Tag Archives: Travel Series

My Colonial States~Trip Part 7

31 Dec

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Bill Red Spot Plane

The reason it was late in the day when I arrived in Saratoga Springs was because when I left the Bellow Falls, “Greta” told me to head north 27 miles when I should have been heading south!  What was that all about?  Even though I had missed seeing a couple of museums, it had been a very delightful day’s journey, as the changing of the tree colors had been growing more beautiful as I traversed thru northern New Hampshire, Vermont and New York.

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Even though it was late in the day, I hustled down to Glenville, NY to check out the Empire State Aerosciences Museum, but missed getting in to see their hangered collection by 30 minutes (they closed at 4:00 pm).  I was really hoping to visit this museum as I was looking forward to seeing their restoration hanger projects, which I understood was extensive.  I was however, able to get a few pictures of their outdoor static display aircraft, but had to shoot through the chain-link fence.    But, oh well, you can’t see them all.  Maybe next time.

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I ended the day by taking a leisurely drive thru Schenectady, NY to Albany, NY where I had a wonderful meal of Fall-Off-The-Bone Ribs at the Texas Roadhouse restaurant, and then it was just a matter of finding my motel for the night.

The next morning I headed south again thru Germantown, NY to be re-acquainted with some really old friends (aircraft) at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in Red Hook, NY.  I had visited the Aerodrome back in 2011, during a trip to the up-state New York area, and wanted to check out any new aircraft they might have added to their collection.

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 I also wanted to see their freshly restored 1917 Albatros D.Va replica.  This Albatros replica had been built in the 1970s by Aerodrome founder Cole Palen, and finished in the colors of WWI Bavarian fighter ace Eduard Ritter von Schleich of Jasta 21 in 1917.

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The plane had been an Old Rhinebeck Airshow favorite for many years.  Part of the recent complete restoration included a new paint scheme depicting one of the aircraft flown by another well-known WWI Bavarian fighter ace in 1918, Lieutenant Walter Boning of Jasta 76b.

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Two more of my favorite aircraft in the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome collection are the 1911 Curtiss Model D Pusher, and the 1909 Bleriot XI, which has the distinction of being the oldest flying aircraft in the United States.

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      1911 Curtiss Model D Pusher

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1909 Bleriot XI

It was hard to pull myself away from this museum, but I needed to keep moving if I was going to see all the places on my list for that day.  So, heading south a short distance, I skirted the Catskill Mountains on my way to visit the Trolley Museum of New York in Kingston, NY.  This small museum wasn’t open until later in the day, but the lady saw me at the door and let me in any way.  That was nice as I had the entire museum and its rolling stock all to myself.  The museum operates a trolley line ride from Gallo Park to Kingston Point providing scenic views along the Hudson River.

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As I was leaving the Trolley Museum I noticed that the surrounding area looked very familiar.  I had been so intent on finding the Trolley Museum that I had driven right past the Hudson River Maritime Museum, one of the museums I had visited during my Upstate New York trip back in 2011.  I stopped long enough to take a couple of photos of the “Mathilda” which is a 1898 steam tug boat, and then I was on my way again. 

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—–To Be Continued—–

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An Amazing Adventure~Part 10

28 Dec

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

JUDY

                                                  

The next morning, we had a buffet breakfast at the hotel, then stopping for a gas fill up before heading East. Our first stop was at Beaver Creek Ski Resort. Brian parked the van and we headed up to the Beaver Creek Village.

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Very swanky ski resort there—unique shops mostly pertaining to the ski industry. And apparently President Gerald R. Ford and his wife, Betty, were great enthusiasts in the area—so much so that there was Gerald R. Ford Hall, a convention center of sorts.

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We saw some gorgeous bronze figures there.

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It was heading on toward lunchtime by that time, so we decided to just stop there and eat before heading on to Vail. We stopped at The Blue Moose for pizza and a soda. REALLY good pizza! We ate at one of the outdoor tables, and thoroughly enjoyed the sunshine and cool weather.

