DAY 15 - FRIDAY 21st SEPTEMBER 2007

Plymouth and Plimouth Plantation (Miles to Date: 880)

The plan was for this day was to set off early. We broke our record of recent weeks by being up, washed, breakfasted and in the car by 9:10am. Now the mistake we then made was to detour to Pembroke to pick up a package from the UPS store, which happened to be inconveniently located next to a Dress Barn. Karen had earlier realized that the good clothes she had packed for funerals and other such sombre occasions hadn’t actually been packed in our rush to leave Ardsley. If you had seen us depart Ardsley you would have thought we desperados leaving town under the cover of darkness before the authorities caught up with us – I expect our pictures are up on the walls of Starbucks and Ardsley Hardware with a hefty bounty on our heads. That aside we got lost in Pembroke, but found we were “close” to the town of Hanson, which proved too strong an attraction for Karen to resist getting a photo of Jack and Emily by the sign of the town to send to Laura. So finally we managed to get away and find the aforementioned UPS store and its neighbour, the Dress Barn. So Karen and Emily went into Dress Barn to pick up a few things while I popped into the UPS store. Big mistake!!! We finally depart for our original destination, Plymouth, and arrive there shortly after noon – the 25 miles between our origin and destination had taken a lapsed time of approaching 3 hours – an average speed of 8.3333 miles per hour.

We arrived finally in Plymouth …. Phew. For those of you (I would guess this is mainly for the benefit of our friends in the UK) who don’t know the significance of Plymouth, it was the landing place of the Pilgrim Fathers in December 1620. Actually they first landed in what is now Province Town on Cape Cod. These people were farmers and what they found on Cape Cod; sand dunes (not good for crops), flat (not good for defending), unfriendly natives (not good for living long) and no water (not good at all), didn't suit them. So after 6 weeks they set off again and landed on the mainland and settled in what they called Plymouth, after the town from which they set out from. 102 Pilgrims had set out on the trip on board the Mayflower and by all accounts it was a tempestuous 66 day crossing – they had to turn back twice in the English Channel as the second ship due to make the crossing kept taking in water and was deemed not sea worthy (they eventually gave up on this ship and all crowded on to the one vessel). The first year for the Pilgrims was tough and about half of them died, but they were fortunate enough to set-up an alliance with the local Native Americans, the Wampanoag. The Wampanoag Nation extended through what is now Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. The leader of the Wampanoag tribes, Massasoit, decided significantly an alliance with the English settlers would strengthen their position with respect to neighbouring Nations. The event of Thanksgiving was born out of one feast that occurred between the settlers and the Wampanoag. If it had not been for this alliance it is likely the Plymouth settlement would have floundered. Plymouth was not the first settlement in the US – this honour goes to Jamestown in Virginia – but at that time the nearest settlement was hundreds of miles south at the mouth of the Hudson River.

At Plymouth we went down to the waterfront, where there is a State Park. The two main exhibits here are the Mayflower II and Plymouth Rock. Mayflower II was built as a replica of the original Mayflower and made the journey from Plymouth, England to Plymouth, USA in 1957. This year was the 50th anniversary of the sailing and they were giving free entry to all those who are 50 in this year – unfortunately for Karen she was born 19 days too late so we had to pay for her entry. Never mind she'll be getting senior discounts soon enough. The boat is a very impressive recreation and it is hard to believe that 102 passengers and 35 crew fitted into such a small space. On board were a number of interpretive staff to answer questions and also a number of people who were in role – they were dressed and acted as if they were in period and despite the taunts and trickery of the visitors they impressively did not slip from character. After touring the Mayflower we went across to see the Plymouth Rock. Now I don’t want to be insulting to my American friends but I was somewhat disappointed by the rock, or as Jack and Emily labelled it – Plymouth Pebble. En route we had to run the gauntlet of a very nice elderly gentleman offering pony and cart rides around Plymouth. I of course tried to avoid eye contact to prevent the embarrassment of not supporting this poor gentleman in his dotage. Of course such niceties do not extend to the rest of my family who stopped to pat the horse and engage the man in conversation. The man was a real sweetie (obviously trying to break my will of iron). He gave Karen (at no charge) a print of a picture a friend of his had done of Mother Theresa of Calcutta … we will obviously cherish this and mount it on our return to civilisation or if nothing else pass it to some friends as a present. He said he had also given this picture to Prince Andrew and the Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, when they took his carriage during a visit to Plymouth. Being polite they sent him a letter of thanks - we so far have slipped from these high standards of ettiquette. Dragging ourselves away we went to see the aforementioned Plymouth Rock, around which they have built a large pillared monument over (I guess so you can find the rock). It is also in a cage - I guess to stop it escaping and running off to sea. The only distinguishing feature of the Rock (which is about 6ft x 4ft x 3ft) is that it has 1620 carved into. Plymouth Rock supposedly (although this is questioned by scholars) marks the landing spot of the Pilgrims.

