Friday, August 25, 2006

"The View from A Block"

Greetings from the Block Island Free Library, where I was fortunate to find a computer with high-speed access to use for a few minutes.

Boy, there's nothing like taking a vacation during a slow-news week, huh? Jeez, between the latest poll numbers, Ned and Hillary having a sit-down, and Pluto going Independent, this has been far from boring; even considering the lack of news sources I currently have access to (CBS radio and day-old copies of the Providence Journal!)

Kirby has been doing a fantastic job with the blog (thanks!), and we're having an awesome time on vacation. But I do kind of look forward to getting home and back "on the grid".

See you all soon...you'll probably recognize me by my tan!

3 comments:

carterman said...

Bob, I love B.I. I hope you are enjoying yourself! Must do... Ballards Family Style Lobster. Yum! That photo looks like the South East Light...Is it?

Anonymous said...

Hey, is that Mohegan Bluff? I went there when I was 5 years old. Always wanted to go back. I stayed in an amazing house owned by a woman in her 90's named Winnie. It had a dumb waiter and a secret passageway from the kitchen to a chicken coop in the backyard, which Winnie said was part of the Underground Railroad. Made no sense to me as a 5 year old (where are the trains) and even less sense later when I found out what the Underground Railroad really was. (How could Block Island be part of the Underground Railroad?) Anyway, I've always been fascinated with Block Island and have wanted to return for 30 years! Someday, someday. We miss you here in CT!

CT Bob said...

Carter and Maura, yes, you're both right! That's the SE Light, taken from a vantage point high on Mohegan Bluffs!

I just got home an hour ago and I'm trying to catch up on everything. Plus, I'm blogging while my chair is lurching around all on it's own (which happens anytime you're on a sailboat in a 20-knot breeze with a following sea for about 5 hours!) When I get my land-legs back, I'll post more.

And Maura, BI could definitely have been a stop on the Underground Railroad; sea travel was a very likely alternative to rail and wagon back then, and a sympathetic captain with a small boat could easily nip down to Virginia in a few days, pick up some regular cargo (and undocumented passengers) and deliver them to Block.

The passengers could then be smuggled by more conventional means because very few slave hunters were watching ferries from Block as a route for escaped slaves. Then they would have been easily transported to upper New England and Canada.