Normandy Farm, CT (May 7)
Our plan was to spend 3 days including a visit to Providence, a visit our nephew who is graduating from Worcester Polytechnical Institute and trip to Boston where I am teaching as part of a short course – all without moving the RV. The Normandy Farm Camping Resort, about 50 minutes drive from each of our locations, fit the bill perfectly.
This was probably the fanciest RV campground we have been at, with all sorts of sports facilities, a huge fenced in dog walk area, disk golf in a large wooded area, a nice fishing pond with hiking trail, 4 (!) heated pools, one of which is indoors and includes a whirlpool and spa. As well, they have separate games rooms for the kids and adults and a large social hall, (shown) big enough for a small wedding. We would really have liked to stay and take advantage of some of the facilities, but at this point we were on a schedule. So, it was either Providence or the resort, and we picked the former.
Dinner was a simple affair of reheating left-overs from La Cantina in the microwave. It was not worth heating up water for the few dishes we used. So it was not until the morning that we discovered that the propane hot water heater was not working. It was lighting and then going out. The procedures recommended in the manual and on-line did not work. So we called the service department at our RV dealer, and after some experimentation with the propane stove, determined that the problem was the regulator on the propane tank. Accordingly, we turned off the propane and made an appointment for servicing in Bangor (our next stop). This was not too worrisome – the resort had washrooms with showers every few sites and we expected to be eating either left-overs or in restaurants for much of our time before our service appointment. Still, it was yet another failed system in our new RV. It is nice to have the warranty, but it is nicer not to need it.
After spending the morning working on the propane problem, we headed to Providence. It does not seem to have a lot of “must-see” attractions, but we wanted to walk around the city. We had lunch on the “East Side” near Brown U. and then walked downtown along the edge of the campus of RISD (Rhode Island School of Design). The photos below show the Brown entrance, a piece of “art” and a section of garden on campus.
We then walked around downtown. It is a pretty little city. It looked like it would be pretty lit up at night, but we had walked ourselves out by about 5:30.
We returned to the campground and enjoyed more left-overs before jumping into the hot-tub.
On Tuesday, I needed to be at Northeastern U. to teach by about 2:30. The course put us up at the very fancy Colonnade Hotel – not only was the room very nice, but they allow dogs, which was a great help.
(Aside: We had planned to leave Rumple overnight in a kennel near the campground. However, the kennel requires a dog interview to ensure that any incoming dogs will get along with their regular clientele and they had no interview appointments available. And no, this place was not hundreds of dollars per day …)
Chuck went to meet a long lost friend, and I went to teach some bioinformatics. I love teaching in these summer short courses – the students are always enthusiastic and smart.
For dinner, we took Elisabeth to a Brazilian BBQ restaurant, which served as much meat as you could eat – several types of beef, pork and chicken prepared in various ways, as well as a salad bar. The food was excellent and we came away thinking we would not need to eat again for a week. (Although that never happens …)
The next morning I was on the teaching schedule again until coffee break. We then checked out of the hotel and hung around Boston for a few hours before heading to Worcester. The Boston Museum of Art is just a few blocks from Northeastern and had an exhibit, “Matisse in the Studio” which was wonderful. I spent most of my time there, although I also had a bit of time to visit their exhibit of mesoAmerican Indian artifacts, which are quite spectacular.
In the late afternoon, we headed out to Worcester to meet nephew Erik and his girlfriend Maria – both newly minted engineers. They both exuded maturity, competence and enthusiasm, and we are sure they will do well in their new jobs. We had a nice dinner together, and they also gave us a campus tour. 
We were sorry to miss their graduation ceremony, but given that they both had substantial numbers of family members expected, we probably got to spend more quality time with them than we might have had we come for the ceremony. Here they are after the ceremony.
Then it was back to the campsite to prepare for our departure for Bangor, Maine where we planned to attend the graduation of another nephew.