Our next stop was Plimouth Plantation (this is how it is spelt). This is a great place to visit – the three main attractions are living museums; a Wompanpoag village, a Colonial village (supposedly Plymouth settlement in 1627) and a craftsman’s workshop.

The Wompanoag village is manned (and womaned) by members of the Wompanoag tribe – they are dressed traditionally but don’t try to play in the character of their 17th century descendents. They can talk about life as it was then but equally are pleased to discuss how they live today and what is happening within their Wompanoag Nation (there are about 5000 active members). It was very interesting to hear a wide range of views on subjects ranging from politics and the status of establishing a Wompanoag reservation to schooling and the reintroduction of their language. The buildings’ construction was similar to those of the Powhatan we saw in the Jamestown settlement museum in Virginia except they had used bark for the main material instead of reeds.

I found the Colonial settlement to be excellent – it felt a lot more genuine than the reconstruction in Jamestown. This was also manned but by people who were in character – virtually every house (and there were a dozen or more) had someone in it in character and you could have a great chat with them about the settlement, its people and what was going on in the world (although in 1627 this was largely a myopic perspective). We had a great time, and whilst it took Jack and Emily a little while to get into it (they at first wanted just to chase the chickens around – but some “gentle” persuasion coaxed them out of their pursuit) they really took to talking to the characters.

The final exhibit is the craft centre where they have craftsman working on materials for the other exhibits; such as furniture, textiles and pottery. You can watch them and quiz them on what they are working on. Emily was taken by someone fletching (making arrows) who appeared to be of native American descent. He taught Emily some moose calls – and for those who don’t know she loves moose. This relationship went well until he told her he hunted them.

All in all I would thoroughly recommend the Plimouth Plantation for a visit.

DAY 14 - THURSDAY 20st SEPTEMBER 2007

Wompatuck State Park & Hull (Miles to Date: 811)

The weather had been improving all week and this morning was glorious – at least it would have been if we had not been woken up at 2:00am by a crashing noise outside. Karen woke first and leapt of bed believing somebody was stealing the bikes, and making as much noise as she could. This of course woke Mark who thought there was a rutting moose inside the tent a thought that was then replaced by Karen was having one of her vivid dreams until he heard the noises himself. Karen, being far the braver of the pairing went out of the tent to investigate the noise to be confronted by the stare of a raccoon – who being confronted by a scary human, with that just woken sticky up hair look and doing an impression of a rutting moose run off into the woods. We went back to bed, but as many people know raccoons are tenacious and cunning beasts and they came back a further two times. On the last occasion we went out to finally scare them off armed with a maglite torch and some rocks – by this time we found out that were actually two raccoons (which we later named Smash and Grab) who looked at us as if we were mad before running off. We found our newly acquired sour cream coffee cake in its packaging inside a plastic bag half way towards the woods – which was obviously their planned dinner for that day. It took about 20 minutes to pack away the food to safety before we went back off to bed knowing we had defeated those horrible beasts of the night.


