Day 05 - First Day on Schooner

Before breakfast, we met our captain, John Foss. Several of the regulars followed Captain Foss when he moved to this ship. He gave a short description of the trip and what we should expect. He went over the safety devices. The one thing that had raised Kim’s eyebrows was the shower schedule. Kim had accepted the small bedroom. (Small is not a very descriptive word for the size of our cabin. Our closets at home are bigger than our living quarters onboard.) She even accepted the fact that we had to share the bathroom. But when he said that we should take a shower ever other day, she wasn’t as thrilled with that! (Well, again Jon is a master of understatement. The shower consists of a 2’ X 2’ room with a kitchen hose for a shower head. You have to get undressed, showered, dried off, and redressed all in this space.)



We had a great breakfast before we pulled out. When it was time to set out the food, we would form a food line to move the food from the galley to the cabin roof, which served as the buffet table. We would eat out on the deck. If it was raining, we could eat in the galley. They would ring the ship’s bell when the meal was ready.

When we left the dock, it was not windy enough to go under wind power and it was a narrow channel to get out into the harbor. Once we were safely in the harbor, we put up the sails. The crew did most of the work. We just helped put on some of the lines to lighten their load. I thought we would be doing more, but that was not the case.

It was foggy out, but I expected it would lift. Well, I was wrong. Right after we set sail, we could see several schooners around us. As we got out of the harbor, the fog got thicker. We could not see any other ships around us. We could occasionally hear a motor, but could not see the ship. After a few hours, the fog lifted enough to see some of the schooners around us. It was a magnificent sight. They would emerge and disappear back into the fog.



There was a rumor that the schooners would “raft-up”. This is where a few schooners set anchor and the rest of the schooners tie-up in between. There was great excitement amongst the seasoned cruisers. Right before we got to the harbor where we were going to anchor for the night, the fog finally lifted and we could see all of the schooners. They were putting on a show. It was a beautiful sight. I thought this was great, but the raft-up was awesome.

We set anchor in a cove at Holbrooke Island. One by one, the schooners started to tie up to each other. After dinner, we took the row boat out and took some pictures. When were back on board, we could walk from ship to ship. It was like a big party. There must have been a dozen schooners tied up as one. There were three other schooners tied up together near-by, but not close enough to the big group. Several other schooners anchored nearby. There must have been at least two dozen schooners in that harbor.









Once we were anchored, appetizers were put out with some wine. It was enough for a meal. I had to make sure that I wasn’t eating too much before dinner. After the raft was formed, dinner arrived.

As I looked out across this scene, it looked like a forest after the leaves were down. There were masts sticking up everywhere in the raft. I just could not stop looking at this. There were rumors of a race the next day. If there was no wind, we would race on Friday.

Day 04 - To Maine

We woke up this morning without any overnight experiences! I slept on the side closest to where the murder occurred and it never bothered me. At breakfast, we talked about the couple that left. We were all cracking jokes. The other couple wanted to have something happen so they could tell the stories to their friends, so did we, however, no paranormal activity occurred.

Our breakfast was to be the same as the Bordens had on the day they died. It was Johnny cakes and three day old mutton. The Johnny cakes were very thick and dry pancakes. Thank God that they substituted bacon and eggs for the mutton! When were finished, the owner came in and told us her stories.

Today was our anniversary. I kept telling myself last week that I was not going to leave Kim’s gift in my office. Sure enough, I forgot it. I am very grateful to Q who found the gift and FedExed it to the Lizzie Borden house just in time for me to give it to Kim. It was another pearl necklace. For some reason, I love to give these to Kim. I had the owner put it around my neck and waited for Kim to see it. It didn’t take long.

Once we packed up the Escape and headed for our next destination. We arrived at Hammond Castle, close to Gloucester MA. Hammond has the most patents and inventions, next to Edison. He used his wealth to build a castle to house the many works of European art he had collected over the years. I had been there before, but I wanted to show Kim. When I went before, you were on a programmed tour. Now you can explore on your own. More rooms are open than when I was there before. The great room was very beautiful. The guest bedrooms were also beautiful.











We went into Gloucester to get lunch. I had wanted another bowl of lobster bisque. When we got into town, the traffic was bad. As we went through the center of town, it was obvious that some sort of festival was going on. We could see signs of a parade about to start. Kim wanted to shop before ate and we walked the downtown area. We went to two places before gave in and ordered a quesadilla. I cannot believe we were in Gloucester and could not find lobster bisque. Before our food came, the parade started. I speculated that it was a 29th of June party, but Kim said that didn’t make sense. The second float was a religious statue. It didn’t sink in that this was a religious celebration until the other religious statues went by. We never figured out what celebration was about.

