Connecticut and Rhode Island – Plymouth, CT

Misquamicut State Beach Park in Rhode Island is obviously very popular on holiday weekends

We landed at Gentile’s Campground on Saturday, June 30^th, just in time for the 4^th of July crowd. As campgrounds go, Gentile’s is a mixed bag. While the site was level, the owners very nice, and the place was quite wooded, it was also sort of trashy in spots. Most of that was due to the large number of permanent or seasonal campers having crap galore around their sites (two of whom collected wooden pallets!?). Adding to the mix was a fair number of tired structures and surplus building material. In the park’s defense, it is 51 years old and probably requires a lot maintenance. But that doesn’t excuse its tenants.

Gentile’s Campground is very wooded, but it’s 51-year old age really shows

A game of pool, anyone? But you’ll have to play with another person because someone will have to help you lift the crap off the table

I had to laugh that Alayne took a picture of the hand-written cautionary note that forewarns all comers not to eat or drink in the rec hall, as if that would hurt anything at this point. Ironically, special attention is given to the pool table! I wouldn’t mind having one of those old bowling machines in my game room at some point down the road, but I’d want one with straight pins

There is no shortage of eye candy at Gentile’s. But, I didn’t realize 1980 vintage fuel pumps were so collectible

The town of Plymouth where we were staying was very quaint. It was established in 1795! We found Stop and Shop in nearby Waterbury to be an okay place for groceries, although you really had to watch the dates on their packaged food. And, I think they gouge the locals on some items. We went to a mall in Waterbury to see if T-Mobile had a mobile Wi-Fi hot spot because we managed to exhaust the data limits on my phone. But unfortunately, they did not have one. So, we are at the mercy of the campground Wi-Fi hotspots until my next billing cycle.

A view of  Mystic, Connecticut. Once home to the Pequot Indians, they were nearly driven to extinction in Mystic in one of the first instances of settler-Indian conflicts. Mystic later developed into a thriving seaport and shipyard

It would have been remiss of us not to visit the Country’s smallest state in the Union – Rhode Island. So, we set out for Misquamicut State Beach on Monday. Given the holiday weekend, the beach was swamped. I stuck my hand in the water and was surprised how warm the Atlantic felt.

You could almost walk across the people in the water at Misquamicut Beach without ever getting yourself wet

As for the drive into Plymouth/Waterbury/Hartford, it was a PITA. The roads in Connecticut leave a lot to be desired as far as quality and quantity. The traffic was miserable even coming in on a Saturday afternoon.

One of the more flattering pictures of Gentile’s Campground

Our RV can dress up almost any campground. The Honda, on the other hand, is a different (and sad) story

Aside from chilling out over the weekend, we did very little, and we were back on the road by Tuesday.