Wanderlust Part 2 "The trip"

If you have read part one, you can see that from as long as I can remember I have wanted to see it all.  I don't know where it came from. Mom had no interest in geography or history. By the time I was 10 I knew more about both of those subjects than my dad. I bring up geography and history only because they are big influences on places I want to see. I feel humbled going to a Civil War battlefield. I remember thinking that if I don't see the Rockies before I die, no matter what else I do, my life would be incomplete. We went on vacation once a year to a cabin in Maine for two weeks. It was awesome, but nothing different than millions of other families. Needless to say I am a big believer in  nature in the argument Nature vs. Nurture. I firmly believe I was born not to sit still.

As we left the end of Part ,1, I was reading books about hiking, fishing, and driving the American west. Fast forward to the summer of 2010. My job had been " downsized". Also I had a little money in the bank. I decided that DJ and I would take a summer long vacation out west. For years I had been planning this trip. I never knew when. So when I finally decided to take it, planning was fairly easy.  I already knew the places I most wanted to go. My number one destination my entire life has been Yellowstone. The trip was going to revolve around Yellowstone. I had one of my famous lists, with the ten places I most want to visit. I figured a route that included six of them. You just can't combine a trip with the Grand Canyon and the Virgin Islands.  I had to figure out where we would be almost every day of the trip. I am a believer in having a plan for vacation., but also to know in advance things will change. Sometimes you have to fly by the seat of your pants. I did have to figure out when I would be at places like the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone. There was no way I was driving 3000 miles to find out the campgrounds were full.  I had to make reservations for crowded tourist areas.  So around early April, I made reservations for Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Custer State Park in South Dakota and Zion National Park.  Once I made the reservations the die was cast. There was no turning back or backing out.

So on June 27 we set off to find America. Our first real stop was the Badlands in South Dakota. We stayed there 3 days. We then went to Mt Rushmore, Custer State Park ( wild buffalo and hundreds of pronghorn) and Wind Cave. We then stopped at Little Bighorn on our way to the Beartooth Mountains. There was snow on Beartooth Pass. We had to adjust to the altitude. DJ was light headed and dizzy for a night. I could not quench my thirst for a couple days. I was drinking a liter of water an hour and I was still thirsty. Both light headed and thirst are symptoms from high altitude.  He did a three day hike into the Beartooth Mountains. We caught a bunch of trout.  Then when we got out we were off to ...

Yellowstone! We spent 7 days in Yellowstone. I bought a guide book that detailed every road mile, trailhead, and attraction.  I am not a highlight person. I want to see everything. I would never take one of those 6 hour tours to see the highlights. I'd rather see everything in one park then the highlights of five parks. It is just my make up. I divided the park up into sections to cover each day. We stayed at two different campgrounds. One on the east side, one on the west. I saw Old Faithful go off four times in one day. The first was at 6:30 am, no one else around but DJ and I. The boardwalk had frost on it, this was July 15. We saw buffalo, grizzlies, black bears, eagles, elk and everything else you can imagine.

We left Yellowstone to find Grand Teton has the most spectacular scenery I have ever seen. Also the park has as much wildlife as Yellowstone. It is an amazing place. After we left the Tetons, we planned a trip into the Wind River mountain range. This is where being able to change plans mattered. The mosquitoes were so thick bug spray did not help. While hiking DJ started counting how many he killed to pass the time. He was over 100 in five minutes before I told him to keep it to himself.  We spent one night in the mountains, so we had to plan four days.

After coming out of the Wind Rivers, we found a gorgeous campsite in the prairie. Then the following day we drove to Seedskadee NWR. There were trout in the river. Lots of wildlife and more free camping. We headed to Flaming Gorge and took a tour of the dam.  After that my car had trouble. Luckily there was a Hyundai dealership 30 miles outside Provo,UT. We were stuck there two day. When my car was fixed we went to Cedar Breaks National Monument. Of all the unexpected surprises on the trip this was far and away the best. There was an indescribable red rock canyon, 700 year old bristlecone pine trees and loads of mule deer. It was also at 10000 feet so sleeping was comfortable. The next night we slept in the desert on the Arizona/Utah line. It was a big change. It was still over 90 degrees at 11 pm. We did see the Milky Way since the sky was clear and dark.

