Thursday, 16 June 2005
Bourne, MA to Provincetown, MA
77.9 miles, 6h11m, 12.6 mph
Elapsed Time: 8h31m, Max speed: 31.9mph
Total Climbing: 2645ft, Max elevation: 237ft
Total mileage: 402.1
I thought Cape Cod would be mostly flat. In fact, it is almost never
flat. No big hills, but lots of little ones.
It was a dark and cloudy morning when we started. Not as cold as
yesterday and not as windy, but still cool. We started by finding our
way to the Cape Cod Canal and jumping on the bike path.
Cape Cod Canal Bike Path on a dark June morn.
We stopped for a break at the end of the trail. An old guy walking by
us asked, "Extra ham and marshmellow sandwich?" At least that's what we
thought he said. It might have made more sense if he had said, "ham and
cranberry" but I don't think that's what it was. By the way, this
is cranberry country and is rife with cranberry bogs...and apparently
with crazy old men.
Soon we were in the village of Sandwich and we stopped to photograph a
mill. I noticed that I had a voice mail message so I called Linda, who
was at the airport waiting to fly up here to meet us along with Phyllis
(JT's squeeze). She said the message wasn't from her, so I had to
listen to it. It was from my boss's boss's boss's boss (that would be
my great-great grandboss). That could only mean that I'd been fired or
I'd been promoted. Since he said he had "good news" I assumed the
latter, and I was right. Linda had also been promoted and later we
learned that Phyllis had been too. JT didn't get promoted, but he got a
substantial consolation prize. It was decided that he would buy dinner
tonight.
Dexter Mill in Sandwich. Big doings.
After the excitement died down we got back on our bikes and headed
east. We got on the Route 6 Service Road, where we learned that Cape
Cod is not flat. That road is more like a roller coaster...all up and
down. Turns out that all the roads on The Cape are like that. Later we
roade through Barnstable, Cummaquid, and Yarmouth Port on Route 6A,
which was busy and narrow, but the drivers were courteous and speeds
was slow. We wandered around South Dennis for a while until we found
the Cape Cod Trail and jumped on.
I was a little disappointed in the Cape Cod Trail. The quality of the
trail surface ran from silky smooth to rough with tree roots poking
through. Still it was better than riding in traffic and it was very
peaceful...and it actually goes somewhere useful.
One of the nice parts of the trail.
We stopped for lunch on the trail in Mt. Pleasant, which is somewhere
in the middle of nowhere. We were near South Wellfleet when Linda
called and said that she and Phyllis had just crossed the Cape Cod
Canal (they had flown into Providence and rented a car). I told her to
call back when they got to Orleans. Meanwhile, JT and I finally got to
see the ocean.
It looked like this.
By the way, the clouds cleared away and the sun started shining.
Woo-hoo!
This is from the top of a big hill.
We were near Wellfleet when Linda called again. I told her to call back
when they reached Wellfleet. I could go on for some time about the
difficulties of the rendevous. Let's just say there were various zany
madcap antics, but eventually we managed to meet up in front of a bait
shop in Truro.
After a brief but joyous reunion, the girls took our bags and we
started off on the final leg through North Truro and finally into
Provincetown.
Provincetown is a wacky place. There was a guy in a miniskirt and high
heels standing in the town square singing Sinatra songs. His sign
claimed that he was a 73 year old "Provincetown chorus girl."
We went to dinner at a place down on the water. It was cold. I had
lobster.