East Coast Tour - Day 22

---

Our first stop today was the town of Plymouth. We drove down to the waterfront to see a replica of the Mayflower and the infamous Plymouth Rock. The Mayflower II seemed pretty spacious until to realized that there were over 120 people and all their stuff on board for a 66 day voyage. We talked with a few interpreters who were playing the parts of the crew on the ship and then looked at the different sections of the ship. The First officer seemed to have gone a bit crazy from the sea, and the Captain spoke about death a lot. Next to the ship was a small portico that protected Plymouth Rock. There was a docent there talking about the rock. Apparently it wasn't a big deal until 120 years after the Pilgrims landed when the town wanted to cover it up with a wharf. That's the point when it started being recognized as historically important. Over the years it was broken twice as people moved it around. The first time it was moved was to drum up support for the Revolutionary War. They only managed to move the top half, breaking the rock in two. Later they moved it to the city library and finally they returned it to the beach in 1820. They broke it again trying to reunite the two pieces. We speculated about how accurate the early depictions of the rock are, and whether this was, in fact, the rock (of if there even was one); a good lesson to Michelle in Historical critical thinking. After Plymouth we drove through Boston. We had a bit of trouble getting through because many of the tunnels prohibited hazardous materials, like propane. We ended up driving by the harbor and over some pretty cool bridges. From Boston we drove to Salem. We expected a much smaller town than what we found and were not able to find a place to park the trailer down town, so we decided we'd have to come back when we visit Boston again. From Salem we headed north through New Hampshire, blinked and then we were in Maine. We needed to make up some miles so we headed straight for the KOA in Bangor. We made our first late night set up of the trailer and then settled in to bed. The Bangor KOA was really nice, and we regretted not being able to spend more time there. Also, everyone everywhere told us to visit Bar Harbor when in Maine, and we didn't... so I guess we'll come back here too.

---

Photos

Mayflower II
Full-sized replica of the mayflower. It was very small for 150 or so people for 66 days. Though only 50% actually finished the voyage.

All Aboard
We were greeted at the top by the second mate, who had gone a bit stir crazy, I think.

IMG_0867
If you stand there, you get about 10 square feet of space... 5 across, 20 deep, take turns in the beds... yeah, we can do this for 2 months (NOT).

Plymouth Rock
Umm... Which rock is it, exactly?

Oh, it's that one
How sure are we that it's that one, or that it even existed. No writings mention a rock until someone 150 years later needed to drum up interest in national heritage for the revolution.... was there really a rock after all?

Cricket in Boston
Just your average urban basketball court, with gents out playing cricket.

Cool Bridge
Bridge with construction, pretty much normal for NYC. you never know where, exactly, it's going to leave you off. also, there are sometimes 5 levels of roads/ramps in a vertical slice, so GPS is just totally confused.

New Hampshire
Yay, new state... hey what is that sign up ahead... is that... Maine?

Watch for Moose
Ok, keeping our eyes peeled.

Maine
We blinked and almost missed the Maine state line (were not expecting it so soon).

Moose
We found one!!!!!

Just your average scenic view spot in maine
With an epic, unbeatable view of the vast wilderness and distant mountains.