About

I’ll try to keep this long…

My name is Dante A. Pace, a young adult living in Shelton, CT. I grew up in Hartford, CT, then lived in Worcester, MA while going to Worcester Polytechnic Institute. After graduation, I moved back to Hartford for a few years. Once I had saved up just enough money, I found an extremely affordable apartment in Shelton, which helped cut my one hour commute down to about 15 minutes.

Why?

While living in Worcester, I developed a fondness for the city. During my IQP, my teammates and I drove around the city on many occasions, including a historic bar in Kelley Square, an office building where the first floor is used for a radio broadcast, an office of the Worcester Water and Sewer Operations, and even one of the several breakfast trolleys dispersed throughout the city. Right before graduation, the graduating Electrical Engineering class attended a dinner at a highly rated local restaurant. Those last two years at WPI I learned more about what Worcester had to offer than I really knew about my hometown.

When I returned to Hartford after graduation, I spent most of my free time just trying to secure work. I didn’t really have a lot of motivation to go outside and explore my city in the same way as I did in Worcester. I did, however, save up enough funds to get me a Canon EOS 77D. Paired with my old 28-90mm lens I got early in high school, I decided to take a bunch of pictures of our backyard, the garage, the back of the house, and whatever else decided to walk around. Once late spring had come back around, I took to Elizabeth Park to capture as many shots of the Rose Garden and all the other flowers, and even some small critters!

A few years later, I found an affordable apartment in Shelton, CT that was much, much closer to work. My car definitely deserved this after two years driving 100 miles a day. Once here, I wanted to immerse myself into what Shelton had to offer. Unfortunately, winter was only a few months away and some changes at work caused me to work some extra hours. Shelton still has some nice views during the colder months, and all the trails and walking paths nearby are open year round.

When the weather got warmer, I decided to experience more of what the local area had to offer. As I traveled around the local area, I started to gain an appreciation for Connecticut and all the things it had to offer. All the state forests, the mountain trails, the local farms and farmers’ markets, Quassy and Lake Compounce, the Wadsworth Atheneum, the unique atmosphere of a university like Yale within the city of New Haven, the towns around Mansfield who’s economies strongly rely on UConn and it’s students, and just being able to go around to the local package store in Shelton to pick up some chips and ice cream on a hot summer afternoon.

Outside of Connecticut

When I traveled with some friends to see the 2017 solar eclipse down in Columbia, SC, I was lucky enough to be the passenger for much of the journey. I looked out the window at all the farmlands and mountain-side views, and I came to appreciate all the times I was able to see similar views back in Connecticut. I remembered the time I walked up Talcott mountain, just to sit in an opening with friends and take in the view. The hike up Sleeping Giant in Hamden, the hike up Bear Mountain with some coworkers, eating ice cream at the Dairy Bar at UConn and walking through the nearby fields, the walks on the boardwalk in West Haven; all of these memories reminding me of all the beauty and adventure that Connecticut has to offer.

But…

I also realized that I don’t know jack about the eastern half of the state. Or the western half. Or much of anything outside of the towns that I really paid attention to beforehand. New Haven? I only know about that because it’s one of our five big cities. Middletown? I visited Lyman Orchard once. Mansfield? I didn’t even go to UConn! I barely knew about all the things downtown Hartford had to offer, and I grew up there!

Down here in Shelton, I started seeing things differently. I walk the Shelton Lakes Rec Path every month. I take a bike ride on the Derby Greenway when the weather is right. I buy berries from Jones Family farm once a year to bake pies. I go to Beardsley’s Cider Mill and Orchard to get as many apples and apple products I can carry to my car. Wells Hollow Creamery satisfies my craving for locally made ice cream.

As the year 2020 rolled in, I found myself inside more often, as did many others due to “current world events.” While here, I thought about how nice it will be to go see all these places once they open back up. Then I thought, I wonder what all the other towns are doing. I started passing time by driving around nearby state highways, looking at all the houses, farms, and any other roadside attractions that caught my eye. While on CT-17, the idea came to my head.

Why don’t I just visit every town and see what’s up?

The Plan

If the home page didn’t tip you off, don’t worry about it. I barely understood how to make it.

It’s easy to find something unique in every town, even if there are some similarities. The trick was to find something that every town has in common that isn’t something as simple as a town hall or a post office. It’s also a lot harder to make a plan that involves going to every town in Connecticut while keeping the driving aspect fresh.

So I decided that I’ll go alphabetically, and reference a map only at the start of the drive.

For each city/town, I’m going to attempt to do the following:

List some basic city/town statistics from Wikipedia
Document my attempt to get there without using a GPS or map.
Take a picture of the town hall
Find a brewery, farm or farmers’ market, and/or a dairy bar or ice cream parlor.
Visit some places of interest
Give my opinion

Why those things for Number 3?

I like to drink. Hopefully I’ll be able to rope a buddy in to going to a few of these with me.

I recently resumed my hobby of baking pies, something I picked up at WPI, and, with my love for blueberries, started practicing baking blueberry pies. After a few test trials, I went to Jones Family Farm and picked myself a quart of blueberries and made a blueberry pie and two pints of blueberry jam. You can’t beat farm fresh.

Same goes for ice cream. If I can get locally made ice cream, or even ice cream from a local dairy bar or ice cream parlor, I could say I had a good day.