DAY 16 - SATURDAY 22nd SEPTEMBER 2007

Plimouth Plantation and Winslow House, turkey dinner (Miles to Date: 956)

I had expected that during this tour – particularly during the time we are camping – that there would be plenty of time in the day to read, play games with the children etc etc. As it turns out the days seem to fill out and everything takes longer than you plan. This morning seemed to be just like that, no sooner had I got up than it was mid-morning. We decided that we needed to burn off some energy (and calories … all those ice creams take their toll) so we went on a bike ride around the park. It is a pretty park, and the leaves on the tree are just starting to turn to their autumn colours, which adds to it’s beauty. Despite being a Saturday the park is empty, so during our hour long cycle we meet only one or two people – to my mind this is perfect, just need to loose the children next time and I would have perfect peace.

Our plan for the day had been a simple one. In the afternoon we were going back to Plimouth Plantation to watch a 2 hour movie on the Pilgrims, made by the History Channel, entitled the Desperate Voyage. This story was chronicled from the writings of William Bradford, one of the Pilgrims who made the crossing. His is the only record of the journey and plight of the Pilgrims who landed in Plymouth. Bradford served as the second governor of the colony – after the first John Carver died inside the first year after landing. The Pilgrims were religious separatists who challenged the connection of the Church of England to the State (i.e. King James I). Their church, originally based out of Scrooby, Leicestershire moved to Leiden in the Netherlands due to the persecution of its members. Life unfortunately did not work out for them so they decided to up sticks and relocate to the new colony of the Americas. A brave move, but showed how life was so tough for them where they were.

History lesson over! We had a dinner date at the Isaac Winslow house (we covered our trip to this house earlier in the blog). They have an annual fund raising traditional turkey dinner every year and we decided to attend – seemed like a fun thing to do eating in an historic house. The director of the trust, Mark Schmidt invited us to join his family on a table. It was a bit like an early Thanksgiving dinner (which is just as well as we do not have any plans for Thanksgiving in November), each table had its own turkey to carve. We had a great time and the weather behaved – to the extent we were able to sit at a table outside – and the company was excellent.