From Beaver Creek we drove on to Vail, Colorado proper and Lionshead Village. We visited Vail Village and Ford Park—the Betty Ford Alpine Park, which is the world’s highest botanical garden. Beautiful garden, with a children’s section in it, as well. Some gorgeous leaf-changing color, as well.

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From Vail/Beaver Creek, we headed to Rocky Mountain National Park.

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We saw Grand Lake, and Lake Grandy. We saw some very old cars! Don’t know exactly why they were there, but it was fun to see them.

There was also a bronze memorial to Park Ranger Suzanne Elizabeth Roberts, who was killed by a rockfall while in the Haleakala National Park on Maui, Hawaii. She had served at Rocky Mountain National Park for 10 years before going to Hawaii. Nice Memorial.

We were most impressed with the huge stands of Aspen trees we saw. Those were the trees that I grew up seeing in the New Mexico mountains outside Albuquerque, so they meant a lot to me. Those yellow and orange leaves were just beautiful!

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The outside air temperature was 71° as we started up the mountain, and was 58° at 10,500’ which was two miles above sea level!   Brian was quite insistent that he wanted to see a MOOSE! So we kept looking all along the drive up. He did finally see one—laying down—but he saw it! It had quite a large rack (of horns) on it, as well. Brian was well pleased.

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We crossed the Continental Divide at Milner Pass, which sits at 10,759’ above sea level. The air temperature was 60° there—rather chilly!

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~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~

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My Colonial States Trip~Part 6

24 Dec

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Bill Lites

 

I headed west back across the border into Maine toward my next stop in Bangor, ME to get a picture of the 31 foot tall Paul Bunyan statue. It is rumored that the Paul Bunyan myth originated in the early 1800s with lumberjacks exchanging many of their tall-tales across the northern territories, including in and around the northern Maine forest area known as The Devil’s Half-Acre. The story has grown to great proportions over the years, most usually with Paul Bunyan being accompanied by his faithful companion “Babe” the blue ox. Paul Bunyan was said to have wondered the woods displaying his bigger than life super-human strength and abilities.

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While I was in Bangor, I visited the Cole Land Transportation Museum which houses an amazing collection of vehicles from bicycles, motorcycles, cars, trucks to a diesel locomotive and a WWII tank. This museum’s dedication to honoring America’s military personnel and the equipment they used in the various war efforts our country has been involved in was truly gratifying.

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Before leaving Maine I wanted to be sure I experienced a New England lobster meal, so I had dinner at the Weathervane Seafood Restaurant in Waterville, ME where I had a bowl of New England Clam Chowder, as an appetizer, followed by a 1-pound Maine lobster. The chowder was excellent as was the lobster, even if it was a battle getting to the tail meat. I guess I’ve been spoiled with how the Florida restaurants split the underside of the Florida lobster tails for their guests, making it much easier to get at that delicious tail meat.

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Having satisfied my Main lobster craving, I now headed west again thru the upper part of Maine and into New Hampshire to visit the Gorham Railroad Museum in Gorham, NH where I got a personal tour of the station museum, as well as a running history of the Grand Trunk Railway system, that pretty much put the city of Gorham on the map in 1751. At the end of the tour, Bob, my tour guide even gave me a homemade muffin his wife had baked that morning. Now you can’t beat that for museum hospitality can you?

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Next it was west again to check out the Vermont Railroad Museum in White River Junction, VT which actually turned out to be an active Amtrak station. The station is also used by the Green Mountain Railroad to provide passenger excursion trains to Thetford and Norwich, VT. The station was built in 1937 as a Union Terminal to serve the Boston & Maine Railroad, the Central Vermont Railroad and the Rutland Railroad.

