#105 NE Corner-Little Rhody and Mass

September 2, 2007

207 miles

NE Corner Trip

Day 3

Sunday

It's 58 degrees as we roll out at 8:50am from the Hilton Garden Inn in Norwalk, CT.

First stop is the The Weir Farm NHS, a farm bought by J Alden Weir in 1882 and used as an artist's retreat for he and his artist friends. Later, his daughter, Dorothy, continued the artistic traditions.

It easily turned into a longer than anticipated stop. We couldn't resist walking around the grounds taking in the cool crisp air and the bright sun lighting up the landscape. I can see how it was a place of inspiration for artists...and still is.

For you Monopoly players out there...Marvin Gardens.

We make it into Little Rhody!

Next stop is at the Roger Williams NM in Providence, RI. Williams was the founder of Rhode Island, the first secular state. Williams was banished from Massachusetts for his beliefs so he founded Rhode Island as a colony where all could come and worship as they wished without interference from the State. No one knows what Roger Williams actually looks like. There was no known image done during his lifetime. All paintings and sculptures of Williams are only artists' impressions. It is worth noting that the statue of Roger Williams located at the Roger Williams University actually features the face of Boston Red Sox slugger Ted Williams. Who knew!?

A lesson offered in Providence:

The Three Sisters... Corn, Beans, and Squash. The State Capital building in Providence, RI.River Bend Farm located in Uxbridge, MA is part of the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor.

The afternoon we showed up, there was a community band concert in the park. It was a nice bonus to the stamp collected at the visitor center.A lake near Northbridge, Massachusetts lured me to stop long enough for a quick pic before hopping back onto MA146 and riding into Worcester where we finally found the hotel where we had a room reserved for the night. Much of Worcester's downtown has been reconstructed to make room for a new Convention Center and apparently none of the mapping databases has been updated to reflect the new street names. Very frustrating, but it was a nice hotel once we finally found it.

It's so big...how could it be that hard to find? Because, we were on the other side of the even bigger convention center and couldn't see it.After riding in circles in the old downtown area of Worcester, it seemed much later than it actually was when we finally checked in and made it to the connected UNO restaurant for supper.