Saturday, June 30, 2012 - Exploring east along Hwy 1/Hwy 95 and then back on Hwy 95

We got up early and took a taxi to Avis Car Rental at Union Train Station.  I rented a black Liberty Jeep with tinted windows and Texas plates.  We headed east on Hwy 1 along the coast.  I photographed the New Haven Lighthouse Old Tower (Benchmark LX6368) and Southwest Ledge Lighthouse (Benchmark LX6370) about 9:00am.  We saw the First Congregational Church of East Haven, also known as the Old Stone Church (1774).   

We had breakfast at McDonald's in Branford CT.  I had a bacon egg cheese biscuit meal with orange juice.  I am not sure what Christopher had for breakfast.

We stopped at the Henry Whitfield House (1639)  in Guilford CT.   The house, with its massive stone walls, also served as a fort.  It was one of four stone houses that served to protect the community.  It is the oldest house in Connecticut and the oldest stone house in New England.

We stopped at Samson Rock in Madison CT.  A huge boulder sat on top of a rock outcropping.  The legend of Samson Rock was inscribed on a bronze plaque.  It is believed that Samson Rock is an erratic placed there by a glacier during the last Ice Age.

We did not find the Bridge Benchmark (LX0071).  It had been destroyed.  However we did find the cache at The Singing Bridge (GC1CHZ4) about 12:15pm.  As the vehicles crossed over the open steel deck the tires sang. 

We drove north to ride the Essex Steam Train into the heart of the scenic Connecticut River Valley for ten miles.  I purchased our tickets at the historic 1892 Essex Station.  Christopher purchased some items in the gift shop including an old fashioned pocket watch with chain.  We ate lunch at the train depot cafe.  At 2:00pm we rode in open car on the Essex Steam Train pulled by Locomotive 3025 through a picturesque countryside of meadows, farms, and a millpond.  I saw Gillette Castle (1914-1919) on the hillside.   Several hikers traveled by an earlier train to Hadlyme flagstop, where they disembarked and rode the Chester-Hadlyme Ferry across the Connecticut River.  They hiked 3/8-miles to Gillette Castle and back.  We stopped to pick up them up on our return trip back to Essex.  It sounded like fun.  If we had time it would have been fun also to ride the triple-deck Mississippi style riverboat for an 1 1/2-hour cruise along the Connecticut River to see the lush scenery and historic sites, such as Gillette Castle and the Goodspeed Opera House.

We headed south to Fort Saybrook Virtual Geocache (GCD048) at 4:00pm.  We read the signboard to learn  the history and get the answers to the Virtual questions.  Christopher wandered around the site of the Valley Railroad Roundabout.  Saybrook was the lifelong residence of the late actress Katherine Hepburn.

We traveled  one mile southeast to the Saybrook Lighthouse (Benchmark: LX5808).  I took several photographs from the car as this was private property.  We drove six miles east to CT History - Thomas Lee House (GC19T4Y) in the Niantic section of East Lyme, CT.  Constructed between 1660 and 1664, it is one of the oldest wood frame houses in Connecticut still in its primitive state.  Today the house is a historic house museum operated by the East Lyme Historical Society, and furnished as it would have been in the 18th century.  We did not find the cache.  It had been missing for some time.

We traveled east for 14 1/2 miles on Hwy 95, stopping at the Jerome Hoxie Scenic Overlook.  I photographed the Mystic Municipal Tank and the Mystic Seaport Lighthouse a mile and half to the south.  Christopher found a cache (GC23GEP).   There were three Waymarks at this location.

At 6:30pm, we visited the Stonington Cemetery, a 22 acre burial ground where I photographed a very ornate Gothic style chapel (Waymark).  We traveled into Stonington where I photographed the Stonington Historical Marker (Waymark).  We explored the 1650 Wequetequock Burial Ground, the oldest cemetery in Stonington located on the east side of Wequetequock Cove.  I photographed the large four sided monument dedicated to the founders of Stonington: Chesebrough, Minor, Palmer and Stanton who are buried in this cemetery.   We tried to locate William and Anna Chesebrough's grave but were unsuccessful.   Christopher is a descendant of the Chesebroughs of Stonington, CT.  His paternal grandmother was Pruda M. Chesebro Wilson.   The 1650 Wequetequock Burial Ground had not been Waymarked so I did.

We drove several miles northeast to a graveyard near Exeter where we found the gravestone and crypt of Mercy Lena Brown, the Rhode Island Vampire.  Mercy has the distinction of being the last of the North American vampires - at least in the traditional sense.  She was only 19 years old when she died of consumption on January 17, 1892.  She was laid to rest in an above ground crypt in Chestnut Hill Cemetery, because in January the ground was too frozen to dig a grave.  Her mother, Mary, had died in December 1883; her sister, Mary Olive, died seven months later; and now her brother, Edwin, was also dying.  In mid March 1892 Mercy's  father, and some of his friends and family removed her heart, burned on a nearby rock and the ashes fed in a drink to Edwin hoping the vampire spell would be broken.   It failed to save Edwin who died two months later of consumption.

I had never seen fireflies so it was a real treat to watch them beside the crypt.

The sun had set and it was getting too dark to do anymore geocaching/waymarking/benchmarking.  We headed the 90 miles or so back to New Haven and Pepe's Pizza.  We got there 13 minutes before closing. They not only let us order but we were allowed to eat our dinner at one of the booths. A small mozzarella, sausage and pepperoni pizza fed us both with three slices left over for a late night snack.  I also had a salad - the best I have ever eaten. I took photos of several of the photographs.  Back at the OMNI Hotel parking garage, we cleaned out the Jeep.