Foreward in 2021
As with the photos I recently posted from my 2017 trip to Rhode Island, the following is a collection of photos I’ve had in my personal backlog to edit and write about for several years. I only recently finished editing the last of these photos and composing this post, because frankly, the sheer amount from the museum portions was so daunting (that, and I always put paid work first) - in fact there are so many from museums that I’ve given each museum their own post, and am only including a few highlights here with links to their respective full posts. The non-museum photos were finished not long after the trip.
As always, I’m reiterating that these photos are from 2018, which was long before COVID-19 was ever a worry. So, after two years of anticipation, here is my 2018 trip to Rhode Island, which includes recreating one of my earliest photographs, graveyards, fire stations, farms, bonsai, mansions, museums, street art, airports, and cars… lots of cars.
The New York City Empty Sky Memorial (Part 1)
Rather than flying this time, I made the 444mi journey by car because both Alyssa and I needed the scheduling flexibility having a car and no firm flight reservations would provide. My plan for the trip up was to stop in New Jersey at the New York City Empty Sky Memorial, which is a part of Liberty State Park, Jersey City, New Jersey. Unfortunately I got underway later than I’d hoped, finishing up a photoshoot that morning, and got stuck in rush hour traffic leaving the DC region and the tail end around Philadelphia.
I did make it to the Empty Sky Memorial, but after the sun had set, which didn’t meet my reason for stopping by. As you likely saw in my post two years ago, I took a photo of the Manhattan skyline including the Twin Towers in September, 2000 from Liberty State Park, at age 12; it is one of my earliest photographs, and unbeknownst to me at the time, my own capture of history. The purpose of my visit was to attempt to recreate this photo. Because it was evening by time I arrived, I chose not to try to find the spot I stood 18 years prior, and simply captured the New York skyline at nighttime - something I’ve never done despite numerous trips to New York as an adult.
I would have to drive this route on my return trip home, so I still had another chance to make this work, weather permitting. As it turns out, on the return leg at the end of my trip, I was able to reach the park well before sunset, and as it so happened, the weather was almost identically patchy foggy like that day in 2000. You will see highlights from the second visit at the end of this post - this post is sequential, and for larger photo sets like this I am only including highlights, and linking to the larger dedicated posts.
You can see the full set of my The New York City Empty Sky Memorial photos by clicking here.
Rhode Island Cemeteries and Wright's Dairy Farm
I made it to Woonsocket, Rhode Island well after midnight and collapsed right away to sleep. The next morning, in the appropriately spooky New England fog, Alyssa took me to several nearby cemeteries. As with any graveyard, we spent a lot of time reading the headstones looking for the oldest dates and most interesting inscriptions. Older headstones are often difficult or impossible to read not just because of age and older materials and construction methods, but also because of the effects of acid rain and pollution directly resulting from the industrial revolution, which of course in the United States was centralized in New England - this is part of deep-rooted history of Woonsocket and Northern Rhode Island we’ll address in detail later on in this post.
Some of the oldest headstones we spotted date back to the early 1700s, and one of the cemeteries we stopped at is resting place for Peleg Arnold, a lawyer and later State Supreme Court Chief Justice who represented Rhode Island as a delegate in the Continental Congress. And those are just the ones we could read; many are so weathered they are indecipherable.
Next, we visited the church where Alyssa was baptized, and she goes to midnight mass every Christmas.
While driving back, we spotted an antique fire truck parked in front of a fire station; I had to stop and get some photos. While checking it out, the owner came out of the fire station; turns out this fire truck is privately owned - it’s not owned by the fire department. The owner is a firefighter who bought and restored the 1972 Maxim F ladder truck, which is an especially unusual sight today with its open cab. In talking with the owner, it turns out he is stationed at T. F. Green Airport (PVD), so we had lots of aviation stuff to talk about. In fact, keep reading, because this comes back into play later on in my trip.
Our next stop was Wright's Dairy Farm for Alyssa’s birthday cake… and maybe a ton of other incredible sweets as well. Wright's Dairy Farm offers tours that shows their milking operation, but we were just there to buy milk and sweets well after milking time, but we still of course said hi to the moo-cows!
In the evening Alyssa had a “girls night” pre-birthday dinner and drinks that I attended despite not being one of the girls, and I enjoyed Rhode Island’s famous fried whole-belly clams while finally meeting some of Alyssa’s friends I’d only ever met over Facetime until now.
