We arrived at the Boston/Cape Cod KOA in Massachusetts on October 15th. Using the campground as our hub, Randy unhooked the 5th wheel and we explored Salem the next day. Site of the 1692 witch trials and extensive Maritime history created the perfect backdrop for the "Haunted Happenings" Festival taking place thru October. We bought Little Lana a bat wing costume in one of the pet stores down by the wharf and she wore them thru the town with crowds of people taking her picture. Lana was definitely the most photographed personality in Salem that day…Randy would wait outside while I ventured into some witch boutiques and I could hear people coming in behind me and exclaiming how cute she was! I think Lana in costume made our experience especially fun. She really was a hoot!
Salem was at its height of drama during the Halloween Season...lots of haunted exhibits and people dressed in costume. I went to one event called The Witches Cottage, a live presentation in a tiny theatre in which the actors spoke of real events during the witch trials. Dressed in costumes, they described stories of spooky lore as the lights and props set the audience up for some frightening fun. With Lana and her bat wings in the lead, we finished our tour of Salem at the Maritime National Historic Site on the wharf. Lined with historic homes on cobbled stone streets many of these dwellings date back to the 1600’s.
Not a cloud in the sky as we wound our way thru Cape Cod the following morning. With autumn just beginning to touch this part of New England we were kind of surprised at how green the surrounding country side remained. Passing cranberry bog farms and little towns built almost exclusively of cedar shake cottages we got a feel for the area. However, roads in Massachusetts are not well marked so by the time we found an information center in Yarmouth, half the day was gone and a bit late to catch a ferry ride to Nantucket. Not to worry as we were not overly anxious to make a 2 hour passage to the island and 2 hour trip back. However, as luck would have it I did spot a local “Lobsta” Co. in Dennisport. Fishermen owned with a lovely fresh selection, they were also willing to prepare some “lobsta to go” for a special request I needed to fulfill. One of the owners, Mark, cooked and then iced them in a cooler for us to take to our freezer back at the camper for transport to my folks back in Florida. As we waited for the “lobsta” to be prepared, I noticed the clams and oysters in the display case. Mark recommended the oysters over the clams and shucked them for us to eat as we waited. They were fabulous, plump, full flavored morsels with a marvelous briny taste. The colder sea water, here in the Cape produces a saltier taste than in Florida…very nice.
In the town of Chatham we stopped to walk thru their pumpkin people festival, a local competition of creatively themed and hand made scarecrows using pumpkins has heads with carved or drawn faces…very cool. Later in Eastham, we had hoped to be able to drive along the coast of Cape Cod National Seashore like you can in Flagler Beach, but you can’t get that close. So we settled for taking a few photos of the famous lighthouse pictured on the Cape Cod potato chip bag. Life is full of compromises.
Before heading back to camp we arrived in the very pretty town of Plymouth a few hours before sunset. Somehow, without directions, Randy magically got us right where we needed to be for our “pilgrimage”. A beautiful view of Plymouth Harbor provided a backdrop to many memorial statues with a replica of the Mayflower resting at the waterfront wharf. I think we all grew up with certain grade school history lessons ingrained in our psyche of the pilgrims landing on Plymouth Rock in 1620. Well, they have a columned memorial built around this rather smallish rock with a cage around it to prevent people from touching it. As we peered down upon this shrine we shared a moment of wonder with our fellow tourists followed by a quick change of disappointment then understanding that this rock represents more than a physical arrival. It is a symbol of the human spirit and quest for freedom. However, for the Indians, Thanksgiving Day is known as the Day of Mourning because it represents the beginning of the end; a loss of their freedom to roam their lands with dignity and in peace. A bittersweet irony to this story, would you agree?
At this point of our trip it will take 24 hours to get back home so we hit the highway on the morning of October 18. Leaving Massachusetts behind we settled back for the long ride, bouncing along inter state 95 and taking in the landscape receding quickly out of view. Past the majestically domed building of the capitol of Providence, Rhode Island, over the George Washington Bridge, thru NYC, jockeying for position in traffic and then traversing the pot holed roads of Newark before stopping for lunch. We crossed the Delaware but unlike George Washington, we did it over a big bridge in a 5th wheel and were tolled to death in road fees. Finally, we ended up somewhere in Maryland for the night in a little campground on a lake…definitely time for a glass of wine.
We awoke the next morning to the sound of rain pattering on our camper, shrouding the lake view with mist. We were advised last night not to attempt driving thru DC until midmorning so we hung out, did some laundry and internet correspondence before joining up with the interstate. But first, we stopped for groceries and while waiting at the check out we saw a young man wearing gator colors. Randy made a comment to him and the guy asked us where we were from. One thing led to another in our conversation. Come to find out, he grew up in Palm Coast and knew our daughter. “It’s a small world after all”.
Back on I-95 south our mantra became “water, tunnel, river, toll”. Over the waters of the Susquehanna in Northeast Maryland, thru the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel, and over the Potomac River in DC we went, paying heavily in tollbooth fees. Uh-Oh! We had a blow out while in the middle of a political discussion about the nation’s present economy. One of the tires on the 5th wheel let loose after miles of rough, pot holed roads. Randy is always prepared and had it changed and the rig back on the road in less than an hour. What a guy! Finally, we arrived in Virginia greeted by smoother riding highways, woo-hoo! Not as many miles accomplished as we had hoped and it was dark out before we finally pulled into a campground in North Carolina.
Our goal at this point is to get as close as we can to home so we left the KOA in the early morning with clear skies and a cool, crisp breeze. Passing cotton and tobacco fields, we were on a mission and avoided scenic byways in favor of the ability to make up time along I-95. However, we did not need a ticket as we spotted quite a few state troopers concealed off the shoulder, just itching to write one. Set on cruise control we breezed thru NC and merged right into South Carolina before noon without a snag. Lo and behold, just before reaching the Georgia border we had another blow out. This makes 3 tire changes for Randy; two blowouts and one he changed at the beginning of the trip because the tire looked like it was ready to blow. Luckily, Randy insisted on buying 2 new spare tires at a Wal-Mart yesterday. We have certainly traveled some rough highway south of Massachusetts thru DC and would probably not take the 5th wheel on that particular tract in the future. I guess that’s why they call it exploring. Ah well, time for us to decompress, reflect, and regroup for 2 nights in St. Mary’s before pulling into our driveway Saturday afternoon on October 22nd.
PS: On our way back to camp, just south of Portland, Maine we spotted a church billboard that read “aspire to inspire before we expire”…amen brothers and sistas…I think that says it all.
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