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While I was in Vermont I planned to visit the Railroad Museum in Bellow Falls, VT only to find that the museum and most of its rolling stock had been incorporated into the Steamtown U.S.A. collection, run by the National Park Service and moved to Scranton, PA. Since by now I was headed south, I decided not to make a side trip that far west and continued toward my next stop at the Saratoga Automobile Museum in Saratoga Springs, NY. As it turned out, I got to the museum late in the day and the museum was hosting a huge auto show. All the cars were in an enclosed area where the admission ticket was more than I wanted to pay, since I wouldn’t have had time to see the entire display.

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—–To Be Continued—–

 

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An Amazing Adventure~Part 9

21 Dec

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

JUDY

I would like to make a “disclaimer” here: Some years ago, Fred and I purchased “Lifetime” passes to our U.S. National Parks. For a very nominal fee, admission to our NPS are free—for our lifetime! They came in very handy on this trip, with all the NPS parks we entered. If you are ever thinking about making such a trip—it is very well-worth your money to purchase a pass. Karen and Brian had theirs, as well, but probably paid more than we did, since we purchased ours as “seniors.” Look into it….

We finally made our way to Arches National Park.

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There are over 2000 natural stone arches in this park. There are massive pinnacles, fins, and balanced rocks. It’s one place you won’t want to turn your head for fear of missing something amazing. And you should recognize the Delicate Arch—made famous as the desktop picture on a lot of computers! It is also on some of the Utah license plates, and the Utah state quarter. It looks like it isn’t very big—and we only saw it from a distance—but it’s 65’ tall—that’s about as tall as a five-or-six story building! I’ve seen pictures of it with people below it, and they look really tiny!

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The entrance to the Visitors Center at Arches has some amazing bronze animals.

We saw a great video about the formation of the arches within the park, and are told how they are continually changing—and eventually will collapse with just the right time, wind, rain, and snow.

Brian was more adventurous than the rest of us, so he plowed ahead, while we took our time climbing Park Avenue. We’re told that it was named that because the massive rock formations reminded the Arches National Park discoverers of Park Avenue in New York City.

 

It was a bit slow-going for me (I’ve GOT to get my knees fixed!!), but we made it, and saw some fantastic formations along the way. There was Bowed Rock, Windows, Turret, Caves, Pothold Arch, Queen Nefertiti,

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the Three Gossips,

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Panorama Point, Delicate Arch and others. Fred and Brian went on further to see and photograph Landscape Arch.

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We saw the balanced rock from several angles. We saw lots of “fins”

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and some arches within large rocks.

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It’s just beyond description. And we walked along side some massive rocks, just lying around. Again, Brian is more adventurous that the rest of us, and climbed up on a couple of them. He’s nuts!!

As sunset was approaching, we headed out of Arches and went into Moab. We stopped at a Wendy’s for supper, and at a grocery store to refill our cooler. Then we drove over two hours to Grand Junction. We stayed at the Grand Vista Hotel there.

 

~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~

 

 

 

 

 

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My Colonial States Trip~Part 5

17 Dec

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Bill Stars Plane

The next morning I planned to start the day with a visit to the Maine Maritime Museum located in Bath, ME but they didn’t open until later in the day and as                                                                                                                                                      the poem by Robert Frost goes, “The woods are lovely dark and deep, but I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.” So I just kept on trucking up US #1 toward Owls Head, ME and the Transportation Museum there. This is one of the best transportation museums I have ever visited, where many of their over 150 transportation vehicle collection are from the pre-1920s era, and they all operate as originally designed. I got my first ride in a 1915 Ford Model T, and it ran like a sewing machine. What a thrill that was!

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I would like to have stayed longer in that museum, but I headed north on US #1 again toward my next stop at the Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport, ME. This museum is Maine’s oldest maritime museum and is designed to preserve Searsport’s unique maritime and shipbuilding history. It is laid out as a 19th century seafaring village, with thirteen buildings, housing a collection of archival items focusing on the maritime history and life in New England during the early 18th century.

