Oct 8 – Southbound, we head into Rhode Island, stopping in the fancy rich town of Newport.  Lots of tourists, fancy homes, yachts, and genteel neighborhoods.  A trolley tour takes us around the mansions of Newport.  These mansions were the summer cottages of the rich and famous and are now museums open for touring.  As the buildings are deemed ‘museums’, they pay no taxes; otherwise, taxes on some mansions are more than $100,000 a year!

We tour “The Breakers” which was owned by the Vanderbilt family.  It is a massive limestone house of 128,000 square feet on a massive acreage.  Inside are tapestries, rich rugs, paintings, velvet drapes, antiques, and rare woods.  The walls and ceilings are plaster and marble with cherubs, columns, coffered ceilings, gold and silver leaf, and even platinum wallcoverings.  Wow – the interior is lavish beyond imagination and so very over the top!

Oct 9-10- Into Connecticut, we stop at Mystic – a lovely seaside village.  We stayed for 2 nights at the Mohegun Casino in Uncasville, a gorgeous casino with free RV camping overlooking the Thames River.  We have a great view and enjoy some downtime.

Oct 11 – Onto New York State, we visit Newburgh, home of Orange County Choppers.  We have a tour of the shop, but not much is going on.  We do enjoy seeing 10 beautiful motorcycles on display from past episodes of the TV show.