Day 18 - Newport, RHODE ISLAND # 2

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Alarm was set for 4.20am to wake me up to watch the NRL Grand Final but I don’t know why as when I have something special occurring I seem to wake up by instinct like the body has it’s own alarm clock. Not sure if that is normal or something that makes me special (hopefully the latter !).

Some of the places we have stayed at during this trip have what is called Direct TV with > 100 channels and I was lucky enough here in Newport to have Fox Sports 2 coverage of the NRL Grand Final and I got a text message from Luke when I woke up saying he was off to see the big game live in Sydney to watch the mighty Penrith Panthers against local rivals from Sydney’s west the Parramatta Eels. Well it was certainly worth getting up early as the Panthers demolished our cousins 28-0 and never looked in doubt for premiership title number 4 (the final score was actually 28-12 but who counts the last 5 minutes anyway ?). Sorry David and Auntie Jeannie but what a dominant game it was and with having played in 3 grand finals in a row with back to back premiership wins we have certainly started a dynasty.

Kerry and I were lucky enough to be at the Panthers first grand final win in 1991 when Royce Simmons famously scored 2 tries including one charge where he ran over the top of the “brick with ears” Glenn Lazarus which no-one ever did prior or has ever done since ! Premiership # 2 was in 2003 and I recall we were on holiday at Mooloolaba and the kids had special pom-poms made up for the big day, and of course last year we also won Premiership # 3 against the Bunnies.

Just a quick note to say I have decided to do what is called quiet publishing each day so you will now only get emails every few days instead of daily notifications so you can move back and forth between my blog entries to read and catch up what’s been happening each day.

We are in a great location here in downtown Newport in a room with great layout with lots of space but the ambient noise is an issue as the sound coming through the old windows on a Saturday night was quite significant as there are several bars nearby and hopefully today being a Sunday will be a lot quieter. Well the rain has now stopped but overcast skies persist and it is still very windy so the maximum today will be around 15 degrees but likely 13 with the wind chill.

Breakfast was not included so went to Gary’s Diner where we grabbed the last table available (what no booth !). Kerry ordered pancakes and I ordered 2 eggs sunny side up with corned beef hash with a couple of coffees. This was something I have not tried before but was very tasty and would try it again. On the way back we saw an amazing McLaren sports car in orange colour like the Formula 1 cars (maybe Danny Ricciardo was driving it ?).

It was only a short walk from our hotel to everywhere and last night I booked a trolley tour for 11.30 am. It was freezing cold walking down America’s Cup Lane to the bus depot where the trolley tour starts with the wind going right through you. My 2 memories of Newport, RI are this being the place where we won the America’s Cup back in 1983, and the Lawn Tennis Championship being played here where I recall think Lleyton Hewitt having had some success. The trolley tour will give us a bigger picture of the history here.

It was while we were were waiting for the trolley you listen to the different accents of other around you and this lady from Alabama had the most distinct voice that pronounced every syllable with emphasis and I’m thinking who does that sound like and it just would not come to me (maybe later ?). Anyway a guy comes to let us know our tour is about to start and his name is “Trolley Rob”. He gave us a tour of Newport for around 90 minutes and he hardly took a breath the whole time giving us so much narration it was mind boggling that he could remember so much of the history.

There is a lot more to Newport than the America’s Cup and Tennis but the America’s Cup is a big thing here as they hosted the event in Newport from 1930 to 1983 when we took it off them. The America’s Cup actually started in the UK in 1851 and they American’s won it and changed the name and did not lose the Auld Mug as it’s known until 1983 and it is apparently the oldest international sporting competition that is still running now.

Newport is famous for it’s gilded mansions and there is such opulence here. The stories Rob shared about the people who owned these was amazing (mostly wealthy New Yorkers who had their summer holiday homes here). There are lots of sports cars here and this is because they have an auto festival going this week on which is kind of convened by Jay Leno who is a car nut and he has a grand old home here which we saw on the trolley tour. They have this historic cliff walk people can do but too windy and cold to try right now.

After the trolley tour we walked back along what is called Upper Thames Street. Local residents pronounce the street name with a soft "th" and which rhymes with "names" rather than the British pronunciation of "temz". This one way street is littered with old buildings on a cobblestone street. We looked at numerous souvenir shops and had lunch at a coffee shop that had some small meals so I had a gourmet toasted sandwich with chicken strips, mozzarella cheese, pesto and oils, and shared our first pumpkin spice Latte which tasted like a cappuccino with mild spicy cinnamon favour. Whilst I’m talking about shops I keep on thinking here how many t-shirts and sweatshirts (aka sloppy joes) can you look at ? I have yet to use the term sloppy joe as I think my American friends would be a bit confused with that terminology.

And yet more sports cars around now as we saw several Porsche 911 GT3 RS driving around town and they would definitely set you back a few hundred grand I guess. We then walked up the hill to see the International Tennis Hall of Fame which was actually free to visit today. This is an active tennis complex of grass courts and held the very first US Open tennis championships and they still have a tournament here each year. In fact Lleyton won here in 2014 being his last tournament win and he was pretty good on grass having recorded 8 of his 30 singles wins on that surface (including Wimbledon). The Hall of Fame is pretty cool to visit with lots of memorabilia and artefacts to see including old racquets and trophies donated by players who obviously have no room left in their private trophy cabinets.

On the way back we stopped at Bellevue Wine and Spirits for a refill of Rose (2 more bottles today !). Kerry reminded me when we were here yesterday I was wearing my New York Giants t-shirt and Kerry had her Lambeau Field sloppy joe on (aka Green Bay packers) and they guy said something “how does that work” supporting different teams (he had no idea we were from Australia !).

For dinner we went to a place recommended by “Trolley Rob” located on upper Thames Street called the Brick Alley Pub & Restaurant. We made a reservation for 6.30pm when we were walking the area after the trolley tour and on the way to dinner I picked up our Rhode Island licence plate in the shop next door which I had spotted earlier in the day. We had a couple of glasses of Rose in our room as pre-dinner drinks to help warm up our insides before heading outdoors again and when we arrived at the Brick Alley we jumped ahead of about 6-8 people who were waiting for a table so making the reservation was a good idea indeed.

We had a booth table and the place had lots of character. Kerry ordered a Downeast Original Cider (from nearby Boston) and I had a Narragansett Lager (a local beer from Rhode Island) and both were on tap and good ! They had some piped music going and it was like they had copied my playlist on Spotify with Fleetwood Mac, Tom Petty, The Cars, Queen, Mick Jagger & David Bowie doing their dancing in the streets, then a bit of flat spot for eating then back to Freeze Frame by J Geils band another classic 80’s hit. For our main meals I ordered the short rib sandwich with garlic smashed potatoes and Kerry had the machacha beef nacho platter - Kerry’s choice was off the richter scale for a starter ! I’d later ask the waitress if she had been to the Big E but she had not (apparently too far away being 2 hours drive !).

I just remembered that lady from Alabama. I’m sure it was Forrest Gump’s mum. We have really enjoyed our time here in Newport but tomorrow we hit the road again.

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Photos

Tribute to Lleyton Hewitt
He was inducted into the Hall Of Fame in 2021 but was unable to be here until July 2022 to accept the honour where his speech was said to amazing and humbling recollection of a career that started out playing and beating Sampras and Agassi, then came Federer, Nadal and Djokovic and he was World No. 1 for 80 weeks (not a bad career !).