Today was finally sunny! We rode our bicycles out to Gooseberry Neck, a small island at the mouth of Buzzard’s Bay. There is a nice park here with trails in the dunes out to the beach. The beach is an interesting mix of sand and rocks. Starting down the trail, you are immediately hit with the smell of honeysuckle and the sites of the dunes all around. On the western fork of the trail, there are two cement towers. These are relics of the US’s WWII era defense system, having once served as submarine watch towers during war. Down the eastern fork is more beach with larger boulders, some of which were sunken in to the ocean.

We didn’t even make it 36 hours! While we do have solar to charge our batteries, the weather was NOT cooperative and it has been very cloudy! So this afternoon, Steve went to talk to the campground about using a generator (which they do not allow), but they did have an open site with electric available until Thursday. So, we had an impromptu short travel day to another site within the same campground. The jury is still out if we will move back and try to boondock again for the remaining 3 days of our stay here, but for now, we are a row off the beach. We can still hear the waves crashing from our site and this site is HUGE compared to the one on the beach.

Whoops! After an easy travel day, we get to our site and we realize that we have NO hookups. Not even electric! Surprise! We’re now boondocking at the beach for a week! Look at that view right outside our front door! (This was while we were filling with water. We definitely did not stay hooked up long since the potable water is communal!)

Stay tuned to see if we make it with our solar setup and batteries.

My (Kate) favorite part of the Mystic Seaport museum was actually the room of figureheads. All the ones on display were from decommissioned ships from the 18th and 19th centuries, although figureheads were in use on ships many centuries before then. Figureheads come in all shapes and sizes. The exhibit currently features about 30 total carvings, with most of those being figureheads. Some, like the Hippocampus (sea horse) are not figureheads, but intricate carvings from the same period. The exhibit rotates the museums full collection which includes several dozen detailed pieces. There is also a ship’s carver location on site at the museum where you can discuss the process with the carver when he is in (he was on lunch during our visit to his shop).

Today we visited the Submarine Force Museum and took a historic boat tour of the Thames River in the nearby town of Groton, CT. The tour was about 75 minutes and took us a couple miles up and down the Thames River, showing us sites used in the defense of our country over the past 250 years. We learned about the ship and submarine building industry, which is still a major part of the economy here, and the crucial part this area played in the founding of our country.

The Mystic Seaport Museum has a working shipyard where historic ships come for restorative and preservation work. The ship builders here are trained in traditional shipbuilding methods, making this the perfect place for restoration and preservation of America’s treasures.

Currently, they are working on the Jamestown Settlement History Museum’s Flagship, the Susan Constant . While there was no active restoration in process, we were able to get up close and look at the ship in the yard and see some of the work being done on her.

If you are planning to visit Mystic, CT we highly recommend a day (or two) at Mystic Seaport Museum . What an awesome place! It reminds me a LOT of The Henry Ford in Detroit (just smaller and with a different focus). We learned a bit about the whaling industry, ship building, and the historical context of the area.

At the center of the amazing seaport town within the museum stands the Charles W. Morgan - the last surviving wooden whaleship and oldest American merchant ship afloat. It launched in 1841 at New Bedford, Massachusetts and was one of over 3,000 American ships hunting whales at the time. The town also includes a rope maker, druggist, general store, ship carver, and several other living history exhibits.

The main draw for me (Kate) to Mystic, CT was the 1988 film Mystic Pizza . Not gonna lie, I’m a big fan of this movie! So when we decided to come up to New England this year, Mystic had to be on the route! The movie Mystic Pizza was inspired by a vacation that Amy Jones (screenwriter) had in this town. We took an evening to enjoy “a slice of heaven” and take in the beautiful town. We walked the main road in downtown, over the drawbridge, and stopped at the Mystic River Park. This park was super active with lots of visitors and even live music. After our walk, we stopped for ice cream at Drawbridge Ice Cream and enjoyed our dessert while people watching.

Today’s travel day was particularly long for us clocking in about 345 miles and 9 hours of travel. We left Cape May, NJ around 10am (which is about an hour early for us) and arrived at Mystic, CT close to 7pm. Based on several conversations with big RV owners who travel in the northeast, we decided to go about 40 miles out of the way to skirt further outside of New York City traffic. We only hit backups trying to leave the Jersey Shore and had a fairly smooth travel day, but all 5 of us are exhausted. I’m glad this part of our travel this year is behind us! Our next really long travel day is in September as we head south, but we still have a couple 250 mile days between now and then.