After our night in the desert we picked up my friend Laurie in Vegas. I hate cities so spent about 20 minutes there. I never saw the strip. I got in and got out. We drove to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. It was all they say. We stayed at the Grand Canyon two nights. We then went to Zion National Park. We hiked through the Virgin River through a canyon with walls 2000 feet high and sometimes only 6 feet apart.  It was one of the best hikes ever. From Zion we drove most of the night to get to Arches National Park. Arches is a fairly small park. You can see most of the unusual features in a two day period. Unfortunately for us, we only had one day there. The good thing is I think we saw about 85% of everything. I can live with that percentage.

From Arches we drove to Rocky Mountain National Park. Rocky Mountain was awesome. We saw huge bull elk, moose and pikas. We stayed four days. The goal was to get Laurie used to the high altitude the first couple days. Then go on a big hike over a mountain pass the last day. We didn't do as long a hike as we would have liked, but it was due to time restraint. After our four days in Rocky Mountain, I dropped DJ and Laurie at Denver Airport. I stayed out west a couple more days then made the drive home alone. I planned on stopping in Arkansas and Virginia but I had more car trouble and got a lonely.  So after being gone about 50 days I came home.

I never got homesick once. Every day was its own amazing experience. I only slept on a bed once. Other than that I slept on the ground every night. I never got sick of it. I never got sick of setting up the tent or taking it down. I know without a doubt, I could have stayed out there living that lifestyle, for a couple years.

Although this is fairly long post, I could have wrote just as much about each individual day. There were just so many memories that I will never forget. One day we hiked up the back side of the Grand Tetons after a two hour ride around them through Idaho.  It was an eight mile hike with 5000 feet of elevation gain. It was an overnight hike so we had all of our gear ( tent, sleeping bags, food etc...) It was the most exhausting hike I have ever done. My body hurt bad, my knees hurt and my back and shoulders killed from the backpack. Once we got over the last ridge the entire crest of the Tetons opened up right in front of us. I forgot about my knees and back. You couldn't get this view from any road.  You had to earn this one. But there it was Grand Teton so close it was like you could reach out and touch it. We had chocolate bars with us that we saved for a snack. They were warm from the sun, so we stuck them in a snow bank to cool them off. While they were cooling we stepped onto Schoolhouse Glacier. That was really cool. Then we sat down and enjoyed one of the most magnificiant views imaginable.

Every day had a story equally as amazing ( but a lot less painful). Whether it was sitting under Landscape Arch or coming across a bighorn sheep herd on the trail.  One day I was swimming in a chilly mountain lake, while I was in the water a cow moose and her calf came down for a swim also. I can't put a price on memories like that.

Wanderlust Part 1 "The Begining "

 I had planned on writing a post about my lust to wander over the winter. However, as I was planning my format I looked up the definition of wanderlust. Of course I knew what the word meant. It is one of my favorite words. I was looking up the proper definition. In my Internet search I noticed a movie coming out by the same name. So if I wait until after the movie comes out, I feel it will cheapen one of my favorite words, and I will be the copy cat. Also, this is going to a long post that deals with thoughts and memories from my past so I am going to break it up into three parts. So here I go...

If I had one word to describe myself, I would choose the word wanderlust. I absolutely love to travel. I want to see it all! When I was a five year old kid I had my baby blanket on the floor in a corner of my living room. I left the blanket on the floor most of the time. I was past sleeping with it. On my baby blanket I had a globe, a puzzle map of the United States. I also had an old geography book with lists of the longest rivers, tallest mountains, largest lakes. Even at five years old, I was reading like the worlds biggest nerd. I memorized these things as a little kid. I used to time myself on how fast I could put the state puzzle pieces in the right position ( the pieces were in the shape of the states not regular puzzle shapes). While everyone else was playing with Star Wars figurines I was reading the 50 States book made for a second grade reading level.  The point of this long stroll down memory is even as a little guy, I wanted to know about and see places I was reading about.

By eleven years old, I was planning vacations that I could never go on. Vacations that my parents wouldn't have done even if we were rich. I read an article in Field and Stream about shad fishing in the Delaware River. This was before internet and information was not at your fingertips. I wrote a letter with a bunch of questions to Pennsylvania Fish and Game. It was filled with questions with spaces in between for answers to be hand written. They were kind enough to answer all my questions. I then tried to figure out distance, gas costs and motel costs for that area. I planned the trip for the following spring. Keep in mind I'm 11 years old doing all this. My parents were not taking me on a trip to fish for shad six hours away. So besides planning my vaca for the following spring I planned on taking it again when I would be eighteen. I assumed I'd have my drivers license and be out of school. So I figured out the dates weekends would be in May 1993. Of course May 1993 came and went I did not make it to northeastern PA, but that desire to travel and see it all was there even at that age.