As one might guess we were somewhat tired in the morning (at least the grown-ups were). We went into the village of Hingham to get some much need sustenance in the form of Starbucks coffee and a pastry. This also gave me a chance to get connected to the wireless LAN (available at your local Starbucks – courtesy of T-Mobile – hence not free). I had purchased an aircard; a PC card that plugs into your laptop and allows you to connect to the internet via the wireless mobile phone network. This is a good solution for the mobile traveller but has the problem of being very slow in areas where the signal strength is weak – for example State Park campsites. Going on to a wireless LAN was like moving from the Dark Ages into the Industrial Revolution and I was able to make the arrangements for Karen’s trip to the UK to attend her mother’s funeral. I have made a mental note never to go back to dial up connections!!

By the time I had done all the necessary arrangements Jack and Emily were getting on the wrong side of being restless and it was time to go before things got ugly and we got banned and became an International outcast from Starbucks. We decided to go to Hull – not to far down the coast from where we were in Hingham. Now I mention Hingham, I don’t think I have fully briefed you all on this delightful town. It is very, very, very up-market – some of the houses are the size of a complete English Village. I have lived in smaller 4 bedroom houses than the garages on a number of the houses. It is the sort of town with a centre that doesn’t have many useful shops – mainly expensive boutiques and coffee shops. It is also near to the sea and has a quaint marina. One might hope to win the lottery and live there (perhaps not in the winter). Oh where was I …. Yes we went off to Hull which a peninsula which juts out into Boston Bay. Our mission was to find the Museum of Life Saving – which we struggled initially to find and when we did it was closed. So the only thing left to do was to head down to the beach, eat our lunch and play in the sea. The weather as continuing to be kind – we were blessed with bright sunshine and temperatures in the high 70Fs. After an hour or so it was time to head back to campsite for an early night of hopefully unbroken sleep.

DAY 13 - WEDNESDAY 19th SEPTEMBER 2007

Wompatuck State Park & Issac Winslow House (Miles to date 782)

We were woken at 2.00am by the phone with the sad news that Karen’s mother had passed away. This news was upsetting but not unexpected – it was a little while before we got back to sleep. Fortunately last night was warmer than the night before so this helped us get some sleep for the remainder of the night.

When we finally awoke it was a cloudy morning but the nip in the air we had had for the past four of five days had gone. We had a leisurely breakfast whilst the kids got on with some of their school work – getting them to do this on a regular basis is challenging but slowly the message does seem to be getting through. Jack is generally the most resistive to start but when he does gets on with it – on the other hand Emily is better at starting but keeping her focused is the main issue.

Karen got talking with the family opposite who seem to be like ourselves leading a nomadic life. Their life seems very complicated and whilst our journey is to some degree out of choice theirs is not and they are living in a tent whilst they get the place they plan to move into is finished – apparently this has been their way of life for over 2 months. Whenever you get to feel life is not great it is not difficult to find others who are in a much worst predicament.

After the morning was next to over we decided to go to Starbucks to take advantage of their wireless internet connection so I could check flight times for Karen. Whilst I tinkered Jack read Barry Trotter (an amusing parody of Harry Potter) and Karen and Emily played some board games kindly provided by our hosts. After several mornings of really bad coffee it was good to get something more palatable.

Refreshed to some degree we set of south to explore the coastal towns further down the Massachusetts coast line. We passed through some very nice towns, including Scituate, which seemed to have a few different sections including a pleasant harbour.

As part our planned outing was to provide the children with some historical studies we pulled into the Issac Winslow house which is maintained by a local historical society. We were greeted by the very jovial character, Mark Schmitt, Director of the museum, who turned out to be the proceeded to give us a very personal tour of the house. It was great to meet someone so enthusiastic and knowledgeable on their subject. Edward Winslow was one of the Pilgrims who traveled across on the Mayflower in 1620. Edward was not the one to build the house it was actually his grandson, Issac, who did the deed in 1699. Jack and Emily were fascinated by the tour, which covered the kitchens, great rooms, parlour and bedrooms. They were particularly captured by the story of lady Penelope’s ghost who apparently haunts one of the bedrooms. During the tour we learnt some new meanings of common use phrases, including:

