Thanksgiving Secret

Posted on November 26, 2013November 26, 2013 by Dusty Roads

What would you say if I told you the first Thanksgiving wasn’t in Plymouth? I bet you’d ask me how many glasses of holiday wine I’d had! But I promise you, it’s true.

Long before the Pilgrims even set foot on Plymouth Rock the Spanish had settled parts of Florida. 55 years before the Mayflower the costal town of St. Augustine was established and the settlers came together to share a feast with the native Timucuans.

Now you may not want to let the children read the rest of this post. Because I’m going to tell you something else about Thanksgiving.

Back up north the Pilgrims were starving, that’s true, until they learned to cultivate the rocky soil and hunt the native game. Legend says that it was the Native Americans that helped them survive and that in gratitude the Pilgrims invited the Wampanoag to celebrate the harvest.

Once again, not quite true. The Wampanoag were actually invited to that Thanksgiving feast for the purpose of negotiating a treaty that would secure the lands of the Plymouth Plantation for the Pilgrims. It should also be noted that the INDIANS, possibly out of a sense of charity toward their hosts, ended up bringing the majority of the food for the feast.

But even that story is disputed in some corners. Some say the Pilgrims weren’t expecting any Indians that day. If that’s true then the Wampanoag that came down the trail that morning were some of the first gate crashers!

The history of the White Puritan Settlers and the native tribes of America is complicated and punctuated with many wars and bloodshed. We were no kinder to the local population in the east than we were years later when we expanded to the West.

It’s a long, sad story but if you want to know about what really happened, here is a good resource for further reading. http://www.manataka.org/page269.html

Something to think about as Thanksgiving nears.

Lighthouses along the Massachusetts Coast

Posted on August 22, 2013August 22, 2013 by Dusty Roads

I ran around trying to get pictures of lighthouses last summer. I had it in my head that the best lighthouses to photograph were in Maine. It was a fun trip and I got some beautiful shots but I overlooked the fact that there are 16 lighthouses just on Cape Cod. Cape Cod is a day trip for me and what about the rest of the Massachusetts Coast?

Boston Harbor Cruises offers 2 Lighthouse Cruises, a “northern” and a “southern”. Of course they are always on a Saturday night so I haven’t had the chance to take either. But this year I haven’t been looking for lighthouses. I’ve been chasing whales and seals and in process look what I’ve seen!

Gurnet Light

This has been my nemesis of a light since I heard of it. The Lighthouse is not open to the pubic and is accessible only by four- wheel- drive vehicles from Duxbury Beach. But even if you have a four- wheel -drive, which I do not, the road is not open to the public either.

If you want to hike it, which I have considered, it’s only about 5 miles each way. (With camera gear I’d rather not) The other option is from the water but I don’t have a boat so I was thrilled to pass right by it on Captain John’s Whale Watch trip.

Bug Light AKA Duxbury Pier Light

Seems like there are “Bug” Lights everywhere. They refer to little lighthouses, many are “spark plug” like in shape but most also have a real name like this one. Although known as “Bug Light” it’s real name is Duxbury Pier Light. It was built in 1871 on the north side of the main channel in Plymouth Harbor to mark the dangerous shoal off Saquish Head. It was the first so-called spark plug lighthouse in the US.

To really appreciate this spark plug of a light you need to read The Keeper of Bug Light http://www.buglight.org/Harry%20Salter%20Buglight.pdf It’s an easy read and very interesting.

`Let’s take a quick swing down to Chatham on Cape Cod. As I looked at the seal colony we cruised past Chatham Lighthouse with Lighthouse beach in front. (If I ever do a Cape Cod series you’ll see this one again.)

Today, the former keeper’s house is an active U.S. Coast Guard station, with on-duty personnel living quarters. Search and Rescue, maritime law enforcement, and Homeland Security missions are carried out here. Flotilla 11-01 of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary operates from this station.

This is located right on Main St so it’s easy to get to unlike some of the other’s mentioned here. Lets take a look at a couple more in my next post.

National Monument to the Forefathers

Posted on August 12, 2013August 12, 2013 by Dusty Roads

What do you think of when someone says Plymouth, MA? I bet Plymouth Rock and the Mayflower come to mind right away. Maybe you think of Pilgrims and Plimouth Plantation. But I wonder if you knew that Plymouth is also home to the world’s largest solid granite monument,the third-tallest statue in the United States?

As you follow RT 44 into Plymouth there’s a little sign pointing to the National Monument to the Forefathers. I have driven by that sign so many times that I’ve lost count. Every time I drive by I say to myself, “I need to check that out sometime.” but I never seem to take the time. Sometimes fate has to take a hand.

The other night I was heading home just about dusk. As I started up RT 44 I ran into a detour for road construction. The detour routed traffic down Allerton St. As I followed the detour signs I turned a corner and my mouth dropped. I was glad I had the camera with me because I was looking at a huge statue. I had no idea the National Monument to the Forefathers was so impressive. I walked up to take a closer look.

