2020 Life Logs, Day 222: Chasing the Mayflower II
Date: Monday, August 10, 2020
Weather: Beautiful, Sunny Day; High 85, Low 72 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
As we all learned in school, the first Mayflower sailed from England to the shores of New England in the fall of 1620 bringing the Pilgrims to America. This was 400 years ago this fall. In 1956, a replica of the original, the Mayflower II, was launched in England and the next year it sailed across the Atlantic. It was commissioned by the Plimoth Plantation and calls Plymouth, Massachusetts its home. It has been in Mystic, Connecticut for the past three years to be restored. Today it was sailed, with a tow assist, through the Cape Cod Canal and back to Plymouth. I, along with the Goldpebbles, left Falmouth at 8:30 am today to go see the Mayflower make its way through the Canal.
Our plan was to drive to Scusset Beach at the end of the Canal and ride our bikes along the Canal to watch the Mayflower make its way into the Cape Cod Bay. But, unfortunately, a whole lot of other people planned to do the same thing. We sat in traffic trying to get across the Bourne Bridge and we spent over 40 minutes waiting in a line to pay for parking at Scusset Beach. When we finally got to the parking area, Ollie said that he heard a horn announcing the arrival of the Mayflower. We worked as fast as we could to get all the bicycles off the van bike rack and just as we got the last bike down, Ollie announced that he could see the mast approaching. I looked up and saw it as well. I told the boys to ride their bikes as fast as they could out to the bike path along the Canal to try and see the Mayflower before it went out into the Cape Cod Bay. I put the bike rack up, locked the van, and took off behind them. I could see the Mayflower sailing by and hoped the boys were following it. But when I got to the bike path, they were dutifully putting their bikes in a bike rack. I told them I would do the bike lock down and sent them to chase the Mayflower as it made its way out into the Bay. By the time I got the bikes locked and started walking in their directon, the boys were returning. They had seen the Mayflower turn the corner to start its trek north to Plymouth. So, we didn’t get to ride our bikes along bike path following the Mayflower, but we did still ride our bikes back to the Sagamore Bridge. Sam and Ollie went a little further, but Jonah wanted to stop and just sit along the Canal by the bridge. When we got back to the van, the boys changed into bathing suits and we walked out to the beach to get in the water to cool off. And cool off, we did. The water was much colder than we are used to. And the beach was just too crowded. So we played in the water for a short time, ate lunch, and headed home. Scusset is a beautiful sandy beach, but as the boys noted, “This is a tourist beach.” We went to my house to take showers and ended our day at the Skatepark. I don’t know about the Goldpebbles, but I know I will sleep soundly tonight with visions of the Mayflower dancing in my head.