• Pop Goes The Weasel. The "weasel" refers to a spinner's weasel, a mechanical yarn measuring device consisting of a spoked wheel with an internal ratcheting mechanism that clicks every two revolutions and makes a "pop" sound after the desired length of yarn is measured. "Pop goes the weasel", in this meaning, describes the repetitive sound of a machine governing the tedious work of textile workers toiling for subsistence wages


• House warming. This is where the kindly people in a community would take up some of the hot coals from their own fire an take it around to some of their neighbours to help light their fires.


• Sleep tight. This is reference to the colonial beds which didn’t have springs but instead had rope strung across the bed with a feather and down mattress on top. The practice of the day was to tighten the rope by means of some wooden staves which were twisted into the ropes.


• Turning a man down. This phrase was bought about by the tradition in the colonial times of a gentleman coming to ask for a woman’s hand in marriage providing a gift of a mirror. The lady if she desired to accept would look into the mirror and smile but if she so inclined to say no she would turn the mirror facing down on a table – hence “turning the man down”.

To end the day we went slight further south to the village of Duxbury, which has some of the most fantastic houses with views across the very pretty bay with boats moored out on the water. At the end of the town is a wooden bridge which takes you out to the sand spit of Duxbury beach. Despite the drizzle and the cool weather Emily and Jack decided to brave the elements and went for a paddle in crashing waves. I joined them momentarily - long enough to discover the water was freezing.

DAY 11 - MONDAY 17th SEPTEMBER 2007

Nickerson State Park & Wompatuck State Park, Massachusetts

It was very cold last night – it was about 48oF or so – but when you are in a tent that feels very cold. As a consequence it was not the best nights sleep ever. Also for the first time we heard some of the local wildlife in night time action. There was some unidentified creature squeaking and scurrying around outside the tent in the early hours, followed by some howls from which we assume were several prowling coyotes.

The morning was very bright but chilly. Today was the day of our planned move to Wompatuck State Park (up towards Boston) so it was time to dismantle the tent and move on.

Jack and Emily amused themselves playing with some new friends they had made Austin (10) and Harrison (8). This initially involved scooter rides up and down the paved roadway. They then decided to go down the lake beside our campsite and began to create a fantasy land complete with castles, ports (with light houses) and town. The port they created was eventually invaded by what would have been seen to local inhabitants as a giant duck.

Whilst the children had fun, their mother and we had to breakdown our campsite, which by this stage was in some sort of state of chaos. With the cool September nights upon us everything was covered in morning dew, additionally a week of tramping sand through our tent combined with a couple of days of rain meant sand and vegetative debris lay through out our tent. We had learnt a neat trick from the parents of the aforementioned Austin and Harrison, which was to dangle the ground sheets and tent fabric across the washing line and brush the sand off. It took a good 3 hours to pack everything away and as usual things like sleeping bags and tents never seem to go back into the bags they originally came in.

At last we set off about 11:30am with everything on board. The plan was to travel down to the Cape Cod Canal and visit either of a couple of points of interest en route to Wompatuck; the Cape Cod Canal and the Aptucxet Trading Post Museum (which was the site of the first trading post museum in Massachusetts. We never managed to find the former and latter was closed (attached is a picture of Jack next to the building we thought was the trading post but which was actually a storage shed!!). So we found a scenic area overlooking the Cape Cod Canal – which we discovered was the largest sea level canal in the world – it is about 18 miles long and 400 yards across.

A little further on down the road we did have an amusing experience having stopped in Dunkin Donuts (nothing unusual here for the Hobbs family). Opposite the Dunkin Donuts was a MacDonalds complete with a drive through, and just as we leaving a hearse (sadly without a coffin) pulled through the drive through. Obviously this was golden opportunity for photograph and later a caption competition.

