2 days, 2 rivers, 2 kayaks

In a recent post, I noted what a hot, dry and perfect weather summer we've been having. Well! Never mind.

In between the torrential downpours, bolts of lightning and wind gusts of the last several days, Retired Guy and I did manage to get into our new kayaks on two consecutive clear days, Friday and Saturday. Friday was my day to pick our destination, and I chose one of my favorite spots: the East Branch of the Westport River, which is just across the state line from Rhode Island and about a 40-minute drive from Providence. Friday was the day to go because the tide would be high at just about 3 p.m., meaning that we'd be paddling downriver with the tide from our put-in spot at Hix Bridge on Hix Bridge Rd., and ending up at the state boat ramp next to the Back Eddy restaurant just in time for dinner.


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IT ALL WORKED according to plan. It took us two hours to paddle three or four miles downstream to the ramp, where we'd left our "drop" car, CHEEKY. Then we drove back up Route 88 to Hix Bridge to get the Subaru, which is the only one of the cars that can carry kayaks. (We're looking into getting Mini racks for kayaks, but it's a process.)

The weather was perfect, the river lovely and clear. The rock islands and green riverbanks dotted with summer cottages made us feel that we were in Maine. Ospreys swooped overhead, and cormorants dove into the clear green waters. We didn't see stripers, but we did see striper fishermen in kayaks.

The day ended with a wonderful meal at the always lively and fun waterfront restaurant, the Back Eddy, where we shared a bowl of steamers and a pair of cod-crabcakes in a remoulade sauce. A blueberry cobbler with ginger ice cream for dessert, plus a couple of glasses of wine brought the bill to about $60.

IT WAS SO MUCH FUN that when the next day, Saturday, dawned clear, we packed up and headed in the other direction to one of Retired Guy's favorite spots, the Wood River in Exeter's Arcadia State Management Area. Without any tide to worry about, we paddled gently down the stream from the state access point at Route 165 in Arcadia three or four miles to the pull-out point (where we'd left a car) at Barberville Dam on Arcadia Road. (Click this link to see a map.)

What a different experience this was than we'd had the day before: Where the Westport River is a wide tidal estuary of the sea, the Wood River is a narrow freshwater stream, a favorite of trout fishermen (of whom we saw several). I'd been secretly afraid that we'd be bombarded by mosquitoes, but we weren't, and the peace and calm of the river were magical. We saw a heron, several ducks, lots of colorful dragonflies, and painted turtles sunning themselves on rocks. No trout, though, as it was the middle of the day.

(See if you can spot the well-camouflaged ducks in this photo of a stump in the river. Click on the photo to make it larger.)

I don't know why it's taken me this long to discover kayaking, but I'm glad I did.

The two best online resources I've found for finding places to go around here are Rhode Island Blueways and Wild Turkey Paddlers in Southeastern Massachusetts.

Please send a Comment if you know of others.

Micro cars at Larz Anderson Museum

Owning a Mini Cooper seems to have unleashed a craving in us to see even smaller cars -- cars such as these otherworldly-looking micro classics, which were gathered today for a show on the grounds of the Larz Anderson Car Museum in Brookline, Mass.

We recruited nephew Will, 9, who is a junior car head himself, to spend the afternoon looking at dozens of cars that are so small that they make our Mini CHEEKY look like an SUV. I rode in one car -- a miniscule yellow Fiat checker taxi -- whose proud owner told me it gets 80 miles per gallon of gas. (I didn't tell him that I've heard it said about Fiats that the letters in the name stand for "Fix it again, Tony.")

While Micro Mini Day happens just once a year, the Anderson historic car barn museum is less than an hour's drive from Providence, and it hosts unusual car events on Saturdays through October. Next Saturday is Extinct Auto Day, for example, followed by Triumph and Miata Days. The last event this year is Studebaker Day Oct. 26.

Opening Day: Somerset Creamery

For fans of the homemade ice cream at Somerset Creamery, today was Opening Day — the first day you could get a cone since the '07 season ended in October. You didn't have to buy tickets; you just had to have seen the sign by the side of Route 6 last week announcing the Mar. 24 home opener.

And while I wouldn't say that the stands were packed shortly after the OPEN sign was lit at noon, die-hard members of Somerset Nation were there, greeting each other and owner Carolyn Berube, congratulating themselves on having survived the winter, and taking a few moments to contemplate the list of flavors, savoring familiar names like Cranberry Bog, Mocha Chip, Ginger, Grape Nut, and a rookie, Lemon, that already looks like a good prospect.

Everyone looked happy. And why not? While Red Sox Nation can only hope for a great season, Somerset Nation knows it will be — right up till Columbus weekend.

Boys' toys in Foxboro: Bass Pro Shops

It doesn't ever take much convincing to get RG to drive up to Foxboro for some shopping. That's because Patriots' owner Bob Kraft's "Guy Mall" — now taking shape around Gillette Stadium — already includes a superstore that exerts the same attraction to men as a salt lick does to deer.
Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World is unlike any other store you've ever been to, as much about entertainment and lifestyle as it is about actually selling stuff. You see men in workboots and NASCAR jackets pushing around carts in a happy trance, and to tell the truth, it's almost as much fun for women.
The store celebrates the rugged outdoor world of hunting and fishing and sells the infinite variety of accouterments needed to pursue both. You can buy everything from a bass fishing boat to a set of plaster casts that let you tell the age of a deer by its teeth. A motion-detecting night camera lets you capture on film a fisher cat or an owl that passes by its lens. Tents, truck boxes, duck blinds, gas grills, water toys, lodge-style furniture, fish-finders, GPS, binoculars, bait, ATVs, camouflage clothing, fluorescent orange clothing, camouflage make-up and, yes, camouflage make-up remover pads.
It's all there, laid out on two floors decorated with hundreds of taxidermy specimens of moose standing in a rock-lined pool, deer leaping over the water with wolves in pursuit, bears, foxes, wild turkeys, pheasants. . . . An indoor trout stream plunges into a 30,000-gallon glass-walled aquarium where you can see real trout, bass, and catfish swimming. All over the store, animal and bird calls punctuate the background noise of rushing water or rustling leaves. A wall of windows invites you to lounge in big leather club chairs and look out upon a pond and cranberry bog populated with statues of Big Horn Sheep and other critters that you can spot through sample scopes. There's a nice restaurant for lunch that includes a Wild West-style antique bar that's always lined with rear views of men in truckers' caps or suits talking "guy" to each other.
And then there are the arcades: A shooting gallery lets you knock over varmints and set a barn door swinging to reveal a growling bear. A laser arcade sets up interactive images of bounding deer or scattering doves that you knock down with your rifle.

Our excuse for going had been to find a pair of duck shoes, which we did. But you know how guys are with shopping: We ended up spending the whole afternoon.