2016 New England , Mark Twain to Mystic Seaport

      July 24.   We traveled from Thompson CT to Hartford and toured the Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) Home. 

Back of the house Servant quarters on right

Mark Twain Lego Statue

We really enjoyed the tour of the home and the visitor’s center. The home was really beautiful on the inside but very dark. The gas lights that are original have been converted to electric but are kept to the same output as the gas originals. This house is where he wrote many of his books. He wrote upstairs on the third floor where he had a pool table and lots of windows and porch to step out on.  The guide told the story that when Sam was writing he wanted to keep his concentration on the story and if interrupted it would take some time to get back into the theme.

Entry porch

Porch above Sherry is writing studio.

 He asked his wife to tell anyone who came calling that he was out. She didn’t like lying to the guest and expressed this to Sam. Sam then told her she wouldn’t be lying as he would hear the doorbell and then would get up and step out to the upper balcony porch. His writing desk faced a paneled wall with no window so he wasn’t distracted. Sam was an active pool player and if his desk faced the pool area he would interrupt the book to play a game. This caused him problems which was solved when he faced the wall.

     His three girls had him tell a story every night with the items on the fireplace mantel. Though the items remained the same the story told each evening was different as no one could spin a yarn like Mark Twain.

      Leaving Hartford we drove onto Old Mystic CT and checked into Seaport RV resort. This was our first Passport America Park. We joined Passport America because the savings is 50% when available. So our second night is essentially free. We have been to Mystic Seaport before several years ago and enjoyed our stay. 

The last time here it was September and cooler with much less traffic and crowds. We found parking at the middle entrance to the Museum and walked across the street to the book store and art store. We looked into obtaining tickets, but decided to delay or forget the museum because of the time of day and also we have toured here before. We drove downtown to the drawbridge and looked around but traffic was intense and parking was not to be found.  The next day Monday we returned downtown and parking was much better.  Sherry located the yarn store she wanted to visit only to find they were closed on Monday and Tuesday, she was disappointed. We shopped and mostly browsed in a few stores and went to Mystic Pizza for lunch. The shop was made famous by the Julia Roberts movie made here in the 80’s about three waitresses. 

Great Pizza and service was fun to be sitting in the booth.  Really enjoyed visiting Mystic Seaport again the RV park was quiet and friendly staff. Only negative was the stone drive and pad as there was no rain here for several weeks and the dust was bad. We did laundry here and the machines were almost new and worked like you would expect.