Arrived at Wompatuck at about 4pm and assembled the tent we had taken down earlier in the day. This time it seemed to go up much easier as we had worked out the right way of erecting, learning from the mistakes of our first time. By 6pm we had unloaded the van, got the tent and screen tent up – pretty good. By this time we were hungry so we set off to find somewhere to eat and buy some food.

DAY 10 - SUNDAY 16th SEPTEMBER 2007

Nickerson State Park and Salt Pond Visitor Center (Miles to Date: 530

A much improved day over yesterday the rain has stopped although it is still overcast and a bit chilly. As we are packing up to leave Nickerson tomorrow we spent the morning deciding what had not used and could afford to jettison before our onward journey. This week has been a learning experience in terms of camping – we found out a lot about what worked and what didn’t. We packed away the storage boxes and suitcases. This exercise took us all morning and was a cathartic experience – and somewhat frustrating. Being together for this time (although only a week into a journey we have pretty much spent all our time together as a family since the end of May) has the potential to test the fabric of familial relations. Despite some moments of heated argument – mainly when packing up the house – we have shown how strong the family is and all this bodes well for the year ahead.

After the mornings’ spring clean we decided we needed some fresh air. Earlier in the week we had booed in for one of the ranger events at the National Seashore’s Salt Pond visitor center. This was to go wade into the salt pond with nets and see what we could find. Whilst Karen looked on Emily, Jack and their Dad braved the waters of the marsh. Dad being totally useless and having a seemingly terrifying effect of the marshes fauna and flora caught El Zippo – fortunately Jack and Emily were more successful catching small fish, hermit crabs and shrimp. They also found a large number of horseshoe crab sheds – which are interesting to look at

DAY 9 - SATURDAY 15th SEPTEMBER 2007

Provincetown (Miles to date: 475)

We were woken in the early hours by the pounding of the rain on the tent. It is amazing how much a tent resembles a drum at such times. . We had been planning to go out kayaking with a ranger from the National Seashore Park but the outing was canceled due to the rain. So instead we decided to take a drive up to the top of the Cape – Provincetown.

En route we pulled off the highway and went to the National Seashore Park visitor center at the Province Lands. This center is smaller than the one at Salt Ponds but has a great lookout point across the dunes. Well worth the stop.

Post the cultural experience of the dunes we went into Provincetown – which was a very different experience indeed. By this time the rain had started to abate. Not exactly the place we expected it to be. The town was extremely touristy, with a lot of eateries and gift shops. The town itself is has its quaint aspects and some of the buildings are elegant – at the same time there are some shops with tacky frontages. There are also plenty of art shops and galleries and by all accounts there is a resident community of artistic types. We had lunch in a South African oriented restaurant which had a selection of food from around the world – they even had such delicacies as Marmite, Smarties and HP sauce of sale (much of this will not mean much to anyone who has not lived in the UK). For the rest of the afternoon we strolled around the town and were amazed by the strange collection of people wondering the street – reminded us very much of Brighton (a south coast town in England).

All in all we would recommend Provincetown as a place to visit for its shopping, eating and it’s community of bon vivants.

Earlier in the day we had discovered that there was several scouts troops camping at the State Park during that weekend. Karen got talking to the leaders and got Jack invited to join them that evening. Jack was a little concerned at the beginning but eventually had a great time talking to the scouts and building a camp fire.

DAY 8 - Friday 14th September 2007

Hyannis (Miles to date: 396)

We awoke to another fine day. After breakfast we decided to go to Hyannis as we had a few chores to do involving going to FedEx Kinko and the post office (the call of the tax man). Hyannis is a busy little town and in the summer I would imagine gets very busy as it is the port for the ferries out to the islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.

One of activities on our list of things to do was visit the Cape Cod Potato Chip (crisps to those of you in England) factory in Hyannis. It is a short self guided tour where you can look onto the factory floor to see the potatoes being sorted, cut and fried before passing onto the packaging department. This operation started with a couple fryers inside a shop producing 200 bags of chips a day and now it is a fully automated operation putting out 350,000 bags each day. The best bit of the tour is the last bit – the factory shop where you can do some tasting from open bags of chips and take away some sample bags.