We were in a race to get to the big LL Bean store before it closed. I had forgotten to pack a jacket, so I had to shop for one. Once Kim saw all of the other outlet stores, she disappeared. I wish I could have taken her VISA card before she ran off.
On the way to the ship, we stopped in Wiscasset, ME to eat at Red’s Eats. The lobster rolls are supposed to be the best in Maine. I made a wrong turn and Garmie flipped out. I thought I had broken her. She kept saying over and over, “Make a U-turn now, Make a U-turn now …” I was scared for Garmie, but she recovered when I finally made a U-turn.

Red’s Eats is a shack at an intersection of two streets. There was a short line and we decided to stay. The lobster roll was good. How could anyone mess up lobster meat in a bun.



We finally made it to the ship in Rockland, ME. We had a lot of baggage to carry to the ship. Our room was much smaller than we had anticipated. Kim and I cannot stand in the room together. We have a sink and a bed. There is storage below the bed and some hooks around the door. We only have electricity after 9:00 pm. It lasts until 7:00 am. There are no 110 volt outlets. We have a 12 volt cigarette lighter outlet in the room. We are only to use it for charging batteries. I may have to use it to power this computer. It took some work, but I managed to get everything stored.

Our ship was the American Eagle. She is a two masted schooner that is 92 feet in length. She was built with a motor, so when the wind is low, we can still get underway. She was built in 1930 and was the last fishing vessel to be constructed in Gloucester, MA. She was originally called the Andrew and Rosalie. Her name was changed to the American Eagle in 1941. She was originally a fishing vessel that worked up until 1983. Captain Foss and his crew worked for three years to get her seaworthy. Her crew consisted of a first mate, Eric, a second mate, Adam, and an apprentice, Logan. Heather helped on the crew and in the Kitchen. Donna was the cook.

I was glad to see that two of the passengers had their cameras out and were taking pictures of the evening gathering. I knew then that I wouldn’t look like a geek taking a thousand pictures during the cruise. (Jon thinks this will make him appear normal, but it is my feeling now I’m stuck on a ship with three camera geeks)

We went topside to meet the other guests on our trip. It turns out that half of the guests have been here for this cruise many times. One passenger has been on this cruise for the last seventeen years. This cruise includes the Great Schooner Race. The entire fleet of local, and even some out of town, schooners participate.

As we talked to the regulars, there was much speculation on when we would race and what would happen during the trip. All kinds of things were thrown out, but there was no plan. They say that is common. It all depends on the weather. We were told many times that no matter the weather, this will be a great experience. There must be something to that or these regulars would not keep returning.

Day 03 - Newport, RI

We had seen several TV programs on the Newport Mansions in the last few years. We wanted to go see some of them in person. We wanted to see how the “filthy rich” lived. We began at the Breakers. It was the 70 room “summer cottage” of the shipping and railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt. When it was built, it cost 11 million dollars (1.5 billion in today’s dollars) and they only lived there for 6 weeks out of the year. It was staffed by 40 servants and grounds keepers. The grand hall was decadent beyond belief. It was decorated with painted ceilings, huge chandeliers, and ornate stonework. This room was easily the most impressive of the day. Our tour guide took us through the rooms on the first two floors. The husband and wife stayed in separate rooms. I thought this made sense, but it made Kim mad when I suggested it may be good for us.



When we got outside, Jon snapped so many pictures. I thought it would fill his hard drive before this vacation really got started. I think he is looking for some redecorating hints for the Luce road mansion.

We took the Cliff Walk which is a walkway around the shore line. As we left the Breakers, we came across the other homes on the ocean. In any other setting, they would have been magnificent homes, but we are sure the Astor’s, Vanderbilt’s, and the Rockefellers’ would have seen these neighbors as trailer trash in their neighborhood!

Marble House was next. This was another house by a Vanderbilt in 1892. Although not as big in size as the Breakers, it was still stunning. The house was built with different color marble from around the world. Some of the walls were lavishly gilded with gold. There were murals painted on the ceilings with masterpiece quality. The mistress of the house was someone I would have admired. She was a huge advocate for women to get the right to vote. She was also the first woman in her class to get a divorce. At that time is was just not done. She remarried again for love. It was scandalous at the time, but became common practice after she did it. She received the mansion in the divorce. However, she moved to her new husband’s house and used Marble House as a storage unit for furniture and clothing. Jon says this is the woman that all men should blame for their troubles today!



