The Thin BlueRide - Part 3 Day 9 - Newport, RI

Tuesday, September 19, 2019

Drive Report: None - Cheesy Tourist Day #3 in Newport (The last in the series - we move tomorrow.)

There were a several “life intervenes” things on the agenda today.  Susan had a call to make, I needed to check for some different tie-downs for the scooter as the old ones had become increasingly suspect, the tire on the trailer had developed some odd splits in the grooves of the tread and needed to be replaced.  That sort of stuff.  So naturally, we decided to sleep a bit later this morning.  What?  We had time to be lazy - at least that’s what Susan said.

When we got up we took care of the stuff mentioned above and then headed for a late breakfast.  And by late, I mean that it was 1100 when we arrived at the restaurant.  It was a converted old house, painted bright yellow and named “Cindy’s Country Cafe”.  Seemed like just the ticket.  When we arrived it was clear that it was frequented by locals and we may have been the only interlopers there.  But everyone was friendly.  Now understand that when we catch breakfast “out” this late, the plan is to eat a substantial breakfast, skip lunch and eat dinner when the urge presents itself.  In that vein, I ordered Portuguese French Toast (I had no idea), two eggs over easy and bacon.  Perfect breakfast - until it arrived...

This, readers, is a mountain of food.   And in case ya don't know, Portugese French Toast is a French Toast sandwich whose filling consists of a whipped, cream cheese and fruit filling.  Mine were strawberry and blackberry.  This is what I'd call a big breakfast.  Needless to say, I didn't get it all down.  Susan had to help.

After that, we waddled out to the scooter, crawled on and headed for today's planned activity - a sailing excursion out on Narragansett Bay.  It looked fun when we checked it out on-line so we signed up.  When we got there, this was our ride...

This would be the Madeleine - a 72 foot schooner - and our ride for the tour.

 On our way out of the docks, we ran across this sailboat.  Interesting, because when Susan and I were having dinner sea side two nights ago, I saw it and told her that in my opinion it was a very pretty boat with great lines.  Turns out that former New York Governor and later Vice President Nelson Rockefeller agreed - he owned it some time in the past.  I later saw a smaller one that looked similar and inquired of our crew how much a boat like that would cost - the answer, "Depending on how you have it outfitted around a million dollars."  Wow.

This tall ship still sails and is used to teach young people how to sail.   Apparently they take it to various ports around the area each summer as Newport's "goodwill ambassador".

Apparently the ones without masts and sails are called "motor yachts" when they get this big.  When we came back to the dock it looked as big as a building.  Note the door on the side.  It is hinged at the bottom and opens down.  Likely for loading all the stuff ya need to keep a building floating and moving.

This sailing ship happened by going the other way.  I know nothing about it except that it had cool (faded) red sails.

This is the "house" where Jacqueline Bouvier grew up.  You may know her better as Jacqueline Kennedy/Onassis.  After she married John Kennedy in Newport, the wedding reception was held on the back lawn seen in this pic.  2,000 people attended and it is said that the reception line was 3.5 hours long.  Ouch.

Susan and I aboard (sailor talk for "standing on") the Madeleine.  Susan was starting all her sentences while aboard with, "Aaaaarrrrrgh" and callin everybody "Matey".  It was embarrassing.

This is the Adirondack II - we thought about going out on her, but decided on the Madeleine.  I think this gives the reader an excellent idea of how these ships look under full sail.

One of two lighthouses in the harbor.  This one is so low because the property owner who permitted its construction on his place said he didn't want the light shining in his bedroom window.

Eventually Susan decided the crew needed some input on how best to sail a schooner.  The crew asked her to hold this rigging in place for the rest of the trip to make sure the sails stayed in position.  That would be the Adirondack II over her shoulder.

OK - I confess.  I got in on the act.  Next thing we knew we were both sitting at the front of the class.

This house was built on a small rock island in the harbor and they built a bridge to the island to aid in moving construction supplies.  The house survived when a huge hurricane came thru in the 30s and leveled most everything around.  But water had been running thru the first floor as a result of the storm surge.  It was later abandoned for over 30 years.  It has since been bought and restored.  Oh - and that suspension bridge in the background is the same one we used to get to the island.

The crew finally let us loose again - and just in time to catch this buoy as a backdrop.  I love this one.

The guy at the far end of the boom is the Captain of the ship.  He's helping stow the sail as he pilots the boat back to the dock with his foot.  Saves paying two guys, I guess.

