A drive through the New England countryside can easily take you from one state into another. We took a weekend drive and soon found ourselves in Connecticut, with rolling hills and quaint villages that just went on and on and on.
Admittedly, our trip wasn’t spur of the moment — Linda and I planned ahead and were hosted by the inns and restaurants we stopped at. But a trip like ours could easily be accidental, by taking a turn to the right or left on a whim, stopping when something looked interesting, and driving on when the urge to see what’s around the next corner is too great to resist.
This time of year, the foliage makes a great excuse for a road trip in New England. But the countryside is beautiful any time of year, with farms and hills opening up the views. Beyond the scenery, the history, shops, and food can be enough to get into the car and start exploring.
Perhaps the most amazing discovery on our trip was a gourmet restaurant in what many would consider the middle of nowhere. In Eastford Connecticut we stopped for dinner at the Still River Cafe. With a name like that, you’d think a coffee shop with seating under a spreading oak tree, but this is nothing like that. We had an amazing dinner as excellent as any we’ve eaten in the best fine dining restaurants of Boston and Newport.
Our dinners were explorations of themes: a gel-skinned droplet of cucumber juice and a cucumber mousse, roasted beets of three different colors served with a goat cheese parfait topped with toasted shreds of beets, a plate of North Ashford Farm heirloom tomatoes including Brandywine, Green Zebra, striped Cavern, and striped German heirloom tomatoes, with Bufala di Vermont hand crafted buffalo milk mozzarella, basil ice cream with micro basil — and that’s not even the entree! The entrees continued exploration, not with just one way of serving quail, but four different ways, with a cranberry and apple stuffed quail, pan seared quail breast with sautéed spinach and “frisee aux lardons” with poached quail eggs. Even the dessert was an exploration of a theme, with three different creme brulee comprising a single dessert.
Well fed, we drove well after dark we drove toward UConn’s main campus to our lodgings for the night at the Daniel Rust House B&B.
Built in 1731 and expanded repeatedly over the ensuing years, the B&B not only made us feel welcome, but also feel like we were transported into the past, when the house was an 18th century Tavern used by the Sons of Liberty.
The B&B was cozy, comfortable, and welcoming, with a fireplace in our room, a four poster bed, private bathroom, antiques and keepsakes from the innkeepers’ private collection, hot tea and coffee in the parlor, secret passageway, and even a friendly cat.
The Daniel Rust House was such a peaceful oasis on our road trip, it was tempting to just park there for the weekend. After all, every trip needs a home base, and being on Main Street in Coventry, it placed us right near many of the places we wanted to visit.
But, alas, we had to get moving. The innkeepers Cathy and Germain’s delicious hot breakfast and friendly conversation got us up and moving while the morning was still morning.
The first stop was the home of Coventry Connecticut’s most famous historical resident — Nathan Hale.
“I regret that I have but one life to lose for my country,” may or may not have actually been said by Hale before his execution at age 21 for spying for the American revolutionary army in Manhattan, but there is no doubt that he grew up just a short drive away from the Daniel Rust House.
The house where Hale was born and grew up was razed in the 1770’s. He moved away from home to go to college and later join George Washington’s army about the same time that his family moved into the larger house that he and his many brothers built. Thanks to a large number of boys, the Hale family’s 400-acre farm was prosperous. The main house was built with two fireplace stacks and a central hall and a very long ell extension housing the kitchen. The house remained largely unaltered to this day and has been decorated with period decor throughout. Visitors to the homestead can watch a short movie about Nathan Hale before being given a guided tour.
If we had stayed longer in Coventry, we would have stopped at Memory Lane Countryside Antique Center or the Coventry Country Store, but we wanted to make it to Willimantic to stay on schedule.
Willimantic is the location of the Great Frog Battle of the 1754. At the height of the French and Indian War, villagers were awakened by a horrible noise. Rushing to their muskets, they came down the dark country road anticipating a battle to save their village, finding only thousands of bullfrogs.