The afternoon was taken up with some time in a local shopping mall where Emily found a pet store where they had some puppies for sale. A couple of the puppies were allowed out of their pens to run around the store and Emily had a great time playing with them, particularly a lively boxer pup.

At the end of the day we went back to the camp site and Emily and Jack were allowed to go down to the lake by our campsite and got a chance to go for a swim to cool down – although the day was not warm and by this time the sun had gone down. Rather them than me!!!


At the end of the day our routine has become to set a camp fire and read some stories. We also occasionally eat smores (Graham biscuits/ cookies, chocolate and marshmellows cooked on the fire - all squidged together)

DAY 7- THURSDAY 13th SEPTEMBER 2007

Marconi Site and Skaket Beach (Miles to date: 302)

It is amazing how quickly the Hobbs can create havoc in a pristine environment. When we awoke our campsite looked like someone had herded several hundred cattle around our tent. We decided to do a bit of clearing up after breakfast. It has taken a few days to get ourselves organised and into a routine - just remembering where we have put things is a challenge as things have not really go a home when you are living a nomadic lifestyle. Karen is using carabinas to to attach everything to anything - which is okay when you remember where you attached what to what. Having every meal outside every morning is wonderful (apart from when it rains) - we are still using up supplies that we bought with us on the trip and have dreamt up some wonderful concoctions ( mainly due to a weird collection of ingredients that found their way in to our van).

After our sort out we decided to go on another cycle ride - this time the opposite way up the Cape Cod Railway Trail - towards Orleans. The trail was equally as pleasant as going South West - with only one small section on the road. As is our way we found a wonderful coffee shop in Orleans - the Hot Chocolate Sparrow. It serves a great selection of coffee, cakes and chocolate ... and ice cream. And of course we chose ice cream ... what else after a hard cycle.

With our mornings exertions behind us we decided to go out for trip up the coast. We decided to visit the site of the Marconi Wireless Station, in Wellfleet. This is where in the early 20th Century Marconi built a wireless station and in 1903 a 48 word message was transmitted from this site (from Theodore Roosevelt) to England (Podhulu in Cornwall) for the attention of King Edward VII. Unfortunately due to coastal erosion the original site was claimed by the sea but the there is the memorial of the achievement as modeled by Jack Hobbs (left).

To end the day we went to Skaket Beach, which is on the Cape Cod Bay side of the Cape. These are very protected waters and the wave action is minimal which makes it safe for bathing. This beach is part sand and part salt marsh which makes it a great place for kids to explore the tide pools. When we were there the tide was going out leaving wonderful tide pools full of hermit crabs and small fish. Jack and Emily were fascinated by the sand bars (or sand banks as we might refer to them in dear old Blighty). So they were wading out up to their trunks one minute and then further out were only ankle deep. Certainly a great place to explore.

DAY 6 - WEDNESDAY 12th SEPTEMBER 2007

Cape Cod - Orleans

A much better day for the weather - mid 70s and not a cloud in sight. We decided to break loose with the bicycles today. Where we are staying in Nickerson State Park in midway along the Cape Cod Railway Trail, a paved track that goes 11 miles North East out of Nickerson and 11 miles South West (for those who are numerically challenged that is 22 in total). This day we decided (more by accident than judgement) to go South West towards Brewster. The track is smooth and fortunately more or less flat (we are seriously out of condition - at least the parental element of this particular crew). We went about 7 or 8 miles and decided to lunch at some kettle hole ponds - these are fresh water ponds created from left behind large chucks (seriously large) of ice from the times when glaciers covered the Cape. The particular pond we stopped at was Seymour Pond - which had a little sandy beach and some handy picnic tables. We didn't manage to go much further when we decided to turn around - luckily there was a wonderful shop selling ice cream just by Seymour Pond.