When I got older out of school and having a full time job, I went on vacations. They were usually places in the northeast. Just because these places were close to home and within a days a drive, does not mean they were not awesome. When I first started working for Norton Honey Dew, Laurie and I went to Gettysburg. There is no place like it. You can feel the ghosts and hear the roar of cannons echoing from 150 years ago.

When money was tight I took trips to New Hampshire. We would hike 4000 foot mountains. We always had a good time hiking and looking for moose.  One year we went to Scranton,PA to visit a friend. A couple years ago, DJ and I went to Baxter State Park in Maine. The place is absolutely loaded with wildlife and beautiful scenery.

Also I love Washington, DC. It baffles me that I love it so much. I despise cities, yet there is so much to see in DC, that I can deal with all of those people. I've been there three times. I would go back again tomorrow.

I find myself attracted to movies that involve places I want to visit. I spent an entire winter Netflixing movies from exotic locations. Classics like Mutiny on the Bounty, Key Largo and To have and have not were watched that winter. Of course I feel I am one with the charecters in 127 Hours and Into the Wild. I love movies about what the west was like such as Dances with Wolves and Jeremiah Johnson. When I watch a movie with amazing scenery or a beautiful location, It reminds me of places I want to go and also places I've been. The way a lottery ticket helps you dream, I get the same feeling watching a movie about the southwest during a January snowstorm.

All the while, during winter I would buy used books from Amazon. I would buy books about the west. I bought book about hiking in national parks. I bought books fishing in national forests. Books about state parks, scenic drives and streams to paddle all grace my bookshelves. I bought mapbooks of Montana, California, Colorado and a couple other states. There is a book series of watchable wildlife. You can buy a book of each state. Each book shows the best places in the state to see wildlife. I bought them every time I found a cheap used one. I hardly watch any tv ( except Netflix and Thursday night comedies). I'd spend hours after work planning hiking routes through mountain passes. I'd figure out what mountain lakes I want to fish in Wyoming and Montana. I didn't know when I would get to see Yellowstone or the southwest but I always knew I would. There was no " if " only when... "

A bad two days of fishing

In the spirit of sharing the good with the bad here is my story of my two days off this week. Most weeks unless anything unusual happens (like T.S. Irene) Friday and Saturdays are my days off. Last week some great fishing was taking place along the Rhode Island shore. I had to wait until Friday to experience it. The phrase " a dollar short and a day late" completely explains my weekend.

On Friday I went down with my buddy Jeff Henderson. We left home while it was still dark. We went to the West Wall in hopes of starting our day with false albacore. For those that don't know, these fish are small tuna. They come inshore to feed on small fish. They are very fast and very picky. Also, hooking one does not guarantee landing one. Neither of us had ever seen one, so the thought of catching one of these speedsters was worth loosing some sleep.

We fished hard at the wall for over 3 hours. We saw one hooked and lost. No others were hooked as best we could tell. I caught a small keeper striper but let it go. That was the only other fish we even saw hooked.

After we gave up on the West Wall, we headed for Narragansett looking for bait and stripers. To our disappointment, we found neither. For the next 4 hours we hit many spots, but all we could manage was one small schoolie each. We left about 2:30 disappointed but not defeated.

The next morning after dropping DJ off at cross country practice, I called Jeff and woke him up. I asked him if he wanted to give the ocean another shot. He had family commitments so he couldn't go.  Jeff definitely had the better day. I fished from 9:30 am until after dark. I caught one small bluefish. Ouch... I know right. I hit multiple spots and some of the better producers more than once. What a waste of gas!

The only saving grace was I talked to my friend Dave and he said his son spent all day Friday fishing and had similar luck. So at least I knew that the fish had moved on and I didn't suck at fishing! Here's hoping it gets better!!!!

200th Trout!!

200th trout was a 10 inch brookie in New Hampshire

While up in New Hampshire I caught my 200th trout of the year. Considering how great fishing was it wasn't much of a challenge to go from 150 to 200. As usual my computer is giving me trouble, so writing has been on hold.

Here are the stats:
Rainbows                            108                             
Browns                                        3
Brookies                                       1
Tigers                                           4
New Hampshire Brookies          84

Caught from 13 different places

5 MA/RI Lakes
6 New Hampshire Lakes
2 New Hampshire Rivers

How caught:
Fly Rod                     77
Casting Bubble/Fly   21
Spoon                         36 ( 20 in one hour)
Roostertail                 15
Worms                       13
Shiner                           1                   
Powerbait                  37

Caught the most out of Falls Pond 44. It has been a fun year. When I can download pictures off my camera to my computer I will put some online.

