Week of Aug. 11 – Aug. 17, 2024
Debra is a full-time RVer who has traveled coast to coast looking for the cutest bookstores and the perfect cup of chai. She and her husband enjoy creating community on the road by meeting up with friends or finding new ones enroute. They love sharing their adventures and making friends here at The Virtual Campground and sharing Barry’s great photography.
What a lovely and relaxing week! After two weeks of flying and visiting with friends and family, we were ready to just veg. Well, Barry still worked full days, but we were happy to not do a lot of sightseeing. Luckily, Rhode Island is pretty small and everything interesting to us was within an hour. So we got out a couple times to see Newport, Narragansett and Galilee. Overall, it was a great week with a few favorites worth sharing.
Things helping Me This Week
I am working! Honestly!
Last week was a whirlwind as we traveled to Colorado, returned and drove out to Stockbridge, MA to see friends and enjoy the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood, then returned to pick up our rig and drive to Rhode Island. Once we settled in, all we wanted to do was stay in one place. Sometimes, it is a hard balance when you get to a new place between seeing the sights and buckling down to work or even relax.
This week, we choose work and rest. Luckily, the weather was great so we got to spend a lot of our time outside. And I was thrilled that we had two trees so I could put up my Hammock Universe hammock (You can use CCD2024 for 15% off your entire order and free shipping for orders over $25 as long as shipped in North America). It ended up being a really comfortable spot to work. My backrest helped me sit up so I could easily use the computer. Then, I set up my small table by my side for pens, books, and water to have a “real” office.
Barry worked outside at the picnic table using his stand up table. And the best part was the weather which was a very comfortable, even almost chilly, 70-something! Heaven! We were so happy with our set up that we never went in search of a coffee shop to work. We usually need a shop at least once a week to get stuff done or just to have some space from one another. Not this week!
Recipes
Along with relaxing and staying home for a change, we also decided we needed to give our bodies a break. With all the travel and visits with friends and family, we have not been eating or drinking as healthy as we should. Bored with my usual recipes but too lazy to figure out a good menu, I turned to the Eating Well website where I found a lot of meal plans. We decided to try to follow one of their 7 day plans and eat as close as possible to its suggestions. We were very pleasantly surprised by how tasty many of the recipes were.
This one featuring salmon was a favorite of the week and very easy to make in our convection oven. I would also think it could be made in an air fryer. If you prefer chicken, we enjoyed this recipe and highly recommend the dressing for salads as well. This week, we are revisiting some of our favorites and trying another week’s plan as it does seem to be working – we both lost some weight!
On the Road Suggestions
Rhode Island Campground
We stayed at Worden Pond Family Campground in Wakefield, RI. It is just outside of South Kingstown and near Narragansett so a great location. It is a really huge campground with a lot of side streets where either permanent or seasonal folks are staying.
The sites are level and fairly wide with a great campfire pit and picnic table. There is water and electricity but no sewer. You can use the onsite dump or pay to have them come empty your tanks. We were right next to the pickleball court which got a lot of use! We essentially faced it and the playground which meant we had a nice clear opening in front of us. This helped with Starlink which worked well as did our AT&T puck. Across from the entrance was Worden Pond which seemed bigger than a pond to me! Folks were fishing, kayaking and swimming off the nice little beach.
The best part was that the campground was within minutes of Narragansett and Galilee, two areas we explored as well as within an hour of Newport. We walked part of the Cliff Walk in Newport along the huge mansions including The Breakers, former summer home to the Vanderbilts.
New Favorite Bookstore
While we were in West Stockbridge, we visited the Shaker Mill Books. Even if you are not a book nerd like me, this bookstore is worth a stop. It is housed in two buildings next to one another that was formerly a grist mill, built in 1805. One building houses used, rare and out-of-print books as well as current title. The other, the actual mill portion, has collections of unusual books as well as displays of book-related art.
This is the type of place where you could come back several times and not see all they are showing. There is even a short film in a private cubby that shows what books do at night.
This Week’s Reading
In addition to Shaker Mills, I also made it to RJ Julia Books in Madison, CT on our way to our. new campground yesterday. It was a wonderful store full of book goodies, puzzles and more. I am debating driving back for an author talk this week. I don’t know the author but always enjoy the talks in the stores.
My reading slowed a bit this week, but I wanted to share a couple title that Barry has enjoyed. In fact, I told our friend who was with me in Stockbridge and he picked up the second one and started reading it immediately.
The first is the newest from Erik Larsen. If you have not read him before, I highly recommend him for those who like nonfiction and fiction alike. He writes nonfiction, but they read like novels. His newest is The Demon of Unrest, about the period between Abraham Lincoln’s election and the start of the Civil War. Using diaries, plantation records and secrete communications, he pieces together a gripping story. If you enjoy this style, I also recommend Devil in the White City about the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago and a serial killer who uses the fair to get aay with murder.
The other is The Wager by David Grann who also wrote Killers of the Flower Moon. His writing seems more journalistic to me, but it is amazing how he pulls together this fascinating story about a British vessel in 1740 on a secret mission during the war with Spain. It is “a thrilling story of shipwreck, survival, and savagery, culminating in a court-martial that reveals a shocking truth.” Barry highly recommends.
We also visited the Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge and picked up Norman Rockwell Behind the Camera. I love all his Saturday Evening Post covers. It is fascinating to learn the process he used to create his magazine covers and artwork. Turns out, it is a lot of photography which of course caught my photographer husband’s eye.
And did you know that Benjamin Franklin started the Post? Yes, it is stated right on the cover, I had never noticed before.
Picture of My Week
From Shaker Mills Books – I love the chairs and the framed bindings. Maybe one day in a future dwelling.
Let me know in the comments what you are finding this week make your days easier or happier. I would love to know.
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