It’s soooo easy to stay at Tony and Joyces’ forever, because it is so comfortable and they are so welcoming, but I finally tore myself away to visit that most iconic of Massachusetts destinations, Cape Cod. It was a really pretty day, made moreso since a pretty big storm is forecast for tomorrow.
I took the side roads out of Fall River, which was dumb. I blew two hours sitting at stop lights, wondering why Massachusetts can’t mark a road like other states, when I coulda been on the Cape (sitting at stop signs in little Cape towns as it turns out). The state forest that was supposed to be open for winter camping was not, but the very deluxe Nickerson State Park which was supposed to be closed was in fact open, so woo hoo.
I ate clam strips in Sandwich, and drove all the way to the tip of Provincetown, where I splashed around in the Atlantic a little bit. As I walked towards the ocean there appeared to be some kind of wild sea critter just sleeping on the sand, and it seemed like I was the only one who saw it – very odd. I walked straight into a string I had not noticed because I was staring at the critter. The string was in fact a perimeter around the critter, which was a cute little dozing harp seal, and there was an explanatory sign. It turns out that young seals will crawl up on the sand and hang out for days at a time, so that the Park Service actually staked out a perimeter around this guy complete with a notice that it is $10,000 fine to harass the little guy! Pretty funny. He would lift his head up and stare at us staring at him, then nod off again.
Nickerson SP is pretty cool. 250 or so campsites spread out around some of the little ponds (kettles(*)) that dot the Cape landscape. There are bike paths all over. Even though it was basically dark by the time I picked out a site I opened up the bike and zoomed around for a while on the almost-invisible paths. I sure like having the bike.
(*)I used to know this, but Cape Cod is a giant terminal moraine (i.e. pile of rocks) left over from the ice ages. Quarter-mile thick chunks of ice were left behind, and when they melted they left these kettles, which are now either (cranberry) bogs or neat little freshwater ponds.
I get faster 3G here at the Nickerson CG than I did at Tony’s house.
Today I went back to the Cape Cod National Seashore for a couple of likely sounding hikes. The Fort Hill and Red Cedar Swamp hike was just grand. Great sea views and bog views and everything in between. The White Maple Swamp hike was very nice also, but I messed it up, I went off on a little spur and headed off the wrong way when I got back, thus missing half of the hike with the actual swamp. Serves me right for getting baked.
This impending storm caused me to call Tony and ask if I could take them up on their generous offer to “come back anytime”… anytime in this case being one day later.
It worked out real nice, they hadn’t changed my sheets, so I arrived, yakked with Joyce and cleaned out some of their leftovers, slid back under my familiar covers, charged my devices, and got the heck out of there in the late morning!
Friday
Time to visit another classmate Dave. Freeway to escape Fall River, but once I got over near the ocean I took 3A rather than 3 to see the countryside. So I went right down the middle of downtown Plymouth, where I stopped and enjoyed the harbor and had a pretty fine baked bluefish lunch at the place (Wood’s Seafood) that Yelp said was the best low-budg place in the area.
Rolled into Dave’s 6-ish. They had a pre-existing condition of a dinner date; but that actually worked out well for me, I got full control of the channel changer and got to use their excellent wifi for a couple of hours. If only the Giants game (game 1, G’s-Philly’s, Lincecuem vs Halladay) was tonight instead of tomorrow. I am perfectly set up for it here, but will be totally off the grid tomorrow.
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