How do I get talked into fishing this lake over and over and over!!

I originally wrote this post 3 weeks ago but just got this picture from Jeff today. So I am updating the date so you guys can see it

Last night I got talked into going carp fishing at my least favorite place. I admit, it didn't take much convincing so only I am to blame. My buddy Jeff had baited up an area of Hopping Hill for a few days. He told me he was fishing there Thursday. Stupid me decided to join him ( I told ya it didn't take much convincing). Jeff got one carp while I caught a beautiful trophy size goose egg. The only saving grace was the pictures of Jeff's carp came out awesome. When I get them I will put them on this post so check back within a day or two.

The Call of the Wild

I went up to New Hampshire the last couple of days. I went alone. I can't say I NEEDED some alone time. However, with fall coming I didn't know how many opportunities I'd have. Also the weather on Thursday was supposed to be miserable. I didn't want to put anyone else in a position to have to deal with fishing in miserable weather. Conversely, if I wanted to warm up and dry off, I didn't want to have to man up and continue fishing. Also I knew the nights would be freezing cold and didn't want to make anyone else suffer through it also. So I went alone, like a lone wolf in the northland.

When I left home on Thursday, it was sporadically raining. There were intervals on sunlight and I hoped I might luck out when I got up north. No such luck. When I got to Franconia Notch, it was raining and there was a blistery north wind making the rain come in sideways. There was no way I was putting the kayak in Profile Lake. There was also no way I'd be able to fly fish. So at 5:15 I started fishing Echo Lake. I used my spinning rod. With the wind in my face my only option was a spoon. I got a hit my first cast. Then my second, I landed a trout. In the next hour I caught 20 trout. It was non stop. I never had such amazing trout fishing. Unfortunately, I was paying the price for my success. The 25 mph wind was blowing a cold stinging rain in my face. I fished until 6:15. As soon as I stepped out of the water it stopped raining. I didn't turn back around.

I figured the smart thing to do was set up my tent while it was not raining. Besides my hands were freezing. After I set up camp it was already getting dark. It was only 7 pm. Luckily for me, I had Jack London with me to pass the time. I wanted to find out what happened to his wolf/dog White Fang. After a while my eyes got tired and I went to sleep. It was a cold, wet night and I woke up a bunch of times.

Friday morning wasn't much better. I was hoping for a clear sky. Nope... Still windy and rainy. My plan for the day was to fish. I was going to hit a bunch of spots and fish them until they stopped biting, and go somewhere else. I first went up Route 302 but it was closed before I could get to the Saco River. So I fished Saco Lake for a few minutes. It didn't take long for my hands to hurt from cold. I went back down to Franconia Notch. I picked up a couple more in Echo Lake. Profile was still to windy to kayak. The good news was at this point the sky started to clear. Throughout the day I fished five ponds and 2 rivers. To keep it somewhat short I will spare you all the details. I ended up catching 19 trout for the day. I caught 4 on the fly rod, the rest on spoons and spinners. I got two that went over 16 inches. Many were absolutely gorgeous in there spawning colors.

I did notice when the sky cleared that Mt Lafayette was snow covered. I told you it was cold. I took some pictures. I fished until dark then sat back down with Jack London as he continued his story about White Fang.

When I got up Saturday morning the sky was clear and the wind calmed down. I considered calling my friend Clay to see if he wanted to go fishing., but it was early and it would have been short notice. Also with Route 302 closed getting together may have proven difficult This was my day to come home. Although I had to be home at the end of it, I still planned on enjoying New Hampshire for a few more hours. I packed my tent and headed south. I fished Echo and Profile, both without any luck.  Then I went to Russell Pond and caught 2 trout. I thanked them and left.

I hoped to hit the Merrimack River on my way home in Manchester. I wanted to catch a red breasted sunfish. Also it would break my three hour ride in half. Fishing a few minutes on the river would be a nice break. I found one of the fishing spots Dave from Catch-them-all told me about. Unfortunately no fish were to be had. The place looked kind of lifeless. Maybe the hurricane washed the fish away. I couldn't get a hit using worms. So after 45 futile minutes I gave up and headed home. One cool thing about the spot was it was near Manchester Airport. I had Southwest jets flying only a couple hundred feet over my head. It was a bit intimidating but AWESOME!!!