Willimantic was also the site of a thriving textile industry, remembered by the Windham Textile and History Museum. In what was once the company store for the American Thread Company factory, a museum houses artifacts and exhibits that help us understand the era when everyone worked for the company.
A rotating exhibit when we visited was featuring sewing machines, while machinery fills a neighboring building and the upstairs shows life in the row houses and a mill manager’s home.
From there, we went to Willimantic Brewing Company for lunch. The Willimantic Brewing Company is in the town’s classic 1907 limestone and granite post office. Of course with a name like theirs, you can be sure that they are a brew pub, serving a broad selection of not only their own beers, but also of “guest beers”, satisfying those who insist on their favorite brand despite a smorgasbord of ales, pilsners, and alds laid before them. Beer doesn’t always mix well with a driving trip, but happily they also serve food.
Their pub food extends far beyond burgers and fries, delving into steaks and pastas that seem more fitting to a nice date restaurant, but for lunch pub grub was just right. We had a brochette made in part from spent brewer’s grains for an appetizer. Linda had a salad and I had their variation of a Ruben called the Windham Village sandwich, with corned beef, onion, coleslaw and Swiss cheese toasted on rye.
We could have spent more time shopping and exploring Willimantic, with bullfrog-on-spool icons decorating the bridge, a long pedestrian bridge with gardens, a walkable downtown, and loads of shops. Instead, back on the road toward our next destination, Woodstock, CT.
Of course, there’s a lot along the way. On the weekend we traveled, there was an outdoor art show with music called “Artists in the Country”. There’s no shortage of events, in the autumn look for organized walks in October under the title “Walktober”. Woodstock is also the location of the Taylor Brooke Winery and the historic Roseland Cottage and Bowen House.
We passed that opportunity and headed to a more family-oriented activity: an educational corn maze at Fort Hill Farm in nearby Thompson. The theme changes every year, for us it was the “Appalachian Trail”, with a somewhat easy-to-navigate maze with the intent not to find your way out, but to find all of the hidden landmarks. The corn is amazingly high, at least 10 feet, perfect height for cow corn, and perfect for Fort Hill Farm, which produces organic milk under the co-op brand “The Farmer’s Cow”.
Then our night’s lodgings at the Mansion at Bald Hill. This Gilded Era home features its own fine dining which we didn’t sample, but their rooms are as plush as the wealthy Bowen family would have commanded in their day.
Our room was Mr. Bowen’s own. We spent the night in complete luxury and had breakfast in the library. In the morning, we walked around the formal gardens, perfect for a wedding.
Then, on the road again, stopping at Southwood Alpacas to see the soft-furred llamas that produce such fine wool. Local weavers turn their hair into scarves and other garments. The hair is very fine and soft, and being hollow is extra warm.
Had we even more time, we would have done more shopping at the Garden Gate and Coco’s Cottage in South Woodstock or at Majilly, Martha’s Herbary, Celebrations Shoppes, and Hazelwood Fine Crafts in Pomfret. Or perhaps we would have gone for a walk at the Audubon Properties at Bafflin Sanctury and Trailwood in Pomfret.
But instead, we had a quick stop at the Vanilla Bean Cafe before heading home, tired and happy that we had the adventure beyond the edge of our state.
Paul not only writes many of the articles in the pages of this magazine, he is also the publisher and editor of all of the magazines in the Amygis Publishing’s family of travel magazines. He loves exploring, traveling the back roads, experiencing the world, and finding what is unique and memorable about the places he visits.
And he loves writing – poetry, short stories, essays, non-fiction, news, and. of course, travel writing.
For over 20 years, he has shared his explorations with readers in a wide variety of outlets, from groundbreaking forays into the first stirrings of the dot-com boom to travel guides, local newspapers, and television, including Runner’s World, Travel Lady, Providence Journal, and Northstar Travel Media. He currently publishes and writes for Amygis Publishing’s magazines Jaunting, Northeast Traveler, and Rhode Island Roads.
