Rhode Island & Martha’s Vineyard
June 28, 2024
On Friday, June 21, we drove to Fishermens Memorial State Park in Narragansett, Rhode Island, where we’ll camp for the next two nights. With this stay, we completed having spent at least a night in all 50 states—it only took us five years! Fishermens Memorial is a short bike ride to the ferry landing to Block Island and is very popular as it was one of the harder campsites to book for this summer. We’ve never camped under one of the giant wind turbines, and although it didn’t disturb our sleep, there is an assortment of mechanical groans and clanks when it is moving that let you know you are under a wind farm. On Saturday, we were ready to go quite early, with our bikes each carrying two batteries, packed snacks, rain jackets, sunblock, sunglasses, extra hats, and camelbacks full of electrolyte water. It was a foggy ride to the ferry landing, where we discovered our bikes were too heavy to lift onto the deck of the fast ferry.
We quickly switched to the 8 am regular ferry, which put us onto Block Island at 9 am.
After landing, we headed to the Southeast Lighthouse, then Mohegan Bluffs.
It was still a little foggy across the water, but we could see the bluffs and hike down to the overlook.
We biked to Vaill Beach and Dories Cove Beach, where Larry chatted with an artist painting the scene.
Along our 30-mile bike ride for the day, we looked for the elusive glass orbs hidden near trails and greenways every year. Although we weren’t successful, the scavenger hunt appeal was fun, and we observed many other visitors getting out of their vehicles and searching. After biking to the Coast Guard Station at the Great Salt Pond Channel, we went to lunch at The Oar, where they accidentally served us the wrong sushi before giving us the correct sushi roll and a delicious blackened salmon salad.
After lunch, we biked to the North Light, parked at Settler’s Rock, and walked a mile to the lighthouse.
It was a seagull nesting area, so there were plenty of parents with half-grown chicks too big for the nest but not yet able to fly or fend for themselves, which was an obvious source of concern for the parents trying to keep them safe and nurturing them to adulthood (did I describe teenagers?). Not wanting to contribute to their anxiety, we trekked back down the beach, where we saw a group of 20 or so seals out in the water. We biked south to the Clayhead Trail and took it to the beach—I’ve coined a new term, “hotitated,” for hot and irritated, as the heat and humidity on the island this time of year are oppressive. The flowers thrive on it!
We caught the midafternoon ferry back to the mainland, and Larry disassembled and stowed the bikes before rain poured down.
On Sunday, we drove to Providence and scored the cheapest diesel fuel for $2.94! We arrived at the Woods Hole ferry to Martha’s Vineyard well before our departure, and although I had been worried about our length and height, the lad at the ticket booth just gave us our tickets without a second glance. Getting ferry tickets to and from Martha’s Vineyard was another one of my challenges this spring, and it is delightful to have those plans work out so well!
We arrived at Martha’s Vineyard two hours before we could check into our campground, so we toured the island museum to learn some local history.
The author for the Clifford books lived on the island
Our stay was for six nights, and we stayed busy every day! For the first day, we booked a van tour of the island for a good overview of geology, history, and ideas for our itinerary.
On the advice of our tour guide, we had lunch at Offshore Ale, where we sat next to one of the original chefs from the Black Dog Tavern, and he told us what to eat there.
We found nearby Back Door Donuts, where I’d come with our oldest daughter in 2017 when I helped her with a marathon, and it was fun to go back and get a colossal apple fritter in her honor.
Ok, not the healthiest dessert, so we walked 3+ miles back to a bus depot where we could pick up a shuttle to our campground. Our exercise allowed us to get pictures of some homes and even visit the Flying Horses Carousel, which was moved here from Coney Island and is the oldest in the USA.
Honestly, all of Martha’s Vineyard smells like flowers!
We left by 8 am for East Chop Lighthouse the following day and then biked southeast to Chappaquiddick on the Bike Trails. It was early, so we had little company on the trails to Edgartown and not much on the short ferry to Chappaquiddick.
We biked this island with the intent to go to the Cape Page Lighthouse, but after the Dike Bridge, the soft sand was far too deep for even our fat tire bikes. We took a photo on the bridge and later realized that this was where Mary Jo Kopechne died in a car crash with Senator Ted Kennedy in 1969.
We backtracked to the peaceful Mytoi Japanese Garden before biking to Wasque (pronounced waskway).
There was a trail between the beach accesses where we saw an osprey nest with two juveniles and met a friendly local for a chat.
Our experience is that people on Martha’s Vineyard are amiable and polite (even drivers!). On the main island in Edgartown, Larry visited with a painter from Cape Cod, who was busy capturing the view of the harbor.
Our route home took us to Morning Glory Farm, where we had a healthy lunch of Kale Salad and Mushroom Cheese turnover.
We logged 40 miles on the bikes when we returned to our campsite.
The next day, we left before 7 am to bike to Aquinnah Cliffs by way of Middle Road to Lobsterville Beach, then to the Cliffs. The route was off the main roads for the most part, and as it was early, the most traffic we saw was a baby bird on the edge of the road. Larry stopped to set it back in the grass, and one of the parents rewarded his kindness by dive-bombing him while the little fledgling made a fuss! Even these guys seemed surprised to see us.
Of course, we had the Cliffs almost to ourselves.
The lighthouse alternates red and white flash
On the route back, we took the Moshup Trail, where we startled a deer who undecidedly darted in several directions before dashing just in front of Larry.
On Middle Road, we stopped at the Mermaid Farm and Dairy for a coffee-flavored drinkable yogurt called a “Lassie.”
It was refreshingly cold and tangy to fuel us back to the campsite for the rest of the 42-mile day. At Chilmark, Larry helped an older woman with a flat bike tire before a stop at the Field Gallery.
The next morning, we had a 7:30 am appointment to do laundry at the campground, so we accomplished that chore. Then, we walked 2+ miles into town for breakfast at the Black Dog Tavern.
We saw our friendly chef from earlier in the week, and we each had one of the delicious entrees named after him. Didn’t we earn these?
We walked around Vineyard Heaven, buying a cute outfit for our grandchildren at the Black Dog Shop, where the lady put her hand on our heads and gave us a quiet blessing as grandparents.
After shopping, we walked back to the campground and prepared for our departure the next day.
We were at the Vineyard Haven Ferry landing at 7:15 on Friday morning, and this time, we did the passage staying below deck in the truck as we had a beautiful view out the front. Martha’s Vineyard, especially outside the main towns, is a lovely place to visit!
Next, we spend a week on Cape Cod, which isn’t long enough to acquire a Massachusetts accent.
“To stand at the edge of the sea, to sense the ebb and flow of the tides, to feel the breath of a mist moving over a great salt marsh, to watch the flight of shore birds…to see the running of the old eels and young shad to the sea, is to have knowledge of things that are nearly as eternal as any earthly life can be.” -Rachel Carson