The monument, which faces northeast to Plymouth Harbor (and, roughly, towards Plymouth, England), sits in the center of a circular drive. On the main pedestal stands the heroic figure of “Faith” with her right hand pointing toward heaven and her left hand clutching the Bible. Counter-clockwise from the feet of “Faith” are Morality, Law, Education, and Liberty. Each was carved from a solid block of granite, posed in the sitting position upon chairs with a high relief on either side of minor characteristics. Under “Morality” stand “Prophet” and “Evangelist”; under “Law” stand “Justice” and “Mercy”; under “Education” are “Youth” and “Wisdom”; and under “Liberty” stand “Tyranny Overthrown” and “Peace”.

As I explored this colossus and its little park, more and more cars pulled up and stopped. I bet there were more people visiting the monument thanks to the detour than normally visit all summer!

If you’re coming to Plymouth, MA it will only take a minute to stop by this monument and it is definitely worth those few minutes.

Cabby Shack

Posted on August 8, 2013August 8, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Oh I’ve been busy, busy, busy. Monday and Tuesday of the past two weeks have been just beautiful. Low 80’s, sunny and minimal humidity. Perfect days for getting out and about.

I’ve been trying to cram a lot in those 2 days because that’s pretty much the only chance I have to get stories to tell you here. I’m still trying to figure out how my vacation time and money is going to work out with this new job so nothing to report on that front. I’d like to go to Yellowstone next year but I don’t know if that is going to work or not. In the mean time I’ll keep taking “Mini” vacations on Monday and Tuesdays.

The cabby Shack is located in Plymouth, MA right on the waterfront. It’s a typical waterfront restaurant with typical waterfront fare, fried scallops, fish and chips, clam boats, a smaller broiled section and a few burgers.

The food is good and you can sit inside or outside. I stopped there for dinner the other night. Believe me when I tell you that you won’t get any bargain here. I had the fried scallops and a light beer and the bill was $29.00! (Before tip) It’s one of those places where certain dishes are marked “Market price”.

It was good and for an occasional treat, certainly worth it. But back to the reason I chose this restaurant. It made me think of Key West. I know that’s a stretch but the first time I went to Key West we had dinner in a restaurant that had 2 levels. We sat in the upstairs level. The building was surrounded by palm trees.

Well, as you can see in the pictures, this little restaurant in Plymouth also has 2 levels and is surrounded by palm trees. If I have to pay a little extra for the ambiance of the Key West Connection, then so be it.

Now we just need a little Jimmy Buffet to make it perfect.

Whale Watching

Posted on August 1, 2013August 1, 2013 by Dusty Roads

A friend asked me what whale watching was like. The question caught me off guard. I was on my way to Plymouth to do exactly that, take a Whale Watch trip with Capt’n John.

As we pulled out of Plymouth Harbor I looked around at all the people on the boat and thought about the question. It’s a lot like fishing. You go out with your bait , toss in your line and …wait and wait…and wait and if you’re lucky you get a bite and if you’re really lucky you get a fish.

Well when you go whale watching you get on a boat and ride, and ride and ride some more. Finally someone spots a spout or blow and the boat slows down. Now you wait in one spot while everyone looks around the boat to see if the whale is going to surface any place close. If your lucky you’ll see another blow and maybe a back.

The jackpot or whale watching’s equivalent of landing the fish is having the huge mammal cruise along side the boat giving you a real good look. To borrow a phrase from Animal Planet’s show Call of the Wildman; “That’s live action , Baby!”

Just off the tip of Cape Cod we got we got our first blow with the Pilgrim Tower of Provincetown in the background. Several Minke Whales were passing through. Minke whales are one of the smallest of the baleen whales, growing to only 24-26 ft. Baleen whales are filter feeders. They strain water though the baleen hairs and Krill and other small marine creatures are captured there. Hard to believe feeding this way can result in such a large animal.

They were small and kept their distance (kind of like a nibble in fishing). It was enough to get everyone excited but not close enough for pictures. So we motored on.

It didn’t take too much longer before we got another blow. This time it was a Fin Back Whale and there was more than one. The naturalist kept telling us that the fin backs were the greyhounds of whales around here (Massachusetts) but they didn’t seem to be in a big rush. They cruised along near the surface doing shallow dives and short blows.

At one point one of them cruised right next to the boat . You could actually see it as it began to come to the surface which made timing the picture for when it surfaced pretty easy.

The naturalist was using the size of our boat to estimate the length of the whales. She said they were all around 80 ft. long.

I don’t know how many different whales we saw. I lost track.

I checked Capt. John’s web sites but they didn’t post our trip. 🙁 No humpbacks today. They are my favorite. When they dive you get the classic tail flukes but when Fin Backs dive there’s no tail. It makes me think of a submarine.