East To West...

My trip from Massachusetts to Connecticut was, well, wet. It rained, and it rained a lot. I'd checked the extended weather forecast for the area before I left California, and it looked pretty bleak. I usually don't mind the rain, but I hate driving in it.

Interstate 95 southbound...

I left Braintree, Massachusetts around noon and, despite the rain, made it to New London, CT in about an hour and a half. I got checked into my hotel and then drove into town to see my client. We spent a few hours talking business, and then I took two of the guys out to dinner. After dinner, we made our way over to The Dutch Tavern. "The Dutch" is among the diviest of dive bars I've been in, but there's also a certain, undeniable charm to the place. American playwright Eugene O'Neill was, once upon a time, a regular at The Dutch.

The Dutch Tavern in New London, Connecticut...

Saturday morning, it was time to take the ferry across Long Island Sound to Orient Point, on the east end of Long Island. I had a reservation for the 11:00am ferry, but I was able to get onto the 10:00am boat. In retrospect, that was a good thing, as the day's work would end up taking me longer than expected. I boarded the ferry around 9:40am, and decided to shoot some pictures.

Cars being loaded onto the Cross Sound Ferry in New London...

As the ferry headed out of port and down the Thames, it gave me a chance to catch some rather nice scenery. The weather wasn't the best, but it wasn't raining, so that was a plus. 

Looking across the Thames from the ferry landing in New London...

The New London Lighthouse has stood watch since 1801...

After a trip of about an hour and a half, the ferry pulled into Orient Point. Despite my having grown up here, I'd never been this far east on the northern fork. As I pulled off the ferry, and onto Route 25, I was welcomed home by the State of New York:



I'm sure this was put there just for me...

I pointed my car west so I could get on with my day. It hit me, as I was driving along the east-end farmland that I'd never seen before, that the way I felt was no all that different from how I felt when I started travelling regularly into Canada. While Long Island is where I grew up, I haven't spent more than a few days here at a stretch since 1981. A lot has changed in the past 30 years. It took me a little while to process it, but it dawned on me that this was going to be all new to me.

And I couldn't be more excited about it...