Downtown Woonsocket
The next morning, Alyssa and I drove the few miles over to downtown Woonsocket for an early lunch to introduce me to another Rhode Island cuisine staple I’d only heard about: Hot Wiener. Alyssa had told me stories about how her dad would take her to the New York Lunch for hot wieners as a kid, and the cook would prepare the wieners by laying a row of them all the way up their arm, and the cook’s sweat would add salty flavor to the dogs while assembling the wieners; health code prevents this theatric today, but Rhode Island hot wieners differ from a standard hot dog in that they are made of beef, veal, and pork, served on a steamed bun, and topped with celery salt, mustard, onion, and meat sauce. The first time Alyssa visited me in DC, I introduced her to DC’s famous Ben’s Chili Bowl Half-Smokes while at a Nats game; these two regional foods are distinctly different, but clearly in the same category.
We stopped by a nearby waterfall en route to our next major planned stop. Rhode Island has lots of dams and waterfalls, a result of its Ocean State status and industrial revolution history. Blackstone River and Canal is no exception.
New England Bonsai Gardens
So, I’m not as big a plant nerd as Alyssa, but I still enjoy certain varieties. I have several orchids, and the previous year, Alyssa had gotten me a Willow Leaf Ficus bonsai for Christmas - Alyssa finds her zen in all plants, and discovered the art of bonsai the previous Fall. Luckily for her, New England is host to the largest bonsai nursery on the East coast, just across the border in Massachusetts. She visited often enough the owners know her by name, but it was finally my turn to see all their varieties in person.
We both selected new bonsai to take home. I’ve always admired junipers, but sadly the one I picked up and brought home with me didn’t make it in the end, dying about a month later from some combination of too much sunlight or too much or too little water - I’m just not sure, but it’s the only plant I’ve ever lost, even with my experience raising temperamental plants. I’ve been told by others that DC’s climate has too harsh fluctuations for junipers to thrive, but I find that a bit hard to believe if they can thrive with care in New England. Beats me.
Interestingly, since returning from this trip I’ve discovered that the nursery I frequent here in Virginia sources all their bonsai from New England Bonsai Gardens; it was obvious to me when I noticed they don’t even take NEBG’s inventory tags off. On top of that, since this trip, Alyssa has visited me here in DC, and while conversing with some of the staff here, they both actually know some of the same people at NEBG since they source their bonsai from there. I know this is a pretty niche interest, but it’s still a small world.
I’ve included some highlights of New England Bonsai Gardens below, and you can see more in its own post here.
T. F. Green Airport
During my chance meeting the firefighter while checking out his antique ladder truck a few days prior, we’d discussed my connections to IAD and DCA, such as my multimedia roles, and interfacing with the airport police and fire departments for various projects. Since then, we’d arranged time to meet up once again, while he was on-duty at PVD’s airfield rescue and firefighting station so he could give me a proper airfield tour from airside. I love airports, and I love airport people!
I arrived at the ARFF station and met up with my new firefighter friend who was very eager to see me again. Unfortunately part of our plan fell through, because due to other duties going on that day he was left without a service vehicle (beyond an ARFF truck, which you can’t exactly take out without a full crew in case there’s a call). But no biggie; we still hung out airside for a few hours trading stories and watching aircraft taxi and take off.
T. F. Green’s airfield is interesting because its ATC tower and ARFF station are located on the opposite side of the passenger terminals; this is common (and normally necessitated by response time requirements) for ARFF stations, but although not unheard of for ATC, less common. This location opposite the passenger terminals gave a much wider, different perspective of the airfield than one would normally get while simply catching their flight.
At mid-day, this was a slow time between banks, when most aircraft were in the sky between destinations; this was on purpose so the likelihood of a call was lowest. Just after I arrived, one of the New England Patriots’ private aircraft landed after performing practice maneuvers in preparation for an upcoming aerial display; you can see it taxiing back to its hardstand.
Downtown Providence
Seeing as I had the rest of the day to myself, I decided to go explore nearby Providence, having never been there for any extended amount of time. I was hungry and came across a Greek market and restaurant that was perfect for lunch.
I found a trail that lead to a waterfront which gave a great view of the windmills and sea industry.
Next I stopped by the Rhode Island State House. It was closed, so I didn’t get to go inside, but I did explore the exterior. Once night fell, the dome lights were rainbow colored to match the streetlight banners and other city decorations - for some reason Rhode Island Pride was in August, not June as is traditional. Or perhaps they just left the lights and banners up for several months? It’s not clear, because this was August, but everything I find says Rhode Island celebrates in June like everywhere else.
