Will update Sunday when we hit Milwaukee. We ended up going from Cape Cod to Waterbury Conn heavy traffic, much worse than our Mankato Friday traffic. jerr
NEW Aug UpdateThis morning we are headed up the Cape to visit with a mutual relative and the beauty of the Cape. As we head down from Boston and hook northeast I noticed the sign and it said Plymouth. Figured out it was not a car I had Shirleen see if it was where Plymouth Rock was? Right on, so a detour to see it, as we had time to spare, we thought. We parked our cars close to the rock and National Park person. The rock sets inside a granite portico and metal fenced in area. On the rock is chiseled 1620. The park lady said that the rock was used as a drop off area for the pilgrims. They could only do this when the tide was up. The longboats would approach the rock and the pilgrims would step off onto it and then the beach. She also said the rock is now one third the size it was when they landed here. The government okayed the chipping off of the rock for personal uses. That was stopped in the late 1800’s. When one looked around the area, that was the only rock on the beach, supposedly laid down by the glaciers? We then saw a replica of the
Mayflower. Another three mast ship, small but made it to the US anyway.
As time drew nearer to the time we were going to the east coast I began to think about Uncle Lew. He was a vague memory of mine. He was another of the relation that died when I was in the service. We had found the obituary when we visited Key West and in it, it reminded me of the fact that he was buried in Orleans Mass. I went on the net to look up the historical sight for the town. Low and behold there was one, no e-mail contact but a telephone number, I called a recorder and the next day a lady called me. She asked who I what I was looking for, I said I know that my Uncle Lew M. was buried around Orleans. She said M., I said yes, she said I know a lady by that name, Sandy. I said in the obit it says that he had a nephew, Bruce; she said I think her husbands name was Bruce. I noticed past tense. She said she would contact her and that she may be calling me. 45 minutes later I get a phone call and it was Sandy and yes she had married Bruce, he died in 2000. She remembered Aunt Vi and said that she had kept in letter writing contact with the M.’s for many years. We then set up a time and place to meet and a contact e-mail address. I do not use last names to protect confidentiality.
Off to Orleans for our meeting. We just about didn’t make it, I pulled into a lane and a pickup narrowly missed us. Had I not taken a wrong turn and it became 30 minutes past meeting time. Needless to say we were glad to see Sandy sitting on the bench with her green top on for recognition. Shirleen had on a matching apple green top on. It was nice to see her waiting for us. Sandy‘s husband, Bruce, was the nephew of my Uncle Lew M.. We went into the restaurant to have coffee and the New Englander her tea along with the dropped r’s in her speech. Can you believe I ordered a roll and no one else did. But de ja vu, she asked did I want it grilled? This is how Mom would do her couple day old rolls. See it was meant to be. We chatted for 15 minutes or so and I had some things I brought along for Sandy, hoping that there was a historical society that would hold the memorabilia? She was not sure where it will go but she will look over her M. materials and if there is something about Aunt Vi in it she will forward.
Sandy had worked as a shellfish biologist, working in the area of mussel and clams, and became the conservation administrator of Orleans’s Massachusetts. She held that position of shellfish biologist for many years; this eventually gave her the right material for her first book, “Rowing Forward Looking Back”. The book was encouraged by people in this area. Here is her books forward in its entirety and demonstrates her character as we saw it. “In memory of Bruce, a master at practical applications of ideas, who taught me many things. Among them, he taught me to love this place in different ways than I already did, enriching my life immeasurably in the process.” Oh what powerful words and memories this meant for her. The cover of the book has a picture of her white 16 foot row boat, reading her book it turned out to be a sailboat that Bruce had bought. Now she asked, do you mind if we all drive in my van and I will take you tour you around and visit Lew’s grave. Sandy is a wealth of information about the M.s but has little written, we tried to recreate some of what she said but missed much. Another item that I noticed and it also showed her environmental concern, her license plate, it had a tail of a whale, two seagulls flying overhead and the words Preserve the Trust.
Off we went. What a neat way to tour the back roads of a busy busy area of tourism. She took us to a number of harbor’s starting at Fort Hill. This area is to the Atlantic Ocean side. President JF Kennedy designated Cape Cod’s Atlantic side as our National Seashore. Where the beauty of the shifting sands of Nauset Harbor, make the outer bank sands move. This causes the opening of the bank to move and it becomes navigable during high tides possible otherwise but not as easy. We could see the Nauset Light, salt ponds, fisherpersons and lobster trap bobbers. What a sight to take in.
We came to another beach area and parked close to the beach. A man came forward to ask us to move, he then noticed who she was and they talked. He walked away and suddenly she jumped out of the car and went to him by his boat and two dogs. The dogs just sat there and would not get out of the boat, even though they wanted to. She talked to Mike, he has fished for lobster, mussels and other shellfish. His van gave his company name: Stony Is. Sea-Farm, Orleans Mass. Mike has fished these shores for many years and she would like to interview him for her next book. He will add insight to the fishing and decline of that industry. Again many fishing boats, some folk’s harvesting clams and another peaceful setting. I took a picture of a Historical Marker at that beach it said “Snow Shore – Stephen Snow 1644 overlooks Champlain’s July 1605 anchorage: first white man killed by Nawsetts on the beach – his carpenter Malouin of St. Malo. Home Port, Nausets early fishing fleets. Cable landing – direct wire, Orleans to Brest, France.” This is where the telephone cable ran from the US to Europe. Off again we went.
