Connecticut — The road liss traveled

I’ll start this part of the trip with some poor decision making. At first I thought I’d cross through Manhattan and stop somewhere downtown on the way up to Connecticut, but it seemed like too much of a PITA, so instead I thought I’d bypass almost all of Manhattan, and then cross over through the Bronx via the George Washington Bridge. Terrible choice! Traffic looked okay when I checked out at 11am, but by the time I got there it was basically gridlock on all roads leading to the bridge. It did feel very New York though, shit traffic, people cutting each other off, laying on the horns etc. Fun.

I wanted to stop on Arthur Ave, in the Bronx, which is a street full of old school Italian places. It took a few laps of driving around to find a parking spot, and then I popped in a more casual pizza place for that Classic New York Slice and some garlic bread knuckles. Pretty tasty! Worth the effort? Probably not. I also thought about stopping at the botanical garden, but $36? Come on. I ended up walking around the massive Pelham Bay park in the late afternoon and then continued on after sunset. I was kinda kicking myself for not ending up somewhere with a city view at sunset though. Alas.

So Connecticut has two large Indian casinos, both with poker rooms, the Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, and they’re 15 minutes apart. I picked a hotel down the road from the Mohegan Sun, as I’d read Foxwoods has been more dead as of late. I don’t have a lot to report, as this part of Connecticut isn’t overly interesting, lots private property, big houses on the coasts etc. I did go to the beach, as the weather was great, 70’s, but still too cold for swimming.

Just stopping at whatever places that catch my eye from the road

I thought this thing was abandoned, nope!

I also did some poking around on google maps and there was a place on the coast not far away called the Seaside Sanatarium, which is just one of things that catches your attention. Upon some googling it was built as a center for heliotropic (light therapy) treatment for children with tuberculosis in the 30’s, when they thought a lot of fresh and sunshine could actually cure tuberculosis. Eventually that therapy technique became obsolete as drugs were developed and eventually the building was acquired by the state’s Dept of Mental Retardation in 1961. It didn’t have stellar track record, with lots of reports of mistreatment and abuse. It was eventually abandoned in the 80’s. Pretty creepy!

It’s kind of a weird spot, a nice waterfront where people go to walk their dogs, and sitting right there are two big abandoned building that are all fenced off. As I was milling around taking some photos I noticed some teenagers approach it, duck down near a big bush outside of the chainlink fence and re-appear on the other side and walk into the building. Well, if they can do it, so can I! So I squatted down by the bush and there was a nice triangle section of cut fence, and in I went.

Nothing like exploring an abandoned sanatarium in late October for some extra spooky Halloween vibes. The upper floors weren’t too scary, because there was a lot of natural light that came in from the cracks and holes in the boarded up windows. But the basement, now that was extra creepy, and I didn’t have proper light with just my cell phone. I didn’t linger there too long.

not overly creepy with some natural light

Once I got out, I was sitting on one of the benches, and the two teens came over to say Hi. I guess there were the local urban explorers and they come here all the time. I guess every once in a while the cops stop by when there’s a complaint and they have to make a swift exit. Fortunately that was not this evening. Apparently there are loads of places like this in New England, and an abandoned mental hospital 20 minutes away that they suggested I check out. They were interested to see if I’ve ever done any urban exploring in Gary Indiana, as I guess there are lots of abandoned buildings there to investigate. I’ll look into it haha. All in all, a pretty interesting evening!

Another nice spot in the area is the coastal town of Mystic Connecticut, home of the 1988 Julia Roberts RomCom, Mystic Pizza, and that pizza place does still exist! The town is pretty tiny, but it’s got a nice museum, some art galleries, and nice bougie restaurants. I found an oyster bar with $1.50 oysters and half off chowder for happy hour, excellent. If you sit at the bar, they shuck the oysters right in front of you. I’m not a huge oyster fan, but when you’re in New England and they’re being shucked in front of you, and the guy is talking about how they’re harvested and the subtle taste differences between the varieties, it’s definitely gets you in the oyster type of mood. The chowder was delicious too, not the usual thick white chowder, but a thin clear broth, where there is extra importance placed on the quality of the seafood. Mmm.

Another good stop is the submarine museum, that features one of the first American submarines, Bushnell’s Turtle, used to attack a British warship in the Revolutionary War. It wasn’t very effective, it was used go up to the warship at night, manually attach an explosive to it, and float away without being detected. It was a bold idea, but never actually worked as planned unfortunately. Fun story though. The main attraction is a walkthrough of the USS Nautilus, the US’s first nuclear powered submarine, it made the first submerged trip across the north pole, decommissioned in 1980 and made into part of the museum. And the whole museum is free!

As for the poker, it was okay, the games weren’t particularly exciting, I probably finished up $500 or 600 for the 3 nights I was there, so basically just paying the bills. But no complaints. A new state checked off the list. Well, one complaint, I really don’t like places that have lighting that feels like you’re down in a dungeon, which is what the Mohegan SUN ironically felt like. Fortunately there was plenty of sun outside the casino for late October in New England. It would be onto the next state, Rhode Island, and the Bally’s Twin River casino, somewhere outside of Providence.