Hudson River |
Wolf's Den Campground was home for a week. It is a large campground with a mix of cabins, tent sites and RV sites. Better than half of it is permanent sites, all kept up well.
There are lots of activities for kids, a large pool, playground, putt-putt golf and more. The overnight sites are grass with a small rectangle of cement to park your RV on. We were in Site 43 which was level and wider than normal, it had a picnic table and a fire ring. There was only electric and water hookups with a grey tank disposal. This was new to us so another learning experience. See tip for more info. Laundry and bathrooms were clean. WiFi was good and Verizon signal was okay. We paid $40.00 a night with our Passport America discount and their weekly rate.
The theme of this stop seemed to be castles. We visited two of them.
First up was Gillette Castle. It was built by William Hooker Gillette, actor, director, playwright and inventor. He is most famous for his portrayal of "Sherlock Holmes". He is the one who gave Sherlock his hat, pipe and spy glass. There are guides through out the house, but you can wander at your own pace.

The castle is located on the southern most end of the chain of hills called Seven Sisters. Gillette, named his estate The Seventh Sister. He designed the castle and most of its contents personally. The house is built of local fieldstone supported by a steel framework. It took 25 men five years to complete the main structure, from 1914-1919. It took many more years to complete all the details which were done by local craftsmen. Even the walls, awnings and train station are made of fieldstone.
The house is filled with beautiful woodwork. It is all hand-hewn southern white oak.
There are Built-In Couches, the one outside of the study has heaters built in underneath it to keep you toasty warm. Can you imagine curling up with a good book and a cup of tea?

The Great Room has a beautiful stone table and fireplace along with another built in couch. It was hard to take pictures with the spot lights and light coming in the windows.
There are Forty-Seven Doors in the home and no two are exactly the same.

Even the Light Switches are unique and hand carved.

Today there is of course an automatic sprinkler system in case of fire, but back when this was built there was no such thing. Gillette designed his own Fire Protection System.
![]() |
L: cone that the cord was wrapped around R: steel water tank |

Gillette's Bedroom was much smaller than expected but filled with everything he needed. Built in closets and cupboards. In the corner over his bed is a special light switch that he designed, it allowed him to turn off the lights without getting out of bed.

Second was Castle Craig, in Meriden, CT. It is not really a castle or even the ruins of one, but that is what it is called. It is a stone observation tower that was given to the city by Walter Hubbard, a successful Meriden business man.

On this day we could see the Sleeping Giant Mountain Range (bottom left picture). Or, at least Les could as Nancy got to the top of the stairs and turned around and went right back down!


While driving to a nearby car show, we happened upon the Longmeadow Cemetery which had even more of these headstones. Most of them have faces carved into them. Many with wings.
A few have Winged Skulls, many think this was from the Puritans. The "death head" was initially a non-religious symbol used to denote a buried corpse, as Puritans didn't believe in using religious symbols on graves. It can also mean a dead persons journey is not over. After shedding their physical form, they are flying away to another realm. Over time the skull was replaced with faces, some with crowns. The sayings are certainly a reminder of the times, the women were remembered as "daughter of", "wife of", "consort of", or "relict of". "Relict" is a woman left behind by the death of her husband. We've come along way baby!



Classic Car shows are always fun. We planned our trip to Springfield, MA so we could attend this one hosted by Little Sisters of the Poor in Enfield, CT, which is just at the border. There were about 50 cars. This one was extra fun as there was a guy with a Ford Bronco, mid 70's and he is the original owner. Our son-in-law Steve is rebuilding his Grandfathers Bronco, a major undertaking. We shared pictures of Steve's progress and this guy was extremely impressed.
We visited Hartford, CT on a Sunday which makes getting around town and taking pictures a whole lot easier. The Capitol Building is absolutely gorgeous. This Victorian Gothic beauty opened in 1878.
![]() |
The Lego Twain stands outside the gift shop. |
Mark Twain and his family lived here from 1874 to 1891. Many of his best-known works were written here including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Prince and the Pauper. In 1891 after poor financial investments left them financially unstable. Twain, his wife Olivia and one daughter Clara traveled to Europe so he could lecture and earn money to pay off their debts. Susy and Jean, their other two daughters stayed behind in Hartford, and Susy died of spinal meningitis in August of 1896 before they could be reunited. They could not bring themselves to reside in the house after this tragedy and spent most of their remaining years abroad.
Harriet Beecher Stowe lived in this house for the last 23 years of her life. Pogunuc People (1878) was one of the works she published while living here. Uncle Tom's Cabin was published much earlier (the house she lived in then will be in an upcoming blog). She also embarked on two world wide lecture tours while living here. She passed away in her bedroom with several of her children, her sister and other family members at her side. After her death the property was sold out of the family. In 1924 her grandniece, Katharine Seymour Day bought the property and also acquired the neighboring Mark Twain House and saved it from development in 1929. She turned both into museums.
Roadside Oddiites of course took us in every direction.
Cheshire, CT |
Norwich, CT |
We found two Muffler Men. One in Cheshire, CT, holding a flag. The other is in Norwich, CT, and dressed like a cowboy.
The Traffic Control Tower in Meriden, CT is a survivor of the early days of highway chaos. It was built in 1925 and controlled traffic at a busy downtown intersection for nearly 42 years.
All four sides have a strange configuration of red, amber and green lights. These were controlled by the operator who climbed into the tower from a ladder. When the boring lights of today were installed, the city moved the tower to its current location to preserve this little piece of history.

The buildings are all painted with a variety of murals and the grounds are filled with an assortment of sculptures.

There is a Haunted House, which seems to actually be an old record store. It was closed when we were there.
Inside the main store is just as crazy, you can hardly get through the aisles. Check out the link above to see all the unique things they have.

Painted Rocks are a big thing in this area. We found the Snake Rock and an Eagle Rock in Marlborough, CT. There were a number of others in the area that we didn't get to. The cool Arrow Lake Sign was in East Hampton, CT.

Lego's, Cows and Whales. The Giant Lego's sit at the entrance to an industrial park in Enfield, CT, where Lego has an office. The Super Cow has landed on the roof of the Guida's Dairy in New Britain, CT and Conny (short for Connecticut) rests outside The Children's Museum in Hartford, CT.

On our last night in town we went grocery shopping in Haddam, CT and there was a Car Show in the parking lot, this one was a bit smaller than the first one but still fun to wander. We also discovered the Shady Habit Brewing Company tucked back behind the grocery store. Yummy beer and good conversation with some locals.
Up next is the Boston, MA area and a visit to the JFK Library and Museum.
Till we meet again...
Happy Trails to You!
Tips and things we learn along the way.
~ Grey water disposal
As stated above this campground only had hookups for emptying our grey water tanks, not one for both grey and black water.
This was the first time we have encountered this. We have had sites with no black or grey water hookups but not one with just grey.

Once we started setting up we discovered we didn't have the right type of hose, luckily the office sold them so Les went and bought one. He came back and then discovered he needed a special connection to attach it to the RV. So back to the office he went to purchase that.
It would have been helpful if they had asked if he had one when he bought the hose! Or better yet, ask if we had what we needed when we checked in. But anyways, once we had all the correct parts it was an easy hook up to the RV, simply screwing the cap in place and then dropping the open end of the hose into the disposal pipe.
So no one else has the problems we did --
You need a grey flushing hose, the color of the hose is actually grey. You do not want to use any hose that you use for fresh water. The difference in the color of the hose keeps you from getting the two mixed up.
You also need a Termination Cap with Hose Connect. This is sometimes called a Grey Water Drain Adapter.
No comments:
Post a Comment