The Boats At Mystic Seaport

Mystic Seaport, located in eastern Connecticut near the Atlantic Ocean is billed as "The Museum of America and The Sea"...and it's all about America's maritime history.

In this entry, we'll just post a number of the ships we saw yesterday when we visited. There are 500+ vessels, from 1824-present!!

The entry pass is good for two days which is a good thing...too much to take in in one day. Talks are given every half hour on maritime subjects such as navigation, whaling techniques, rope making, copper plating on the ships, building the masts...and much, much more. So...today we're heading back out to see and experience the rest. For now...here's some of the historical ships:

L.A. Dunton.

This Gloucester fisherman, 123 feet, 3 inches over all, is one of the few remaining vessels of her type in the country. Sailing schooners were forced from the Grand Banks off Newfoundland and Georges Bank outside of Cape Cod more than 50 years ago, despite the fact that their design made them the fastest and ablest fishing vessels in the world.

http://www.mysticseaport.org/locations/vessels/l-a-dunton/

Charles W. Morgan being reconstructed. 

The Charles W. Morgan is the “crown jewel” of the Mystic Seaport collection and has outlived all others of her kind. During her 80-year whaling career, the Morgan escaped cannibals and Confederate raiders, and avoided entrapment in the frozen Arctic. In 37 whaling voyages between 1841 and 1921 she survived fire, storms, Cape Horn roundings and, after she finished her whaling career, even the Hurricane of 1938.

http://www.mysticseaport.org/visit/explore/morgan/

Joseph Conrad
The veteran training ship Joseph Conrad sailed under three flags before mooring permanently at Mystic Seaport in 1947. Built in Copenhagen in 1882 and named Georg Stage as a memorial to the young son of Frederik Stage, a prominent ship owner, the 111-foot vessel, one of the smallest full-rigged ships built in modern times, was designed to accommodate eighty boys in training for the Danish merchant service. From her launching until her sale in 1934, more than 4,000 cadets sailed in her for six-month training courses in the Baltic and North seas. Run down by a British freighter in 1905, the Georg Stage sank, taking 22 young men with her. However, she was raised and repaired and soon resumed her career.

http://www.mysticseaport.org/locations/vessels/conrad/

Small boat being constructed in the shop.

Whaling boat that took the whalers out to harpoon the whales. Held six men.

KINGSTON II: Harbor tugboat
Mystic Seaport’s beloved tugboat Kingston II was among the earliest all-welded vessels. Built to train apprentice welders before they qualified to work on U.S. Navy submarines, she was made of scrap steel in just four months. Today, she is stationed at the main entrance as a proud ambassador of the Museum’s watercraft collection and a symbol of this region’s important maritime contributions.http://www.mysticseaport.org/locations/vessels/kingston/

There were many more ships...like those below.

From the USS Hartford...a monster!

So many more ships were here...too many to post. If you're interested their website shows all the details and more photos.

http://www.mysticseaport.org/locations/vessels/

and...

http://www.mysticseaport.org/

Wisconsin

Not many HUGE places to visit in Wisconsin (like GRAND canyon or GLACIER park, etc) but we sure packed in a lot of sites and visitations during our two weeks. We were going to stay only a few days at this RV spot but extended our stay twice because there was so much that we wanted to see and do.

• Dams and Lock # 11 on the Mississippi River
• Mississippi River Museum/Aquarium
• William S. Black steamship/dredger
• Field of Dreams
• Dyersville Victorian House and Doll Museum
• Historical Cheese Factory
• New Glarus Brewery
• Historical Swiss Village
• Hinchley's Dairy Farm
• Petosi Brewery
• Historical Brewery Museum
• New car purchase
• Walmart shopping
• 23rd anniversary breakfast at Katrina's
• Doll and Toy Museum
• Brewster's Cheese and Restaurant
• Grant County Courthouse
• Subway sandwiches (multiple visits)
• Car tour of Dubuque, Iowa (visited neighborhoods)
• Dubuque Arboretum and Gardens
• Ice House Harbor, Mississippi River
• Galena, Illinois
• President/General Ulysses S Grant's home
• The Butcher Shop (bought LOTS of brats)
• Cleaned out and gleaned coach
• Sold the California house

Potosi Brewery....great beer !

Dairy Farm tour....wonderful clouds.

Take a look at how little the farmer gets out of the money we spend at the store.

Doll and Toy museum.....Toy Story figures.

Toy Museum....old Tinkertoys.

Double Cheese sandwiches in Brewster's

New car and happy couple.

Historical Brewery Museum

15 cents !!!

In New Glarus..named for Glarus, Switzerland

Swiss Village

Brewery....more great beer!

Diary tour with the young ones sucking on Kim's finger.

More Dairy Tour

Cow bells used in New Glarus in the old days.

Kim milking a cow at the Dairy Farm.

Galena, Illinois, home of General Grant....

....and now a major tourist trap!

Lock and Dam #11 on the Mississippi River

Dubuque, Iowa Arboretum

Dubuque, Iowa Arboretum

New car....2013 Honda Odyssey

More Doll and Toy Museum

Great car !

Steve is listening to Mark Twain read to him at the Mississippi River Museum

Mississippi River Museum/Aquarium 

View from the front of our coach looking at a typical Wisconsin dairy farm scene

On the Mighty Mississippi River !

Historical Cheese Factory...in a converted railroad station.

...shows how they used to make cheese....the same way they do it today.

Remember this scene from Field of Dreams? Kim is recreating it.

Grant County courthouse. The Midwest is loaded with gorgeous courthouses in the middle of town.

...from Field of Dreams. Steve is disappearing into the cornfield.

Each one of these activities/places/events could be a blog post on their own but these give you an idea what it's like to really see America...not just the big stuff.

We've let Wisconsin now, spent three nights in Campaign, Illinois (went south to avoid Chicago) and we are currently at the Newmar RV Factory in Nappannee, Indiana. Then we head east to New Jersey to spend some time with Kim's brother and family. After that, we are five weeks in New England taking in Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Maine.

...then Florida for the winter!

Kim and Steve

Travel Map August 2013

...thought we'd put our map on a blog post this time.

We started the new trip down in Louisiana around February 1st. Headed into Texas for about 5-6 weeks, then New Mexico, Cortez, CO (to see the cliff dwellings), and into southern Utah to see all the geology. Next, up to Ogden for a night, then to Craters of the Moon and Yellowstone. After that, over west to the Boise area for three weeks, then up to northern Idaho and into Montana and up to Glacier. Next....down to Great Falls, White Sulpher Springs and Billings, Montana before heading to Devils Tower in Wyoming. We visited Mount Rushmore, Wall Drug and camped on the Missouri River and Chamberlain, SD. Sioux Falls and down to Omaha to visit friends and then into Iowa for a week. Pant, pant, pant.

We're currently in Kieler, Wisconsin (across the Mississippi River from Dubuque, Iowa) eating cheese and sampling local beers.

Of course, Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota

HUNDREDS of buffalo (bison) in the Black Hills area.

This was one of my views while running in Wisconsin.

Gotta have cheese sandwiches while in Wisconsin.

View from our front in the RV park here in Wisconsin with the dairy farm in the distance.

That's all for this one....hope you enjoyed it.

Kim and Steve