All my life I have heard folks expound on the magnificence of Cape Cod. To see if they were liars, we piled into Charlotte and departed the Gateway to Cape Cod, hustled down about 20 miles of I-195 and ultimately crossed the Cape Cod Channel onto the Cape. Travelers are required to pass through a Mecca of south Cape communities like Hyannis before actually turning north onto the real Cape. The roads are a bit better here but speed limits of about 45 miles per hour increase transit time to go anywhere. Eventually, you cross into the Cape Cod National Seashore which is almost completely inaccessible with the exception of about 4 or 5 spots where the Feds have little booths set up to charge idiots to park. The beach is free but the only available parking is not. Places we drove into wanted either $15 or $20 to park but we were again saved by our Federal Lands Access Pass we bought in Gold Beach, Oregon, last year allowing us to drive through the parking lots without cost.
We continued up the Cape until we reached Race Point Beach up near the very northern tip. We piled out of the truck and strolled down to the beach. Peg stuck her toes into the Atlantic and I took pictures and played with the dogs other folks had been considerate enough to bring along. From this beach, we continued on to Provincetown, the village at the end of the Cape. Provincetown is a quite scenic little burg with narrow streets, gorgeous buildings, quaint little alleys, thousands of tourists and virtually no parking where needed. We drove down onto Water Street which runs along the sea and were directed by Gestapo-looking cops to drive very slowly since the streets were clogged with ample tourists all trying to acquire Chinese-made knick-knacks with Cape Cod motifs. It was ugly.
We headed away from the waterfront and drove through the Provincetown graveyard where they have interred thousands of folks who croaked a long time ago. We spotted quite a number of formerly living who had died back in the mid-and early-19th century and that was kind of interesting. We skedaddled from Provincetown, happily without any Chinese merchandise, and headed back down the Cape to Truro, where we checked out the Truro Museum. It had a lot of pictures of old Cape natives and some oral history from each of them which was pretty neat. They also had a lot of stuff that appeared to have come out of locals’ houses when they cleaned out their attics. Some of the stuff is interesting but they charge too much for the entry fee when you consider what they have on exhibit.
In conclusion, I would have to surmise that those who say that the Cape is truly wondrous are suffering from a lack of experience traveling because we have found other places that are more scenic, easier to access, not infested with tourists and altogether more attractive than Cape Cod. It is nice to see once but I’m not sure I would travel again over the horrible Massachusetts roads for so little.
On the way home, we stopped to eat in a restaurant in Onset called Lindsey’s Seafood which was pretty good. I had crab-stuffed haddock which was tip-top and Peg had fried shrimp, which she stated was merely okay. The price was a bit high but the beer selection was okay so we left happy.