Connecticut and My English Family

After another late check out thanks to Yogi we headed South into yet another state, Connecticut. Being from the relatively large state of California it is unusual to be cruising through so many smaller states in such a short amount of time. Kind of reminded me of the first time my parents took us to Europe in 1979 to visit our English family. (Hi Clova! Tell Alastair I’m still looking to take a picture of his name on some sign somewhere. Just warn him though; it might not be “Alastair Financial” or “Alastair’s 007 Investigators.” It might turn out to be “Alistair’s Sewer Services.”), By the way all of my English relatives in England are the best. We so much wish there was an “Atlantic Tunnel” (kinda like the Chunnel but longer). We would be heading east, in a second, to visit everyone. Unfortunately my Grandfather (my mom’s biological father), Brian Millns passed away recently. He was a great man with an incredible life story. Fortunately he wrote his life’s memoirs that I had the privilege of reading one night till the wee hours in the morning. I am lucky to have Rosemary (my grandmother). I have fond memories of Brian and Rosemary and my stays at their house, “Packway” on Bayleys Hill in Seven Oaks, Kent, England. Hi everyone! Rosemary, Auntie Clova and Alastair and my cousins Lucy, Jamie and Rory (my kids can’t believe your over 6’ tall. It doesn’t seem that long ago when you and Clova were visiting us in our Reno home). Uncle Dug and Lynn (who sadly we haven’t even met yet) and their little girl Iona. Uncle Qui and Suzi and their kids Sophie and Hugo. And Uncle Ian. I threw in the “Uncles” and “Aunt” for those of you who are trying to follow me on this one. By the way, at our wedding Clova was gracious enough to read the popular wedding verse on love from 1 Californians (scratch that), 1 Corinthians Chapter 13 (the English accent had everyone in a silent awe). Not to be outdone, Dug wrote a song for us and actually played it at our reception at the Granite Bay Country Club. Man, do I go off on tangents. Cindi seriously is not going to let me write these blogs anymore.

OK… now I need some “post a comment(s)” from English family.

Where was I? Anyway back in 1979 I remember cruising around Europe in a large van with my immediate family and Brian, Rosemary, Dug and Qui. I woke up once and asked, “What country are we in?” Seemed crazy at the time to say that. I’ve finally come full circle—some of the countries in Europe are small, similar to some of the states in the US, which are also small. The kids have woken up on this part of the trip and asked, “What state are we in?”

OK, that is enough for today. Connecticut will be continued on the next blog.

Rhode Island and back into Massachusetts

After 3 nights and another full day we headed out of Cape Cod to pay a visit to the smallest of the 50 states, Rhode Island. Is Hawaii bigger? (Editorial comment: just checked and Rhode Island is the smallest followed closely by Delaware. Hawaii is actually 4th just ahead of the 2 littles and Connecticut.) We plan to touch all 48 states and RI would be an easy one to miss if we weren’t navigating correctly. Speaking of islands... why is it called Rhode Island anyway? It not even an island. Interstingly enough, if you look in the US Constitution the official name of Rhode Island is "State of Rhode Island and Providence." In the 1600s the Rhode Island mainland was called Providence Plantations, and the largest Island of the six other islands of Rhode Island was called Rhode Island. Interesting huh?

In the afternoon we found diesel for $3.39 per gallon! The cheapest we’ve paid since we’ve started this journey. I was feeling pretty good about this especially seeing $3.89 signs just a couple blocks away. Thanks again www.gasbuddy.com. Still no matter what the price is, it hurts watching the gallons registering 96… 97… 98+ gls. It is a big drop from the $5.04 per gallon we paid in Quebec though. We hit a food court in a mall for dinner, bought Sterling a New England Patriots football to add to his collection, then beelined toward our accommodation for the night. I decided to stay at the “W” “M” in an effort to accumulate some more points to help us qualify for their top-tier Platinum level. This WM was in Providence, Rhode Island near the Capitol building and came with free music until 2 am courtesy of a local nightclub across the street.

In the morning I perused one of Cindi’s favorite sites, www.traveladvisor.com to find out what not to miss in the area. Sorry Providence lovers, but nothing interesting really came up. So we looped around their Capitol and headed to a truck wash for a much needed shower for (insert your favorite female name here. We still haven’t arrived at a name for our motorcoach). Well, bummer. This place wanted $85 bucks to wash her, not even including our pull car. Sometimes I’m too chea--U turn. That’s enough of the little state.

With the cold weather comes the upcoming closure of the “Six Flag – More Fun” Amusement Parks. Fortunately for us Halloween is approaching and they open up on October weekends to lure people in one last time for their “Fright Fest.” When we bought our annual passes at the beginning of 2008 we scouted out all the parks in the US. There was one in Springfield, MA that wanted us to visit so I found another Jellystone Yogi Bear RV Park not too far away and decided to plant it again for another 3 night stay. We arrived on a Friday around noon to a ghost town but after a few hours the park was livening up with people. Some passing through, like us, and others who rent a site for, I guess, the whole season. Since Six Flags was open Friday night at 5 we decided to head over and check it out. Lines were not too bad but the kids weren't too excited about the “hot zone” areas in the park where it got a little scary, so we hit a few rides then bailed.

On Saturday we hung around the RV park and joined some of the activities including: hayride with Yogi (Peyton drew him a picture later and hand delivered it to him personally), bingo (Tanner and Sterling played--no winners today), and outdoor Olympic Games (Peyton and I were the only ones to show up but we had fun anyway playing racing games and Simon-says. That evening we watched USC win another football game to top off a another great day.

On Sunday we headed over to Six Flags again to hit the good rides. My favorite was Superman, which has been rated the best steel rollercoaster in the US for 4 straight years. The wait was bad but the ride was good. Peyton, one of our family’s “ride-on-anything” daredevils, was disappointed that his 50" height wasn’t quite high enough. That is the only thing that stopped him. We walked and rode and walked and rode but the long lines (thanks to a Diabetes Walk in the parking lot before the park opened) and the night fall approaching were enough to cause us to exit a bit early. We all had a great time though. Outings to Six Flags remains one of our cheapest days thanks to the annual passes. We all are missing mommy though.