Day 33, Middleboro, MA to Mystic, CT

 We left Massachusetts, had a lovely drive thru rural Rhode Island and on to Mystic, Connecticut. Sadly, no photos of Rhode Island.  Mystic Seaport is a  living museum of America and the Sea.  It is a working ship yard as well as recreated village.  We only had the afternoon to enjoy this place and learn as much as we could about whaling in 1841.

The Charles Morgan.  Built in Massachusetts in 1841 this ship was built as a whaling ship.  106 feet long and 27 feet wide.  Just barely bigger than the Mayflower.  Between 1841 and 1921 she made 37 whaling voyages. Voyages could last 3-5 years, catching 51-57 whales.   The whale was rendered into oil, kept in oak barrels.  The hold had a capacity for 3000 barrels each holding 31.5 gallons of oil.  

Eventually there was less call for the oil and whaling cut back.  What did the most to decimate the whale population around the world were the ships that hunted whales after WWII.  Those ships could move faster and carry more oil. Now to try to read Moby Dick.  Tried that once and didn't get very far.

Enjoyed music by this group of ships crew.  

There were 5 of these whaling boats that 6 men used to chase down, spear and bring the whale back to the ship.  These boats are tiny compared to the whale.  I was intrigued by the whole process but time ran out so didn't get to see the whole museum.

Garnet had learned about Mystic Pizza.  This was the scene of a Julia Roberts movie by the same name.  Now we have to rent the movie.  The pizza and calzones were wonderful.  Mystic is truly a tourist town.  At least we were able to find a parking spot so we could have dinner and walk up and down the main street, unlike Bar Harbor, ME.  There we rode the bus.

In Mystic looking up the Mystic River.  The tall masts belong to the Morgan.

Looking down river.  Nice river walk.

Traveling with a civil engineer brings up more physics lessons.  Counter weights for the draw bridge.

Back at the campground mapping out our way thru New York to our next camp ground in New Jersey.  Had to go right thru NYC and wanted to make sure we didn't take a wrong turn.  We made it too.  After we got thru Newark, NJ the drivers, and navigators were ready for a break.  Thankfully we came upon a service plaza where we could stop and shake out the nerves.
Made it to the campground where we will make day trips to NYC, Philadelphia and the Jersey shore.

Here we are crossing the Hudson River on the George Washington Bridge.  Connects Manhattan with New Jersey   This bridge carries 14 lanes of traffic, 312,000 cars a day.  Several lanes were shut down for 5 days in 2013 due to political manuvering around the Mayor of Fort Lee New Jersey and NJ governor Christie.