We visited Rock Harbor on Cape Cod Bay. Again a spectacular overview of the seashore or is it bay shore, you get the drift. More fishing boats, people enjoying the nature feeling away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Communing with nature, what a deal. Here we go again. It was interesting to hear how the Cape iced in from the North. This makes for a short spring because the winds blow the ice to the seashore on the Capes bay side and keeps the area cooler. The summers are mild with the winds off the water. The falls are just spectacular with the changing colors of the leaves.
During our transit we visited the cemetery where the M.’s are buried. The M. plots were close to the roadside. Lew’s father James and his mother Agnes was buried in the next row. All gravesites were marked with footstones. Sandy really felt close to a couple of the family, she felt a fondness for Ginny (Bruce’s mother) and Ida (Freddies (officially known as Norman – Lew’s brothers) wife these were the ultimate women and held themselves more aristocratically than others. This reminded me of Aunt Vi also. Lew’s marker had moss growing on it. I had brought along a couple hosta plants from his wife’s grave, those were from the family Klink's..... grave, with a white fringe and medium green inside. I had taken off the dirt and wrapped them in damp paper towels, much like I did the ones from the Czech Republic in 1995. I unwrapped the plants and spotted new roots growing even though the plants had been in the trunk and had not seen the light of day since we left Minnesota. I planted the hosta’s and felt I made a connection for the two.
We now went to see Portanimicut Landing to see Pleasant Bay. It had a boat launching area and a scenic overlook of boats, big houses and a channel to an inside bay. A sign said Fragile Marsh – No Crossing.
Many homes were decorated with flowers and shrubs, some just beautiful dark blue hydrangeas were evident, again, all over. The Cape Cod home of double windows on each side of the door, half Cape’s with a set of doors on one side and three quarter with two windows on one side and one on the other. Salt boxes were square and the north facing roofs that went almost to the ground. We drove sandy single lane back roads and made sure if we were to make a turn it was headed right, so as not to go against traffic as I had earlier. Her home is set back from the road and covered by trees. She was given this house from an intricate set of circumstances. Bruce’s Aunt Ruth, my Uncle Lew’s sister, and Uncle had lived in the house, he dies, she marries another man, she then dies and the man one relative removed, not related, gave Sandy her Aunt’s house, and this is the one she now lives in, what a generous man he was. Sandy and her mother and four sisters used to have their summer vacations in their Aunt’s rented cottage on Cape Cod, at that time she said the place had no running water and no inside bathroom. She remembers how they liked getting back home for the conveniences. This cottage is currently the storage shed set back from the highway.
Sandy had to get us back to the cars; she had a memorial service to go to early that afternoon. In this short period of time we grew together because of our commonality, we hugged each other and said Good Bye. She indicated she had wanted to come to Minnesota and the surrounding states. If she does I certainly hope she stays with us so we can return the hospitality she had given us.
We headed north; she said a nice place to look at was Wellfleet Harbor. We decided to eat there; we pulled into a, what looked like a restaurant and a group of people told us to go to the Bookstore restaurant. They said it might be full so we just headed north. We saw a restaurant that looked semi busy and yup it was the Bookstore & Restaurant. Did we luck out, there were no tables open outside on the first floor and were seated on the second floor veranda. A clear look into the harbor, many fishing boats came while we were seated. I ordered a appetizer of Oysters Rockefeller, spinach and a white sauce covering the oyster and shell and baked. Not bad a 7 out of 10. Shirleen ordered, you guessed it a lobster roll, Jim a Clam Strip Special and I sole and chips.
Off to the west, wanted to find the house, Wing fort house, Pat S.’s great??????-grandfather built in Sandwich, Mass. We did not see the house as by the time we realized it, it was long gone and back behind us. We drove through some awful traffic, of course, it was Friday night. We came to many dead stops and it carried on for many miles. We found a motel room advertised and pulled into Waterbury Conn. We decided to get a couple of beers and as it was in an Italian restaurant, Nino’s Trattoria, we ordered a Margareta pizza, tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, and basil. Look at the order of the ingredients, the color is from the Italian flag for Queen Margareta. Our waitress, Laura - an older lady and making a little pin money, gave us the ok to drink beer alone, as she has too. When she brought our second beer over, they were really full, she said she sipped a little out so it wouldn’t spill. Neat lady.
Off for the west in the morning, destination unknown. jerr
You are as colorful as these vases. Love Grandma and Grandpa
Heading south, now we run into a strong snow squalls. Some of the largest flakes I have ever seen. Slow moving traffic except in my outer lane with the accumulating slop. The Ranch was out of town to the west, looked all white, hard to say how it normally looks. We found the check-in center and met Patti. We exchanged some small talk and she filled us in on the happenings. Now that we have 3 to 5 inches of heavy snow on the ground and the restaurant shutdown because of it we were escorted to our home for the three days. Turns out they don’t even have a snow shovel or snow scraper for the windows. We have been here for two hours and it is still snowing. Watching the travel channel and we have more snow in Texas than the Musk Ox’s have in the Artic circle, that we are watching.
