Rain, Caching, Gilette Castle, & Shopping 7/21-24/2009

Tues was a nast nasty nasty day as it rained all day and I mean it rained and rained and rained so there wasn't much we could do except sit around and watch TV. We supposedly had between 3 and 4 inches of rain today.
Wednesday we all went caching down in Norwich. We started out with a great multi-cache at the Old Norwichtown Burying Ground which revealed Norwich's rich Colonial history. Gravestones bear the familiar names of many of Norwich's earliest residents. It was established on January 4, 1700, to satisfy the needs of a rapidly growing community. This land was originally part of the home lot of Reverend James Fitch, the first minister of Norwich. As the population of Norwich grew, additional parcels of land were added to provide more ground for interments. Over the years there have been several thousands burials, but today only about thirteen hundred headstones remain to mark these final resting places. The land was donated by the Huntington Family. The old burial ground is divided into two sections. Through the main gate off a dead end street gate are mostly graves from the 1700's and 1800's. There is another entrance on Town Street which leads to more graves, dated slightly later. A bridge connects the two sections. At least 69 revolutionary war fighters are buried here, along with Benedict Arnold's mother. It was a 4 part multi where we had to find 4 listed tombstones and collect dates from them in order to find the fianl cache. Alexis was the finder of the actual cache too.
Then it was off to a cache at the birth place of Benedict Arnold who was born in Norwich, CT on Januaray 14, 1741. Next was a cache located at the Mohegan Royal Burial Grounds the burial place of Uncas Sachem of the Mohegan Tribe. Located on the hillside above Yantic Falls the burial grounds once encompassed the entire 16 acres of Norwich. Today, only a few graves remain. The Uncas Memorial is a very prominent obelisk surrounded by smaller memorials and gravestones, including a memorial stone to Mamohet, who died in England in 1735. The Mohegan Indians of Connecticut, are related to but separate from the Mohican, or Mahican, who lived along the Hudson, in New York. The Mohegan Sachem, Uncas, joined with the English against other tribes during the Indian Wars (1637-78). The Mahicans moved to Wisconsin and lost their tribal identity. The Mohegans remained in the area around Mohegan, Connecticut, and maintained their identity. Uncas, a Mohegan chief, is a prominent character in James Fenimore Cooper's "The Last of the Mohicans". He is memorialized at Cooper's home in Cooperstown, NY, and by the City of Norwich. Founded in 1659, Norwich has a rich Colonial history, extending back as far as the Mohegan Tribe from whom the land was purchased. Presidents Andrew Jackson and William Taft as well as Buffalo Bill have paid visits to the burial ground at Sachem and Washington streets to honor Chief Uncas, an ally of English settlers. The exact location of Uncas' grave is unclear, possibly due to the secrecy that surrounded the burial of chiefs because of concerns that thieves would rob the graves. Hundreds and possibly thousands of Mohegans were buried in the royal cemetery dating back at least to the 1600s, she said. The Mohegans had tried to keep the 3.4-acre site undeveloped since the last tribal burial there in 1876, filing unsuccessful lawsuits in the 1890s and 1930s. The royal burial ground suffered a series of desecrations, according to the tribe. In November, tribal leaders joined Queen Elizabeth II in London to pay tribute to a Mohegan chief who traveled to England to complain directly to the king about English settlers encroaching on tribal lands. The sachem, Mahomet Weyonomon, died of small pox in 1736 while waiting to see King George II. As we walked around the burial ground it was very moving to see the monuments they have built and to imagine all the Indians who were buried here. We found the cache after having to do our calculations over again as we had one clue wrong and found it easily.
Then it was off to our last cache of the day located in a shopping center under a giant cowboy. After we finished that cache we stopped at Diary Queen for a drink or ice cream and then went back to Chris's house. We drove back and showered and picked the dogs up and spent the rest of the day there.