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Now I was headed for Bar Harbor and Acadia Nation Park, located near the mouth of the Bay of Fundy, at the northeast edge of Maine. It was a beautiful day and the drive around Acadia National Park was breath-taking. The leaves on the trees were just beginning to turn, making the scenery that much more beautiful.

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Next it was back thru Ellsworth, Maine and the long drive up US #1 thru Columbia Falls and Jonesboro to Calais and the Canadian border, where I was asked where I was going and what the purpose of my trip was.   After I crossed the border into New Brunswick, for some reason, Greta wouldn’t recognize the motel address. It was after dark, and I didn’t have a map of the area, so I called the motel and the clerk told me which exit to take and then talked me into Fredericton, NB and to the motel. Wow, that was a life-saver, and what a relief it was! The next morning I visited the Christ Church Cathedral before heading out of town. The beautiful cathedral was built in 1853 and has continued to hold services right up to modern times. The front door was open and wonderful organ music was being played by someone on the church’s four-manual Casavant Freres Opus 2399 organ (which has more than 2500 wood and metal pipes). What a beautiful way to start one’s day.

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I headed west to visit the Kings Landing Historical Settlement which is a late 18th century living museum, made up of almost 70 buildings, located on 300 acres, where period life of the “United Empire Loyalists” is re-created by costumed interpreters that bring to life the era with explanations of how the people lived, worked and played during that time in New Brunswick. As I walked toward the bridge, I was pleased to hear a mellow singing voice echoing across the water to me. When I arrived at the King’s Head Inn, there was the singer, sitting on a bench with his guitar, strumming more early British folk tunes for the people passing by. The village was very interesting but the usual transportation wagon never showed up and it ended up being quite a walk back to my car!

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—–To Be Continued—–

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An Amazing Adventure~Part 8

14 Dec

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

JUDY

 

 

The next morning, we had breakfast at our out-of-the-way hotel. It was surprisingly good—make your own waffles and all the stuff that goes along with that.

We went through the little area known as Fruita. There is a bit of history about it, as well. It was settled by the Mormons, and they planted all kinds of fruit trees—apple, pear, peach, cherry, apricot, mulberry, even Potowatomee Plum (I’d never heard of that one). They made their living off all the things one can make from fruit. The original name of the place was Junction. After the success of the fruit trees, they changed the name to Fruita.

The residents (usually no more than about 10 families) built a one-room school house, which still stands today, after some renovation. The National Park Service purchased most of the land—and trees—and razed most of the buildings. But the school house survived. And while the land and trees belong to the National Park Service, the public is invited to help harvest. According to their website, any fruit consumed in the park is free. If you pick the fruit and take it out of the park—you are charged. Interesting. Here is a picture of that one-room schoolhouse.

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From there, we headed on to Canyonlands and Arches National Parks, in Moab, Utah. It took us a while to get there, so by the time we arrived, it was time for lunch.

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I found it interesting to know that Canyonlands National Park is the LARGEST park in Utah! When looking at the map, there is an area five or six time larger than Canyonlands, but then I realized it is the Grand Staircase Escalante National MONUMENT—not a national park Big difference—I suppose mostly who controls the area. Canyonlands has deeply eroded canyons interspersed with sheer-sided mesas and a variety of spires, arches and unusual rock formations

We had a picnic lunch near the Grand View Point, at an outside picnic table. We were joined by some chipmunks and either a raven or a crow (we aren’t sure just what each of those birds looks like, so…..). They must have had some scraps from other picnickers, because they were quite bold.

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After lunch, we drove around Canyonlands, as much as we could. Again, of course, I wanted to get out and take pictures of just everything I could see. So Brian stated that when we stopped, it was for a “two photo stop” only. If I took more than two photos, he would go off and leave me (he never did)! Of course, if HE got out to take pictures, the deal was off!