And finally readers, what may eventually prove to be, "THE" pic of the trip.  Check it out...

When I asked Charlie (one of the crew) if he'd take a picture for us, he asked if we wanted all of the ship in the background.  When I gave him the camera and said yes, he proceeded to crawl out on the bowsprit, crouch down and snap this shot.  This is an amazing pic!  We're standing perpendicular to the water and the boat is keeled over a bit, though not severely.  On occasion it was keeled over so far that the ship's name (just below us in the pic) was just above the water.

And with that, I think we'll call it a wrap for today.  Tomorrow we head for Cape Cod.

Till next time. 

The Thin Blueride - Part 3 Day 8 - Newport, RI

Monday, September 16, 2019

Drive Report: None - Cheesy Tourist Day #2 in the Newport area.

Mansions were the plan for today.  We went on two mansion tours and figured that would be enough for the day.  And that was about right, one can absorb only so much gold gilt before it all becomes mundane.  But, throw in a little platinum gilt and hey - our eyes are wide open again.  The opulence of these two mansions was incredible.  But then, they were constructed at the height of the gilded age, and it’s referred to as the gilded age for a reason.  We saw the reason today.  The two mansions we toured were The Marble House (named for all the marble used in it’s construction) and Breakers (named for the waves beating against the shoreline of the property).  They are both “Vanderbilt” mansions having been constructed at the behest of William (The Marble House) and Cornelius (Breakers), sons of Commodore Vanderbilt the railroad magnate who initially made the family fortune.

The third son (George Washington) was working on the Biltmore Mansion in Asheville, NC at the same time Breakers was under construction here in Newport.  Amazing.  We toured it some years ago on the way back from the East coast.  So, with these two tours today, we've hit the trifecta of the Vanderbilt brother's mansions.  Check that one off the bucket list...

Let’s get right to it.

This would be The Marble House.  Marble from all over the world was used in its construction.  They even developed a method to take a slab of marble and cut it down the middle so that the two slabs could be opened like pages of a book - referred to as "bookmatching".  The two "pages" then have mirror images of the grain in the stone.  Apparently this was an expensive and time consuming process, and it was used extensively throughout the mansion.  Cost in the 1890s when constructed - 11 million.

The dining room.  Lots of gold gilding in this room.  The chairs (without arms) weighed in at 75 pounds and were gold gilt.  The family ate lunch here every day.  Mrs. Vanderbilt speaking to the children only in French, which was their first language.

Check out the stone work on this mantle.  It reminded us of the work we saw on churches in Europe when we were there for our 35th anniversary.

This chandelier hung in the main entry.  Note the mural on the ceiling above.  Again - gold gilding.

This would be Mrs. Vanderbilt's bedroom.  It was the largest in the house.  But then, when Mr. Vanderbilt presented her with the plan for the mansion for her 39th birthday, she said she would only undertake the project if it were given to her outright rather than be in his name.  Mr. Vanderbilt agreed.  Three years after its completion, she divorced him (quite the scandal at the time) and a year later married his best friend - who had the mansion down the block.

This was Mr. Vanderbilt's bedroom - in keeping with the custom of separate bedrooms for married couples at the time.

This was the only guest bedroom in the house.

The kitchen stove - all cast iron.  The family was in the mansion for about 6 weeks every summer.  During that time, the stove required 30 tons of coal to keep everyone fat and happy.

A couple of other side notes to The Marble House.  The Vanderbilt's only daughter, Consuelo, had a rather opulent bedroom as well.  But according to her, she was allowed none of her personal effects in the room.  It had to remain as decorated by her mother.  She said she herself felt like a project her Mother had constructed to her own liking (paraphrased).  By contrast, the two Vanderbilt sons of this union had very pedestrian rooms.  They were small, lacking anything remotely resembling opulence, at the end of a short narrow hallway and right next to the servant's stairwell.  Susan and I were both struck by the contrast between the rooms.  Frankly, we both thought Mrs. Vanderbilt sounded like quite a piece of work.

Then, after a lunch that was too expensive and lacking in taste at the Chinese Tea House on the grounds of The Marble House it was on to Breakers.  Yes - that's right.  A Chinese tea house.  Mrs. Vanderbilt had it constructed near the shore and only used in one year before she divorced and remarried.  BTW - she kept The Marble House after the divorce and left all her clothes there since her new husband was a horse guy and she didn't want her clothes to smell of horses.  Her new husband?  Mr. Belmont.  Think Belmont Stakes - part of the Triple Crown of horse racing.  Yeah - they started it.

