Mileophile: Virginia to Rhode Island, Day 2

Day 2 Richmond, VA to New Port, RI

Another fun-filled day in the car for us! We didn’t give Richmond the attention it deserved. Unfortunately, it was just a place to rest our heads before hitting the road again. We decided to “rip the band aid” and put our travel-heavy days on the front end of the trip when hypothetically we should all be in a sun-shiny mood! But, predicting moods can be tricky biz when dealing with teenage girls, and middle school boys, and traffic averse dads…..

43rd State and everyone was asleep but us! Actually, Mr. Bullington might've also been asleep.

Mile 529

Barratt’s Chapel-When searching for interesting things to do in Delaware I happened upon this little locale that claims the title of the “Birthplace of Methodism” It is the first Methodist church that was built for the purpose of being a Methodist church! Pretty exciting, right?!?! if you are Methodist! And we are! The sweet little docent was gob smacked when we entered the museum with palpable enthusiasm! I was mildly more excited than my travel companions, but sometimes they like to hide their excitement behind a façade of indifference. “We’re Methodists all the way from Georgia!”, I squealed! He responded, “Did you come here on purpose?” At which point he dusted off a video tape to show us all about the building and maintaining of this historic landmark!

Thanks for bringing us to Delaware and this awesome historic site that is one of the cornerstones of Methodism. Our friends got to go to Disney World.....

240 years of Methodists in these pews

ERMAGERD!!!

Mile 540

Dover, DE- Delaware State Capital Building- So our State Capital Building pendulum has swung. Having seen the largest state capital building in Austin, TX, it was time to see the smallest. We would have been the only people outside the sweet little Capital building were it not for the lady prophesizing and blowing on an antler horn, "just like at the battle of Jericho" she informed us. The best part was that she sounded her rapture flute as I was taking a picture and was able to catch Charlotte's reaction. See below. She had a lazy eye and was carrying some sort of religious placard. She may or may not have been collecting souls for a doomsday cult, but who am I to judge? We asked her to take our picture, She asked if we knew how the horns would sound during the rapture. I mumbled something about knowing all about the whole bible and ushered the children back to the to the car. Thanks, Delaware!

That moment when your kid hears the rapture horn blow during the family picture

The nice lady let us touch her "Horn From Jericho". She said that it's what you will hear in heaven because someone told her they'd heard it when they were in heaven.....

Hey Look! We're in Delaware! First state in our nation, #43 in our hearts!

Miles- Lots of them. We left Delaware, a very small state, for Rhode Island, an even smaller state that is not conveniently located geographically AT ALL. You would think the tiny states would want to band together, you would think wrong. But, good news! We happened to hit NYC right at rush hour and it turns out, everyone that works in New York lives in Connecticut. So we all got to hang out on the road together for like, 3 additional hours. Those guys are the best, always, honking and cutting you off so you can get close and personal with their middle fingers pointing from their Range Rovers. As predicted, this was Mr. Bullington’s highlight of the day. He tried to show it by getting all snappy with me, but, I know he loved it! We drove down the Merritt Parkway which is a lovely little route that was developed in the 1930’s to provide a pleasant drive from Boston and New York to Connecticut. It really was lovely and we were able to appreciate its flora and unique bridges at a snail’s pace with people in Jaguars and wearing driving moccasins probably.

Hey NYC! We'll get a closer look another time!

Mile 889-Newport, Rhode Island- After 12 hours in the car, we emerged through a cloud of coastal fog into the cutest little town! The boys were HANGRY. We quickly checked into our hotel and headed out to find dinner. We struck out with the first couple of spots because the kitchens closed at nine. Mr. Bullington had his taste buds all ready for some seafood and after a traffic ridden afternoon we needed to find that boy some mussels and lobster. Thank you to The Fifth Element for saving us! Delicious food and peace is restored!