THESE DAYS

We arrived on Cape Cod for a couple of weeks. Just so you know, one stays ON Cape Cod not IN Cape Cod. Our first stop was in East Falmouth, which is across the Bourne Bridge from mainland Massachusetts. East Falmouth is situated on the Upper Cape, which is on the southwestern part of the cape. Falmouth is home to the Joint Base Cape Cod. JBCC is a full scale, joint-use base home to five military commands training for missions at home and overseas, conducting airborne search and rescue missions, and intelligence command and control. JBCC has the only land-based radar site providing missile warning for the eastern coast of the United States and southern Canada against intercontinental and sea-launched ballistic missiles. Our park was pretty close to JBCC, so you can guess we got to hear a lot of military jets and helicopters.

One of our favorite artists is Gregg Allman. He had his solo projects and of course, he had his collaboration with his brother and friends as the Allman Brothers. Good listening. The musicianship, the songwriting, and the performance was classic. Gregg’s soulful rendition of Jackson Browne’s song, “These Days,” is particularly piercing. Gregg changed Jackson’s lyrics on one of the last lines from, "Don't confront me with my failures / I had not forgotten them," to "Please don't confront me with my failures / I'm aware of them." Who hasn’t felt that sting?

We drove around Falmouth and Woods Hole. Woods Hole is home to a number of marine science institutions and is one place people can catch a ferry to Martha’s Vineyard. We drove through Teaticket, Mashpee, and then through Hyannis Port. Hyannis Port is home to the Kennedy Compound. Rose, Jack, and Ethel all had homes on the compound. Ted had a house nearby, but it wasn’t actually in the compound. Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy lived there until her death at 104 years old!

We went into Hyannis and had lunch at Anejo, a cool little Mexican-inspired restaurant. Our next stop was Sandwich and we saw Cape Cod Bay. Early settlers established Sandwich about 1637. Along the way we saw lots of beautiful trees and gorgeous Cape Cod style homes with greyed cedar shingle siding.

One day we took the ferry from Woods Hole to Martha’s Vineyard. We had a 45-minute ferry ride across the Nantucket Sound. We walked around the town of Oak Bluffs and saw the cottages on the grounds of the Martha’s Vineyard Camp Meeting Association. FYI, seven men from the Edgartown Methodist Church on Martha’s Vineyard bought a half-acre of land on this spot in 1835. They called it Wesleyan Grove and established it for the purpose of holding religious camp meetings there, which is another discussion altogether. They built a shed for the preacher and his pulpit and then a semi-circle of tents for attendees. Wesleyan Grove became one of the largest and best-known camp meetings in the nation. It grew from nine tents in 1835 to over 200 in 1855. Between 1859 and 1864, people started building the Martha’s Vineyard cottages. Anyway, there are now 315 cottages on the grounds. They are very colorful and whimsical and there is plenty of gingerbread trim. Betty was sure we spotted Barbie’s house, but I’m not so sure. I thought I saw Bernie Sanders going into a cottage - it could have just been some tall dude with crazy white hair.

The rest of the town had its fair share of beautiful homes, shops, and restaurants. We were there near the end of the season and many of the retail establishments were closed. Coming from the South, we never had to worry about what the “end of the season” meant, but the weather can turn pretty quickly on Cape Cod. We had lunch at the Lookout Tavern and enjoyed a lobster roll and clam chowder. Yummy.

One of the common misconceptions about Martha’s Vineyard is that it is home to a bunch of really rich people. And while it gets it share of famous folks “in season,” its year-round residents number about 17,000 and are just normal working folks. There are only about 50 millionaires who have homes there. The Wampanoag is a Native American tribe, who have lived for at least 10,000 years at Aquinnah and throughout Martha’s Vineyard. Also, the “Inkwell” or Town Beach, has been frequented by African Americans since the late 1800’s. Of course, it was white folk who dubbed the beach “the Inkwell” for obvious and odious reasons. In an attempt to whitewash the nickname, some people insisted the nickname was a nod to the ink in the pens of the writers and thinkers who frequented the area, including black writers of the Harlem Renaissance. I’ll let you make your own mind up on that one. On second thought, I’ll just go ahead and raise the bullshit flag.

We visited Provincetown or P-town to the locals. It was absolutely charming. Just so you know, the pilgrims landed at the beach at Provincetown before they made it across the bay to Plymouth. In 1620, the pilgrims landed and spent five weeks exploring the area. In 1907, Provincetown built the Pilgrim Monument to commemorate the pilgrims’ first landing. The monument is the tallest all-granite structure in the United States. Provincetown is a very vibrant and welcoming community. We ate at Liz’s Cafe and then walked along Commercial Street where the majority of the shops, bars, and restaurants are located. We had a walking tour with Anne Hutchinson, who provided us with a bit of history of the area with a bit of bawdy on the side. Our Anne Hutchinson impersonator was hilarious. In real life, Anne Hutchinson was a woman who lived in the 1600’s and had the nerve to espouse her view that a person could have a relationship with God without having to rely on clergy for divine communication. In 1637, while she was pregnant with her 16th child, she stood before a panel of 40 male judges who would decide her fate. She told them that she had received a revelation, and she prophesized that God would soon destroy the colony of Massachusetts and all of its inhabitants. As you can imagine, that didn’t go over very well with the boys and she was banished and labeled an “American Jezebel.”

Back at our trailer, we got out the bikes and took a ride along the Cape Cod Rail Trail. What beautiful scenery. The following day we went to the Cod National Seashore near Eastham. It was a beautiful day and we listened to the waves crashing against the shore. Unfortunately, sand flies were abundant and definitely annoying. We renamed the species Annoying Sand Flies. All in all, a beautiful day.

One of our surprises was how big Cape Cod is. Lots of little villages with their own personality. It was obvious that some of the villages were where the shelter cats lived and some where the “pure breeds” called home.

We really loved the Cape, but it’s just too cold for these cats!

Peace,

Buster

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