Providence, Rhode Island

After touring the submarine center of Groton / New London in Connecticut, we headed inland from the coast and crossed the entire state of Rhode Island to arrive in Providence. This is not a long trip - about 55 miles. Rhode Island is only 37 miles wide "by the books" but that must be at the wide spot. I'd guess 25 miles is closer to the truth in the center.

We were headed for the state Capitol. Providence is a city of about 170,000 within the city limits but is the center of a much larger metropolitan area that reaches across the border into Massachusetts. (Boston lies a mere 50 miles to the Northeast.) The Capitol building sits atop a hill with a nice view of the surrounding town.


This was late on a Saturday afternoon so we didn't get to see the inside of the building. Here is the view of the surrounding area:



We circled the Capitol looking for a parking place. There was a concert scheduled for the evening nearby so both circling and parking were not simple. We eventually found a spot near Roger Williams park. This soon led us to the discovery that this Roger Williams was not "Mr. Piano." Say "Roger Williams" in Rhode Island and you are talking about one of the settlers of the Providence plantation in 1636. Parks, statues, streets and even a university bear his name.


Industry is a bit scarce in Rhode Island. Once a textile center, that industry is long gone. The local auditorium is called the Dunkin Donuts Center but Dunkin Donuts is headquartered in Quincy Massachusetts. Tourism is a big contributor to the state's economy and I'll highlight that in another post.

Leaving Providence to return to Baltic Connecticut we encountered one of the rare "black holes" that my Garmin GPS can fall into. It seems that Interstate 195 has been relocated in Providence.


"Miss Garmin," as I call her, was quite confused by this. Heading along the freeway, she kept saying "turn left" and so forth. We ended up doing a loop around, confusing her again and then just ignored her until we were back onto highway 6 headed West.

New London - Groten, Connecticut

No visit to Connecticut would be complete without visiting the submarine museum in Groton. Groton is on the East bank of the Thames and New London is on the West bank. New London is home to the Navy's submarine base while Groton holds the "submarine factory."


Since we were staying in Baltic Connecticut, just a few miles from Norwich, it was only a twenty-minute drive down the Thames river to the New London/Groton area. Groton is home to the Electric Boat Company, currently a General Dynamics division. Wander around the www.gdeb.com website for a bit and you will soon get the idea that they take security seriously:

Q: How can I get information on submarines - facts, photos, etc.?

A: Our web site provides photographs and basic public information. For security reasons, we do not release additional information.

I'd love to have taken a photo of the "No Photographing" signs that are posted on the fence along the road beside the E.B. facility. I was outvoted by the passengers in my vehicle, however. So the best I can do for you is to show you this shot captured on the Internet from Google's Street View:


And note that this is what the sign looked like when the Google Van drove by:


Fortunately, there is a public Library and Submarine Museum right on the harbor. And the museum serves as the entrance to the submarine, Nautilus. This, you may recall, was the first Atomic powered submarine. For that matter, it was the first Atomic powered vehicle of any kind. Just up the road (East, toward Rhode Island) there is a great place to stop for a picture of the Nautilus.


While we had the bad luck to arrive at a time when the Nautilus was closed for a few days, we did get to tour the museum.


Inside, I ran into a very helpful submarine veteran. He and I got to chatting and he was telling me about Mamie Eisenhower christening the Nautilus in 1954. I told him I recalled the event from the newsreel pictures that I saw as a kid. He, of course topped that by pointing to himself in one of the pictures of the event. He claimed that Ike wasn't too happy about Mamie coming up to do the christening since it was only an "experimental" vessel.

Well, that only leaves us one more item of Connecticut culture to discuss. Everywhere we went, we saw signs advertising "Grinders." Take this shop, for instance:


Wikipedia redirects "Grinder Sandwich" to Submarine Sandwich. Do more exploring and you can find some folks that claim a grinder should be a hot sandwich and should have crusty bread to distinguish it from a sub. There are even some suggestions that a "grinder" was a slang term for an Italian dock worker. I'll leave it for others to explore the origins of the term but let's just note that this is the area with the submarine factory. It also holds a lot of people of Italian background. Odds are good that one of the jobs the Italians held involved grinding the welds on submarines. Make up your own story from there.

Hartford Connecticut

While we were visiting in Connecticut, we headed over to the state's capital, Hartford. The greater Hartford area has over a million population and is home to many of the larger insurance companies. The Travelers, The Aetna and The Hartford, just to name three.