Anyway - back to Breakers...

This is it from the front.  A generally more impressive residence, at least in my estimation, than The Marble House.  Cost when constructed in the 1890s - 8 million.

And for that 8 million, this Vanderbilt family got a main entry that takes your breath away.

This may give a better sense of scale - looking down from the second floor balcony.  Yes - we may be 40 feet up, but we're still on the second floor.

This is the dining room at Breakers.  Check out those chandeliers.  Electricity being an upstart, and somewhat unreliable at the time, Mr. Vanderbilt had these made to work as either gas lamps or electric lamps.  As opposed to Mrs Vanderbilt (his sister-in-law) handling construction matters in The Marble House, Mr. Vanderbilt handled those chores during construction of Breakers.

A room for the guys - right off the main entry.  The reader will note that The Marble House lacked any such amenity.

This would be the music room in Breakers.  The grand piano (which is barely visible over my left shoulder) was original to the house and dates to the 1820s.  I wanted to pound out chopsticks, but Susan didn't think the other guests or the staff were prepared for my style.  Oh - the nifty earmuffs we're wearing are those "walking tour" things all the mansions are using these days.

A fireplace with a gold gilt mirror above.

And check out this fireplace.  It came from a 17th century French Chateau.  The bottom of the mantle is 6'3".  I could walk under that thing with 3" to spare.  My Lord - it must be 10' wide.

This was Mr. Vanderbilt's bedroom on the second floor.  Note that the bedrooms at Breakers are far less opulent.  The designer of the family spaces at Breakers was different than the one retained for The Marble House and had a different perspective.  That's Susan walking out the door.  She was all upset because she had to make the bed.  Apparently guests aren't allowed to nap in the Vanderbilt mansion?  How was I s'posed to know?  BTW - they have some cranky docents here.

Mr. Vanderbilt's bathroom.  Check out that tub.  It was carved from a single piece of marble and was so thick that before Mr. Vanderbilt could deign to bathe in it, it had to be filled with hot water three times to sufficiently warm the marble, thus sparing his tender bottom from the cold.  The Accounting Department here at The Thin Blue Ride would never approve such an expenditure.  Certainly not the tub - and likely not the three fillings of hot water.

The back veranda just off the second floor.  With no A/C at the time, these big open spaces under shade accompanied by large windows (behind me in the pic) were vital to making interior spaces livable in the summer when the families were here.

The kitchen at Breakers.  Since the Vanderbilt's first mansion on the property burned down - necessitating the construction of Breakers - Mr. Vanderbilt was very cautious when it came to the kitchen.  Note the hood over the oven on the wall.

The butler's pantry where the family's dishes and china were kept.  The silver was locked up at night in a safe.  Interestingly, the silver also traveled with the family.

Susan and I standing on the back "patio" of Breakers.

The view from the lawn behind Breakers.  This lawn was large enough to build our house there twice over and still have room to spare.

After all that "mansioning" I needed some food.  Beings we're this close to the ocean and that I love clam chowder, we hit a place one of our tour guides said had the best clam chowder in New England.  After eating this, I don't know that I'd disagree.  The name of the place?  The Black Pearl.  Sounds piratey.  Everybody knows that pirates have the best clam chowder.

Till next time.

The Thin Blue ride - Part 3 Day 7 - Portsmouth / Newport, RI

Sunday, September 15, 2019

Drive Report: None - this was a planned Cheesy Tourist Day.

We spent the day touring Portsmouth and Newport.  I could prattle on for a bit as a form of introduction to the day, but given all that happened it seems that doing so would just delay the reader’s exposure to what was a very interesting day.  So let’s get right to it.

The regular reader will know that we overnighted in the parking lot of the Newport Car Museum last night in order to get in as soon as they opened in hopes of beating the crowds.  I can't wait - and we already discussed what a gearhead Susan is, she was pinching me to wake me up bright and early this morning.  So - we paid our money and in we went.

First thing in the door we come across this - an 1896 Benz Patent Motorwagon.  Widely acknowledged as the first motorized car.  This is a reproduction made by Mercedes Benz.  The original is on display in the Deutsches Museum in Munich, Germany.

They have the museum broken down into different sections.  We went into the "World Car" display first.  No sooner had we gotten there when Susan started oogling this.  I think it's a Lamborghini.  As we were looking at it, a docent came up throwing those little bits of colored paper and congratulated Susan for being the 1,000,000 person to buy tickets.  The prize was that she got to choose the same number of cars from the museum to take home as tickets she bought.  That would be two.  Great - now we gotta figure out how to get the Lambo home from Rhode Island.  And since she got to choose two cars, she got one for me - a BMW... 