Next I explored more of Providence’s downtown, following the canal toward the Providence Biltmore, all the way to the beautiful and vacant art deco Industrial National Bank Building.
As the sun was setting, I stumbled across this 2015 mural entitled “She Never Came” created by Polish artist BEZT.
Off-Day with Alyssa
The next day was an off-day, and Alyssa and I decided to not make any plans and just do errands and generally relax. We took Hennessy to a pond to play, PetSmart for some new toys, and dinner at a friend’s taco restaurant.
While stopping to check out a waterfall, we found a Vietnam war memorial. Looking more closely, I found someone had laid a pillow with wedding rings tied to it. The names of the fallen are on the memorial, but there was no indication for whom the rings were placed.
Newport Car Museum
The next day was another day all to myself, and since I’m into cars but Alyssa is not, this seemed like the best day to head to Newport and check out the Newport Car Museum which was highly recommended to me by numerous gearhead friends and car groups I’m in.
I’m sharing some highlights of the Newport Car Museum in this post. To see a more complete posting of the cars on exhibit, click her to visit its own dedicated post.
I was a little confused at first because the museum shares an entrance with a Raytheon office complex, but I’d heard that the owner, Gunther Buerman, formerly worked for Raytheon, so this wasn’t entirely surprising to me; from what I’ve read there’s no indication whether this is actually true, but the building that houses the Newport Car Museum was formerly a missile manufacturing facility on the Raytheon campus. When I saw the cars parked out front I knew I was in the right place - there wasn’t anything super rare, but the SL550, Fiata, and modded A4 grouped together aren’t your super common econobox traffic. I parked in their cluster of more interesting cars by the NPT CAR MUS flag.
The most stunning thing about the museum besides the collection it contains is the architecture and interior design. Opened in 2017, the museum was less than a year old when I was visiting, but it felt so well-established already with complete and modern designed exhibits and offerings from every era and genre of classic, exotic, and notable automotives available in the United States. It’s a large museum filled with almost 100 cars and numerous pieces of art and furniture from names including Salvador Dali and Charles and Ray Eames, and it still has room for further buildout as the collection expands.
Upon walking in with my camera wearing a Porsche polo, the staff thought I was an automotive journalist on assignment and offered me a private tour; if I had played my hand differently I could have taken them up on it, but I was honest and said I was just vacationing, not wanting to waste anyone’s time.
The first stop when arriving is a room with Forza 6 driving simulators you can try once included with admissions if you’d like. I was the only person there, and gave it a whirl, but the game crashed / froze less than a minute from it starting, and the attendant instead of resetting it said “you’re done” and wanted me to pay ~$25 to “go again.” This was my first impression upon entering the museum mind you, and it left a bad taste in my mouth. I politely told him that it’s a racket to expect me to pay for something of theirs that’s broken, and moved on. Luckily being able to enjoy the rest of the museum uninterrupted helped me forget the bad first impression.
The Newport Car Museum has some of my all-time favorites, such as a Diablo VT Roadster, only the second Countach I’ve ever seen, each major iteration of the Viper, the only XJ220 I’ve ever seen, the first second-generation Ford GT I’ve seen, and my dream car, the Porsche 4S Targa, though I’d prefer Forest Green Metallic, Mamba Green Metallic, or Anthracite Brown Metallic over Viper Green as displayed, despite my shirt matching in color.
The museum is also home to cars with race and movie heritage in addition to the rare and limited models on display. Needless to say, the Newport Car Museum has something for everyone from every vintage from the 40s forward. The staff was extremely friendly, and helpful in even pointing me towards other Rhode Island car collections and invited me to a nearby cars and coffee that I was unfortunately unable to attend seeing as it was after I’d headed home to DC. I’m very curious to visit again the next time I’m in Rhode Island to see what additions have been made since my first visit.
Evening in Newport
After the Newport Car Museum it was time for lunch, and I was craving a Newport lobstah roll - I hadn’t gotten a lobstah roll yet this trip, so I went to nearby Easton Beach to grab lunch on the beach. After inhaling some chowda with my roll, I walked on the beach enjoying the waves rolling up on my feet before heading to the highly recommended Newport Cliff Walk.
On the way to the Cliff Walk I spotted another car museum I’d heard of, however this one wasn’t open the day I was there.
Over 100 years old, Newport’s Cliff Walk is a recreational nature trail along Rhode Island’s Eastern Shore that provides constant views of the ocean, and the historic mansions and oceanfront properties. Many of these shoreline residences are now historic landmarks owned by non-profits, utilized as museums and event venues. Others are still privately owned residences or have been converted to luxury hotels. The Cliff Walk also take you past Salve Regina Univeristy, a private Catholic university with 2,000 undergraduates and 600 postgrad students founded in 1934.