Here's downtown Hartford:


It also was home to Mark Twain, and as you can imagine, Twain's house has long been on my list of places to visit. But our first stop was at the State Capitol building. We arrived on Friday around 4:00 p.m. and were fortunate to find the building still open. The Capitol sits on a hill overlooking the city and has one of the better displays of historical memorabilia on the first floor. The building was pretty much empty except for a few security personnel and the Secretary of State's office where they were still dealing with the previous week's election problems.

The Capitol:


There are Revolutionary war treasures and Civil War treasures on the first floor. (Connecticut claims Ulysses S. Grant as a grandchild.) Many Northeastern states have a place or two that claim "George Washington slept here." The Connecticut Capitol one-ups them by displaying General Lafayette's actual bed.


Our next stop was Mark Twain's home. Here is the classic view:


On this particular autumn day, the house looked very nice from below:


Attached to the home is a small museum. Here in the Aetna Gallery, they have saved the printing press that bankrupted Twain and put him off to France, living on a shoestring, for a period of time.


There's a display about the controversy that has raged over the years with regard to Huckleberry Finn.


And a couple of posters to remind people of the movie versions of Finn that they may have seen.

Baltic Connecticut

Last week Linda and I had Linda's mom and our son, Terry join us on a trip to Connecticut and Rhode Island. Our family has a friend who is a native of Burundi who is now a member of the Sisters of Charity and is currently residing in their convent in Baltic, Connecticut.

A year or so ago, we had planned this as a driving trip to Wisconsin. I think the nun business is a bit like IBM (I've Been Moved) or the military. There was a transfer for Sister Elizabeth and a longer trip for us.

The cheapest way to get to Baltic is to fly in to New York City (LaGuardia) and drive from there. We had never visited Connecticut so it also offered us a chance to pick up between one and five state capitols for my photo album too. We headed out from Minneapolis and had the chance to experience the new TSA full-body scan procedures at MSP. We breezed through pretty easily and at least mom-in-law didn't get the usual going over for her artificial knees. I did get a an additional thorough pat-down after instructions were radioed from the scanner to my new best friend, the personal TSA agent. Yeah, those people who call it a "groping" have a good point!



We beat the rush-hour traffic out of LaGuardia, paid a $5.50 toll to escape NYC and were soon in Connecticut. I stopped at the first services plaza on I-95 marked by Golden Arches to pick up some tourist information. The building had several fast food outlets and Terry stepped into a very slow-moving line at the McDonalds counter. After reaching the front of the line and being ignored for a couple of minutes, he waved his money in the air. The manager looked, yelled "whaaaat?" and then waved someone else over to take the order. We were still in greater NYC!


Baltic, Connecticut, is a tiny village located in the larger town of Sprague. Total population of Sprague is 2,971. Baltic is about three hours drive from NYC and two hours from Boston. There is a small convenience store on Main Street that closes at 9:00 p.m. Otherwise, it appears that the Sisters of Charity are the major industry. Nearby Nowalk, about five miles away, is the nearest commercial center.


The convent house is also the home of The Academy of the Holy Family, a Catholic college prep school for young women, was founded in 1874. You can see the building in the distance in the center of this photo:



Prior to becoming a convent, the building was hotel. This must have been quite the center of activity in the late 1800s.


We enjoyed our stay in Baltic but most of our activities were in the surrounding areas. This was our first trip through the distant suburbs of New York City and Boston. It was much less populated than I expected. These tiny villages, farms surrounded by rock walls, and a general "New England Cottage" atmosphere made it a very pleasant place to visit.

There are more pictures of the convent and the sisters' activities here on their website.

The Minnesota State Fair - Part 4, Ethnic Studies

The Creative Activities building had the usual assortment of tasty looking breads, pies and cakes.

And quilts, of course. And any quilt exhibit needs an Ole and Lena model. Sven was unavailable for comment.


This year, the baking section had an Ethnic Foods exhibit. No jalapenos or spring rolls in sight here. Just good Scandinavian breads. Follow the arrow to the Lefse!


And I really couldn't decide whether to file Ole and Lena's Hotdish on a Stick under Ethnic Studies or Fair Food on a Stick.


So I put it in both places.

The Minnesota State Fair - Part 3, The Food

There is always a food you will enjoy at the Fair.

Some folks go right to the Pronto Pup stand. (since 1947!)


While others hold out until they hit the French Fries.


Some foods are distinctly Minnesotan, like this Spam Burger (Hormel foods is located in Austin, Minnesota, site of the Spam Museum - well worth a stop if you are in the vicinity)


And everyone knows, Minnesota is all about hotdish!


