VNHR What is this?

[GreatNortherner]

Those are indeed tobacco tents. The Connecticut valley was big on producing tobacco back in the time our route is set in.
Here's the whole story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connecticut_shade_tobacco - a brief summary is also in our manual.

Cheers
Michael

[BillS]

Daniel, sorry to be the bearer of bad news. The tobacco industry, in the Connecticut Valley, is mostly long gone. Haven't been any active tobacco farms (as far as I know) for many years. My understanding is that the tobacco that was grown there was the leaf that went around d the outside of the cigar. When i was a kid, back in the 50's-60's, my family vacationed there, along the Long Island Sound, and can remember the fields of tobacco and the unique drying barns that they had. There are still remnants, of some of the drying barns. The fields of tobacco were covered with a linen-type material to reduce sunlight. It was really interesting. There was a corny movie made, not sure when, about love and romance along the Connecticut River Valley, with the emphasis on the Tobacco Industry. It starred Tab Hunter as the son of a rich Tobacco Farm Owner, who used to wander down to Old Saybrook, Connecticut, and chase the girls at the Terra Mar Resort (Real Place, used to hang out there and had a thing for a gal that worked in the coffee shop). Also, found memories of the heavy New Haven RR traffic on the coastline. At the time, it was a major route between New York City, New Haven, Providence, R.I. and Boston, Massachusetts.