Over my time in New Hampshire I ended up catching 41 trout. Idid not see any cool wildlife except for one toad in my camp. He posed for pictures while I was two feet away. The weather wasn't great but the fishing was. I can't tell you enough how much I love New Hampshire

The lake that wasn't ( at least for me)

 All summer I have been trying to get up to Shoal Pond to fish for wild brook trout. Both Shoal and Ethan Pond ( a two mile hike away) are managed as wild trout fisheries. They are in the Pemi Wilderness in the White Mountains. The trout are completely wild they are not stocked as either adults or fingerlings. All year I have wanted to fish in Shoal Pond. I wanted to fish Shoal more than Ethan because it is less crowded. Ethan has an AMC tentsite on the lake. Shoal is completely wild. Fishing these two little ponds has been at the top of my " TO DO " list for over a year

Unfortunately timing and conditions made it impossible to fullfill my dream of fishing for wild trout in the Pemi Wilderness. One time we planned on a three day in New Hampshire, everything was packed but we couldn't go due to circumstances that came up last minute.

Last time we went up in late August, fishing Shoal was our main goal. However on the way up Interstate 93, DJ got a fever. We kept it under control on our trip, but we decided not to venture far from the car. So going to Shoal and Ethan were out of the question.

Now even if I get another chance to go to New Hampshire this year, I can't fish the pond anyway. The season closes on wild trout ponds on Labor Day.  The season closes to protect the little wild trout while they are in spawning mode.

So I will have to wait until next year. Do these ponds really exist? For me they are more like a mirage. It seems like every time I think I'm going to get to them, something comes up.

Lets hope next year, I get my chance

150th Trout of the Year!!

I caught my 150th trout of the year while I was in New Hampshire at the end of August. I didn't realize it until today while I was adding up some other fish I caught. After catching the 6 yesterday I am up to 157. For my own enjoyment I'm going to allow myself to believe my 150th was the beauty I caught in the river. It may have been, if not it was definaetely between 148-151. So close enough

Here are some breakdowns like I did for numbers 50 and 100.

( Totals add up to 157 )

Rainbows                              106
Browns                                  3
Brookies                                1
Tigers                                     4

New Hampshire Brookies      43

Caught from 13 different places

5 MA/RI lakes
6 New Hampshire Lakes

2 New Hampshire Rivers

How caught

Roostertail                10

Powerbait                37

Spoon                       4

Casting Bubble/Fly    21

Fly Fishing                 69

Unknown                     2
Worms                       13
Shiner                           1

Caught the most out of Falls Pond  44

If there is anything to read into the numbers it is this. I definitely started using my fly rod more and left my spinning rod in the car the last 75 fish or so. Also in MA, I tend to fish within 15 minutes of home. While up in New Hampshire I do a lot more driving. I am also willing to try different lakes not just to fish but for the scenery.  Here's hoping for 200!!

Go Figure!!

If you are a fan of baseball and watch enough games I am sure you have had the following thought. When your team ( the Red Sox) looses Monday 1-0 then the next night score 14 runs. It would have been nice to have some of those runs Monday. Why can't they spread it out. It would be nice to score 5 runs every night instead of having horrible games and great games.

That is EXACTLY how my last two days have gone for me. If you read the post below, you will see I did terrible fishing Wachusetts Reservoir yesterday. Fishing for over 5 1/2 hours and only catching one small bass.

When I left "the Chu" I still had three shiners left. I wasn't sure if I'd use them but, since I also had today off from work, I'd try. So I went to a pond in North Attleboro just to catch a pickerel or bass. I did not expect to stay long. I figured either I'd catch a fish or two, or let the shiners go. As I walked to the fishing spot, I saw what looked to be trout in the water. I wasn't positive, they were long and lean, from above, they could have been a pickerel since they had a greenish back. I could see they did not have the black line of a bass.

So I casted into what can only be called a tiny cove ( if it were a river it would be a small pool). I had on one of the shiners. I saw a couple fish toy with it. I made a couple more casts. Finally on the 3rd or 4th, I caught a rainbow trout. I was pretty shocked. Considering I couldn't catch anything yesterday in a coldwater lake, I caught a trout in a place I didn't think they'd hold over. It was very skinny, but it  made it through the summer.

