Munday's the Arizona Roadrunners

Newport is one of those of those towns that has everything, water, shops, history, water, golf, boating, water, shops.. well, you get the idea.. Lovely, lovely and I loved it!  We did not visit all the shops and parking can be a bit tricky.  Unfortunately for the state of RI their roads are not the best!!! Look out for that hole... ha!  Some places better than others and you have to PAY the big bucks to get on and off Newport island.. They must make a fortune but they roads are not a reflection of the $ they take in.. Loved it just the same.  We chose a picture perfect day and loved visiting the Tennis Ctr. and had a picnic in the park overlooking this bay with all the boats coming and going.. ah to be boating again... The homes are something else again but we did not do that touristy thing this time around.  If you like golfing and boating and swimming and shopping this could be a great place to visit... highly recommend it (summertime only though)...ha!

One of my new favorite places is Newport, RI.  Had to stop in to visit the Intn'l Tennis Center.  Not as elaborate as the Baseball Hall of Fame but wonderful!  Since I was familiar with so many of these all time greats in the game of tennis.  Andre has a whole room dedicated to him. ha!  They did a very nice job displaying from the beginning to now and all the in-betweens!  Of course they are beautiful grass courts and even a restaurant on the grounds to sit out and enjoy the lovely surroundings.  Flowers everywhere and we managed to pick a picture perfect day!  Fun

A few more pics from Mystic.  It is such a pretty little town with flowers everywhere and even the local restaurant (there are many) on the rivers edge had it's own personal herb garden!  Imagine how good the food must have been. Atlas we can only eat one meal at a time and pizza won out this time! Lovely even for an overcast drizzly day.  Glad to have the drizzle though because it lowers the temps!  It has been a very hot summer at times.  Have to say though as hot as it has been, it is still green everywhere and lovely scenery. Even wildflowers still in bloom out here. This bridge was built in 1822!  Can you imagine with tools they had then?  Think it is wonderful they have managed to keep it up and maintained instead of destroying and redoing.... this is big in my mind guess because I hail from the west where that is how they do things.. ha!

There is truth to the pizza being very good!  We gobbled up a large pizza as though it was the best we had ever had! ha!  A cute little pizza parlor right on main street in the darling little town of Mystic!  Loved it!  The little shops where not exactly to my personal liking so much but I loved it all anyway.  Yes, we did stop along the way afterwards for an ice cream treat as we strolled the sidewalks and river! It helps if you have seen the movie of course because they have the movie going on the tv screen inside and pictures all about the movie inside.  All gift shop items are about the place itself though...

Visited Ted's World Famous steamed burgers!  Pretty good and a fun thing to do... we don't usually go for these types of places but friend Dave gave us a tour of his home town and treated us to this cute little place. 

Yale University is a real treat to the eye!  We made it to the town too late in day for a tour but oh my goodness!  What a gorgeous school!  The students and staff are so fortunate to have such a beautiful place to study!  I love all these old buildings any way but this place was just gorgeous. Worth a trip to New Haven.  Of course we were in an area we are not familiar with so of course we ended up driving around about 2 blocks away into the worst part of the city!  How can you have such a beautiful school with money oozing everywhere and slums two blocks away?  Beyond my way of thinking.. Always the good with the bad or vise versa... So glad we made it to this school although I'll bet it is really an eye catcher in the fall when the leaves are all in the fall dress.

This is where we are calling home for the next few days.  A tricky driveway off the highway but nice enough.  We have never stayed in this area of the state before so all new to us.  A pretty area and today took long drive.  A few of the towns I loved were Milford, Ridgefield was really great and parts of New Haven..  Long day and in low 90's but tomorrow and the next day are supposed to be around 97 to 99!  Should be real cookers!  Get to stay home tomorrow with still so much to see but have to have a break some times. ha!

Another lovely day here in CT.  Leaving Chamberlain Lake here in Woodstock, CT a day early to go to Freightliners to get some work done.  Need to get that yearly maintenence done besides have them do a few extras like tuning up the generator.  Earl and Dave took ride over to Hingham, MA yesterday to check out our 1st workcamping site and looks like it will be ok.  Am sure it will be.  Only 1 of us has to put in 20 hours a week for our site and that isn't much.  Earl is a bit worried we won't get enough of a phone signal to do internet there but we'll have to wait and see where we are in the park I guess.  This has been an ok park.  50 amp service; a drain for your grey water and dump station and choice of being in under the trees where it is many degrees cooler or out in the open for satellite.  We are under the trees and hardly any tv reception which is fine by me.  We do get PBS so what more can you ask for. ha!  This place had band in last night and park is fairly full w

Our home for the next few days. Not too bad. When we arrived there was a lot of children's laughter coming from this area so we walked down to check it out... lovely little lake.  Although it was 85 degrees the clouds moved in and dumped a little shower on us for about 5 minutes but cleared the lake out fast!   They were right back out again. We we left NH we stopped for a Costco stop in Nashua on border then straight thru the Bay State for now into CT (The Constitution State).  Too much to do and not enough time. ha!  Did a little cemetery shopping today in MA and saw the damage from the recent tornado that hit Springfield and Sturbridge and a few of the other towns around there.  Yikes, but they are working to clean it up and fix things up at least as far as we could see.

