Plymouth

Massachusetts – Friday, April 5

It was a rainy morning, so I took my time leaving. I drove a short ways to Hyannis, which looked like a fun town to walk through, and there was only a light rain, so Tula and I set out for a short walk. There are lots of Kennedy signs, murals and memorials here of course, and a Kennedy Legacy Trail – the Kennedy Compound is only about 3 miles away from town. We wandered up and down all of Main Street – past all the little boutiques and shops and eateries. Quite a few were still closed. Lots of places put signs in their windows thanking their customers for a great season last year and announcing the opening date for this year. We went down by the water front, and saw all the signs and parking lots for ferries to Nantucket Island and Martha’s Vineyard – there were not many people down there on a rainy Friday morning in early April! I dried Tula off and put her back in the car and then walked another mile, so I covered almost 3 miles in Hyannis. With some of the extra walking I’ve done, I only needed about 5 1/2 miles today to finish my walking in Massachusetts, so I was going to wrap it up in Plymouth, which seemed like a good place to end my Massachusetts week!

It was a pretty short drive up to Plymouth, and by the time I got there, the rain had stopped and the sky was blue. Plymouth was a great town for walking, and I ended up walking more than I needed to. Harold had warned me about Plymouth Rock being more like Plymouth Stone, and he was right! Whenever I heard of Plymouth Rock, I had always envisioned some massive rock about the size of my van, but the rock is actually quite small and could easily fit inside the van! They’ve built a portico over it, and it sits quite far down in the ground, so no one can touch it or anything – it’s viewed from a distance. And there’s a replica of the Mayflower by one of the docks, but they’ve put a high fence around that whole area, so the only way to go see that is to buy a ticket, which I wasn’t inclined to do. It’s kind of sad that they do that – I don’t see any reason why the replica can’t be there for people to look at – and then you could buy a ticket if you wanted to get on board for a little tour. The fence isn’t for protection from the weather because the top isn’t enclosed and the top of the mast was visible. Based on the size of the fencing and a few little peeks I took between fence boards, it wasn’t a very big boat for such a historic occasion! We also walked through some parks and other historic areas, and by an old grist mill, and into an old cemetery.

It was a fun way to finish up Massachusetts – all in all, I did more than 56 miles of walking, and made all 7 donations – the USO in Boston, Easter Seals, the North Shore Moving Market (Harvest of Hope) in Salem, The Open Door food pantry in Gloucester, Harvard Square Homeless Shelter in Cambridge, Family Promise in Natick, and SKIP in Provincetown. I couldn’t seem to pull myself off the coastal side of the state, but at least I had driven through the western side back when I went from Vermont to Connecticut last September, so at least I had a chance to enjoy some of the mountains on the west side! And once in a while on this side of Massachusetts, I passed what looked like cranberry bogs – the square fields had sort of a cranberry tint, and were low so they could be flooded, so I think that’s what I was seeing. At this point, New England was completely finished – I had expected to be done in this part of the country last November, but plans change, and this was still a nice time to be here. Now I had a long drive to Washington DC, which is the destination for the next week.