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Our rest time in Lowell has come to an end, and it is now time to get back on the road and get back to our wanderings. After a quick breakfast, we loaded up the bike and bade Lowell goodbye as we began our journey south. We will miss Elliot's Hot Dogs and the Owl Diner, but the weather is great and hopefully it can only get warmer as we begin our southern journey.
Our first stop along the was is Sturbridge Village. There are interstates that lead there directly, but we stuck with the secondary roads as we were not in a hurry. There is no single secondary road from Lowell to Sturbridge, so we ended up with a wonderful ride on many small and winding roads through towns like Westford, Stow, Marlborough, and Hudson. these towns still have a lot of the look and feel of old New England. It wasn't until we reached Worcester that we saw more modern civilization.
I can't remember if I have actually visited Sturbridge Village before as it isn't the kind of place my dad would have taken us, but it does tend to be one of the number one destinations
for school field trips in this part of the country. Sturbridge Village is a recreation of an 1830's New England village. The buildings were either there, moved from another part of the state, or recreated using 1830's building techniques. Most of the shops are functional, and are staffed with people in appropriate 1830's dress doing things as they would have been done at that time to give us a taste of what life must have been like almost 200 years ago.
Our first stop was the town center with a meeting hall, church, dry goods store, bank, tavern, and parson's cottage. There weren't very many people there today, but I'm sure they must have been very busy yesterday. The costumed townsfolk were very friendly and interacted with us both socially and in character for the time. The lady at the parson's cottage was particularly nice and spent some time with us going over the parson's garden where he grew both vegetables for food, and plants for medicinal value, but also grew things like asparagus and raspberries as an exotic treat for both himself and visitors.
We visited with the tin smith who showed us how they cut, bent
and formed the tin to make various utensils. In the farmhouse, they were making current jam and baking a pie using hot coals as they did not have an oven. There was a blacksmith making square cut nails in the forge, and a carding mill where they were turning the wool into either a stuffing or thread. The carding mill used an actual water turbine for power and it was loud! The printer was making pages for a book, but we missed the cobbler making shoes. There were a few other shops like the sawmill that showed how timber was cut, and also used a water wheel for power, but it was not in operation. Neither was the grist mill, though it showed how the mill stones were used to grind the flour but it was also not in operation.
By now we were getting a little hungry, and lucky for us, the replica tavern also functioned as a real life cafeteria so we could take a break for lunch. After lunch we continued with our tour and were amazed both at how difficult life must have been to live at that time, and yet the ingenuity and complexity
of some of the tools and machine were amazing that they were so advanced. Along with the exhibits there were a number of children's toys and games that were available for some of the younger guests to use. There was even a children's play area designated only for children under 7.
Jody and I had a great time looking around at the exhibits and interacting with the costumed characters. We did learn things today about the day to day lives of the settlers, and we were surprised that even back in 1830, education was an important priority, so much so that the literacy rate in Massachusetts at that time was 97%. We also didn't realize that men didn't marry until they were in their early thirties and women in their late twenties as it took that long for them to save enough money to be able to provide a place to live and the a trade to earn a living.
It was getting close to 3:00 when we finished visiting most of the exhibits, there were also a few small museums showing artifacts of that era. There was a stagecoach ride and a boat ride on the river,
but both had lines and we weren't interested enough to wait in line to ride either of them. So we made one last stop in the git shop, bought a couple of t-shirts and had something to drink before we headed back out to the bike.
The second part of our journey took us to Wakefield, RI and a chance to meet up with the youngest of the Rousseau clan, my youngest brother Jerry, his wife Krista and their 3 boys. It was also about a 2 hour ride from Sturbridge to Wakefield, and it too did not have a single direct secondary road path. So we wandered through a little more Massachusetts down into a corner of Connecticut and down through the center of Rhode Island. It was also a wonderful ride through picturesque countryside until we arrived at our hotel.
We got hold of Jerry, while he rounded up his clan and met at a local beachfront hotspot called the Ocean Mist where Jerry's band is known to play. No one was playing tonight, but dinner was delicious and it was nice getting together with Jerry and Krista and seeing how much the boys have grown.
The boys seemed like great kids and Jerry and Krista were obviously very proud. After dinner, Jerry made some noise about ice cream, and since I have never been known to pass up an opportunity ice cream, we headed into the teaming metropolis of downtown Wakefield. The ice cream was awesome! I had Heath Bar Crunch, and Jody had Peanut Butter Cup, and even though I had a large, I was somehow able to finish it all.
It was really nice seeing Jerry, Krista, and the boys. We all live so far apart, we don't get to see each other very often. It would be nice sometime to see them both play live, but Jerry sent along some YouTube videos of them performing that were also great! Tomorrow we are heading into Newport to checkout some of the famous Newport mansions left over from the gilded age. It should be great fun!
169.3 Miles Today
6407.1 Miles Total
0.0 Gallons Today
157.55 Gallons Total
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