As we left Vermont and continued our loop around the New England area, we found ourselves in the town of Southwick Massachusetts, the little notch on the map that juts into Connecticut.
For those of you who are as curious about geographical boundaries like I am, this little notch, or “Southwick Jog” as it is sometimes called may have occurred due to a mistake made by the original surveyors. Ever since this mishap took place centuries ago, there has been a tug of war between Connecticut and Massachusetts on which state has the official rights to the land, but the area still remains part of Massachusetts today. Whenever I see odd borderlines like this one, I’m always intrigued as to how it got that way and there are countless articles online about the Southwick Jog if you are interested in learning more on this topic.
We stayed at Southwick Acres Campground which is comprised mostly of permanent residents but there are a few sites for transient travelers to unhook and call the area home for a few days. They even have a “resident” black bear which we had the pleasure of seeing on our last morning at camp!
I’m probably going to catch some flak for this as basketball has always been my favorite sport to play since I was in 4th grade, but we never made it to the basketball hall of fame during this stop. So, best to just throw it out there now that this was a missed opportunity. The Naismith Memorial Basketball HoF is one of the main attractions in the Springfield area which is only about a 25-minute drive from camp. I’m sure it would have been better than the day trip to Hartford CT as visiting the downtown area ended up being an underwhelming experience for us, however there were a few highlights that we did enjoy though like walking through the ancient burial ground on Gold Street, taking in the view of the state house which is a bold building boasting a glimmering gold dome like many other state capitol buildings we have visited, and visiting the homes of Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe – did you know they were next door neighbors??
Here are some of the other highlights we experienced during our time in Southwick:
Kayaking on the Congamond Lakes:
- Congamond Lake, which literally means long fishing lake, runs along the east end of the Southwick Jog with the entire lake sitting in Massachusetts. The lake is broken into 3 ponds; north, middle, and south. We attempted to go to the beach at the south pond, but it was closed due to an E.coli outbreak! From there we ended up at the north end of middle pond where we were able to park then launch our kayak for an $8 fee. Once we got the kayak pumped up and in the water, we paddled around for a bit then dropped our kettlebell anchor to relax for a while. Kandace read, Sato slept, and I fished.
- Our next stop was a short paddle to a boat dock which was literally a 1-minute walk back to the truck vs. a 15-minute paddle back to where we launched. We tied up the kayak next to a tiki pontoon boat and had a cocktail while we listened to live music on the deck of Lake Life 101. Rough life……
Local markets:
- There were a couple of local markets right next to camp where we stocked up on fresh produce, free range eggs, and baked goods. It’s always great when we find farmers markets and local stores like these which allow us to buy quality goods and support small businesses rather than the big box stores.
Westfield River Brewing Company:
- Just up the road from camp sat the Westfield River Brewing Company. The first time we stopped by, the brewery was deserted which seemed odd for a Thursday. We pulled up their website to see when they might be open and saw that they had a concert event planned for the upcoming Saturday. When we arrived on Saturday night, we caught the last few songs of an Eagles tribute band then got to see “The Breakers”, a Tom Petty tribute band that was so good you wouldn’t know that they weren’t the real deal! If you ever get a chance to see these guys in concert, do it! it’s totally worth it.
- Side note on the beer in the New England area, they just aren’t as good as West Coast IPAs, even the West Coast IPAs they brew in the east just don’t taste as good. Not all of them, but most that I have tasted just don’t hold a candle to the IPAs from California and Oregon. Not sure if it’s the water or the ingredients but the East coast IPAs tend to be more bitter where the West coast IPAs have a more bold, full bodied, robust, and hoppy taste to them.
Taco Festival:
- This one was super random. On our way back from our day trip to Hartford, we accidentally stumbled upon a taco festival. I think I was looking for things to do in the area or something like that and saw that there was a Taco Festival in Granby CT which was happening at Salmon Brook Park and was on our way back to camp. We both LOVE tacos, so we decided to stop by. As we crept along the busy street, there were cars parked along the road, police officers directing traffic and a long line of cars waiting to enter the parking lot in hopes to find a spot closer to the festivities. If we didn’t love tacos as much as we do, we would have been blown away by the amount of fuss that was happening all in the name of tacos! There was music playing and hundreds of people milling around. We even saw a couple dressed as tacos, so we knew this had to be good! We were excited about trying some tacos, but our stay there ended up being short lived. As we approached the festival gates, we saw about 10 different taco trucks with lines of about 40 to 50 people deep at each one. With waits that long, we decided it wasn’t worth spending hours in lines for a few tacos, so we went home and made some of our own for dinner. Homemade fish tacos for the win.
Cheers,
-Tiny Trailer Trips Crew