Tutu's & Chicken: Rhode Island & Other Adventures

New York can get suffocating. Anyone who lives here will tell you that frequent vacations are crucial to maintaining some amount of sanity. I don't know if it's all the hustling or the social overload or the weather or just the pollution (or all of them at the same time), but you can't stay here for too long without losing your mind.

I was running on 4 months without a break when my boss pretty much forced me to leave. What he actually said was, "don't come to work tomorrow. Go somewhere fun." Which he may have meant as 'go to Times Square' but which I interpreted as "go on a random adventure to the most random location within driving distance."

So with the help of a few fun unemployed friends and a school ditching roommate, I somehow ended up in the middle-of-nowhere-Rhode Island.

Pit stop somewhere between NY and RI.

Our first stop was at a bar called "The All-American Bar." It was off the highway 13 miles into Rhode Island and the first bar we found. There were 10 senior citizens sitting around the square bar, most sitting with their drink and staring silently at the wall in front of them. They were all on first name basis with the bartender and were quite surprised/confused when the 4 of us rocked up.

The All-American Bar in New Kingstown, Rhode Island.
Photo Courtesy of Google Images

"Did you guys come here to visit family?"

"Nope."

"Oh, so you came to visit friends?"

"Mmm..no. We just started on a road trip and ended up here."

"Oh..okay.. So where are you guys staying?"

"We're actually driving back in a few hours."

We ended up in a group conversations involving the bartender and all 10 of the other locals. They were all more than happy to give tourist advice about the local hot-spots ('local' meaning 20 minute drive away) and popular lighthouses in the area.

And none of them seemed too surprised when one of the local ladies offered home-grown jalapenos to Jane the Bartender and then offered the remaining two to me. Cuz that's normal right? People in bars are just always handing out home-grown vegetables.

We moved on from there to cobble-roaded Main Streets and stargazing in State Park parking lots. There was an unsuccessful lighthouse scavenger hunt and a We Almost Broke Down In The Middle Of Connecticut At 4am scare.