Rand's Web Page

Northeast Trip (page 10)

The Plimouth Plantation is recreated as accurately as the available history will allow.

Becky is stepping back into history.

There were many period actors around who were expert at explaining their surroundings.

Reverse view with a fort in the background.

This grist mill has its origins in 1632 (although the original burned down).

A small brook operates this large water wheel.

The wheel drives this gear which in turn rotates the stones above to grind the corn. The corn then comes down a chute just in front of the large beams.

Plymouth Rock marks the site where the Mayflower may have landed.

This Mayflower II is a reproduction of the original ship. We learned that the crew stayed mainly above, the passengers in the middle portion (no windows) and their furniture and supplies were in the hold. This reproduction was sailed on the original route in 1957. It has been refurbished again since then.

Only two people died on the crossing but half the party died within the first year of settlement. Well before they arrived, Dutch fishermen had passed on smallpox to the natives killing 75% of them in 1616 (four years before the arrival of the Mayflower).

We got word that the trailer was not going to be done until Monday. We settled into a hotel. I was sick Sunday so we took that day off. We then drove to Cape Cod. This is in Hyannis at the JFK museum.

We then toured the Cape Cod National Seashore. This is an abandoned Coast Guard Station.

This is the Cape Cod shoreline. The sands are constantly shifting from the action of the Atlantic Ocean. The eastern shoreline loses some three feet per year and that is deposited mostly at the north end. The main attraction of Cape Cod are the beaches (summertime).

This is the Nauset Lighthouse. It had to be moved at least three times due to erosion of the beach in front of it.

These have also been moved. They are no longer in use. They were called the Three Sisters. I call them Lainey, Kenna and Adalie.

We got the call that the trailer was fixed while we were at the far end of Cape Cod. We arrived to pick it up after they closed. The fix was no good as the wheel still was in contact with the wheel well. We slept in the trailer on their property until the morning. They had put in a leaf spring with 3 leafs where the working side had 4. The dealer of the springs insisted 3 was correct. We told the mechanic to make it right and headed off to the laundromat. We spent about $25 to do 12 days worth of laundry. At that rate, that would come to $760/year. You could easily buy a washer/dryer in 2 years at that rate.

We were about to visit another state capitol (Providence RI) when we got the call that the trailer was fixed. So we took a quick selfie (illegally parked) and headed back.

This time it was fixed correctly for no additional charge.

We drove as far as we could which was near New Haven Connecticut. We got a note from Katie indicating it would be better if we got there by the weekend so we booked it across 5 states the next day (Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia). This is some of the nice view we had driving along the Housatonic River.

We arrived in Harper's Ferry by 4:30 in the afternoon. We set up camp and were at the Harpers Ferry National Historic Site just before 5:00. This allowed us time to tour the site. This is the town of Harpers Ferry with John Brown's Fort in the foreground. I was always confused as to whether John Brown was a hero or an insurrectionist. I'm not sure I know now but he is responsible for starting a series of events that ultimately led to freedom for slaves.

Nearby is the Potomac River as is meets the Shenandoah River.

In two days we drove from Connecticut to North Carolina so we could see Claire do a walk-a-thon on Friday October 20th. We set up camp near Smithfield and finished our day with a bike ride on their nice Greenway.

The bike path runs along the Neuse River. It was a nice paved trail in mostly tree tunnels. It felt like it was downhill both ways.