Fortunately we'd ridden our e-bikes through Newport yesterday afternoon, because we woke up the next morning to a grey and overcast day. Our plans to walk around the neighborhood were unlikely, with threats of rain for the entire day. Leaving our coastal parking spot where we'd spent the night, we drove to Easton's Beach where we'd considered going on the nearby Cliff Walk...only to be confronted with ominously dark clouds, which soon turned into a downpour mere minutes after Sheila and Lisette came back inside the RV after a short stroll outside.
"What's that smell?" Michael asked Lisette in the morning not long after we got up. We were worried that it was inside our RV, and the stench (some kind of sewer smell) lingered even when we were at Easton's Beach. What is it now? But as we drove away from the coast and up towards Providence, the stink left us, which meant that it was coming from the ocean. We're not sure what it was, but clearly even uber-rich neighborhoods cannot avoid things like this!
Since the weather was rather dismal, it was a perfect time to get some errands done. We passed the Big Blue Bug again in Providence (on the I-95 so we could see its face this time), before heading to the stores in the city of Warwick. Lisette's birthday is in October, and every year she takes advantage of the free birthday gifts from beauty stores Sephora and Ulta, so she picked these up and we did a Trader Joe's grocery shop. As we were returning to our RV from one of the stores, we noticed that a hose that's been dangling from beneath our RV for months had disconnected--we haven't been sure of what it does this whole time, but it didn't seem to be doing anything significant. Lisette decided to post a photo of it to Reddit and the Redditors stepped up to the plate--while there were some wild guesses, someone suggested that it It looked like a black tank flush port, which made sense as we haven't used this on our trip. The guess turned out to be correct upon further inspection, so thanks Reddit!
It's challenging enough driving an RV, but Rhode Island drivers are currently at the top of the list of worst state drivers. They are ruthless about cutting in front of us, and it's always the case when we're facing a vehicle at an intersection, and they'll turn in front of us even though we're going straight! So stressful.
The grey clouds and shorter days mean that our solar panels are hungry for sunlight, and with the rain we'd definitely dip lower than 30% if we didn't power up. Since we have work to catch up on, we booked a night's stay at River Bend Campground in Connecticut (state #44)! When we crossed state lines we unfortunately were not met with a "Welcome to Connecticut" sign, so this will be another state where we won't have one. However, the drive here was gorgeous, as we were greeted with beautiful fall foliage, which looked more vibrant against the grey cloudy backdrop as we cruised along.
A Charismatic Campground
The River Bend Campground was charming as soon as we drove into the entrance, with the sign and building behind it adorned with skeletons, giant spiders, and other Halloween decorations, as the RV park prepared for festivities in the coming days.
Because we were here in the off-season, there weren't many campers, and we had a nice quiet spot to park with only a handful of other folks around us. Fall was in full swing with the trees around us, and there was a gorgeous lake that the RV park was overlooking, which had colorful canoes on the shore, overlooking a small islet across from us with a stunning collection of trees, with their yellow, orange, red, and green leaves reflected in the water. It could have been a scene from a painting.
Fortunately for us the rain soon subsided and it turned into a sunny afternoon, perfect to wander around with Sheila (and a few squirrels that Sheila also saw), while also catching up on a few things in the afternoon. We definitely need to continue to have more relaxed days on this trip, to keep up with work, and also plan for what's next as this trip gets to its inevitable close!