Day 9: Rhode Island

Thursday morning we were able to sleep in a little bit since we had a very short drive to Rhode Island. We got up and ate and then took the kids over to the playground. The KOA we were at actually did have a decent playground, however there were a whole bunch of tiny bees all around so we didn’t stay long. We had to return the rental car on our way out of Massachusetts so our first stop was Hertz. After that we were headed to Newport, Rhode Island.

Allyson and I had been there years ago so we kinda knew what to expect with all the tourist spots. Getting there was another somewhat painful drive though. This time we needed to get gas, and as you may guess the tiny stateof Rhode Island isn’t exactly set up to accommodate motorhomes. I ended up finding a small gas station and weaving my way into the pumps. When we pulled in there was one other car, and when we pulled out there was a line waiting for gas, so our timing was extremely fortunate.

As we got into Newport I could quickly tell that all of my parking plans I scouted with Google Maps were evaporating. It was really crowded and all the shopping plaza lots were full. I did a loop around and ended up finding two consecutive parking spots on the street that I was able to pull into. The motorhome fit and it was free so we were good to go.

We didn’t really have an agenda for Newport other than to walk around. It was another beautiful day so that made it really enjoyable. We ended up at Bowen’s Wharf where we stopped at a cookie shop and then Allyson and I tried a lobster roll from Luke’s Lobster. It wasn’t “Maine” lobster but it was very highly rated. We split the $28 roll up and gave it a try. It was good. It didn’t change my life turn me on to seafood, which I don’t like, but it was good. I actually think it was mostly good because of the buttery roll and mayonnaise sauce so there really could’ve been any meat in there and it would’ve been delicious.

After hanging out on the wharf we hit up a popcorn shop and then a nearby playground at the Newport Library. The playground had this AARP outdoor exercise area that the kids all loved playing on so that was fun to watch. After an hour it was time to head off for our campground in Charlestown, Rhode Island.

Our campground was the Charlestown Breachway State Park. It was right on the ocean. In fact our site couldn’t have been more than 50 yards from the water. The one catch to this park was that it was a dry campground, and not the boozy-type dry (although there was also no alcohol allowed). This meant there was no water, electric, or sewer hookup. Your campsite was basically a parking spot. That’s typically no problem for us since we’ve slept in many parking lots which obviosuly don't have any hookups. However here you could not run your generator between 8pm - 8am. So after 8pm there was no A/C, no microwave and no tv. We were really lucky that the weather had cooled down so much because we did not need the A/C and we just kept everyone playing outside until bed so they all went down pretty easily.

When we got to the campground we all went over to the ocean. This was our last stop along the beach so it was good to let the girls run around, and of course collect more rocks. It was getting overcast and it was chilly along the beach, but kids don’t can’t about that.

Eventually I took Nolan back to the motorhome. If he had gotten covered in sand at the beach we would have had to use a bunch of our now precious water to get him cleaned up before bed. I set up for dinner and then we ate when the girls got back. Caroline and Natalie spent some time outside playing after dinner. When I went out to check on them I saw that they were just throwing rocks into the water. Natalie remarked to me that it was one of the best times she has had on a vacation. I couldn’t help at laugh thinking that out of all the stuff we’d done with the kids Natalie’s favorite part was throwing rocks into the water!

Later all the kids went back out to play. Our camping neighbors came out to tell us how remarkable it was that Allyson and I had all of them on the road without help. That made us feel pretty good. It’s tough wrangling them all around all the time. And they fight and argue with each other and us quite a bit, but it’s been great to do all this traveling with them. It was a good reminder of how lucky we’ve been. It ended up raining pretty much all night. Fortunately, since there were no utility connections, and I had packed up the stove the night before, there was no need to even go outside in the morning, so I never got wet. Tomorrow we are off to Connecticut, another relatively short drive.