When my father’s health took a detour, I found myself traveling down to the Connecticut shore to help my mother out. They were preparing to pack up the summer place and move to Florida on a permanent basis.
The summer consisted of a lot of trips to Goodwill, shipping off family heirlooms to various siblings and packing the small amount of stuff headed to Florida.
In between the work, I had some time to explore the Connecticut River Valley with fresh eyes. The last time I had spent this much time in the area was when I was in High School and my eyes tended to be on girls and cars more than on scenery.
Ironically I currently live in an area known as “The Upper Valley” which is along the same Connecticut River only up in Vermont and New Hampshire.
The vary name of the state of Connecticut comes from the Mohegan word quinetucket, which means “beside the long, tidal river” and it is indeed tidal. We used to experience the backing up of the Salmon River, one of the Connecticut River’s tributaries, when I worked at Frank Davis Resort in Moodus, CT as a lifeguard.
Along the stretch of the Connecticut River within the state of Connecticut, one can experience a wide variety of scenery from the college towns of Middletown, past the Goodspeed Opera House, Gillette’s Castle and into the Long Island Sound in Old Saybrook.
There are tourist train rides, boat rides, beaches, parks, historic sites, ferries, swing bridges, Indian museums, submarine bases, maritime museums, theaters, restaurants, lobster shacks and more to explore.
