25.8 mi / 12.1 mph / 604 ft. climbing
Home: Fisherman’s Memorial State Park

Jenny Lake, a year ago in the shadow of the Tetons, was the last place where we “camped out” at a campground for four nights. Even though our only private space is our tent, the routines of walking by the office on the way to the bathroom, of kicking the same mostly-buried boulder outside my tent door, or stepping over to the power post to unplug our electronics make it really feel like home after that long. So it was a bit sad leaving Martha’s Vineyard Family Campground. There was never more than one other party in view (in an area where there could have been 30), so not only did that lend a quiet privacy to our “home”, it also gave that nostalgic end-of-season vibe we love (and the 50%-off clearance in the camp store was a practical benefit to that end-of-season!)

We returned to Oak Bluffs by reversing the end of the loop we did a couple days ago, but this time we had a better view of the bays and parks and houses, since it was light out! The Rhode Island Fast Ferry isn’t big enough to have any sort of office, so it took a couple tries to find where we were supposed to wait. When a manager turned up to get everyone organized, he was momentarily confused because he didn’t remember us arriving to the Vineyard on his boat. Correct sir, we did not (and, good memory!) He was also unusually curious about our travels, for someone who deals with hundreds of travelers all day long. A fellow passenger, Jacob(?), was one of those intrepid souls who did bike-touring in the 1970s (and also once worked in a bike shop, was an NYC bike messenger, and, a tall ship captain who sailed one from California to Hawaii!) so it was a lot of fun talking with him while we waited.

The whole time we were talking with these two guys, a woman sitting on the bench across from us was was clearly eavesdropping and, from her body-language, equally-interested in our unusual lifestyle. But she could never quite bring herself into the conversation. When we finally all stood up to board, she quietly wished us good travels, and then followed her husband back into the line. Did she feel a need to keep secret from him that she found our adventurous lives exciting?

For the first time in our many ferry journeys, we were instructed to just leave our bikes on the dock, board, and the ferry workers would take care of them for us. Just like a valet parking my car, it held the same mix of “what a luxury!” and “uh, I’d much prefer to handle my own bike because I don’t trust that you aren’t going to break it” (especially since our bikes are usually-difficult to manage, not just with their weight, but with their strange kickstands and steering locks). Anyway, we got over our paranoia, and, it was nice, especially since there was no expectation to tip!

Since the ferry doesn’t take vehicles, it has various different prices for bikes, vs. e-bikes, vs. bikes-with-trailers, etc., and charged extra for passengers with more than one suitcase (on vehicle ferries there is so much space that no one cares). Since they didn’t have a “bikes with 4 panniers” option, I had just picked the standard (and cheapest) “bike”, but then was stressed that they would scold us, and/or require us to pay a bunch more money when we turned up with our behemoths. But none of the workers batted an eye. Maybe it would have been different in peak season on a much-fuller boat? Whether it’s standard policy or sensible discretion, we’re grateful!

I’m not sure why this ferry docks at Quonset Point, which is a middle-of-nowhere stop halfway up Narragansett Bay. The obvious places would be Point Judith, at the mouth of the bay (where the Block Island ferry departs from), or Providence, the big city at the top of the bay. Maybe the dock fee is really low here? Or it’s just where the boat captain lives? Anyway, we’re glad that the ferry route exists at all, as it saved us from needing to backtrack across Massachusetts. But it meant that we needed to turn back south and ride the 20 miles that the ferry had taken us north past Point Judith.

Even when we’re first off the ferry, we’ll often wait for the cars to flush out so we aren’t fighting them for space on the road. But this was a rare case when we beat all the cars, because no one was able to drive their cars straight off the boat. They all had to walk even further than us to find their cars in the parking lot, while we were already out of the gate! We then took a bikes-only short-cut through a business park (because there is a gate to prevent cars from doing the same short-cut, passed a few houses with Halloween decorations that made me realize zero houses on (no-fun?) Martha’s Vineyard had Halloween displays), and soon were on US 1 heading south.

We stopped at NK Chicago Pizza for lunch, mostly curious to learn how terrible a Rhode Island take on deep-dish would be, but also glad to eat at a strip-mall joint for a fraction of the price of anything on Martha’s Vineyard. And, the pizza was really good! The crust definitely wasn’t true Chicago deep-dish (it was a bit puffier), but the overall flavor and construction hit the mark. I asked the owner-waitress with the extreme New England accent what their Chicago connection was, and was surprised to learn that there was none at all! They believe that the original owners might have come from Chicago, but it had now changed hands twice, and they just decided to keep the menu as-is. Huh! Anyway, it was cool to see a family business doing their best, and she even let us go through the kitchen to the employee-only bathroom, where we could meet her husband crafting the pies.

We were able to do another non-reserved campground, and circled the whole tent area a couple times so that we could choose an ideal site before I rode back to the office to pay. Fisherman’s Memorial State Park feels less like a state park and more like a suburban town park that someone decided to put a campground in, and the sites are pretty close together, frequently without buffers, and some are literally three steps from the bathroom. But we found an odd one perfect for us, with the picnic table completely separated from the parking spot by a narrow path through a wall of bushes, but with our setup we could just ignore the parking spot side and enjoy the privacy lent by the wall of bushes.

Day 3

Our next destination is Block Island, but the ferry to take us off Block Island (to Long Island) doesn’t run until four days from now. There are no camping options on Block Island, and even the cheapest motels/AirBNBs are really expensive, so we’re saving nearly $200 by spending an extra day here at the $36 campsite.

It was sunny and clear all day, in the starkest break from the overall-cloudy conditions of the last two weeks, but in the breeze and shade it remained quite cool (unfortunately the campground didn’t sell firewood, and my attempt to scrounge up leftovers from the now-nearly-empty campground stalled at one log).