DAY 5 - TUESDAY 11th SEPTEMBER 2007

Nickerson State Park (Miles to Date 265)

Another dank, dreary day in New England. The cloud hovered low above us as we rose from our first night camping. The limbs were stiff as we brewed up our first pot of coffee on on portable stove. The morning was set aside for properly unpacking. The site we are on has no water or electricity hook-ups so we have a little trek to get our water supply for the morning.

As the morning progresses the weather deteriorates further to a steady rain so we decide to head out for a while.

First stop is Nauset Light Beach. The weather is so grim that the light from the light house is clearly visible and it is only 1pm. Being British this is not so unusual a day's weather - much like a summers day on the East Coast of England. So we do as all good Brits would do we head to the beach for a paddle. Braving the driving rain we head down to the water's edge to soak our feet in the driving Atlantic breakers. Not surprisingly we did not stay long and beat a retreat back to the van.

Second stop was the National Seashore Visitors Centre at Salt Pond. This is an excellent visitors centre to visit, particularly when the rain is lashing down outside. We watched three films on Cape Cod, including its formation by glaciers during the ice age and more recent shaping by weather and sea erosion. We also learnt about the treacherous nature of the cape, when during the 19th and early 20th centuries an average of 3 ships a month were wrecked on its coastline.

Finally we visited the Penniman House in Eastham, where Captain Edward Penniman resided. Well to say resided is an exaggeration, particularly in the early years. Penniman was a whaler and his trips away on whaling expeditions could last up to 4 years at a time. The house is fairly modest, only four rooms upstairs and four down, but is well preserved and has some of the original wall coverings.

Went back to the tent just in time for the arrival of a thunderstorm. When this abated we braved the outside once again to cook our first meal on the camping stove.

DAY 4 - MONDAY 10th SEPTEMBER 2007

Newport, Rhode Island to Orleans, Cape Cod (Miles to date: 240)

Woke to an extremely dreary morning. The grey clouds hung like a limp, damp blanket over Newport. A good day for traveling but not ideal for putting up our tent.

Our only stops on route were Dunkin Donuts (for some much needed refreshment) and the town of Sandwich in Cape Cod. We thought this would be a good place to eat our sandwiches we had bought for lunch. Notice how we are using irony to punctuate our tour - we may progress to higher forms of humour later!!!!. The weather had not improved at this stage but we found a very pretty little lake to park ourselves at ... which was idyllic until the heavens opened.

Arriving at our camp site - in the very beautiful Nickerson State Park (near Orleans, MA) - we had the unenviable task of unloading our van and erecting our tent. As you might expect we realized at this stage we had bought to much "stuff" with us. For those who saw our van shortly before we left I think they might agree that traveling light was not our modus operandii.

Putting up the tent didn't take too long. It was getting dark and gloomy before we had finished and the rain the had also set-in. We "cooked" our first thing - well boiled up some water for a hot chocolate and then jumped into our cosy inflatable beds for our first night under canvas.

DAY 3 - SUNDAY 9th SEPTEMBER 2007

Mystic Sea Port and Rhode Island (Miles to Date: 145)

Woke to another spectacular day in Groton. We decided that we had had so much fun the previous day in Mystic Seaport we would visit again to catch some of the activities we had missed the day before. On particular event on the agenda was the "Dead Horse Ceremony". In the days of the great sea voyages on the wooden tall ship sailors were given an advance by the ship owners to buy what they needed for their journey. Inevitably this was spent on women and drink and not the essential provisions. This being the case they had to borrow more money to get the necessary items and set off to sea in debt. After a month or so these debts would be paid off and to mark this event they had this "Dead Horse Ceremony"' where a horse made from rope, sails and barrel would be beaten, kicked and generally abused, dragged around the deck and then hoisted from the yard arm. This would all be accompanied by the ubiquitous sea shanty. At this point the horse would be unceremoniously dumped into the sea - and being weighted down by ballast would sink down to Davy Jones Locker. This event was reconstructed aboard the Joseph Conrad, one of the resident tall ships, and Jack and Emily joined is as the indebted crew members.

