10/10/11 - Danbury, CT - 136 miles

We were camped near the MA/RI stateline and it didn't take us long to cross RI. We did drive through a couple small towns that were having Columbus Day celebrations - one in RI and one in CT. We had not seen a welcome sign like this one going through Hartford. We stayed at a Walmart in Danbury for the night.

Sunset

A really pretty sunset when we left Newport, RI

Coastal Drive

We drove along the coast around Newport and saw some beautiful large homes (guess these are the modern day mansions). We then went downtown to do some shopping.

Newport Harbor

We drove down to the harbor area, had our lunch snacks that we had taken and just watched the water traffic. There were lots and lots of big sailboats here and this cruise ship had stopped here as well.

Chateau-Sur-Mer

When we got back to Newport we still had another mansion that we could go through so this is the one we chose. The trees on this property were huge.

They had this area set up where you could make your own cranberry bog.....I didn't think I needed to do that to carry around the country in the motorhome!

The cranberry season begins in winter when growers flood the bogs with water that freezes and protects the vines from drying out. As the winter snow melts and spring arrives, the bogs are drained. Shortly thereafter blossoms begin to appear. In mid-July, petals fall from the flowers leaving the tiny green fruit that after weeks of summer sun, become red, ripe, cranberries. The cranberry harvest takes place once a year from mid-September through early November. There are two methods of harvesting cranberriesm dry and wet harvesting. What we saw was the wet harvesting that involves flooding the bog with up to a foot of water and using a water reel to free the berries from the vines. Berries are corralled and removed from the bogs by pumps or conveyors. Over 90 percent of the Massachesetts crop is wet harvested.

With about 400 cranberry growers in the state of Massachusetts, growing cranberries on approximately 14,000 acres, the cranberry industry is the largest production food crop in the state. Many cranberry bogs are part of a multi-generational family of growers. The vast majority of bogs in Massachusetts are less than 20 acres.

10/9/11 - Annual Cranberry Harvest Celebration

We really enjoy seeing how different crops are harvested and we hit a great one today. This was a 2-day celebration and we got there shortly after they opened at 10:00 since we wanted to go back and finish seeing Newport. We had about a 30 mile drive to Waeham, MA and had to park in a huge field and were then bused to the main gate in school buses. After paying to get in we again were bused out to the

We had about a 30-mile drive back to the motorhome and saw this nuclear plant on the way back against a pretty sunset. Richard and Karen arrived shortly after we did and we went to eat at Five Guys for burgers and fries.....our first experience at a Five Guys.

Marble House

William K. Vanderbilt, grandson of the shipping and railroad magnate, Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt built his $11,000,000 "cottage" between 1889 and 1892. The drive to outbuild, outstaff, outdress and outparty their peers was intense amoung America's wealthiest families during the "gilded" 1880s and '90s, and William and Alva Vanderbilt were probably the strongest contenders. The divorced and in later life Alva hosted "Votes for Women" rallies at Marble House. Alva built the Chinese Teahouse, a small, colorful oriental-style pavilion behind Marble House. We saw Richard and Karen again at this mansion and decided to meet back at our motorhome and go to dinner.

Rosecliff

Theresa Oelrichs was born in Virginia City, NV to a family of ordinary means. In a partnership with three other young Irishmen her father James began mining in western Nevada and eventually made a strike that surpassed earlier ones that became known as The Comstock Lode, the country's largest known silver deposit. Her parents divorced in 1883 and her mother was awarded the largest divorce settlement the country had ever witnessed: $5,000,000. Theresa had access to a fortune that few could match. On her mother's death she inherited a substantial fortune and three years later her father died leaving the bulk of his enormous wealth to his two daughter. She was an ambitious, energetic woman whose intelligence and drive were channeled into the avenue of High Society - her niece wrote that Theresa "was strongly addicted to Society as a business." Rosecliff was created as a showcase for extravagant summer entertainments. The last family to call Rosecliff home was Mr. and Mrs. J. Edgar Monroe of New Orleans. Rosecliff was used as a setting for scenes in "The Great Gatsby".

The Breakers

This was the 70-room summer estate of New York Central Railroad President Cornelius Vanderbilt II. It includes a two and a half story high Great Hall and a Morning Room adorned with platinum leaf wall panels. Its interiors feature rare marble, alabaster, and gilded woods throughout. It is hard to believe how big these mansions are and to think that they were only used approximately 12 weeks a year as summer cottages! The Breakers had a beautiful view of the Atlantic Ocean. While going through this mansion we ran into Richard and Karen....they had stayed back in the Foxboro/Boston area for a few days...we couldn't believe we ran into each other again.