State 29 of 50  

    Rhode Is

Capital: Providence

Population: 1,050,000 (ranked 43rd of 50 states)

Area: 3,100 km² (ranked 50th of 50 states)

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Ride Report

This state: 142 kms     Journey to date: 18,006 kms

Scroll down below the route map for this state's ride report and photos

Ride Report

Rhode Island. What does that state conjure up in your mind? I came from a low base because I couldn't have told you exactly where it was in the US. It took me three quarters of an hour to cross it with a detour to it's state capital Providence. Why? If you have to ask you don't deserve to know. Do the following words mean anything to you? Roger Williams; John Brown House; tree root. I thought not. Let me explain. Roger Williams is the founder of Providence and when he died he was buried in a coffin. Eventually there was a need to shift graves and when the coffin was dug up inside they found not the bones of a man but a tree root. An apple tree had been planted above the grave and over time one of the roots entered the coffin and subsumed the remains of Williams. The root is in the shape of a human - a spine, a crook at the hips and then two offshoots where the legs were. In other words the tree root consumed Roger Williams and is known as "the tree root that ate a man". Can you see why I had to make the detour? Trouble was I arrived in Providence so late that the museum where this macabre artifact is displayed, in John Brown House, was closed. Search in Google for "Roger Williams tree root" and you'll get the full story PLUS a picture of the tree root.

This is downtown Providence as I was searching for John Brown House near the waterfront

More downtown Providence

Finally I found John Brown House

And down this path and through that gate is the tree root

Damn the gate is locked. All that way and I couldn't even see a tree root. 

So as a special treat I have downloaded the root pics for you here: