Lots to Say About New England: Michigan to Niagara Falls, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts

From the cottage in Michigan we skipped across the Canadian border for a shorter route to the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York. Niagara Falls, Ontario was on the way and since it’s been awhile since either of us saw it we decided to stop. It was just like we remembered; beautiful but with masses of people and extremely touristy. We stayed long enough to admire the falls and drive through town before we headed into New York.

Canadian Horseshoe Falls and US Falls in Background

From Niagara Falls we drove across northern New York till we hit Howe’s Caverns. Dave’s mom told us this was worth a stop so we took the hour long, underground tour. We saw huge stalactites (hangs from ceiling) and stalagmites (grows from ground up), took an underground boat ride and wound our way through a slot canyon within the cavern. It was a lot of fun.

Stalactites
jody in Cavern
Underground Boat Ride
We made it to the Adirondack Mountains a couple of days after setting out. I was shocked to see the amount of private land interspersed with the park. I had thought this area was set aside in its entirety for recreation. At least that was how it appeared on the maps we had. dave had been warning me that this section of our trip would be very populated and very expensive. Now I was beginning to understand. The price of camping was the next wake up call. Dispersed camping was out of the question with the van. The roads were all lined with private land so you couldn’t just pull off a back road and settle in for the night. To make matters worse before we left Michigan we dumped all our camping gear since we figured we weren’t doing any backpacking on this stretch of trip. So we couldn’t hike in and camp away from the van. We were stuck to pay the $20/night bill almost every night while in New England. So much for our $1/night average for the first ten months of our trip!

At least this camp spot had a nice river next to it.
While in upstate New York we stopped in Lake Placid. It hosted the 1932 and 1980 Olympic Games. We walked into the Olympic Center and found the USA Women’s Hockey Team practicing. We watched for awhile before driving around town and past the Ski Jump.

USA Woman’s Hockey Team
Ski Jump
From the Adirondack Mountains we drove through western Vermont and then down to Gillette Castle State Park in Connecticut to check out the medieval looking building. William Gillette was a stage and screen star who created the role of Sherlock Holmes. He had the castle built from 1914 to 1919. Although we didn’t tour the inside we knew it had 24 rooms and numerous playful details such as interior windows, built in couches, clever locks and 47 hand carved doors, no two alike! We couldn’t beat the FREE price tag.

The Castle From Afar
The Living Room
Connecticut was not our favorite stop on the trip. With hardly any public land and crazy rules at most of its state campgrounds, like only one dog per site, we were forced to continue driving even though we wished to stop. After an evening spent at the Park and Ride we continued into Rhode Island.

Newport Island, Rhode Island is considered one of the richest places in the eastern US. It was amazing and pretty scary to see what this class of people called their ‘cottages.’ Huge mansions lined the ocean front property. We drove around on the island and took a stroll along the Cliff Walk to see the views these ‘cottages’ had. Do you think you get bored with that much money?

Here are Some Mansions….. arrrrr….I Mean Cottages
Cliff Walk
From Newport Island we headed toward Cape Cod, home to nice people and lots of ticks!! The dog thing was becoming a major headache for us. They weren’t allowed anywhere and it was too hot to leave them in the van. The temperatures were getting into the mid 90’s. We were overjoyed to find dogs allowed on some of the beaches on Cape Cod. Sprout couldn’t wait to get into the ocean to cool off.

Cape Cod Swimming
The ticks were unbelievable on the Cape. While on a short hike around the parking area at the Cape Cod Lighthouse, Otis and Sprout picked up many wood ticks. We discovered some of them while at the beach but we were picking off lots more throughout the next couple of days. Good thing we have them on flea and tick medicine.

Cape Cod Lighthouse
From Cape Cod we stopped in Plymouth, Massachusetts to see Plymouth Rock and a replica of the Mayflower. Surprisingly it wasn’t very crowded but the temperature was over 95°F. We had to be quick seeing the rock and the ship so the dogs didn’t bake in the van.

The crazy thing about the rock itself is there is no account of it at the Pilgrim landing in 1620. In fact the rock was never mentioned till 1741, over 120 years later. It was chopped up and traveled across town at different points of display. The rock we see today is three times smaller than the original. It was just like my mom had told us, unimpressive.

Plymouth Rock
Mayflower Replica
The temperature was not cooperating for us. It just kept rising. It was 98°F when we decided to bypass Boston. The humidity was also climbing. There was no way we could subject the dogs to such torture. We were bummed. Boston was high on our short list of cities we wanted to check out. That decision moved us into New Hampshire.