Cape Cod

Today we explored Cape Cod.  Cape Cod looks like an arm extending from the mainland of Massachusetts.  It extends 65 miles into the Atlantic Ocean, with a breadth of between 1–20 miles.  It is fringed with 300 miles of sandy beaches, salt marshes and sand dunes.  Cape Cod was named by explorer Bartholomew Gosnold, who landed at the cape in 1602.  He told tales of the seas so full of codfish, that a man could almost walk on their backs from one point of land to another without getting their feet wet.  We drove clear to the end of the cape to the town of Provincetown. It was raining almost the entire time, so we didn’t get to walk the beaches as much as we wanted, but we did get some pictures.

Cape Cod

Plymouth, Massachusetts

We left Connecticut this morning, traveled through Rhode Island and now have landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts.  For some history, during the 16 century a group of English Puritans known as Separatists attempted to reform the Church of England. To avoid persecution, they hopped on the Mayflower at Plymouth, England and set sail for Virginia.  Diverted by storm, they landed on the shores of Cape Cod.  They ended up staying in the area and established a colony called Plymouth.  Today, these settlers are much better known as “Pilgrims”, a term coined by William Bradford.  Plymouth faced many difficulties during its first winter, the most notable being the risk of starvation and the lack of suitable shelter. The spring brought hope to the settlement along with a group of Indians who befriended the Pilgrims and taught them to raise crops, hunt and fish.  After the harvest that fall, members of the Plymouth Colony joined with the Indians in a three day feast, the first American Thanksgiving celebration, ingratitude for their blessings. 

This area is quite different than where we were in Connecticut. There are highways and cars everywhere. Although today was sunny and in the low 80’s, the rest of the week and weekend has a forecast of rain, wind and storms. We were hoping to go whale watching, but it is cancelled for the next few days due to the weather.  We also want to visit the cranberry bogs.  Hopefully we can still see them farm the cranberries.

We are staying at the Sandy Pond campground.  The pond is part of the campground.

SANDY POND

Northwest Connecticut



Today we traveled through the small colonial towns that are scattered throughout the northeast part of Connecticut. These included towns such as Litchfield, Kent, West Cornwall, Woodbury, Torrington, New Milford and Roxbury.  It was such a peaceful landscape with country roads and covered bridges. Alongside the roads were many streams, rivers and water falls.  The main river was the Housatonic River.  The weather was sunny and in the mid 70's. 

 

 

 

 

 



From WV to Connecticut

We started off at 8:30am this morning and headed to New England. It was a full day of travel as we went through West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York and finally arrived in Connecticut. We traveled 481 miles in 9 1/2 hours at 11.8 miles per gallon. There was a lot of construction projects on the interstates that resulted in many traffic jams. We are currently camping at the Cozy Hills Campground in Bantam, CT. The leaves haven't yet turned colors.  That means they will be turning as we travel throughout New England. :) Tomorrow we will exploring the area.