Current location: Dover, DE N 39 10.611', W 075 31.428' elev. 83 ft.

Tuesday night I stayed with family in Stetson, ME, then drove home to Danvers, MA on wednesday. Nothing much to write about for Wednesday, except that I went to see Cinderella Man with my mom, and slept at my dad's. I'm now on my way to Myrtle Beach to visit my sister. I'm in a big hurry to get there, because she took time off work to accommodate me, so I won't be making a lot of stops and have abandoned Route 1 for now.

On the way, I stopped in Newport, RI (N 41 30.061', W 071 19.020' elev -30 ft.) today. I was actually the best man at a wedding in Newport last spring (for one of my best friends, Jeff), but when in the town, I didn't really have much of a chance to explore and regretted that, so I figured I'd make a quick stop today.

Everyone has said the only mansion in Newport I really needed to see was the Breakers, the summer home of the Vanderbilt family, built in 1895. I got to the mansion, and bought a ticket for the tour. At $15, I was already beginning to think it was not a good deal.

Its pretty weird to be in a tour group as an individual. You see the other folks, couples, and families, and pairs or trips of friends, and they all kind of look at you with that face, the one that indicates that they are trying to comprehend how someone could be taking a tour without at least one other person to help them make fun of the tour along the way. I guess their looks are valid, but they don't know I can make fun of the tour on here, and don't need a partner.

You know there's really not much to talk about the Breakers.




I'm frankly disappointed, the Newport Historical Society is raking in the dough with the outrageous entry fee, but when you get in the house, everything is in bad shape! I would expect a restoration to have restored furniture, carpeting, tapestries, but all the furniture is worn, the carpets have been bleached by the sun, and there is not a lot of protection on the historical artifacts. I was just a bit surprised that since the house is not actually used except for tours, that it would actually look like it was in heavy use. For instance, the door to the kitchen was worn, as if it had servants kicking it open every single day. Little things like this bothered me about the Breakers.

Additionally, you can't take photos inside the Breakers, except at the Upper Loggia, and Lower Loggia, which are two Italian style porches. They never really give any reason for this, but I can't assume that flashes would damage the items inside the house, they are already in bad shape.

One final note about the Breakers, the house and the tour were not all that impressive at all. In retrospect, the tour was worth about $3, not $15. If I remember correctly Newport, Alive with Pleasure is the slogan for a cigarette company. Well, Newport sucks, like smoking. So the title of this article is meant to be ironic.

The rest of my journey today included Connecticut, where I quickly stopped and picked up my mail at my PO Box. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to stop at FactSet to say hi to people, because I had to get across the GW bridge before too much traffic hit. Obviously, I hit a lot of traffic on the GW anyway. Next was the Jersey Turnpike. I did stop at one of the rest stops along the turnpike, and just wanted to point out that the men's room had those big bowl urinals, they are almost as big as toilet bowls, where everything is just hanging out there, you could practically sit on them, with no privacy walls. Whoever thought this was a good design decision should be shot. The best urinals I have ever seen were at the Westchester Mall, the urinals have their own stalls with doors. After Jersey, I took exit 4 off of 95 in Delaware. I am driving down US Route 13, which goes over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel into Norfolk, VA, but stopped in Dover, DE for the night.