My Van Life: Day 42
Friday, August 20, 2021
Wellfleet, MA – Hyannis, MA – Newport, RI
I slept on top of the covers last night. At no point in time did I roll myself over in order to unleash the big plush blanket and wrap my body in it. Nope, I was perfectly content with all limbs outside of the covers the entire night. It’s still so muggy here which makes sense considering we are now aware that there’s a Tropical Storm warning for the weekend. Weather is always strange before big events like that, is it not? My mom always talks about “earthquake” weather and now I feel like I can understand how that perhaps would correlate to “tropical storm” or “hurricane” weather too. I haven’t quite lived through one. Yet. Perhaps that will change this weekend!
I woke up this morning with a food hangover. Have you ever had one of those? I felt legitimately hungover from the movie theater food intake last night. I shouldn’t be surprised but it was still an odd experience. We went to bed quite late after the double feature last night, I think it was around 2am by the time we finally settled and closed our eyes, so we woke up a bit later than usual around 9am. After getting ready we drove over to Hyannis so we could park somewhere for Adam to take care of some morning work and I could have somewhere to walk around and shop. Hyannis Main Street was absolutely the perfect place to do just that.
We happened to luck out with two hour street parking right along the main street where I hopped out and walked up and down, checking out the local shops and souvenir destinations. No coffee options (aside from restaurants and cafes) which was a bit of a bummer but other than that there were so many wonderful shops to bop in and out of. It was sweltering hot though. The air felt heavy on my shoulders and upon looking at the weather app and seeing that it was 82 outside but with the humidity it felt like 90, I immediately understood.
Adam wrapped up work and we were back on the road. We decided to press on toward Newport, Rhode Island to try and soak up as much of this Northeast Coast while we can. Of course, it’s just our luck that there’s a Tropical Storm warning starting this Sunday so we’ve been getting terrifying, deafening weather alerts all day. As a California girl myself, I can’t say I’ve ever experienced anything like this let alone the terrifying weather warnings so I’m a bit wary and unsure what to think. I think I mentioned it before, in an earlier blog in Wisconsin, but I can’t help but wonder if only “out of towners” are the ones frightened of such bold claims and warnings and the locals are treating it as just another Sunday? I’m trying to stay up to date with the warnings so I’m not naïve but I also don’t want to be stupid in the sense that we rush to get out of town and nothing even happens. In my research today it did say that Henri would be the first Tropical Storm since 1991 to hit this area so I hope that means things are looking in our favor meaning it will just dissipate before anything actually happens but we’ll see.
Newport is the CUTEST little town. There are hoards of people here filling the main streets, enjoying a summer in Newport, Rhode Island. Upon arriving into town (only about an hour and a half drive) we drove toward the main town center and then down Bellevue Avenue where all the infamous Newport mansions are. Holy COW. I’m still awestruck just thinking of the SIZE and grandeur of those mansions. I mean imagine living in one of those things! Decades ago or at the present time even. Each one has it’s own unique charm about it and it is definitely worth the drive down Bellevue. Plus you can continue beyond the mansions onto Ocean Drive where you have a beautiful, well, Ocean drive.
Today was absolutely picturesque (does not look like any kind of tropical storm in sight I’ll tell you that), and just driving along that coastline was such a special experience in Newport. It was still a bit early for dinner and parking was starting to fill up fast in the main downtown square so we decided to drive out to a nearby beach and have a light snack for the evening. Only then, around 6pm, did it start turning a bit cloudy and overcast and you could see the activity in the water, the waves swelling with each crash on the shore. Perhaps I could see a storm coming in. It was lovely to sit in the sand enjoying a light dinner snack and relishing in the sights and sounds of the ocean before hopping back in the car and deciding to call it a night. Originally we wanted to indulge in one of the many recommended ice cream shops in town but unfortunately it’s a true beach town with lots of one way streets, narrow streets and not a lot of parking whatsoever. We circled a dozen times before giving up and heading to our rest stop for the evening. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll be able to secure a spot and walk around a bit. The town and the shops just look SO cute!