Wolfeboro, NH on Lake Winnipesqukee is one of the cutest little towns you might ever like to visit!  Just little shops in an older town that is clean and neat and caters to us tourists... ha!  Of course we lucked out and chose a picture perfect day to visit which helps!     The northestern part of the country is a lot like Canada in that they like to dress up their towns and homes with flowers!  I just love all the flowers everywhere.. It must be those long winters that people really like to dress things up with so many gorgeous flowers... whatever the reason I for one am pleased! There are boat cruises available on this gorgeous lake too.  This is the largest lake in the state but not the only one by far.  There are so many lakes it is a treat to drive these roads with water everywhere or so it would seem...

St Johnsbury is a very old and cute town tucked in the green mountains of VT. We took the day to visit the Fairbanks museum which is just wonderful. Ove 450 birds on display (birds I didn't even know existed and probably don't anymore). Went up to see their planatarium. Walked through the town and enjoyed a refreshment at an outside cafe. Stopped by the Green Mountain Maple Syrup shop to see how they extract the sap from the maple trees and turn it into syrup! A fun display and very cute little shop selling everything maple! Enjoyed this outing very much. Of course there are a few things Vermont really like to push; maple syrup, moose and milk products. It's easy to see why (except for the moose) because everywhere we go we see happy cows in wonderful green fields wagging their tails like happy cows! ha!

Rolling along the highway this fun weather vane was spotted!  What a great sense of humor these folks must have to put up this huge hammer!!!

We have been on the move to see as much of the Green Mountain State as we can while here.  One of our outings included a tour at this granite quarry.  You may ask granite quarry when next door New Hampshire is the "Granite State" BUT we learned there are many different types of granite.  This quarry is best for the very white/light/grey granite used for monuments. Yes, even for the WWII Monument in DC.  It is very fine without other minerals interferring with the look/quality.  This place "Rock of Ages" has somewhere around 57 different quarry's in Vermont and around the world!  Goodness.. The tour included a bus ride out to the work yard and a film to learn about how they cut the  "benches" something like 10ft by 50ft - can you imagine and cut with a diamond cable saw.  Really very interesting and even more to learn this place has been open for over 100 years!  They only have something like 25 employees at this site and that includes the artists on

What can I say about visiting an ice cream factory.  It was a very, very busy crowded place with people waiting in long lines to purchase ice cream and other things.... The tour was not free. They must make a mint in a day!  Goodness only $2.00 for us old folks but the lines - tour was pretty good - of course you don't really see any ice cream because it's all in stainless vats and tubes so not much to see but they did have a cute little introductory film and a free sample afterwards.  Lines too long for me - ice cream just is not worth it - I know it's good but we had other places to go. ha! One thing this place did have is a little cemetery out back of all the ice cream flavors that have been tried and failed. Fun.

Our Country's birthday found us at a fun parade in Cabot, VT.  This included the surrounding towns and although floats and cars and horseback riders all threw out candy to the bystanders; the BIG highlight was the Cabot Cheese Truck!  Children and adults alike all waited with anticipation and thrill as this truck made it's way thru the parade route and threw out samples of their cheddar cheese!  Have to say it is very good but Vermont does Vermont like no other state!  They are very proud of the items they produce and stand behind their products all the way.  It's wonderful really and fun to see. An oddity for sure since I have been to every state and can't recall another one so proud of it's products. Of course Florida really pushes it's citrus fruit.  It was a fun small town parade and we were all glad to be a part of it..

Arrived yesterday at this small campground in the center of the state tucked away in the beautiful green mountains!  This may be a small campground but they are making the most of the holiday by hosting a free breakfast for all guests this morning with REAL maple syrup! Wow!  Talk about sweet and good.. yum.. They really know how to make you feel welcome.  They had a potluck last evening and a DJ tonight .. tomorrow is parade in nearby town of Cabot.  Took ride over to St. Johnsbury today to the Planatarium and walked the town. How fun... neat little town built in the 1800's and amazingly enough like so much of the east they still have the same buildings!! It's wonderful to have the east's hospitality and history!  The west coast has a lot to learn along those lines. ha!  Yes, we are having a good time and this state has a lot to offer. Rain has been threatening all day but only small sprinklings and it's been warmm without the humidity so nice.