Little Rest Hill – A Traveler's Blog

WHY "LITTLE REST HILL?"

Until 1826, Little Rest was the name of the tiny place known today as Kingston, somewhere on the southern half of the state of Rhode Island. And the hill on which the place was located was, rather reasonably, the Little Rest Hill (today’s Kingston Hill).

Not much is known about the origins of the Little Rest name. According to one of the theories—my favorite—in the colonial era, the settlement was home to a few inns and taverns, providing travelers to and from Providence and Newport with a place to have a “little rest.”

I first fell in love with the area on a brief visit to the University of Rhode Island (URI) in early January 1980. At the time, I was in the middle of my Freshman year at Southeastern Louisiana University (SLU), in Hammond, LA, looking desperately for a university where I could continue to sail competitively, that offered what I wanted to study, and that my parents could afford. So, on my first Christmas break at SLU, I hopped into a Greyhound bus heading to Miami, picked my sister Rita up at the airport (she lived in Venezuela at the time), and now with her, I continued north by bus to visit a few universities in Southern New England.

Rita and I landed at URI somewhat serendipitously, but we just loved the place. We went straight to the Office of International Student Affairs, where Ann West, then responsible for undergraduate matters there, told me that it was absolutely impossible for me to be admitted in time to start school on the Spring Semester of that academic year—i.e., a few weeks hence. My sister and I spent a few hours wandering around the campus, and then it was back to the Greyhound bus and back to Hammond, to finish my Freshman year at SLU.

In August 1980, I was back in Kingston, now as a duly-registered “Rising” Sophomore at URI. I hung around the area for five years, first as an undergraduate student, and later as a graduate one. And then, in October 1985, I left Kingston “for good.” Those five years in Kingston were formative years in my life. I had fun, made some lifelong friendships, did silly things, et cetera. The normal stuff! In the process, I managed to earn both BS and MS degrees in Engineering from the University.

As it turns out, when I left Kingston in 1985, it wasn’t really “for good” at all. In the mid-2010s, my daughter started as a Freshman at URI. Somewhat predictably, my wife and I ended up visiting the area a few times during the following four years. And then a friend from our days as grad students at URI moved back to Kingston. Again, I often came back to Rhode Island to visit him and his wonderful wife. Lastly, and as a direct result of one of these visits, my wife and I recently bought a house two miles down the road from URI!

So, here I am today, living again in one of my favorite places on this little planet of ours. So much so that I decided to name this blog about my travels around the world in its “honor.” My goal is to make these pages interesting, amusing, and educative—pretty much like the years on my first go-round through this area were for me! I hope you will find them so.

About Me

I like to describe myself as “a world traveler with a deep love for photography and writing.” Born in Portugal, I grew up in Mozambique, where I lived until 1974. In 1979, I moved to the US where I completed my college education (BS and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering from URI and an MBA degree from Georgetown). In 2000, after a career in the energy business, I decided that I would spend the rest of my life doing what I love to do: traveling, and preferably by “alternative modes of transport.”

Some of the projects that I have undertaken since then include:

Crossing from Brazil to the US on a 35-foot (11 m) sailboat (2000);
Campaigning a 40 ft (12 m) sailboat in Southern Europe’s racing circuit (2000-2002);
Crossing the Atlantic from Portugal to the US on a 39 ft (12 m) sailboat (2002-2003);
Driving app 17,000 miles (30,000 km) on a 4WD through Sahelian Africa (2005-2008);
Traveling extensively by car and motorcycle around Europe & Africa (2007-2013);
Going around the World mostly on “alternative modes of transport” (Pacific crossing on a container vessel, and US, Asia, and Europe crossings by train) (2009);
Driving a motorcycle from Paris to Guinea-Bissau in West Africa (2010);
Driving a motorcycle through the Americas, from Washington, DC to Alaska and the West Coast; and then through South America to Tierra del Fuego (2014-2015);

Travelling far and wide has given me the opportunity to practice my love for photography. Not too long ago, some of my travel-related work was the subject of an exhibition at the Institut Français du Bénin in Cotonou. Titled Ils Est Temps de Décider, the exhibition ran from Jan to Feb 2018. Prior to that, some of my work on Portugal was exhibited at the Embassy of Portugal in Washington, DC. This exhibition, titled Looking for Portugal, ran from May 2014 to May 2015. My photos have also been used to illustrate articles in a variety of media outlets, from BBC News On-line to Correio da Manhã (highest circulation print newspaper in Portugal).

As far as writing, in 2018 I published Benin: Land of Magic, a book which I describe as a brief introduction to Benin—the country, its peoples, and their culture—in 13 illustrated short essays. Prior to that, in 2011, I published Slow Roads! Beautiful Drives through Portugal for Cars & Motorcycles, a practical touring guide for Portugal’s scenic back roads geared towards the independent traveler. I am also a regular contributor to a few travel-related magazines.