Leg Fifteen, July 8 2008

Start and finish at RR station in New London, Distance just over 6 miles.

Well, walking in downtown NL is a homecoming of sorts for me, also at the same time a goodbye. I grew up in Quaker Hill just north of NL and I, just 6 days ago, left my job in NL where I worked for the past 20+ years. So, in this walk I went by places I hadn't been to in years , and also went to familiar places I won't probably visit much again.

There is a lot of history for me here, my ancestors who came here in the 1600s as well being a place I spent much of my childhood.

Many of the places I walked this day were new or hadn't been visited for decades if ever. I used to ride around after work on the bike so those rides sort of weaved the past and present a bit.

I parked on the water by the new wharves, then headed up State Street. I checked out a few of the piers and D didn't balk or anything, she did like that crossing of the RR tracks. Funny dog. Can't remember the last time I walked up State Street but I have biked it recently. Turned south after the Crocker House and then to Coit street. Crocker house where they used to have real soda fountains and Montgomery Wards where we used to go shopping. All Gone.

I read in Caulkins that the Coit St area was where the Bemis' lived, Rebecca Bemis married the first Satterlee to arrive on this shore, so I went down there thinking maybe we somehow walked in the same streets that my ancestors did over 300 years ago. We did a U turn off Blinman and then Bank and Howard St, all of which was once a cove filled in.


Heading on we took a little detour by Fort Trumbull which I go to frequently on the bike but we did a little loop around the fort. No better view can be had anywhere in New London. We sat on one of the benches and watched the world go by.

Fort Trumbull depresses the hell out of me and it reminded me of one of the saddest days of my life- it was a Memorial day a few years ago. I rode to places in SE CT and So RI to pay tribute to those who had sacrificed for our country. well that must have been right after the imminent domain thing, where the US Supreme Court allowed a private corporation to take public land for private use. To me that was awfully depressing, to see where this country has come and to stand under the flags of Fort Trumbull and Fort Griswold across the river, and to think what those men sacrificed for....so that 200 years later, a government would allow the private corporations to take private land for their own profit.

My father once worked here, at the Underwater Sound Lab, located on razed ground.

To make it even more depressing, the hospital used to have a remote parking lot on Walbach ST, I parked there daily last year. Daily I saw the razing of this part of New London, first the remaining buildings were removed, then they took away and entire street, leaving a sole house and tree across the barren, flattened field. One day the structure was gone and the next day, a machine-like a steam shovel with pinchers-took the tree down limb by limb.


I am a direct descendant of John Winthrop (my first and middle names) who founded New London. What would John Winthrop have thought of 2008 New London?

Forgive the transgression.

We headed down Pequot and it was getting hot again. We did some beach checking out at an empty beach across from Stashes and then Green Beach, the only beach in NL in turns out that does not have "NO DOGS" or private signs all over it.

Pequot is a decent walk if you don't mind sidewalks and a barrier of houses between the road and the water. I looked at the water and wondered about what my ancestor, Benedict Satterlee, said to be British ship captain who left the sea for a widow.

Even though we got an early start D was starting to get hot. We headed up the hill through Mitchell College and found our shaded bench and patch of grass. It was next to a Nathan Hale statue.

We headed back on first Montauk to stay in the shade but that grew boring, I saw a dirt lane that headed back to the water, asked a local if that a public right of way and with a yes reply, we heeded back down to Pequot on a very short but pleasant dirt road.

Fortunately all of the obstacles on the views to the water provided shade for us from the rising sun.

Past Pfizer, rest stops grew more frequent and D preferred the still dew moist grass of shade to walking on the sidewalks. I don't mind stopping frequently in fact rest are the best part fo walking.

What happened to that street that used to go under the RR tracks to the Fort Trumbull neighborhood? Next to Miner and Alexander Lumber yard? What happened to Miner and Alexander?

Once on Bank St we cut behind Bank St to a gravel walkway seemingly designed for a condo complex, that spot was the site of an old time hardware store the last time I noticed. We stopped at a bench looking at the RR bridge over Shaw's Coves, hoping it would open but I didn't until we were long gone.

We saw bunch of trains, Acelas and such as well as all of the ferries going to LI, BI and FI.