...Isetta.  She assures me that they're very collectible and the envy of non-accountants everywhere.  It looks a little odd here because the front (and only) door is open.  Yes - it only has three wheels.  Yes - the top speed is 52 mph.  Yes - it blows smoke like Cheech and Chong in a bad 70s movie.  And finally - yes my knees will touch my chin when I drive it.  But hey - it's a Beemer and it's mine.  This one we'll ship home via the US Postal Service.  They've got that thing where if it fits in one of their boxes it ships for something like $10.99.

This is the back end of VWs new electric/gas hybrid.  I tell ya, the back end of this thing is a work of art.  Just look at that!

Then we headed over to the 50's era cars.  I called it the fin display.

This, readers, would be a 58 Impala.  Produced only in 1958.  Wow!  I love these cars, though my personal taste runs to black hardtop rather than red convertible.  The same docent who gave Susan the keys to the Lambo told us that a bunch of older guys came thru not long ago and were admiring this car.  They talked about how it looked just like the car that one of their fathers restored years ago.  Turns out that was because it WAS the father's car.  The owner of the museum had bought it for display.  How cool is that?  Susan didn't choose this one for me.  She chose a red Isetta convertible...

This is a 1970 Plymouth Superbird - made only in 1970 and in very limited numbers.  At one time a guy I knew in Ogden, KS who had two of these.  Dunno what ever happened to 'em.

The new (left) and the old (right) juxtaposed purple Mopar cars.   The cool one on the right is a Barracuda.  Those of you who hail from Downs may remember that Ralph Streit had a baby blue one of these.

I am not a Corvette guy, but this is the one model style that I absolutely love.  This is a 69 Stingray.  Just look at those sexy lines: narrow waisted between the wheels, that big hipped look what with the flared rear fenders.  Wow!  This thing just screams sleek and fast.

Then we were over to the Shelby area.  That would be Carrol Shelby.  If ya don't know, he's an automotive legend.  This would be the Boss 302 Mustang.  A not inexpensive proposition on today's market.  I've never seen one of these in person, only in books and magazines.

If the 69 Stingray was sleek and sexy, this thing is brute force immortalized.  A Ford Cobra - made for racing but a few were produced to be street legal.  If you've been with The Thin Blue Ride since our Texas Test Flight series of posts, you know I have a pic of Delta and me with three of these down in Texas.

This would be Gunther and Maggie - owners of the museum.  They were very nice people.  We met them on the way out the door and wanted to thank them for letting us park The Rig in their lot overnight.   Oh - and for the Lambo.  Susan made me thank them for the Isetta.  I mean, it's cute and all, but it's not a 58 Impala.

After all that we went back and moved The Rig to the RV Park, made some reservations for tomorrow's activities and then headed down to the Harbor in Newport for some dinner.

This would be Naragansett Bay.  Specifically the harbor area.  It's been developed with a lot of shops and restaurants, but is still a functional harbor also.  There have got to be more sail boats here than I've ever seen in one place at the same time - some of them quite large.  The reader may note in the distance the suspension bridge over which we passed yesterday to get to the island.

This would be Susan and me with the Harbor in the background - as taken by a guy at the table next to ours.  Speaking of which - we show up and the hostess asks if we want to be inside or outside.  What the heck, ya only live once - we'll go with outside.  She then seats us right at the water's edge.  Gotta love that luck.  I soon discovered that it had all been planned by the Accounting Department.

Yup - since she saved so much cash on the Lambo, she had enough to spring for this yacht and the guy who drove it past so she could show it to me.

As proof of which I proffer this pic.  The same guy who took the photo of us standing by the table overhead us discussing this yacht and asked, "You want me to take a picture of you with your new yacht?"  I said yes and gave him my phone.  Note the big smile on the Accounting Department's face.  The Accounting Department just loves surprising me - and this explains the Isetta, sort of...

But as with everything in life, there are trade offs.  After buying the yacht, we only had enough cash for a lobster roll for me - fish and chips for the Accounting Department.

This is us on a stroll around the harbor after dinner...

...at which time I learned that I would be required to mug for tourists in order to pay for the guy who drove the yacht.

But, there was just enough cash left to buy a chocolate chip cookie.

So - when all was said and done, it was a great day here in Rhode Island.

Till next time.