock walls all through the park, some very long, that appear to be property or field dividers of long ago.

One of the Rock Walls

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Johnnycakes and Coffee Milk, RI

Posted on October 20, 2012 by Marsha Brecht

Beautiful low-lying fog in the morning, but it wasn’t long before it lifted and the sun came out.

Low Fog in the Morning

After looking thru the tourist information we had we decided to drive to Rhode Island and take in the Johnny Cake Festival in the little community of Usquepaugh near West Kingston, Rhode Island, about 30 miles west of where we are parked. There is an old Grist Mill there that is the oldest manufacturing business in Rhode Island, and the second oldest continuously operating business in the state.  The festival was set up in the streets and the grounds around the mill.  There were about 100 vendors there.

Kenyon Corn Meal Co. and the Johnny Cake Festival

Johnny Cakes are simply corn meal, boiling water, and salt, no eggs or flour, and fried up like little pancakes.  They are a New England staple and some claim they originated in Rhode Island.  In the southern states they are called hoecakes.

Johnny Cakes with Maple Butter

Besides the Johnny Cakes other food items were clam cakes, clam chowder, shrimp, and lobster rolls, lots of other locally produced foods, and coffee milk. Coffee milk is another Rhode Island staple.  In fact, it is the Official State Drink of Rhode Island. There were a couple of vendors selling coffee syrup, so of course I had to buy one.  Just add a couple of tablespoons of this stuff to your milk and there you have it.

Coffee Syrup

Plummy – (Plum Beach Lighthouse)

Pretty

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Rainy Day

Posted on October 19, 2012 by Marsha Brecht

Ugh….rain all night and rain all day.  This morning we did get out to the grocery store for some needed supplies.  In between the raindrops I managed to get a few pictures.  These Canada geese greeted us on our way to the store.  I think this is the first flock of geese we’ve seen out here.

Canada Geese

Fall Colors

 

Mohegan Sun Casino

The rain kept up all day so we just hung out at home.  It’s a Friday night and people are arriving at the casino by the busloads and several more motor homes have arrived in the lot.  I think there are around 30 of us here now.  We decided to go to the casino and see all the activity.  It really has been very quiet all week and we wanted to see the difference.

There is nothing like a fresh Krispy Kreme donut still warm from the oven, so I had to buy just one… mmmmyummy.  Then we walked around for a while before finally breaking down and making a donation to the Mohegan Tribe.  Oh well, we’ve been camped in their lot for free so we justified it that way.

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Parking Lot Living

Posted on October 18, 2012 by Marsha Brecht

I tried to get a picture of the casino but it’s down the hill and behind the trees making a view of it almost impossible.  This shot shows the large hotel casino in the background.  The right wing is nearly invisible due to the reflective nature of the building materials.  The parking lot we are in is above the other lots and above a big parking ramp.  There is no way to walk to the casino; a shuttle circulates through the lot about every 20 minutes 24/7 so we can come and go to the casino whenever we want.  There are several security vehicles that continuously cruise the lots too.

Home Sweet Home

We hopped the shuttle and went to the casino for lunch.  We walked around for a while, getting our exercise for the day while deciding at which of the 30 restaurants we should eat lunch.  I would love to have the rib-eye steak at Bobby Flay’s restaurant but the $42 price tag keeps me out.  There was a burger place that was much more in our price range, so Bernie had a (really good) burger and I had the best sweet potato fries ever!

Yes, that was the highlight of our day.

Bernie spent some time washing windows and cleaning the basement compartments.  Other than that we spent the rest of the day just hanging out, watching TV, reading and researching where we should go next.

Bernie Maintenance

 

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Scenic Drive

Posted on October 17, 2012 by Marsha Brecht

Sunny days are great for sight-seeing and today was awesome, so we found a scenic drive north of here and headed out.  One of our stops was at Hopeville Pond State Park, a small park northeast of Norwich, CT.  We walked around a bit, but didn’t stay long.  The bathrooms were locked up for the season and there were only two other people here and they were fishing.

Hopeville Pond State Park

After a stop at the grocery store we went back into Mohegan Sun Casino and just walked around and explored some more, enjoying the beauty of it.

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