We were getting to the end of our New England road trip, arriving in Hartford, Connecticut.

We originally had one night in Hartford, but with the change in itinerary, we had two.

While driving to get breakfast, we saw the Hartford Building,  It would make sense that The Hartford company is headquartered in Hartford.  

That led me to look at what other companies have headquarters in Hartford.

There is definitely a health insurance and finance emphasis.   Pratt & Whitney, highlighted in the last blog, is in East Hartford.

On the way back to the hotel, we looked closer at a mural on the building next to our hotel.  We certainly knew Michelle Obama, Sonia Sotomayor, Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Kamala Harris.  We did not know the fourth woman.  A little research revealed she was Governor Ella Grasso, the first woman to be elected governor of Connecticut.  She served from 1970-1975.  The artist said each woman was chosen for their groundbreaking contributions to women’s rights, justice and leadership. The mural is on the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Empowerment Center, and was completed by artist Micaela Levesque, pictured below.

She has dozens of works ranging from food trucks to additional building murals.  All are very colorful and beautifully done.

It was a Sunday (October 19) and the weather was iffy. We had done a lot over the previous week, and were ready for a down day.  We read, scrolled, and watched football.

The next morning we were ready for our Hartford activity and then on to Boston for a late afternoon flight to Phoenix.

We headed to the Mark Twain House – one of the premier tourist activities in Hartford. Yet, the first house we came to was the Harriet Beecher Stowe House. 

Built in 1871 for a lawyer in Hartford’s Nook Farm neighborhood, Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, purchased the house two years later. She lived here with her husband, and twin daughters. After Stowe died in 1896, the twins sold the house.  In 1927, it came into the family again when purchased by Katherine Seymour Day.  Katherine was Stowe’s great-niece. She facilitated the house being used as a museum. The Harriet Beecher Stowe house, a national historic landmark, was restored in the 1960s and is open to the public.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to visit the Stowe House because we were in the first tour of the day at the Mark Twain House.

We didn’t know exactly where to go for our tour but enjoyed some views all around the house while searching!

We later learned “No two elevations are alike; generally symmetrical gables are, upon closer inspection, subtly different in their decorative treatments.”

“Various chimneys and towers rise spontaneously.” The outside was beautifully done.

We found the adjacent museum, and tour desk.  We didn’t have much time but we enjoyed learning what we could.

Samuel Clemens was born in 1835 in Missouri‚ the sixth of seven children. At age 4‚ they moved to Hannibal‚ Missouri‚ on the banks of the Mississippi River. Missouri, a new “slave state”  acquainted Samuel with the lives of slaves, forming opinions that influenced his later writings.

Samuel’s father died when he was 11 and he left school to work as a printer’s apprentice for a local newspaper. This was the first of many newspaper jobs he held around the country throughout his life.

In 1857‚ Samuel returned home to become a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River. The Civil War interfered and he joined a volunteer Confederate unit but quit after two weeks.

Samuel headed west in July 1861‚ in hopes of striking it rich in the silver fields of Nevada.  Failing at that, he began writing for a Virginia City‚ Nevada newspaper.  This is where he first used the name Mark Twain, In fact, mark twain is a measurement term used on the Mississippi riverboats.

Clemens continued west writing for San Francisco and Sacramento papers. The latter sent him to the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii). The popularity of his writings led to a lecture tour which honed his skills as a stage performer.   

Samuel continued travel writing in Europe and the holy land. These writings were later compiled into his first book, The Innocents Abroad.   He met his future brother-in-law on that trip, who showed him a picture of his sister, Olivia.

After courting for two years‚ Samuel and Olivia married in 1870. They settled in Buffalo‚ New York‚ where Samuel was a partner, editor and writer for a local newspaper.  Their first child‚ a son, was born but died at age two.

In 1871, the Clemens family moved to Hartford‚ Connecticut.  They later had three daughters, Susy, Clara and Jean.

In 1872, Samuel’s stories from his western adventures were published in his book Roughing It.  

In 1873 Samuel co-wrote The Gilded Age, a novel that highlighted political corruption‚ big business, and the American obsession with wealth.  

The financial success of his writing allowed the family to build a 25 room house, costing a lofty $40,000.  

The museum did not allow pictures but I found a few on their website and Connecticut tourism sites.

For 17 years (1874-1891) the family lived in their Hartford home. Samuel completed his most famous books there, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.  

He wrote against slavery in his most famous work, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  It was also the first book published by his own publishing company.  

Samuel Clemens had financial success writing but made bad investments in other ways, specifically the Paige automatic typesetting machine.  The Paige Compositor was six times faster than the most skilled human, but often broke down.  It used 18,000 movable parts.  Another machine was slower but more reliable, so captured the market.  

Clemens eventually declared bankruptcy and was forced to move to Europe and do speaking engagements to support the family and pay his debts. During their time in Europe, Susy Clemens‚ age 24‚ came back to the Hartford home for a visit and died from meningitis in 1896.  The family chose to never return after that.

In his later years‚ Samuel’s writings reflected his disillusionment with colonial powers, including the United States. He was a vocal critic of the government.  

Samuel Clemens died in 1910 at age 74. He outlived his wife and three of his four children.

We enjoyed several of the Twain quotes highlighted in the museum.

The abbreviated version of the quote above was predominate in gift shop products and we bought new luggage tags using it. The quote is our new mantra!

We would have enjoyed more time at the Mark Twain House and Museum, but we needed to get to Boston.

We had more fall foliage along the way.

We arrived at Boston’s Logan Airport at a very busy time for the car rental company.  We were told “leave the keys, you’re fine.” 

We were fine until the car did not register as being returned as we were waiting for our flight, or when we got off our flight, or even the next day.  For three days I received car overdue notices and spent time and angst trying to figure out how we were going to prove that we had returned the car.  Finally I talked to the right person, could give them the time we returned the car, and the issue was resolved.  We’ll never walk away from a rental car again without it officially being accepted or at least having pictures showing the return!

I haven’t said much lately about the Mariners contest against the Blue Jays in the American League Championship Series.  After taking the first two games from the Blue Jays in Toronto, the Mariners gave up their huge statistical advantage, losing two of three in Seattle.  They went back to Toronto needing to win one of the last two games.  After losing the first game, the series was tied three to three.   Game seven was going to happen while we on a plane between Boston and Phoenix! 

Immediately after boarding our flight to Phoenix, I paid $29 for inflight wifi so I could watch, or listen, to the game.  As it turned out, the game was on in-flight TV so I used the wifi to listen to the Mariners announcers on their radio broadcast.

At one point the in-flight TV gave out so the man in the window seat got the game for me on his computer using his T-Mobile capability.  He was a Boston Red Sox fan but got into the spirit of rooting for the Mariners to get into their first world series.

I thought it was fun that, at one time, all three of us had the game on our devices.  The Red Sox fan eventually went back to his own interests but looked over at my iPad regularly.

Alas….the Mariners, ahead for most of the game, lost. Ugh…gut punch.  Even the Red Sox fan was a little sad.  The only thing good about that was that Randy and I were able to enjoy a fun world series without stress.

When we returned home, we applied the Connecticut sticker to our states map. It was the only New England state remaining. Yes, I already have a trip reserved to pick up Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas.

This is our final post about our fall New England road trip.  At the end of our last trip, I finished with this meme on Randy – which he didn’t mind.

This time, I’m leaving this one on me.