I put the spinning rod away. I got my fly rod out of the car. I realized I only had the fly tied onto the leader. I left all my other flies at the house. I sure as hell didn't expect to do any trout fishing today. So I made a couple casts with my size 14 flashback pheasant tail. I hooked another trout, then another. All told I ended up catching six total trout ( one on the shiner, five on the fly rod) and hooked another that came off. This all happened in a period of forty-five minutes. I also caught a bunch of sunfish on the fly, probably over 20.

I also caught what is possibly my smallest fish ever on a hook. Keep in mind, I have specificlly fished for shiners and minnows before in ponds and rivers. They still measure up more than this adorable little bass. Tell me that isn't cute!

Wachusett Blues

So for the last week I had been planning to spend today and Wednesday in New Hampshire. I worked every day last week because of T.S. Irene and even got overtime on Sunday. So having my first days off in a while, I was going to go to New Hampshire. Unfortunately, Mother Nature thought she'd throw me a curve ball and rain for three straight days. I am not afraid to fish in the rain. I do it all the time. However the thought of fishing in the rain, setting the tent up in the rain, eating lunch in the rain, getting out of my tent in the middle of the night to pee in the rain, and taking down the tent in the rain did not appeal to me. So I thought better of it and decided to stay home.

I only decided to stay home at 6:15 this morning. Everything was in the car, it was gassed up and I was ready to go. I had made plans to fish with Clay while up there. I knew the ponds I was going to fish. It was all planned out. When I got up I checked the weather one last time and it was discouraging to say the least. From 7:00 am until Wed night it was supposed to rain all daylight hours except possibly a couple hours before dark today. Not exactly comfortable.

So after I decided not to go I went back to bed but couldn't sleep. I was back up playing on the computer by 7:30. I was pissed I was going to waste my day off watching tv. At first I thought about writing about 10 blog posts. At least I would have done something useful. That idea, although productive was not what I had in mind when I found out what days I'd have off this week. So after a couple hours of sulking and checking the weather channel every hour I finally figured out what to do with my day.

... I went up to Wachusetts Reservoir. I left the house about noon after packing all necessary gear. I assumed since the rain was cold and the air temp only about sixty, the fish might be active. I was hoping to catch some smallmouth and or rock bass. Both species like cool water, so I thought this weather would activate them and get them out of there summer doldrums.

WRONG!!!

Although I fished for five and a half hours ( that is 330 looooooong minutes!) Although I bought worms and shiners at the bait store. Although I tried every lure in my box. Although I tried many locations on the lake. Although the weather was rainy and drizzly my entire trip.... I only caught one very small smallmouth.  It was maybe eight inches.
Yes it rained more than it didn't. My feet and shorts were soaked. I was all clammy from my raincoat ( when I wore it) . The fish just did not cooperate today. The water did feel very warm. So I guess the smallmouth probably will stay deep for another couple of weeks until the water cools into the 60's.

 Like I said before, this is a huge lake with miles of shoreline. I would like to learn its secrets. Ive read all I can about it. Now its just a matter of putting in the time to learn the lake. The problem is its an hour away so finding the time and gas to get there is tricky. I think I'll give it another shot towards the end of the month or early October. I need to get even.

Crescent Park Carousel

Saturday I went to Crescent Park Carousel with my posse( DJ, Laurie, and Amber). We went after I got out of work. I was supposed to go fishing with a friend of mine. However, plans changed when Amber slept over.

The Carousel is all that is left from an amusement park from a by-gone era in East Providence. The city refurbished the building and it is open a few days a week during the summer and fall weekends until Columbus Day. Check the website at the bottom of the page for details.  The merry-go-round is very fast. It is definitely adult friendly. As many adults ride the horses as kids. The outer horses go the fastest. Also to keep you occupied there are rings you try to snatch on the way by a mechanical arm. If you get a ring you throw it a clown's mouth ( painted canvas). This is good fun. There is one golden ring per ride. If you get the golden ring, you win a free ride. Also it should be noted it is first come first serve. If you are on a horse and have tickets for 5 rides, you do not need to get off in between rides. Everyone tries to get an outside horse so they can get rings. Mostly though  even on a weekend night you might only need to wait a ride for an outside horse to open up.

We bought 20 rides for $15. Laurie wasn't sure about her belly so she chose not to go on. I went on 4 times. I split the other 16 rides between Amber and DJ. They got to go on 8 times each. However, little lucky Amber grabbed the gold ring and got a free ride. All and all it was a lot of fun. I always try to get to the Carousel twice a year. This may be the first year we actually did. If your in the area give it a try. The kids will love it and you might too. Just check the days they are open before you go!!
www.eastprovidence.com/content/668/830/834/default.aspx