 

We stopped at Buck Canyon Overlook. Fantastic scenery. It’s like I just couldn’t get enough of it all. Apparently the Green and Colorado rivers confluence carved out what we saw. Absolutely amazing! Breath-taking! And frankly, I thought some of the rock formations were as spectacular as what we saw in Grand Canyon.

The elevations in Canyonlands range from 3,700’ to 7,200’ above sea level. That makes for hot summers and cold winters. Sometimes the temperatures can change as much as 50° within one day. The area has less than 10” of rain per year, usually in the summer by monsoons, which can cause flash flooding.

There is also an area within Canyonlands called Upheaval Dome. The “experts” still aren’t sure—even after all these years of studying it—whether it was a salt dome that exploded, or a meteorite impact. It was a bit of a hike—classified as a “short steep trail” to get to the overlook, so Brian was the only one who made that trek. We contented ourselves with the sign.

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~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~

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My Colonial States Trip~Part 4

10 Dec

A Slice of Life

 Bill Lites

Bill Small Red Plane

 

My first stop the next day was to visit the Albacore Submarine Museum in Portsmouth, NH where I took a quick tour thru the U.S. Navy’s unique research submarine that was used in the 1950s to study streamline hull/propeller designs along with various propulsion systems. I had toured other submarines, but this one was by far the most compact vessel I had ever seen. I don’t have claustrophobia, but I sure wouldn’t have volunteered for duty in that sub.

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Just a few miles up the road I crossed the border into Maine and stopped to visit the Kittery Historical & Naval Museum in Kittery, ME where I discovered a small but amazing collection of local Kittery area historical memorabilia, including many maritime and military contributions.

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Another 5 miles up US #1 was the Old York Gaol (jail) which served as a colonial debtor’s prison in York County Maine as far back as 1656. The present structure was an expansion of the original jail and was in use from 1719 to 1879 when it was closed and converted to a school. It was not open when I was there, but I took time to take a peek thru the windows.

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Then it was on north to visit the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, ME which is one of the oldest and largest museums of mass transit vehicles. The price of a ticket will get you a 30-minute ride into yesteryear on the museum’s 1918 electric trolley that was once used on the Eastern Mass Street Railway line.  

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As part of my research for this trip up the Eastern Seaboard, I had Googled “Lobster Restaurants” and discovered that a guy named Mike Urban had come up with a list of the “12 Best Lobster Shacks in New England” and one of them was “The Clam Shack” right there in Kennebunkport, ME.   So, of course, I had to try one of their lobster rolls for lunch. Yummy, was that ever good! If you are ever in Kennebunkport, try to find a place to park, and walk across the Kennebunk River bridge to “The Clam Shack, and whatever you do, don’t miss the opportunity to try one of their famous lobster rolls. You won’t be sorry.

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Next I visited the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum in Portland, ME where they have a collection of narrow gauge rolling stock and artifacts that were used in Maine during the late 19th century and early 20th century. The museum operates a 1½ mile long narrow gauge railroad, using vintage equipment, which carries passengers along the waterfront of Casco Bay and parallels Portland’s Eastern Promenade.

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While I was in Portland, I visited the Portland Observatory which was built in 1807 and is the last surviving maritime signal tower in the United States. The observatory is an 86 feet tall hexagon shaped structure which sits atop Munjoy Hill, which itself is 222 feet above sea level. Originally located to be seen from the open ocean and the Portland wharfs, the observatory served as a primitive means of ship-to-shore communications for merchantmen and was even used successfully as a watchtower during the War of 1812. Then it was on north another 25 miles or so to Brunswick, ME where I spent the night.