The fair is always introducing new foods on a stick. I've had the real thing so I passed on this opportunity. (Tough as shoe leather when I had it in Cairo.)


And for desert? How about some mini-doughnuts?

The Minnesota State Fair - Part 2, The Bad News

I've only lived in Minnesota for a bit over 40 years, so I'm still regarded as a "newcomer." But I embraced the Fair from the beginning. But I have to admit that sometimes the slow pace of infrastructure improvements surprises me. A lot of money is made at the fair. Eleven dollars to get in the gate so that you can buy a small sized malt for four dollars and a half? Somebody is making some money.

So you might think they would spend a little on the basics. We always use the Park and Ride option, parking at the lot right off I-94 and Snelling about a mile from the fairgrounds. This is a nice gravel lot but it always has puddles after a summer rain. Not that the operators don't try to deal with the issue. This year there were improvements. Three planks in parallel across the water instead of the two placed there in previous years.


Once we were inside, we noticed that some of the exhibit buildings were operating in the dark.

The knife vendor in this picture was sitting instead of slicing. He told me "I don't work in the dark for anyone. Not with sharp knives!"


It turns out that this was not a recession-based cost-cutting move by fair management. A semi driver hit a power pole on Como Avenue, knocking a power line down. It landed on Spencer Johnson's lap in a shocking surprise to him!

It's always interesting to take a look at the houses that are located near the fairgrounds. Obviously, life has handed these folks some lemons and a few literally make lemonade. Others just rent out the front yard for parking.

The Minnesota State Fair - Part 1

We spent this afternoon at the Minnesota State Fair in Saint Paul. I'll post more tomorrow but here are a few highlights.

The Fair is about FOOD!

This year, Bacon on a Stick returned.
What can I say beyond the pictures?




We didn't just eat the food, though. We enjoyed the artists' displays, like this picture of Barbie going "where no man has gone."


And we always enjoy the people-watching. Would you call this a fair-haired child?

The Fourth of July House

We've lived in our neighborhood for sixteen years. During all that time, we always have called this the "blue house."


You can barely tell why from this picture, but look on the left side. It was painted blue. Blue trim surrounding the windows. At one time, a blue spruce in the yard. At Christmas, it was decorated in blue lights. We always wondered if there was blue carpeting too.

But it changed hands a year or two ago. The new owners considered the situation with considerable care. Patches of paint appeared near the garage, then changed color. Next, in a bold move this spring, the blue paint on the bricks (lower front) turned white.

The final scheme began to emerge as a red patch grew to encompass an entire section on the right.

Finally, late in June, the final answer emerged. Red it would be! With that splash of white for accent.

And as I drove out to the store on June 30 to buy some items for our Fourth of July celebration I saw the work in progress. A red, white and blue house! Quick! Back home for the camera. I'll bet no one else caught the celebratory mood.

The actual photo doesn't do justice to the original blue color. Perhaps 16 or more years of sunshine has faded it a bit. If only you could see it as it appeared in my mind.

Here Comes the Parade!

I was back in Solon Springs on Sunday to watch the parade. Solon Springs knows that it can't compete head-to-head with Gordon on the Fourth of July. The Gordon fireworks display is known throughout the northland. They call it "world class" and they aren't kidding. It bests many major city displays.

So Solon Springs holds their "Summer Festival" a week later. Bingo, Toilet Races, they've got it all. As the Northwoods shopper schedule shows, the parade is held on Sunday afternoon. So I headed into town and took a few photos.


Naturally, the parade started off with a presentation of the colors. They came from Legion Post 499 in Gordon.


The fire department followed close behind distributing candy to the youngsters.


Smokey the bear followed next behind the fire department. Seems appropriate!


Now this bear didn't seem as happy about his situation. He belonged to the bow-hunters' exhibit. I hope these guys take care of the local bear that has been picking our raspberries and scaring the daylights out of Linda!


No politician can resist a parade. Both the incumbent and the challenger rolled out for this one.


Even the long-term powerful state senator, Bob Jauch, made an appearance. Jauch represents an area of several counties in northwest Wisconsin and has done so since 1986.


Ole's IGA (visible in a couple of the photos above) was closed for the parade. The staff was out marching in it!


And, of course, no parade is complete without a brass band. Solon's played a joyful tune.


Well, that's it. It was over in thirteen minutes. Still, it was worth the drive to see a genuine small-town celebration.