While staying in Boston, I wanted to do a day trip over to the US Submarine Force Museum, in nearby Groton CT. It turned out to be a bit of an adventure.
The drive to Groton was wonderfully scenic, passing through the lovely green hills of Vermont and Connecticut. It was a nice summer day. In fall when the leaves turn colors, tourists come here from all over the Northeast to take a drive in the woods and admire the scenery.
For those who don't know, I live in a converted campervan and am traveling around the country, posting photo diaries of places that I have visited.
As I approached the Museum, just outside of Groton, my GPS told me to “turn right”. But hang on—there are two driveways here, and it’s unclear which one I am supposed to be on. So I pick one and turn. Oops. Ahead of me I see a gatehouse with armed troops milling around. Above that is a sign saying “US Navy New London Submarine Base”. One of the most top-secret places in the country.
A quick glance tells me there’s no place to turn around. So I stop and put the van into reverse, and carefully start to back up to where I had turned in.
Bad move. That action instantly attracted the attention of the gate guards, several of whom now ran at me yelling and waving their M4 rifles. I immediately put the van into “park” and poked my head (and hands) out the window, yelling “Sorry, I’m just a lost tourist!” When the security guard reached me, I explained that I was looking for the sub museum and I musta took a wrong turn. And please don’t shoot me.
As it turned out, I am apparently not the only tourist who gets confused by the side-by-side entranceways (one of which leads to the museum, the other of which leads onto the base), and they get a couple people every day who wander onto the wrong road. So the base has a routine protocol for dealing with it. First, the guard pointed me to a parking area a little ways past the security gate, where he wanted me to pull in. Then someone went all around the van with a mirror, looking for explosives, while two more security guards took my ID and went to check it out.
When they returned a few minutes later, one of them asked me where “Pen Argyl” was (the address listed on my drivers license). When I told him it was about 90 minutes north of Philadelphia, he told me he had lived in Scranton for a while—so I told him that was about an hour north of Pen Argyl, and we were practically neighbors.
As we were chatting, another of the guards had walked a short distance ahead and opened a gate through the security fence. It had been put there specifically for people like me who mistakenly turned into the base. I was told to go out that gate, travel a little ways up the road, and take the first turn. That would take me to the museum. If I missed the turn, I was warned, the road would loop around and take me back here to the entrance gate—and we’d get to do this routine all over again. Thankfully, I did not miss the turn, and arrived at the museum a few minutes later.
The Submarine Force Museum originally began life as a collection of subs held by General Dynamics, whose Electric Boat Division manufactures most of the Navy’s submarines. In 1964 the collection was donated to the Navy, and it went on public exhibit.
Some photos from a day at the Museum.