After casting the poor horse into the water (by the way no animals were hurt in the making of this blog) we decided to take a look around the Sabino, a 99 year old steam boat and admired the wonderfully maintained steam engine. Now exhausted from the mornings exertions we decided to take a leisurely cruise on a water taxi along the Mystic waterfront. Emily and Jack did their best to talk the poor man running the boat to death but it was relaxing non-the-less.

After spending an all too short time in Mystic we set off on the next stage of our journey to Newport, Rhode Island, some 90 miles or so away. Newport was established in the latter part of the 18th Century and is now an extremely busy marina and has been in the past a summer playground for the rich and famous. The "rich" heritage is evidenced by the quantity of large mansions along Bellevue Avenue which had such illustrious owners as the Astors and Vanderbilts. A number of these houses are now open to the public and maintained as historic land marks. We took a trip out beyond these houses to the rugged coastline - it reminded Karen a bit of the Cote Sauvage in Brittany, France. This was a great opportunity to explore the tide pools.

After touring Bellevue Avenue and Ocean Drive we decided to explore Newport town itself. Thames Street runs along the harbour and is mainly filled with eateries (most of them had no toilets) - incontinents be aware!!! Wondering around the town we stumbled on a church, St Mary's Parish, founded in 1828. This was the church that President John F. Kennedy married Jacqueline Lee Bouvier on September 12, 1953. We ended up at Bannister's Wharf, which together with neighbouring Bowen's Wharf are two up-market dining and shopping meccas, where you can eat, drink and watch extremely rich people fool around on large and expensive looking yachts.

DAY 2 - SATURDAY 8th SEPTEMBER 2007

Woke to a beautiful day in Groton. Our first port of call (quite literally a port) was Mystic Seaport in Connecticut. After the previous long day we were all very tired but decided to get up early anyway to make the most of the first day of our great adventure. Breakfast at the Econolodge was not exactly a culinary experience but it filled the proverbial hole - after which we were charged with a modicum of energy.

Mystic Seaport is a fantastic day out and for those who have not been before we would recommend it highly. It is essentially (apologies to those who already know this) a museum of the United States and the Sea. There are tall ships you can go aboard and reconstructions of 19th century houses and shops.

Throughout the day there are demonstrations, which involve people much braver than us climbing up the masts of tall ships and also demonstrating the trades of the day. Jack and Emily got to work in the local printers where they learnt about type-setting the old fashioned way. It was interesting to hear how some of the phrases in common use come from this profession, such as upper case and lower case (these were the boxes the type letters were stored in), "putting to bed" (which is setting the final type set onto the printer bed) and "creating a good impression" (getting a good quality print from the printing machine). Jack and Emily both got to have a go at printing a notice. There is also working blacksmith there who was demonstrating making a decorative leaf, which he later rubbed with a brass brush and gave to us as to carry on our journey. We offered Jack up as an apprentice - as they would have done in times past. It seemed a good way to get him off our hands until the age of 21 - but we didn't have time for the indenture papers to be written up.

After a good day at the Seaport we went into downtown Mystic, which we found to be a delightful place - helped by the warm balmy weather. Our first stop was the Drawbridge Icecream store - so named as it is next to a huge drawbridge. We left with the usual mixture of sticky fingers and faces, and drops of brown tell-tale stains on the clothes. Whilst there were plenty of eating houses available we decided to take advantage of the Tasting Festival that was taking place on one of the local streets. Armed with $40 of vouchers we pigged out on Thai chicken, corn on the cob and some delicious little tartlets. The day was rounded off with a trip around the town. Fortunately most shops were closed but it was still difficult to stop Karen and Emily going into a few stores. The selection was limited to an Army Surplus store, an upscale clothing shop and a couple of gift stores. We also saw the Mystic Pizza store - made famous by a "coming of age" comedy film starring Julia Roberts. By the way store is Mystic was too small so they actually used a warehouse to create a set in Stonnington, CT. Our finale to the day was a mad moment in one of the aforementioned gift stores.