Museum of Work and Culture
I had the next day to myself as well, and after hearing about The Museum of Work and Culture for years after multiple visits to Woonsocket, I’d planned to start my day giving it a full runthough. This seemed to surprise the small staff there, as I was the only person there the entire time I went, and on my way out the door several hours later the front desk attendant commented, “Oh, wow, I thought you’d left already!” It may not be the most popular, but this Smithsonian affiliate museum is home to a ton of Rhode Island and New England history.
The Museum of Work and Culture shares the history of French-Canadian and Québécois immigrants who traveled to New England in the late 19th century at the end of the industrial revolution, where Rhode Island had a large textile industry. As a result of the mass migration to New England, Rhode Island still to this day has an abundant French heritage; in fact, to this day, Woonsocket, where the museum is located, has the largest concentration of French and French-Canadian population in the US, dubbing itself La ville la plus française aux États-Unis, meaning “the most French city in the United States.”
The museum has so much on display in such a small space that, like the Newport Car Museum, it deserves its own post. You can view that post here, and enjoy some highlights below:
Visible through out the museum windows is the Blackstone River, one of the dams utilized by the surrounding textile industry, and some of the few remaining mill buildings that have mostly been converted into apartments.
Later that night, Alyssa and I went to an arcade bar in Providence and shaped our new junipers. I was hoping to create a blended spiral shape with growth. This night also marked the only time I’ve ever seen or played a TRON machine. Alyssa spent most of her time on Frogger, which she used to play with her Dad, and I tried the various pinball machines, mostly sticking with The Simpsons. We both spent over an hour playing air hockey against each other, and later teaming up against other challengers.
The New York City Empty Sky Memorial (Part 2)
The next day it was time for me to depart and head home. I had two planned stops in New York (technically New Jersey); I was once again heading to The New York City Empty Sky Memorial to attempt to recreate the photo I’d taken at Liberty State Park of the New York skyline at age 12, and afterwards I had plans to meet up with my friend Natalie who lived a few miles away in Weehawken. After spending over a week making Hennessy fall in love with me, I had to hit the road while the pupper was out for the day with Alyssa’s sister - I never got to properly tell the pupper goodbye :-(
This time around I made good time en route to New York, only hitting traffic in Fairfield and approaching the George Washington Bridge, with no rain this way. As chance would have it, this route took me right past the Liberty Science Center and the locally renowned and beloved Liberty Park Diner which my family ate at every day for the few days in September of 2000 we “visited New York” (we never actually left New Jersey, and only saw New York from Jersey City, NJ). A part of me wanted to stop in for a waffle after taking my pictures at Liberty State Park, but I had been invited to eat at Natalie’s. Despite already having dinner plans, I now regret not at least popping in, because sadly, as of this writing, The Liberty Park Diner has now permanently closed; another small-business victim of the COVID-19 pandemic.
I pulled onto the brick road leading to Liberty State Park and knew I had succeeded in capturing something to match my film photo of the Twin Towers; remarkably, even the weather was visually similar to that day in 2000. I quickly parked, and in my excitement that I was going to actually be able to capture this photo, I had to slow myself down and think, plan - grab my camera, think about what settings I want to use, clean and dry my hands, grab the print of my 2000 photo and be sure to keep it secure, clean, and undamaged on the way to the spot, and think about how best to locate the exact spot.
You can see the full set of my The New York City Empty Sky Memorial photos by clicking here.
My original photo from 2000:
Inspecting the original picture, I counted 12 light poles visible, which would give me a good starting point to get me close to the same spot for that matching perspective. To my surprise, the park benches and even the trash cans hadn’t changed in all this time. In order to fit all 12 light posts in-frame, I walked back parallel to 13th light post from the end, and incredibly the perspective aligned almost perfectly - even the park benches lined up, though some trash cans moved, as you’d expect they would over the course of 18 years.
To my amazement, it took me longer to walk to this spot from my car than it did to fight the wind and correctly line up my photograph in the shot.
And here are the photos, 2000 and 2018, side-by-side. History in both pictures; the Twin Towers visible in 2000, and One World Trade Center erected adjacent to the empty sky where they once stood. Many other buildings have also sprung up across the skyline, and the freshly planted trees in my original picture are all grown up today.
