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Rhode Island Roads
The online magazine of travel, life, dining, and entertainment for people who love Rhode Island |
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A road trip beyond the edge of the Rhode Island Weekend Getaway by Paul Pence
A drive through the New England countryside that starts in Rhode Island can easily wander off the edge of the state. We took a weekend drive along Route 6 and soon found ourselves in Connecticut, with rolling hills and quaint villages that just went on and on and on.
This time of year, the foliage makes a great excuse for a road trip. But the countryside
is beautiful any time of year, with farms and hills opening up the views. Beyond the
scenery, the history, shops, and food can be enough to get into the car and start
exploring.
Perhaps the most amazing discovery on our trip was a gourmet restaurant in what
Rhode Islanders would consider the middle of nowhere. In Eastford Connecticut
we stopped for dinner at the Still River Cafe. With a name like that, you'd think
a coffee shop with seating under a spreading oak tree, but this is nothing like that.
We had an amazing dinner as excellent as any we've eaten in the best fine dining restaurants
of Boston and Newport.
Our dinners were explorations of themes: a gel-skinned droplet of cucumber
juice and a cucumber mousse, roasted beets of three different colors served
with a goat cheese parfait topped with toasted shreds of beets, a plate of North
Ashford Farm heirloom tomatoes including Brandywine, Green Zebra, striped Cavern,
and striped German heirloom tomatoes, with Bufala di Vermont hand crafted buffalo
milk mozzarella, basil ice cream with micro basil -- and that's not even the entree! The entrees
continued exploration, not with just one way of serving quail, but four different ways,
with a cranberry and apple stuffed quail, pan seared quail breast with sautéed spinach
and “frisee aux lardons” with poached quail eggs. Even the dessert was an exploration
of a theme, with three different creme brulee comprising a single dessert.
Well fed, we drove well after dark we drove toward to UConn's main campus to our lodgings for the night at the
Daniel Rust House B&B. Built in 1731 and expanded repeatedly over the ensuing years, the B&B
not only made us feel welcome, but also feel like we were transported into the past, when the house was
an 18th century Tavern used by the Sons of Liberty. The B&B was cozy, comfortable, and welcoming,
with a fireplace in our room, a four poster bed, private bathroom, antiques and keepsakes
from the innkeepers' private collection, hot tea and coffee in the parlor, secret
passageway, and even
a friendly cat.
The Daniel Rust House was such a peaceful oasis on our road trip, it was
tempting to just park there for the weekend. After all, every trip needs a home base,
and being on Main Street in Coventry, it placed us right near many of the places
we wanted to visit. But, alas, we had to get moving. The innkeepers Cathy and Germain's delicious hot
breakfast and friendly conversation got us up and moving while the morning was still morning.
The first stop was the home of Coventry Connecticut's most famous historical resident -- Nathan Hale.
"I regret that I have but one life to lose for my country," may or may not have actually
been said by Hale before his execution at age 21 for spying for the American revolutionary army in
Manhattan, but there is no doubt that he grew up just a short drive away from the Daniel Rust House.
The house where Hale was born and grew up was razed in the 1770's. He moved away from
home to go to college and later join George Washington's army about the same time that
his family moved into the larger house that he and his many brothers built.
The thanks to a large number of boys, the Hale family's 400-acre farm was prosperous. The
main house was built with two fireplace stacks and a central hall and a very long
ell extension housing the kitchen. The house remained largely unaltered to this day and
has been decorated with period decor throughout. Visitors to the homestead can watch
a short movie about Nathan Hale before being given a guided tour.
If we had stayed longer in Coventry, we would have stopped at Memory Lane
Countryside Antique Center or the Coventry Country Store, but we wanted to make
it to Willimantic to stay on schedule.
Willimantic is the location of the Great Frog Battle of the 1754. At the height of the
French and Indian War, villagers were awakened by a horrible noise. Rushing to their
muskets, they came down the dark country road anticipating a battle to save their
village, finding only thousands of bullfrogs.
Willimantic was also the site of a thriving textile industry, remembered by the
Windham Textile and History Museum. In what was once the company store for the
American Thread Company factory, a museum houses artifacts and exhibits that help
us understand the era when everyone worked for the company. A rotating exhibit
when we visited was featuring sewing machines, while machinery fills a neighboring
building and the upstairs shows life in the row houses and a mill manager's home.
From there, we went to Willimantic Brewing Company for lunch. The Willimantic Brewing
Company is in the town's classic 1907 limestone and granite post office. Of course with a
name like thiers, you can be sure that they are a brew pub, serving a broad selection
of not only their own beers, but also of "guest beers", satifying those who insist
on their favoite brand despite a smorgesbord of ales, pilsners, and alds laid before them.
Beer doesn't always mix well with a driving trip, but happily they also serve food.
Their pub food extends far beyond burgers and fries, delving into steaks and pastas that seem
more fitting to a nice date restaurant, but for lunch pub grub was just right. We had
a bruchetta made in part from spent brewer's grains for an appetizer. Linda had
a salad and I had their variation of a ruben called the Windham Village sandwich,
with corned beef, onion, cole slaw and Swiss chese toasted on rye.
We could have spent more time shopping and exploring Willimantic, with
bullfrog-on-spool icons decorating the bridge, a long pedestrian bridge with gardens,
a walkable downtown, and loads of shops. Instead, back on the road toward our next
destination, Woodstock, CT.
Of course, there's a lot along the way. On the weekend we traveled, there was an outdoor art show
with music called "Artists in the Country". There's no shortage of events, in the autumn
look for organized walks in October under the title "Walktober". Woodstock is also the location of
the Taylor Brooke Winery and the historic Roseland Cottage and Bowen House.
We passed that opportunity and headed to a more family-oriented activity: an educational
corn maze at Fort Hill Farm in nearby Thompson. The theme changes every year, for
2008 it's "Appalacian Trail", with somewhat easy-to-navigate maze with the intent
not to find your way out, but to find all of the hidden landmarks. The corn is amazingly
high, at least 10 feet, perfect height for cow corn, and perfect for Fort Hill Farm,
which produces organic milk under the co-op brand "The Farmer's Cow".
For dinner we ate at Rustica in Woodstock. From the outside, it looks like a country roadhouse,
and from the inside it maitains the rustic feel, with the walls decorated in a Texas
motif. A really intersting touch is the wall of glass-front coolers that have been backpainted with
a western sunset scene. We had Mexican food, not quite the same Tex-Mex Mexican food we'd enjoyed
in San Antonio, but in ample-sized servings and inexpensive enough to feed hungry roadtrippers
who have built up an appetite winding around the Connecticut hills.
Then our night's lodgings at the Mansion at Bald Hill. This Guilded Era home features
its own fine dining which we didn't sample, but their rooms are as plush as the wealthy
Bowen family would have commanded in their day. Our room was Mr. Bowen's own.
We spent the night in complete luxury and had breakfast in the library. In the morning,
we walked around the formal gardens, perfect for a wedding.
Then, on the road again, stopping at Southwood Alpacas to see the soft-furred llamas
that produce such fine wool. Local weavers turn their hair into scarves and other
garmets. The hair is very fine and soft, and being hollow is extra warm.
Had we even more time, we would have done more shopping at the Garden Gate and Coco's Cottage
in South Woodstock or at Majilly, Martha's Herbary, Celebrations Shoppes, and Hazelwood Fine Crafts
in Pomfret. Or perhaps we would have gone for a walk at the Audubon Properties at Bafflin Sanctury
and Trailwood in Pomfret.
But instead we had a quick stop at the Vanilla Bean Cafe before heading home, tired and happy that we had
the adventure beyond the edge of the state.
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