Thursday we drove to Gillette Castle to take a tour through the castle and we also brought a picnic lunch. Gillette Castle State Park is located in East Haddam, Connecticut in the United States. Sitting high above the Connecticut River, the castle was originally a private residence commissioned and designed by William Gillette, an American actor who is most famous for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes on stage. After Gillette died, with no wife or children, his will precluded the possession of his castle by any "blithering sap-head who has no conception of where he is or with what surrounded". In 1943, Connecticut's government took the property, re-baptizing it Gillette's Castle and Gillette Castle State Park. The park consists of the castle and its grounds and receives 100,000 annual visitors. It reopened in 2002 after four years of restoration, costing 11 million dollars. It now includes a museum, hiking trails, and a picnic area, and holds many theatrical celebrations. There are a number of oddities in the castle personally designed by Gillette, such as unusual doorknobs and locks, and a system of hidden mirrors for surveillance of the public rooms from the master bedroom. It was William Gillette, one of the most popular American actors of the early twentieth century, who pioneered the role of Sherlock Holmes on the stage. Something of man of mystery himself, Gillette built a magnificent castle-like mansion in a secluded grove overlooking the Connecticut River in Hadlyme, Connecticut, where he spent his final years. William Gillette never actually referred to his home as a castle, even though he modeled it after the medieval ruins of a German fortress on the Rhine. Throughout the home, you're going to notice a lot of stone and wood. The stone is just fieldstone that was gathered from the local river valley, and Gillette paid farmers a dollar a cartload to bring it up to the castle for construction. If local farmers thought Gillette was a little, well, let's say, eccentric, they weren't alone. Gillette's parents . . . both prominent Hartford citizens . . . told their son if he wanted to be, of all things, an actor, he'd have to make it on his own. Which is precisely what he did. By far, his most famous role was that of Sherlock Holmes, played on the screen a generation later by Basil Rathbone. Gillette, however, pioneered the role in a play he wrote based on the stories of Arthur Conan Doyle. While Doyle may have created the character of Holmes, it was Gillette, not Rathbone, who added the finishing touches. By 1914, Gillette, childless and a widower, was ready to go into semi-retirement. He purchased 120 acres of land in rural Hadlyme and over the next decade dumped a million dollars into building his castle and its grounds. An amateur architect/engineer, Gillette personally supervised much of the construction, such as the installation of a fountain in the conservatory, where his pet frogs, Mike and Lena, lived the good life. Gillette designed elaborate, hand carved latches for all 47 of the castle's massive doors, no two of which are alike. He also had a little fun with the bar, a four foot high wooden box, with a lid that flips open, if you know the combination. Gillette left no heirs when died in 1937 at the age of 83, but he did make clear in his will that he'd rather see his home sold at a loss than end up in the hands of "some blithering saphead" who had no appreciation for the place. While the castle and its grounds have suffered from some neglect over the years, the state did recently slate $3 million dollars towards a major restoration, an encore which Gillette himself would probably applaud. Our tour was very enjoyable, seeing all the eccentric and odd things that Gillette had in the castle. After the tour we went to one of the picnic areas and had our great lunch Corinna had put together. After lunch we went back to the gift shop and into the ice cream shop and then left to drive back to Chris's.