The Elms was the last mansion of the day. Again it was smaller than the Breakers, but it was more opulent than the Breakers. It had enormous rooms made for entertainment. Women of the day would change their clothing up to seven times per day as they rotated rooms throughout the mansion.



After touring the mansions we went window shopping down town and got some ice cream. We are now on our way to our macabre adventure into the world of ghosts and murder!

We arrived at the Lizzie Borden B&B right before dinner. When we were putting our bags away, there was a black cat sleeping outside our door. This may be a bad sign. The tour guide for the evening, Eleanor, was there and recommended a Portuguese restaurant for dinner. It was not in a great section of town, so we walked fast and returned before sun down. The dinner was great. Kim had the Saint Michael’s Steak and I had the Mozambique Chicken. We had never had any Portuguese food before and liked it so much, that we will try it again.







When we returned to the Lizzie Borden house, the two other couples that were staying there were in the kitchen talking. Both couples had been there the night before and had taken the tour. One couple said that they didn’t want to take another tour and said they were going to go to dinner. Before they left, they said they had played with an Ouija board and something strange had happened. They didn’t want to spoil our tour. When the tour started, it was the other couple, Kim, and me. Eleanor started with some history, but spent most of the time talking about what experiences she has had at the house. She says that the spirits of the Borden’s are still present. In fact she says she has to watch what she says on the tours, or strange things happen. If she talks about how cheap Mr. Borden is, he will rub the back of her head or poke at her. They usually have séances on Saturday nights, but the medium could not get a baby sitter tonight. It would have been great to be part of one. The medium tells her about what is happening and says that Mr. Borden will not let the other souls leave the house. In past séances, all of the Bordens have been contacted. Sometime other souls who are floating by will be contacted. Eleanor is convinced that the medium is legit!

Eleanor’s theory is that Lizzie didn’t do it directly. Her uncle who had dropped by the day before helped to arrange a pig farmer to do the deed for her. However; when you look at the number of whacks given to the mother and the father, there was some passion there. You don’t whack the mother 19 times and the father 10 if you are just trying to kill them. Someone was really pissed off. It was speculated that the father had committed incest with Lizzie over the years and she probably had enough. There was also the fact that Mr. Borden was rich and would not spend his money on a nice house and a lavish lifestyle. These are powerful motives for Lizzie!

While Eleanor was telling the stories, the other couple came back from dinner. In a few minutes, they came downstairs with their luggage. They said something came up and they needed to check out. They said the Ouija board had opened a channel to two dead boys who had been drowned by their mother in a well over a hundred years ago. Eleanor exclaimed “Oh my God, why did you use the Ouija board. They really need to put a warning on that thing. We only keep it because it is an antique.” The couple was visibly spooked and was afraid of spending another night there. As they talked about their experience, I tried not to laugh. They kept talking about opening “an evil portal” and not being able to control it. They had taken some pictures outside and showed us pictures with “orbs” hanging over the building. Both couples said that on last night’s tour, one of the door handles rattled for a few seconds. The girl from the other couple was just out of their sight and was laughing very hard. Every time I looked over, I would start to laugh. They were glad they had an experience, but they could not spend another night. Kim believes they let their imagination get the best of them, but I think they had some bad acid.

After Eleanor had said good-bye and explained how dangerous an Ouija board is, she continued the tour. We went to the rooms where the murders occurred as well as the bedrooms. In Mr. Borden’s bedroom, people will leave small change or a dollar or two hoping to have a peaceful night’s sleep. We went into the basement and took pictures of the wall by the old wash basin. If you look hard and have a wild imagination, you can see the face of a man. You have to look hard to see it. The tour finally ended at 11:00. It was a three hour tour. It was good that we knew some history before we got there. Eleanor didn’t give us much of that. It turns out that Eleanor is a bit of a celebrity. Several history and ghost shows have done documentaries on the haunting of the Lizzie Borden house. She is in most of them.

We finally got to bed at 11:30. We were sleeping in the room where Lizzie killed her step-mother. Based on what we saw and heard tonight, we didn’t know what to expect. During the night, the only thing haunting me was the Mozambique Chicken.

