We are now at New Haven having travelled down here yesterday along the coast road. We did a detour up the Cape Cod road to have a look at Provincetown which is right on the tip of Cape Cod looking out into the Atlantic. The weather continues to be a bit grim with wind and rain in the morning, but we do get blessed with interludes of sun and clearing skies into the afternoon. The fall colours along the way were pretty good, does not quite seem to have reached its peak in these parts, still plenty of green leaves around.

Jonathon Livingstone at Cape Cod

As we arrived the sun started to poke through and the skies lightened up a bit allowing us to get out of the car and have a wander around.

The Atlantic was in a pretty foul mood. It was a big surf. In summer this beach would be crowded with holiday makers. There just a few birds and well cladded tourists here on this occasion. Provincetown was a quaint little village, on a clear day you would be able to see across the Bay to Plymouth. A few narrow streets and shops were there to tempt visitors with their wares. We stopped for a coffee before getting back on board for the trip down to New Haven.

Provincetown

Provincetown

It started to rain not long after we set off and pretty much stayed that way for a couple of hundred kilometres down to New Haven. We went lunchless and arrived around 6pm quite hungry and ready for a feed. Longhorns steak restaurant was an easy choice. Neil had an enormous plateof beef ribs which kept him busy. The rest had various iterations of fillet. We crashed back at the motel and didn’t stir until around 7.30 today.

After breakfast it was back in the car and off to Groton to have a look at the USS Nautilus the first nuclear powered submarine. It is tied up as a museum vessel at the submarine museum at Groton, which is one of the US navies submarine bases. This is a fascinating place and tells the US submarine story from the early days, which started way back in the American War of Independence. Some fellow invented a small single person device to that travelled underwater. It was designed so that explosives could be attached to the British ships. It didn’t work! But it was the start. The museum story then carried on right up till now, showing the changes in technologies and weaponry.

The American War of Independence sub, code named ‘The Turtle’.

USS Nautilus

The US submarine fleet is a pretty big operation today and makes our half a dozen subs look totally insignificant in comparison. On the other hand we probably have enough of them to keep the New Zealanders at bay. We did a short self guided tour of the USS Nautilus which amongst its other claims to fame was the first submarine to travel under the North Pole in August 1958. In March 1959 the USS Skate actually surfaced at the Pole. We were also able to see a submarine coming up the river to the Groton base after being at sea on duty.

Sub coming up the Thames River near Groton Submarine Base at New London. Just got to love these English names around here!

It was a dry trip back to New Haven but we arrived in plenty of time to ready ourselves for an attack on the Longhorn steak house.

We leave tomorrow and head north for Woodstock in Vermont, not sure of our route.