The cottages look just like in pictures or
the movies except a lot of them are close together. The one’s with lots of space are pretty fancy
in an understated New England type of way.
It is easy to imagine what it was like many years ago before they paved the
roads and it became so developed. I am staying
at a perfect small hotel midway up on the Cape at Dennisport. There is a bike
trail built on an old rail line that goes through the middle of the peninsula
from this area to the tip at P Town. The
trouble is that to get to the trail you have to ride on narrow roads. Their idea of a bike route is to mark a white
line about 8 inches from the edge of the road, no shoulders. However once I got there the trail you could
just fly along in the woods.
The Rail Trail
The vines on the trees are colourful but a menace
Afterwards I drove to Chatham, walked the beaches and the dunes with hardly anyone around. Who knew that the Pilgrims were headed for the mouth of the Hudson river (where New York now is) before almost getting ship wrecked in a storm off the coast of Chatham. They turned around and took shelter in what would become P Town for a few months before sailing across the bay and settling in Plymouth. That’s the history lesson for the day.
It's all about the grass to keep the system stable
Unless it's about the fish
Or the eccentrics
Or the lighthouses
From my hotel at sunset
Cape Cod Day 2
This morning I was glad to be indoors. A big thunderstorm came through lasting about two hours. The thunder was really loud, high winds and rain came down in sheets. It was good to watch from the safety of my room and gave me time to write and add pictures for this. The storm was over by noon and the sun came out as if nothing had happened.
I had planned to work my way up to P Town stopping in at several places along the Cape Cod National Sea Shore. The storm set me back and I had a big lesson in pacing myself for the time I have. I started out well when I found the Salt Pond Visitors Centre and got orientated by the park ranges. There was a beautiful bike trail that skirted the pond, went through forests, salt marshes and ended at the beach next to an old coast guard house. The beach was great, hardly anyone around. I met a group of mother/daughters who asked me to take their picture. They were asking questions about the park and I said, didn't know, wasn't from around here. They asked where I was from, I said Canada and they went on and on about how nice I was and how everyone in Canada was so nice. I guess they hadn't heard of Stephen Harper.
By the time I got back to the van I was behind time and decided to go straight up to P Town. Big mistake, it wouldn't be a long way on the prairies but here with narrow roads, lots of development, construction and Friday afternoon traffic it was so slow I finally gave up, turned around and started back. I stopped at the the Nickerson State Park, found it would have been a great place to camp but too little too late. It did get me off the main road and I dipsy doodled my way back to Chatham to watch the fishing boats come in and sell their fish to commercial buyers. There was a fish market that regular people came to buy for their dinner. I picked up chowder and a lobster roll, which was out of season and consequently incredibly expensive.
By the time I got home I felt like I had spent way too much time driving. would have done better just exploring the part of the park closer to home. Live and learn.
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