 

    

     —–To Be Continued—–

 

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My Colonial States Trip Part 3

3 Dec

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Bill Stars Plane

My Boston friend had suggested I take the “T” Commuter train from outside the city to avoid traffic and parking problems. So I plugged the Braintree “T” Station address into my Garmin (We call her Greta) and headed north. When Greta announced “Arriving at address on the left,” all I saw was a row of warehouses. I drove around looking for the station with no luck. Finally I asked a guy coming out of one of the warehouse buildings where the train station was. He pointing and said, “Turn at the light and then it’s just over there a few blocks.” I followed his directions and found the station, parked in the parking garage and bought my round-trip ticket at the kiosk. I boarded the “Red” line train to the “Downtown Crossing” station, where I transferred to the “Orange” line for the “State” station, where I transferred to the “Blue” line for the “Aquarium” station, where I got off and found the City View Trolley Tours. Shooo, was that intense!

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The tour of Old Boston and the Inner Harbor was great, with on–off stops where I could visit the many famous “Freedom Trail” landmarks such as the Old North Church, from where it is said Paul Revere received his lantern signal to begin his famous ride to warn the patriots “The British are coming!”; The Old South Church (or Third Church in Boston), which was used as The Meeting House (as a bit of trivia, in 1773, Samuel Adams gave the signals from the Old South Church Meeting House for the “War Whoops” that started the Boston Tea Party); The site in the harbor where the Boston Tea Party took place; and of course, a self-guided walk-thru tour of the USS Constitution and museum.

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I was especially interested in the USS Cassin Young (DD-793) Museum located there in Boston harbor, because one of my tours of duty with the U.S. Navy was aboard the USS Gurke (DD-783). The Cassin Young was a (1943) Fletcher-class destroyer, whereas the Gurke was a little later (1945) Gearing-class destroyer, but they were overall very similar. To say walking thru that destroyer brought back memories is an understatement.

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When I got off the “T” train at the Braintree station that afternoon, I looked at the parking garage, and it was only 4-stories high. I distinctly remembered that the parking garage where I had parked that morning was 5-stories. After many questions to the station attendants, I finally realized that the guy who had given me directions that morning, for some reason, had directed me to the “Quincy Center” station instead. Now I had to buy a one-way ticket and catch the next train back one stop to the Quincy Center station to find my car. What a mess that was, and a big waste of time! Once I got to my car, I headed for the U.S. Naval Shipbuilding Museum in Quincy, Ma to see the heavy cruiser USS Salem. I didn’t spend much time at that museum as I wanted to visit the Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, MA which is a living museum that re-creates life in rural New England during the 1790s thru the 1830s. I tried to get there before they closed, but that didn’t work out because “Greta” took me to the wrong location again. I finally found the Village, but by then they were closed, so I called it a day, had dinner and went to the motel for some rest and TV.

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—–To Be Continued—–

 

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An Amazing Adventure~Part 6

30 Nov

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

JUDY

 

Heading to Utah, we stopped at the Pipe Spring National Monument near Colorado City.  It is a very interesting place—built over a natural spring.  (an interesting footnote is that during World War 2, a series of tankers were built and named after National Parks.  Here is a picture of the S.S. Pipe Spring, courtesy of National Park Service)

S.S. Pipe Spring

I was intrigued to learn that the fort at Pipe Spring was home to the first telegraph station in the state of Arizona.  While not on the original line from Washington D.C., or from San Francisco, the Mormon church built its own adjunct line linking communities north and south to Salt Lake City.  It was called the Deseret Telegraph.  There was a room set up in the fort with the telegraph equipment.  It was manned by women usually, the first being only 16 years old.

We were surprised to learn that Texas Longhorn cattle had been brought to Pipe Spring, and were an integral part of that culture.  There are descendants of the original cattle still there today.

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From Pipe Spring we drove north into Utah, and Zion National Park.  Unfortunately, we decided to take the last eight miles on a road that was barely on the map!  It was full of ruts and holes and took WAAAYYY too long to get to our destination!  But make it, we did, and decided it was the worst part of the trip so far.  Also unfortunately, it was the most direct route to get to Zion.

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Brian wanted to hike to The Narrows—a gorge where there are cliff walls a thousand feet tall with a “narrow” opening through them.