Friday Chris, Tyler and myself went caching while Mom and Alexis went shopping at the mall. Our first cache was at Dunkin Donuts but we couldn't find it. Next was a stop at the historical marker for the Andover Creamery Company which was organized in 1886 with 76 local shareholders, the Andover Creamery Corporation was in the business of making butter for 29 years. Next we were on to 2 caches that had to do with the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary War Route through CT. The 680 mile long Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route is a series of encampments and the roads used by U.S. Continental Army troops under George Washington and French troops under Jean-Baptiste de Rochambeau from Newport, Rhode Island to Yorktown, Virginia. Landing at Newport, Rhode Island, on July 10, 1780, Rochambeau and his 4,000 troops remained there relatively inactive for a year. In July 1781, Rochambeau's force finally left Rhode Island to join the Continental Army near White Plains, New York. Judging from the maps in the Rochambeau Collection and the early maps of Providence, the French army, on leaving the camp ground between Broad and Plane Streets, passed through the present Stewart Street to High Street, and west along this to the junction (Hoyle Tavern), where, leaving on their right the road to Hartford, they took the road to the left, then called the Monkey Town road, now Cranston Street, and followed this to Monkeytown, now Knightsville. The army here turned to the right following the old Scituate road over Dugaway hill by the late Pippin Orchard School house, over Apple House hill and Bald hill, crossing the Pawtuxet at the village of Kent and on to Waterman's Tavern, fifteen miles, the end of the first day's march and the first camp. Waterman's Tavern is still standing in good condition near Potterville on the old Scituate road a mile or so north of the new state highway. It is now the home of Mr. Elmer A. Havens, who shows two wells of small diameter neatly stoned, that are said to have been dug by the French troops that camped here, both on the march to Yorktown and on the return march. The instructions for the march say : "The camp is in quite a good position although in the midst of woods, having a brook in front, and behind, the tavern and the main road from Providence to Watermans much better than that by Angells tavern. The accommodations for divisional headquarters are not aboundant but more than at Angell's tavern or Whipple house." On June 19, the regiment of Royal DeuxPonts under the Baron de Viomenil, set out for the camp at Waterman's, followed on the 20th by the regiment of Soissonnais under the Count de Viomenil (brother of the Baron), and on the 21st by Saintonge, under the Marquis de Custine. With the departure of this last regiment, there were left in Providence a guard for the baggage and munitions stored in the Old Market House, and the surgeons and attendants at the hospital in University Hall. The American and French troops took a combination of strategic roads and waterways from Philipsburg through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, the future District of Columbia, and Virginia, reaching Williamsburg in late September 1781. With a French fleet blocking the Chesapeake, barring British reinforcements from New York or a sea escape for Cornwallis' army, Washington and Rochambeau's three-week siege of Yorktown ended in Cornwallis' surrender to Washington on October 19, 1781. After their victory, Washington and the Continentals returned to defend northern posts while Rochambeau and his troops wintered in Williamsburg prior to marching north the following summer. Both armies were warmly celebrated by the towns and cities along their return routes. They marched across Connecticut to join George Washington on the Hudson River at Dobbs Ferry, New York. The advance party was led by Armand Louis de Gontaut or Duc de Lauzun. Lauzun's Legion who marched ahead of the main army and stayed ten to fifteen miles (24 km) to the south protecting the exposed flank from the British. The combined armies then marched through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland to Yorktown, Virginia. On September 22, they combined with the Marquis de Lafayette's troops and forced General Cornwallis to surrender on October 19 after the Siege of Yorktown and the Battle of the Chesapeake. After Yorktown, the French troops marched north again eventually ending in Boston, Massachusetts. We found both of those caches as Tyler found one and I found the other. Tyler found one of them very interesting as it was a container hanging on fish line down in a storm drain. Then we were on to 10 different small cemetery caches and several of them were multi or puzzle caches. The cemeteries were Bedlam Road, Chaplin Center, Coventry Center, Belknap, Wormwood Hill, Thompson, Russ, Mt Hope, The Old Cemetery and one we didn't know the name of. We found everyone of them as Chris and Tyler shared the honors I think finding 4 each. Chris actually found one laying on the ground as he walked around looking at the tombstones. We all really enjoyed wandering around looking at all the old dates on some of the grave stones. I think the oldest one dated back to the late 1700's. Then it was on to our last cache located at a Home Depot under a light post skirt. Well it was quite a day with 14 finds in all as Tyler and Chris tied with 6 finds each. Chris dropped me at the RV with the dogs to wait for Mom. Mom and Alexis as I said went shopping at the mall and she bought Alexis a very cute outfit consisting of a short skirt, a funky top, fedora, gloves and sunglasses. Then they went grocery shopping and Mom brought the groceries back out to the RV and picked myself and the dogs up and we went back to Chris's house for the unveiling of Alexis's outfit. After we had dinner and spent some time there and then back to the coach.
Well that's about it for now so we will say until next time we love and miss you all. Mom & Dad