After capturing a variety of photos lining up my print with the skyline fighting the wind and eventual arm cramps, I head over to the Empty Sky Memorial to take in and shoot it and the NYC skyline in daylight, since i’d only seen it at night before. I was about an hour from sunset, and I decided to stay here until dark and capture daylight and dusk photos of both memorial and city.
Once it had become as dark as it was when I’d been here just a week prior, I packed it up and head over to meet up with Natalie, who I hadn’t seen in several years. A few miles away, I was greeted by an excited Sophie who was eager to show off the tricks Natalie has taught her over the years, and I of course grabbed a few selfies after scarfing down a huge salad, which Natalie told me she’s found is good roadtrip food because it counters any junk you’ve been tempted to eat - she was absolutely right and God did it hit the spot.
I’d only intended to stay an hour or so, but I should have known better, because any time the two of us get together the time flies, and it was past 1AM by time I head out.
As chance would have it, somewhere in the dark walking out to my car I stepped in something that smelled absolutely lovely, which I didn’t realize until I’d gotten back onto the New Jersey Turnpike and gotten a few miles away. As everyone knows, New Jersey is known as “the armpit of America,” and it has a lot of industry serving New York along the I-95 / New Jersey Turnpike corridor. It often smells, and it took me a few minutes to put together that the foul smell I was rapidly becoming overwhelmed by was coming from inside the car, not outside. I pulled over at the next rest area, which was mercifully only a few miles away.
Quickly getting out into the fresh New Jersey air, I inspected the damage; yup, shoe covered in dog poo, and unfortunately it was also all over my clutch pedal - stepping in it with my left foot only was the only luck to be had, because it meant my brake and accelerator were safe. I did my best to scrape off what was on my shoe, but it was the most concrete / adherent poo I’ve ever had the misfortune of dealing with, so inside the rest area I ordered a large coffee from the Starbucks stand and explained my situation to the barista, asking for trash bags and any cleaning supplies she had. No joy on the cleaning supplies, but she gave me several Hefty trash bags. With a bit more luck, the restroom didn’t limit you to blow dryers, so I grabbed a thick stack of paper towels from the restroom, wet them, and head out to my car.
I’d brought a second pair of shoes along, so I changed into them and threw my poo-shoes into one of the trash bags and tied it tight. Next, I started trying to wipe down my poor, brown clutch pedal, holding my breath while leaning into the footwell by the source, but it wasn’t doing much - the poo was sandy concrete. Regathering my plan, I went back inside and bought two large bottles of water - one to drink, the other to sacrifice. With a thick stack of paper towels across my footwell, I poured water on the clutch pedal to try and loosen the concrete poo, then scrubbing away with an even thicker stack of wetted paper towels.
After several trips in and out to refill the water bottle, blatantly steal an obscene amount of paper towels, and repeat this process of drenching and scrubbing, over the course of over an hour I finally got the clutch pedal’s stainless steel and rubber pads exposed and all traces of poo eliminated. All traces except for the smell, at least. The smell was mostly gone, except for what had permeated the cabin itself, and whatever was left on the floormat. I disposed of all the paper towels in one of the Hefty bags, and threw the floormat in another, tightly tying it shut with the poo-shoe-bag inside, and threw those in the trunk, hoping the smell wouldn’t penetrate the bags, but it was so pungent I truly was worried the bags might not contain it.
After sanitizing my entire arms inside, I finally sat back down in my driver’s seat, pushed the clutch in, and started my car back up at almost 2AM - remember, I still have ~4hrs driving ahead of me at this point, when I’d expected to already be home for several hours by now. Sniff test: Only a whiff of poo-crete every here and there; I’d gotten it good enough to drive the rest of the journey home.
So off I went again - I was pretty much the only car on the road the entire 250mi home, and I finally arrived home as the sky was beginning to lighten as the sun approached the horizon. Before I finally got to get some sleep, Alyssa Facetimed me as she was waking up and had me say goodbye to Hennessy since I hadn’t been able to in person - since I was gone by time she got back, she didn’t know where’d I’d gone and was depressed and looking around for me constantly, since I’d become her best friend and sleeping buddy from day one. This would actually continue for several weeks, and she was so depressed I was gone she stopped eating. A few days later I literally had to Facetime the dog to tell her to eat, at which point she began eating again. But now, to this very day, she will look at me on Facetime, and then snort, flipping her head away in a pout when she sees me, because she still feels betrayed I didn’t say goodbye in person - I am not making this up. Look pup, I tried to, I wanted to, I even delayed my departure thinking you’d be home sooner - you’re still my pupper.
