Where Did Everyone Go?

Mystic KOA
North Stonington, Connecticut

This campground is packed with families enjoying the long holiday weekend.  The camping sites are much larger out west, but that's the price you pay to be near populated areas.  We were surprised to learn that we had a coveted site just three spaces from the outdoor movie.  We were inside our RV watching TV with the windows closed and the air conditioner on and still could hear the movie better than our TV.  I thought it must be Star Wars or something like that because we kept hearing loud explosions and other sound effects.  The next day we found out it was a kids movie, "The Minions".





The first day we were here we drove over to Mystic Seaport.












We expected large crowds because it was a Saturday over the 4th of July weekend.  We were pleasantly surprised to find the site almost empty. 











Notice the large crowds.

It was very windy, so not as many sailboats on the Mystic River as usual.  Notice the draw bridge in the distance.


The next day we went to Rhode Island to see where we used to live.  The Navy base at Quonset Point is closed now and the root beer stand where Dave and I met over 50 years ago is gone.  We had planned to visit the Naval Air Museum but it closed last year and no one bothered to update the website.



We stopped at the SeaBee Museum and even though the website said it was opened every day, it was closed (they are now only opened three days a week) and their website hadn't been updated either.

SeeBee Mascot










 



After lucking out with our first two objectives for the day, we decided to head over to Newport to see Fort Adams.  It is the largest land fort in the United States.

















We had a great tour and were even allowed to go into the "listening tunnels".

The tunnels were very dark with low ceilings and uneven floors.  After we came out of the tunnels we were given stickers stating we were now official "tunnel rats".










There was a lot of activity on the bay.







Before we headed back to the campsite I wanted to do the "Cliff Walk".  This is a trail along the water on the east side of the island down around the southern tip of the island.   We never made it because we found out where everyone went who was usually at the other places - TO THE BEACH!  There was so much traffic we could not find a place to park.  Twice we had to turn the truck around because we couldn't get down the street due to all the cars parked in undesignated spots.  Dave's not much for hikes so he seemed to be pleased when we finally decided to head back without experiencing the Cliff Walk.  We will have to save that for another time.