Boston to Provincetown
I fell asleep within minutes of finishing last night’s diary. Not even new Family Guy or the prospect of a reality TV programme about Hulk Hogan could keep me awake.
After a great night’s sleep, we checked out of our hotel, and set of walking towards the train station, where Hertz had told us to collect the car. It was hot and tiring, but we broke up the journey with breakfast at a diner. I had the $3.15 breakfast special: two eggs, toast and bacon. Debbie had "english muffins" and bacon. It was just what we needed.
At the train station, the Hertz office turned out to be a telephone. The news stand owner next to the telephone explained to us that to collect our car we needed to take a taxi to another part of town, and that he’d explained to Hertz many times that by sending customers here they were misinforming them.
A $5 taxi ride did indeed take us where we needed to be. If it hadn’t have been for the breakfast, we may well have resented a wasted walk.
The nice lady at Hertz made no attempt to talk us into an upgrade (foolish, for we were succeptible) and we left in a Mercury Sable — the same 3L V6 model we drove on the Great Northern. It’s ideal: the parking brake is operated by a pedal, and there are two cupholders, an armrest and a wide recess for snacks where British drivers might expect to find a handbrake.
We failed to follow our directions out of the parking garage at the first stage, but recovered and were soon on Interstate 93 heading South out of Boston. I noticed that we would be passing Plymouth at round about lunchtime, so we decided to stop there.
Plymouth is a pretty harbour town that’s proud to cash in on its history. Lunch wasn’t fancy: a seafood roll for me and a cheeseburger for Debbie. Once we’d eaten, we had a brief stroll around the more prominent sights. First was the Mayflower II, a boat that looks like an old boat.. We decided not to go in for a look inside. Assuming it was the same size as the real Mayflower, that was a pretty small boat to cross the Atlantic in.
Nearby was Plymouth Rock, reputedly where the first pilgrims first set foot on the mainland. Both of us expected Plymouth Rock to be a geographical feature; a cliff or an outcrop. It turns out to be a boulder.
Fed and educated, we set back off towards Cape Cod. Moving onto Cape Cod involved traversing a roundabout, or "rotary". Roundabouts are very sensible, and nobody seemed to be having any problems. Why aren’t they more common in the USA?
The road around Cape Cod starts as a wide divided highway, and gradually peters out until in Provincetown you inch along a one-way street, squeezing around pedestrians. There are lots of picturesque clapperboard buildings, many of which are art and craft shops. Minigolf abounds in the towns along the way.
In Provincetown, the frequency of men walking around hand in hand increases greatly. They’re not all wearing leather caps, but only because it’s hot.
Our hotel, the Provincetown Inn, is right on the tip of the Cape. We have a view across a little bay to the sand spit that completes the hook of the cape. Over a man-made causeway is an area of tidal flatland. Above our room there is a flag containing the silhouette of a whale.
The hotel appears to present a different piece of theatre every night of the week. The cast publicity photos for these actually do feature leather caps. The receptionist commiserated with us about the week London had had. Hey, don’t forget the Olympics!
A stone’s throw from the hotel, a monument indicates that this, not Plymouth, is where the Pilgrim Fathers’ first landfall occurred.
We took a shuttle bus into town, to buy some essentials (anti-perspirant!) and had a brief look around the tourist heart of the town. It has unique shopping opportunities, such as a dog bakery (which I consider cruel).
I ended up being lured to a kite shop, and buying a parafoil stunt kite: it’s reasonably priced and very compact when packed away. Unfortunately it wasn’t windy enough to give it a test flight.
On our return shuttle, the driver commiserated with us about London.
TV news is primarily concerned with Hurricane Dennis, which has wreaked havoc on parts of Florida. In it’s final throes, it’s due to bring some thunderstorms to us tonight, but I think we’re going to act as if we’ve not been warned.
We took a refreshing swim in the bay, which cooled us down beatifully. Now after showering off the salt, we’re heading back for the shuttle bus to town, where we will hunt down dinner.
We took in the bustle of Provincetown in the evening, where drag queens try to lure you into restaurants. I was amused by "Strangeways" record shop. I assume your average American Smiths fan is not aware of the derivation of "Strangeways here we come". Stangeways records earns approval by having a prominent Cake display in its window.
According to the little booklet we picked up earlier in the day, this week is "bear week". We wondered what this meant: maybe the local artists were invited to concentrate on bears. Maybe there would be a parade of people in bear costumes.
Bears were welcome in many shops, it seemed.
Then I remembered a "Never Mind the Buzzcocks" show, where it came to light that Phil Jupitus is much admired by the "eurobear" community. Bears are large, hairy gay men. They often wear leather caps. We went into a shoe shop (Debbie wants some sandals that rub different parts of her feet). It sold other leather goods, including jackets and lots of leather caps.
We noticed a queue at the Lobster Pot restaurant, and took that as a good sign. Our own queueing was rewarded with a cute lobster shaped radio buzzer.
In a little while, it buzzed, and in a little while longer we were both feasting on lobster. Debbie’s nails made life difficult, so it was amusing that she got the more stubborn crustacean.
By the time we left it was dark and pleasantly cool. We fell out of the shuttle bus and into our bed, exhausted once more. Soon, I hope, we settle down to a less tiring routine of just driving and eating…
(Entry uploaded using the free WiFi hotspot at Subway in Provincetown. We bought a drink. See, it works.)
July 12th, 2005 at 11:08 pm
Hello!
Keep up the good comms. Glad you seem to be having a good time, but look after dem feet.
It’s just as hot in Pembs., where we have just had a wonderful couple of days. Too hot for more than 6 miles a day! Had one of best meals ever in The Old Pharmacy at Solva.
July 14th, 2005 at 9:44 am
It’s even hotter and a LOT less fun in London. But we did go for delicious Japanese food last night. Not as good as Solva by all accounts though.