Providence is the capital of Rhode Island, the smallest U.S. state. I drove through the state in 1986 and never even stopped. It took a mere 90 minutes to traverse the entire state -- diagonally! So coming here served three purposes. One, to actually spend some time in the state. Two, to get a photo of the state capitol (a "thing" of mine is photographing all of the U.S. state capitols). And three, more than just visiting all U.S. states, I want to have spent at least one night in all of them.

So many things are closed in New England on Mondays. Amazing. And the places that do open will open late in the morning. Fortunately, since I completed Boston a half a day ahead of the plan, that allowed me to get to some of the places in Providence. That included Brown University and its Haffenreffer History Museum in Manning Hall (no relation to the Mannings of NFL fame). After that, I got to visit Roger Williams Park and go in its history museum plus see the entire park in action with lots of people out on a cloudy yet hot Sunday. Beautiful place although a bit tricky knowing how to get around for the first-time visit since the streets never go straight for more than 100 yards. And they love the roundabout in the park (as does most of New England). A funny moment was when a flock of about thirty geese decided to walk across one of the roads. So about thirty cars all stopped to wait for them. However, half way across, they just stopped. Frozen in place, like they were confused. We waited and waited. Finally, after about a minute or more, they continued across. And then so did we.

I approached Providence from the northeast. Righlt next to the interstate there are the two large nuclear power plant towers with the steam rising out of the tops of both. Always a site to see. Downtown Providence had its busy sections for a Sunday. All of the traffic lights are designed to stop you at each one and hold you there for at least a full minute.

Of course the state capitol building was due for a photo op. I wanted to see Brown University (Ivy League school) particularly because they have a good natural history museum in Manning Hall (doubtful that the Archie-Peyton-Eli family is involved with Rhode Island). Then I wanted to be sure to see the Roger Williams Park and its numerous lakes and history museum and zoo area and of course the countless streets that zip and zag and roundabout except go straight. It was worth a visit. Sure was hot outside but it was better than the rain of yesterday in New Hampshire.

WARWICK: I stayed the night in Warwick. The town seems like an old rundown sort of place, at least the several square miles I was in near the airport. The hotel was nice, fortunately nicer than my first impression from the outside (looked old and the parking lot was a mess due to an on-going resurfacing project). One thing interesting I learned about this hotel is that it is totally staffed by "students". The students are mostly international students who run the hotel that is owned/managed by a university. The students get their degree in the various parts of running a hotel -- food and beverage, conferences, guest services, etc.