2026 Road trip: Connecticut

Hi!

We started our road trip to explore the NE US on August 4. By the end of this trip we will both have been to all 50 states. I am missing New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, Carsten needs those plus Vermont and Connecticut. Our rule is that you must spend a night or have a meal to count the state, airport transfers do not count!

In addition to the US we will explore New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia with Falk and Svenni (our travel buddies from Germany).

Our first stop is a quick visit to see my family just south of Nashville. It adds an hour to go thru Nashville but we wanted to see them. 

On Thursday 8/6 we made good progress, spending the night in West Virginia. There is a little piece of WV that sits between Virginia and Maryland. Check it out on a map!

Friday 8/7 was the last leg to the first "exploring" site near Mystic, CT. We went through six states (West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut). The traffic was brutal from NJ all the way to CT. 100 miles (160 km) took 2.5 hours. Ugh.

Friday night we met up with Melissa and Bill, a blast from the past. Melissa and I worked together way back in the 1990s. We took a nice walk around Mystic and had great seafood at Fish Camp. Back in the day, while Melissa and I were busy crunching numbers, Bill was aboard a submarine. They moved to Mystic years ago to raise a family and be closer to Submarine stuff.

On Saturday we visited the Mystic Seaport museum, a little town called Stonington, and Ye Antientist Cemetery.

Ye Antientist Cemetery is the oldest cemetery in CT and the second oldest in New England. We saw many graves from the 1700s.

Mystic Seaport museum was very interesting, we learned a lot about ship building.

This boat was in dry dock for a complete restoration, we got to climb up into it.

Side view of the hull, it needs many replacement boards.

This is the boat lift, the rail goes out and then the pier goes down into the river so the boat can sail onto the lift. 

This is the Charles Morgan, the last wooden whaling ship. We were on board and this couple was looking down at the barrels in the bottom hold. I said, those are the barrels they stored the whale oil. The young woman laughed and said "I thought they were wine, I'm from Poland". I told her I liked how she thinks! We talked about Poland a minute and moved on. Classic!

Long time readers of the blog might recall our seeing the Vasa in Stockholm. This is the Lego version of that doomed ship. It was famously terribly built and sank 1500 meters into its maiden voyage, much to the alarm of the spectators on shore!

Here is the Vasa we saw:

Pretty good Lego version. The funny thing about the Lego exhibit was that you could turn a wheel and make the boat capsize and "sink". LOL

We went over to Stonington, CT to have lunch and walk a bit. It was a cute little town.

The marina.

Beautiful flowers.

The lighthouse.

On Sunday we visited the Submarine Force Museum. This was really an in-depth history of the submarine. Beginning with its limited use in the Civil War thru modern submarine construction and warfare.

 At the entrance there were these two large circles. The smaller one was the 10 ft diameter of the USS Holland, commissioned in 1900, and the first US Navy submarine. The larger circle represents the 42 ft diameter hull of the Ohio-class fleet ballistic submarines.

We also got to go inside the USS Nautilus, the first nuclear powered submarine.

It was amazing how small everything was inside, the bunks - sometimes stacked four high - had almost no clearance. Seems like the men on a submarine had to be pretty small in stature. 

Next stop was Fort Griswold (not named after Clark Griswold in Vacation). This Fort was the site of one of the last battles of the American Revolution. On September 6, 1781 British Troops, led by traitor Benedict Arnold, attacked Fort Griswold and Fort Trumball across the Thames River. The Fort was lost and most of the men were killed. The commander Leyland, upon surrendering his sword, had that same sword run thru his chest. Not very sporting of the British!

This is the monument - we climbed the 160 steps to get a bird's-eye view. 

The view of the footprint of the Fort.

My favorite Revolutionary soldier!

Fort Trumball was in better shape. This Fort had been rebuilt a couple of times and has been used as the headquarters of the US Coast Guard and as a training facility for the Navy and USCG.

This bronze statue was the soldier firing a cannon. I'm wondering if the cannon was a bit too hot for him to be straddling it! 

After all this and a ride on the Thames River Taxi, we are completely done. It is hot here (90+ with quite some humidity). I thought we would leave the heat behind in H-town. Ugh.

One interesting thing we learned at the Submarine Force Museum - there was a Congressman Andrew May, from Kentucky who disclosed sensitive war-time information during WW2.  He had attended a briefing and had learned that the reason the US submarines were not being sunk as often as the enemy was that the Japanese were detonating their depth charges above 150 feet depth while the US subs were running at 300+ feet. Upon his return home, when asked this very question by reporters - HE TOLD THEM! Well, obviously the Japanese heard about this and adjusted their depth. Within 2 weeks this resulted in the loss of 10 submarines and over 800 men! He should have gone to jail for treason!! Instead, he was caught in a bribery and Kick-Back scheme and got busted for that. Crazy!

Tomorrow we head for Rhode Island. Stay tuned.

Sheri + Carsten.