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The Virgin River that runs through there can be relatively calm, or—with flash floods—can be very dangerous.  Fred, Karen and I did a short hike, but then turned back to wait for Brian.  There is no way to hike through The Narrows without getting into the river and depending on the time of year, getting your feet, or knees, or entire body wet.

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It sounded like fun, and we saw plenty of wet, happy folks emerging, but my knees just wouldn’t let me hike very far.  We later took a shuttle ride through the park and got some great pictures.

 

We also saw some deer, and got some good pictures of them.

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We learned that in 1968, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was filmed in the park.

From Zion National Park, we stopped for supper in Hurricane, Utah.  We ate at Durango’s Mexican Grill.  Really good—very similar to Moe’s Mexican Grill, if you are familiar with that.

From there we drove to St. George, Utah.  We stayed in the Lexington Hotel there.  We were about half-way through our trip, so we did our laundry there—enough to keep us in clean clothes until we returned to Orlando.

~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~

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My Colonial States Trip~Part 2

26 Nov

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Bill Stars Plane

 

When I arrived at the Providence station, I was surprised to see several security personnel (including a guard dog) milling around in the lobby. It made me wonder if there was a real security problem or what? I discovered later that they must have been at a shift change, as they soon all seemed to melt into the crowd, and I didn’t even see any homeless people in the station. I called the rental car company for a ride to get my car and was told to wait outside the “Downtown” exit for him. While I was waiting, one of the first persons I saw come out of the station was an attractive “Hooker” dressed in a tight sweater, skin tight leather pants, calf-length high heel boots and a Lady Star style leather cap. She really got the attention of a few convention men there waiting there for their rides.

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After picking up my rental car, I headed east on I-195 to visit the New Bedford Whaling Museum.   I couldn’t believe it when the clerk at the museum asked me where I was from and I said, “You probable have never heard of Titusville, FL.” And he said, “Yes I have, I’m from Orlando.”   And I was thinking “What a small world we live in.” The whaling museum was very interesting, with five different full-size whale skeleton displays and a history of the American whaling industry from its earliest times. They even have a complete large-size whaling ship model of the “Lagoda” on display inside one of the galleries that you can go aboard and explore how life must have been sailing on one of those early whaling ships.

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Then it was on east to the Pilgrim Monument in Providencetown, MA located on the northern tip of Cape Cod. On the way I passed thru towns with some of the most unusual names, such as Sandwich, Mashpee and Barnstable. I wouldn’t even begin to try to pronounce those names correctly. The 252 foot high Pilgrim Monument was erected in 1910 to commemorate the first landfall of the Pilgrims in 1620 and the location of their signing of the Mayflower Compact, which was the first governing document of the Plymouth colony. It was an impressive structure to say the least.

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On the way back to the motel in West Yarmouth, MA I stopped for dinner at the “Moby Dick’s Seafood Restaurant” in Wellfleet, MA. Advertising to serve some of the freshest seafood in the Cape Cod area, and taking the New England clam shack to a new level, they are also uniquely a BYOB restaurant. They served me some of the best fish and chips I have ever had. What a treat after a long day in the air and on the road.

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Early the next day I headed north to Plymouth, MA to visit the Pilgrim Memorial State Park, which is the site of the first Pilgrim Colony, and to see the famous “Plymouth Rock” and the “Mayflower II” ship. Interestingly, there is actually no historical mention of the Pilgrims “landing on a rock at Plymouth” until 1715. That’s when the rock first appeared in a Plymouth town boundary record as “the great rock.” And, it wasn’t until 1741 that the first written mention of the Pilgrims landing on a rock showed up.

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The story goes that a 94 year-old church elder, Thomas Faunce, claimed he knew the precise boulder the Pilgrims first stepped on when they landed in the new world. I’m sure you would find the Googled history of “Plymouth Rock” as interesting as I did. I didn’t go aboard the Mayflower II because I had planned a full day of exploring Old Boston and the Boston Inner Harbor, and needed to be on my way

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—–To Be Continued—–

 

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