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Published: October 3rd 2017
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When we left Williamsburg we had to get way up north to Connecticut so we could be in a position to start the next phase of our journey and get to New England for the annual “leaf fall” also we were to meet up with one of Steph's long lost cousins in Hartford. So we hit the track at about 8am and headed north via Chesapeake bay. Chesapeake bay is approximately 16 kilometres wide and you cross it by going over the longest bridge I have every driven on and at one stage you go under the sea through a long tunnel followed by more bridges followed by another tunnel before you finally arrive at the bottom of Maryland. An amazing trip crossing over and under the sea all in one go.. quite spooky when you are in the tunnel knowing you are under the water.
We then drove for another ten hour north squirting around the outside of New York (during peak traffic flow…Yahoo!!) and finally arrived into a place called Danbury, Connecticut about 12 hours after we started. Nice long day driving and covered about 800 kms in one go. The next day we visited a home which
Mark Twain had built for him and his wife back in the late 19th century and so did a tour of the house with a guide. It was amazing what we learnt about Twain who had a very irreverent sense of humour and obviously lived a very full life..one interesting fact was that he went bankrupt at one stage with a bad investment and so decided to do a world speaking tour to pay back the debtors and make back some money and so in about 1880 he tripped all around the world including a stop in NZ where he visited the bottom of the south and moved on up stopping in Wellington, Auckland, Whanganui and Hawera??? Hawera?? What the hey?
He had a very full but in the end a very sad life losing a lot of his family members to different illnesses etc. anyway we had a good tour and then headed off to meet up with Steph cousin whom she hadn't seen since 1984. Had a late lunch with her and her husband and then hit the track late in the afternoon to Cape Cod where we were to base ourselves for four days.
The
first day in Cape Cod area we had our first real rain so we decided to do a drive along the coast and up into Cape Cod itself. We stopped for coffee at a nice little coffee so called Nirvana and sat outside in Cape Cod chairs to drink it…come to think of it any chair here is a Cape Cod chair!? The houses in this area are amazing and …again in the Cape Cod style of shingles on the external walls and all of a very similar style. Even the public buildings and local shops are all in the same style. We drove right to the tip of the Cape to a place called Provincetown visiting a couple of cool lighthouses on the way and had a wander around. The guy at the camp ground described the area as having sand dunes like the Sahara desert and they were pretty cool but probably more like sand dunes like Omaha beach north of Auckland. The rain didn't last very long an it turned out a really nice day.
The following day we decided that because the weather had definitely turned for the better and was bright sunshine that we
would head in the ferry to Martha's vineyard which is an island off the coast nearby which was a favourite haunt for the Kennedy clan when they were all around..(you don't see much of them lately) on the island we hired bikes for the day and cycled across the island to a place called Edgartown about 10 kms away. The houses out on the island were amazing and most of them were of a Victorian era and looked a lot like the Adams family or Herman Munster may reside. Edgartown was a very pleasant little place for just wandering around the local shops and having a bite to eat…Clam chowder of course!! What else in this neck of the woods. The one thing about Clam chowder at the end of a 10 km cycle is that you still have another 10 kms back to where you started..Damn Clam chowder!!.
Martha's Vineyard was very pleasant and I can see the attraction for the rich and famous with more sailing ships than you can poke a stick at and nice boutique shops etc.
The following day was an equally sunny one and so we jumped on another ferry
and headed off for an hour on a “quickcat” to Nantucket island which was about 35 kms off the coast. Nantucket was the site of the North American whaling fleet back in the late 1700’s and was the basis of the book “Moby Dick”. Here they have a whaling museum and everything themed around whales. So of course being the relaxed pair which we are we again hired bikes and cycled across to the other side of the island where all the original building of the era were. Steph did suggest catching a bus but for some reason she changed her mind..Go figure??!!.
The ride off to the other side of the island was amazing passing by old homes and lighthouses and all the scenery which you can imagine for a place of such historic value. When we got to our destination some 10 kms away we stopped and had a wander around the local area and passed a number of buildings which were dated 1753. Really amazing little village and a lot of character as well as Clam chowder!!! I thought we would have learnt…but alas no!! So after our lunch we headed back to the main town
a lot slower than our trip out.
The town of Nantucket is as I mentioned really old and has cobbled streets (which is not good after a 20 km bike ride) and a number of really amazing buildings.
Everywhere we have gone over the last few days we have passed large displays of pumpkins. The locals are heading up toward Halloween followed by Thanksgiving so there are displays everywhere.
Nantucket was different again to Martha's Vineyard in that it had a lot more character and history attached.
Today we have driven from Cape Cod to the back of Boston and visited Plymouth Rock in the way north. When I say Plymouth Rock I mean just that. There is a big rock housed in what could be described as an Ancient Greek temple on the side of the Plymouth harbour and heaps of tourists taking photos of it…so when in Rome (or Greece) …..
We arrived this afternoon in a small village called Concord to the north West of Boston. This is where the First shots of the American revolution were fired on the 19th of April 1775 and a famous quote was coined “the shot
that was heard around the world”. We have been immersed in either American revolutionary or civil war history for a couple of weeks now so to see where it all started was quite cool. Tomorrow we will head into Boston for the day and walk the Freedom trail which is the path which follows the American revolution through the old part of town…so until the next time.
As I write this we have just caught up with the Vegas situation (as we have been out of wifi for a couple of days) what a really sad sad thing!! To be surrounded in such natural beauty here and covered in revolutionary history it makes you wonder where it all went wrong?
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