 We left Maine on someone's very special, 13th birthday! She had already done all her celebrating in Kansas, with a surprise limo ride birthday party with friends, and a purity ring date as well with mom and dad. She knew it would be a low key day, but in true Ferguson tradition, would get to be the Queen of the day and pick out what we ate for supper and dessert. First thing she asked for was a cup of coffee. I said no, dad said yes, so she got a half a cup. Haha! I told her she has to wait until she is 16 or more to enjoy that again. ;)  Today, we continue with the New England States.....after Maine we headed to Connecticut. We had more adventures, not with low bridges, but with no gas stations that sold diesel that we could fit in. AND, we may or may not have gotten trapped in a windy hilly bridge road with no way to make the turn in a small neighborhood we ended up in. Dale says GPS is the devil and much prefers map study. He is such a champ, and figured out a way to get us out, avoiding a mailbox, telephone pole and a truck and house, and even managed to turn around a 7- foot rig so we didn't have to back back out. Needless to say, we planned to do the same as last time. STAY PUT in the spot we fit and hop in the car to do our state exploring! We got in kind of late afternoon, so we set up, relaxed and then read some reviews on Trip Advisor to decide where the birthday girl wanted to eat.  She picked Chinese. Well, in a town filled with sea food joints, italian bistros and gyros, I was afraid we'd end up at some nasty buffet. BUT, thankfully, the #2 place to eat with Thai food at the Lazy Leopard, it got great reviews, so off we went.
 The entire family groaned when we took our first bites. The depth of flavor, selection of spices and attention to detail, with fresh everything, made this over the top amazing! Dale and Ty both threatened to lick their plates. Dale got his 5 star hot, and told them to make him almost cry, and loved it. Crazy! I got a spicy Basil Shrimp dish that they said wasn't too hot. OH MY. I sneezed it was so hot, blew my nose, and felt the sweat beading up on my forehead, but I ate it, because the flavors were soooo incredible! Afterwards we walked around downtown for a while and check out the sites.  We spent the entire next day at the pool and just RELAXED! That is nice to do, we are totally into down time. Plus, RV Parks have such nice amenities for us to take advantage of like game rooms, bike paths, hiking trails, swimming pools and more, so there are times its just as fun to stay put. So for the remainder of our time in the New England states, we decided to stay parked in Connecticut, while we visited Rhode Island and Massachusetts for day trips by car. Sometimes traffic was CRAZY bad, and as far as the eye could see. Made us glad for wide open spaces back home in the midwest!   Did you know in Maine, they served Lobster Rolls with cold meat, and hot butter? Oh my gracious, it was AMAZING! So naturally, when I saw Lobster Rolls in Rhode Island, I had to get some. Told you I have a Lobster Roll problem.... When the man at the cash register asked me if I want my sandwich served hot with butter or cold with mayo, I said cold with butter. He literally gasped. "We don't EVER do that," he says. OKAY. OKAY. Hot with butter is fine. Guess what? Not as good! Funny, right?! Who knew it was such a state to state thing!  One of the highlights of our time, was the Cliff Walk. 64 privately owned properties with a 3 1/2 mile walking trail behind it. These properties include several Vanderbuilt homes that would make your jaw drop and so much history.
    Some parts of this walk is rugged rock to climb over, some parts are in a tunnel, some parts are paved; all really cool and pretty! 
We sat and just enjoyed the beach below for a while, before turning around to hike it all back. I have never seen such an interesting beach. There were some rocks that looked like those fancy show dogs with the long hair! Haha! And, during low tide, there was this spongy, bug filled, rotting crust that your feet sunk into, every step of the way. The regular shore line was rocks and rough sand. VERY different!   Next time we go, we want to take the $100 tour through the mansions too! By the time we walked a good chunk of the 3 mile long trail, we were hot and ready to head back the hour home to our RV. Have you ever had Dell's frozen lemonade? Apparently, its a "thing" in Rhode Island, there are stands everywhere!!!!!! Its a light, fine, white {no dye thank goodness} ice of fresh squeezed lemonade that is really tart and delicious. We pulled up to the stand to see a big CASH ONLY sign. Guess who dug out enough change from the center console to get us each a teeny one. Haha, everyone had a good laugh at the counter! It was worth it thought, very refreshing for the hour ride home.  I try to plan ahead easy suppers on adventure days, and this day was no different. I still love to try new recipes, so I am weekly digging out recipe books, or on my kindle looking up Instant Pot recipes. {That's a whole nother blog I could do...} But this one was a repeat from last month, because it was worth repeating! YUM! Check it out. Went perfect with the fresh corn on the cob we bought from a farm stand and grilled when we got home. Did you know they also stocked Humble Pie? Humble Pie IS a thing! Who knew! I have never eaten it before. ;) Dale however, does alot. Bahahahahah! Ok, so real Humble Pie is apparently, Peaches, Raspberries, Blueberries with a hint of lemon. It is AH STINKING MAZING! Hopefully, that's the only Humble Pie I ever have to eat...... 
  Enjoy! I made sure to over season, and you won't want to miss the extra flavor the cheese on top adds. I also went to an olive bar to get the best kind of olives, not the jar kind. I did green feta stuffed ones, marinated in italian dressing, and the marinated kalamata. It's all about fresh ingredients! Tomorrow, we leave the North East, and end our "East Coast Summer" leg of the trip. We are heading towards Ohio for a week of classes there. Then on up into Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota! We have never been, so we are super excited!
Hugs, T
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While up in the New England states, we quickly discovered, that the smartest thing we could do, was to stay put at the RV park we fit at in Maine, and just drive our car on day trips to all the different states near by. This blog is about New Hampshire and Vermont. One of the perks of the east coast, is that in an hour or two, you can be in the middle of an entirely new state! :) What a concept!  The views were beautiful and we were sure to hit small towns and window shop, as well as disappear into the beautiful mountains, trails and waterfalls in the area. We stopped at a farmers market, then Jeb's General Store, and checked out all the cool Maple syrup products and picked out a little maple leaf candy of pure maple syrup to try. DEEELICIOUS! I love all the old covered bridges, the rickety cemeteries along the road, and how all the houses have these super narrow double front doors. The local grocery stores aren't chains, rather these little bitty mom and pop stores along the road. LOVE that! New Hampshire is home of the oh so beautiful White Mountains, so we were sure to go explore up there too. We ate lunch at a little pizza joint in Vermont and enjoyed the views before heading to find a swimming hole or hiking trail to explore!  This was, by far, my FAVORITE part of this road trip. We found the coolest river spot where no one else was, and just had a ball. Sophie was hopping from rock to rock, the kids were splashing and cooling off. Then as I hiked up the hill for a shot of them playing, I discovered that the river split above and actually was flowing over an entirely separate rock section at the Y, making another cool waterfall place to play in. Everyone headed up, and before long, the dares were flying. Avery dunked her head in, and soon was all in. Well, if she did it, then Destiny was going to go completely under and swim in the ice cold water as well. The boys, at the very end as we walked to the car, decided they would NOT be one upped by their sisters, so they dunked in too. BRRRRR!!!! It was so cold, but SO refreshingly beautiful. All the pics are below in the slide show, take a peek.... Time to head back to camp, and get some cold, tired, smiling kids to bed! Tomorrow, we would pull out and head 4 hours to enjoy Connecticut.... See you next time, T  |
Tonya Ferguson
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