Day 02 - Connecticut

During my search of hotels, this Super 8 had some bad reviews. We were not bitten by bed bugs, so it wasn’t so bad. Several of the reviews commented on the fact that the sheets were not large enough for the bed. Those reviews were true. Sometime during the night the sheets came off both sides of the bed and we were both sleeping directly on the mattress. We had a “yummy” breakfast and started on our way. As I was checking out, I noticed a sign stating parking passes were needed or you’d be towed. We were not given a pass when we checked in. As we walked to the car a tow truck was hauling away a nearby car. Thank goodness they hadn’t gotten to our car yet.

The first stop was the Mark Twain house. I had been there back in the 70’s, and wanted to take Kim. We had a guided group tour through the house. Before we got in, we found someone whose hygiene was not up to normal American standards. At first, I thought it was me. I started to drop back in the group and smelled my pits. When we got inside, it didn’t take long to narrow it down to the European couple. What do these people have against daily showering?
The Mark Twain house is beautiful. The 19 room Victorian mansion was built in the 1870’s for the sum of about $45,000. Twain’s in-laws built the house for the family as it was still several years before his writing began to earn much income. This was the home in which Twain wrote his most famous books, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and The Prince and the Pauper.



The Wadsworth Athenaeum art museum was our next stop. Garmie got us there safely. We knew we didn’t have much time to look around, but we wanted to see their Impressionist paintings. Kim and I really like this style. They had several paintings we liked. We even got to see some Picasso’s and some other modern styles that were not so bad. There were some exhibits that I could have done. With a little bit of paint, funky materials, and a bottle of scotch I could have made much better art than those.

I was looking forward to having lunch with Bob Farrell at “Sam the Clam”. Garmie didn’t do so well, but we made it with one stop for directions. Garmie got us close. It had been several years since I have seen Bob. He showed up with his new grandson, Robbie. He was asleep when he arrived, but woke up after a few minutes. Bob went to the car to get some toys for him. When Robbie looked at me and realized Bob was gone, he started crying. I picked him up to get him to stop, but I wasn’t having any luck. Kim sat there and was laughing as she watched me carry him around the restaurant. The waitresses tried to help, but I had to wait for Bob to come back. I must be scary to the young. Bob wanted to know what was happening at Penn State and with the new professor search. He talked about his new book and work he is completing around the house. His new book is coming out soon. Right now he is looking for a publisher. We had a delicious seafood meal. It was good to see Bob again.

Our next stop was the Florence Griswold house. I was under the impression that this was the home of the mother of Clark Griswold (from the Christmas Vacation movie). Boy, was I pissed when I saw it was another art museum! During the turn of the last century, artists were trying to escape the cities and get back to nature. Art colonies sprang up around the country. Florence Griswold (apparently no relation to Clark) owed a boarding house where some artists congregated each year. The boarding house and museum in the back are now used to showcase American Impressionists. They had some really good paintings there. Throughout the house various walls and door panels were painted by some of these artists. We almost skipped this museum, but we were glad we stopped.



We arrived at our hotel in Newport, RI. Tonight was Kim’s first hint that this trip had less to do with travel through “New” England and was really a brewery tour with some other crap bundled around it. Don’t tell Kim; she will be pissed! We had dinner at the Coddington Brewery. The beers were OK. They had an ESB that was good. The IPA and stout were not that good as most brewpubs. These are usually my favorites when I attend a brewpub.

Day 01 - On the Road

Today we start our nineteen day odyssey across the country of New England. I have been to England before, but this “New” England may be different. I finished packing the Ford Escape and picked Kim up at noon from her last day in classes. I was worried that Kim may have missed her students so much that she would have been crying the first few days of the vacation. I thought she may have needed some time to adjust.

This was our first trip with Garmin. We call her “Garmie”. We hope Garmie doesn’t steer us wrong.

We stopped at Ted’s for some hamburgers with chili sauce. I thought she would like the smell a few hours later!




At one rest stop, Kim wanted to rest in the car. I was worried about her safety, so I locked the car before I went in. When I came out the alarm was going off and everyone outside was looking towards our car. I was hoping that it wasn’t ours, but I could see Kim inside and she didn’t look happy. I stopped the alarm and waited to be yelled at. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.
After a long ride, we finally made it to Hartford. Our Super 8 motel was not in the best of neighborhoods. They really need to fix the floor in the bathroom. As long as we don’t get bitten up by bed bugs, we will have had a good night.