The road tracklog 
from Woods Hole to
from 2011/07/21 to 2011/11/27

Rhode Island is the smallest state of the USA. Roger Williams founded the state in 1636 naming the capital Providence. It was the first to abolish slavery in 1774 and the first to declare its independence from England in 1776.

Newport, town around 25,000 inhabitants, is known for mansions built by the wealthy New-Yorkers at the end of the 19th century and by America's Cup.

At this beginning of the week after the publication of the pages of my website I changed state into entering Rhode Island to arrive at Newport about midday. The target was simple to see and not visit the manors of the “Robber Barons” of New York copying the castles of France and the Palaces of Italy. I did not wish to visit them rather preferring to have in memory the originals than American extravagances. From Visitor Centre parking I traversed Cliff Walk stopping in front of the gate of the four manors open to the public in this season. It was The Elms, inspired by the Castle of Asnières in the suburbs of Paris, The Breakers, copy of an Renaissance Italian palace, Marble House, according to Petit Trianon of Versailles and Rosecliff, Grand Trianon of Versailles. The return was carried out by Bellevue Avenue.

Shipyard 
Newport 
21/11/2011 

Bannisters Wharf 
Newport, RI 
21/11/2011 

The following day I spent a large morning to explore the old Newport looking at some old buildings: Army & Navy YMCA style Beaux Arts with a frieze of polychromic terra cotta at the top, Colony House style Georgian was one of the five state houses until 1901, Touro Synagogue style Neo-Palladian is the oldest synagogue in the USA, Levi Gale House Greek Revival style was built for the lawyer L. Gale. I had the privilege to visit Touro Synagogue with an American family, No Photo. I entered in Savings Bank to admire the interior as well as the two huge gates of safes, No Photo. White Horse Tavern presents a room and a bar in a very dark environment for drinkers. Finally at the end of the peninsula Fort Adams built in 1824 to keep the entry of Narragansett Bay. The day was covered announcing snow.

The Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, RISD, is housed by several buildings in Old Providence. It exhibits collections which cover a broad period from Mesopotamia to our days. European paintings of 18th, 19th and 20th centuries are most numerous with those of American, No Photo. Theodore Robinson studied Monet's technique having a studio at Giverny. I retained objects from China and Japan. State House would have according to Lonely Planet the largest marble Dome in the world, well. It was a very rainy day with gusts of wind. The storm ceased in the middle of afternoon.

Dainichi Nyorai Buddha,
Japanese, Heian period 
Providence 
23/11/2011 

State House
The largest self-supporting marble dome 
Providence 
23/11/2011 

The sun made its appearance in this day of Thanksgiving. But I noted that the crossed cities were deserted even McDo was closed but WiFi connection was operational. I follow-ups Hwy # 1 & # 1A up to Judith Point where I have the surprise to see surfers in icy water however with special combinations.

Connecticut accepted the first settlers in 1633, there were Dutch. But the following years English horde unloaded and expelled them. It was at the origin of the industrialization and the mass production in the USA. In 1798 Eli Whitney built a firearm factory with interchangeable parts. It was the cradle of Harriet Beecher Stowe and Mark Twain.

Seaport remote view 
Mystice 
24/11/2011 

The day started badly around 1:30 am a watchman said me that the carpark was a private property, I had to leave, I went to bed again. But ten minutes later two police cars with projector encircled my vehicle: Passport, Where do you come from? What are you doing here? Where are you going? Etc After explanation and discussion in the icy night both policemen agreed to escort me towards another carpark at edge of I-95! In the morning I left this noisy place to go to the carpark of McDo. Then I looked for a quiet spot to have rest. I found it at the edge of Point Saybrook Point where I decided to return to bivouac after visiting the Florence Griswold Museum at Old Lyme.

The Museum presented a retrospective of the black & white photographs by Walker Evans. I was delayed there to try to acquire his technique, he was a professor at Yale University.

The house of Florence Griswold houses a museum of the school of Lyme, American impressionists. I show some pictures of the exposed paintings. It was a great discovery because no museum already visited had exposed paintings by these artists.

Whereas I was going to leave my bivouac, an American lady asked if I speak French, “Yes I do”. She explained me her husband is French and invited me to meet him in their house. I spent two long hours with Lisa and Dominique. In the  vicinity Dominique showed me a statue of great beauty. Back to my truck for a visit we met two brothers of whom one had made a tour round the world of 20,.000 km by bicycle. I was very small beside such an exploit. Of course I garnered information for the continuation of my journey on the East coast of the USA and we exchanged our email addresses.

In the late morning I arrived at Essex to visit this nice historic village and its museum housed in the old Steamboat Dock. It tells the history of the Connecticut River which runs from Canada to the Atlantic Ocean. It exhibits a replica of the first world's submarine, it was hand-propelled and it was built in 1775.

At the back I stopped at the one of the oldest hotels in America, Griswold Inn was built in 1776. The shop exhibits a clock made in Paris, 1927. In middle of afternoon I went to Old Saybrook to find a bivouac at the seashore, nothing. I returned to Smith Neck.

New Haven is the oldest town in America which was planned in the grid shape in 1638. The center town is around Green where is the campus of the Yale University and the two museums. Yale Center for British Art gathers works of art collected by Paul Mellon his founder. It covers the period from 1688 to the death of J. M. W. Turner in 1851. The collections are the largest outside England. I knew Constable and Turner I discovered others in this splendid modern building. Temporary exhibits presented works by themes, I traversed them.

Yale University Art Gallery, located on the other side of the street, exhibits works of American artists and sumptuous paintings of European artists. A floor is devoted to Asian art and the African art of which the very beautiful picture on the cover of the site.

I strolled at the end of the afternoon in the campus of Yale University admiring the Gothic architecture of buildings.

I returned to my truck parked in an adjacent street. I have unpleasant surprised, the window side driver had been fractured, the remains strewed the ground. Vandals had not penetrated in my truck. An employee of the city helped me to make a report to police by phone which I had to take on Tuesday. In the evening on the carpark of Walmart I posed a cardboard to block the hole of the broken window, but I cannot drive thus I do not have any vision of the rear view mirrors. I entered a zone of turbulence.