NEA18: Cape Code to Home

Last full day of adventure before turning home. After a restful evening lazing around the hotel we were ready to adventure. Hey! Aren't there three webcams in Cape Cod!?! We rushed our checkout, tossed our belongings in the car, and floored it out of the parking lot.

Cape Cod, Massachusetts

As we crossed over the bridge and arrived at this beautiful, blue Heaven called Cape Cod....

The Chatham Bench Cam only takes a photo twice a day!
GPS ETA says arrival after 8:10 am!
Oh, wait! The cache page reads 10:10 not 8:10?
What? The bench sign says 9:10! Hurry!
What? Who's on the bench!?!
A fellow cacher from New York, appreciative for a little company.
SMILE!

Afterwards we caravaned to downtown Chatham for the 9:30 webcam, where we ran into another couple visiting the Netherlands. Cheese!

Going our own way, we backtracked to visit a pretty beach in Chatham. Across the street is a Soldiers & Sailor monument, a Seaman's Cemetery, a lighthouse, and a Coast Guard station.

It's lovely having the time to stroll out onto a pretty Atlantic Beach and dip our toes into the water. The sun is hot and the water nice and cool.

Geocaching? Who can think of geocaching at this point?

Relaxed and coated in sand, we settled back into the car and cruised along up the coast to the last webcam. Ah, this one was a trial. First, reading the logs, we expected no internet connection so we dialed ShelleyJean, who had our back. Second, the drive took twice as long with all the single-lane beach traffic heading to P-Town, and then the admission fee. As we pulled up into the parking lot, we were blocked at the gate - they wanted a $25 fee to park - oh no!

Luckily, TaGeez turned on the charm, and we were allowed a few minutes if we parked next to the porta-potties. (Classify this under "Glamorous Live of a Geocacher"!) Wandering around the lot, we had to take it on faith that SJ had enough time to snap a few webcam photos for us as a return trip was out of the question.

Thank you, ShelleyJean!

Cape Cod was fun! And we made some great memories there!

Lobster Rolls!

Plymouth, Massachusetts

Plymouth was fun, too. We started with the Old Burial Ground -- wow! That was quite the climb to the top of the hill! 

Untold Tale of Plymouth Rock GC7B7BK

Fabulous, historic headstones with a beautiful view of the ocean!

Which rock is which? We did the obligatory visit to Plymouth Rock, but it was the least impressive stop on our jaunt. According to the nearby Virtual, 

Wait—the Plymouth Rock legend rests on a 94-year-old's recollection of second-hand info he learned as a child that was otherwise unknown and unrecorded for 121 years?

Duxbury, Massachusetts

What was impressive is the Miles Standish Memorial in Duxbury. I had never been, but TaGeez really wanted to stop. He's a very distant relation. I was expecting a 6-foot obelisk or something. I was not prepared to see the figure of a man elevated above the tree-line atop a cliff! You could see Miles from quite the distance.

TaGeez climbed all 125 steps to the top of the tower...

... where he could see for miles!

And even earned himself a certificate!

With all the new Virtual rewards, I'm shocked when we cross paths with an edifice so historic and so impressive and it is not a Virtual! And, yet, hamburger stands and park benches are. Not fair.

The park ranger at the Memorial directed us to Miles Standish gravesite, also in Duxbury.  TaGeez was giddy as he walked along the headstones.

Examples of deviations from the Puritan attitudes. Wild!

Rhode Island and Connecticut

After Duxbury, it was time to turn East and our hotel in Danbury. The geocaches we nabbed in Rhode Island and Connecticut were not very memorable. We did stop at UCONN to TaGeez could get his "Y" on at our final webcam stop.

We rolled in late to Danbury and were delightfully surprised by Hotel 0 Degrees ("Refreshingly Unique!"), a last minute choice. Stunning property, beautiful rooms, the bathroom ceiling was double high and the bathroom door is a sliding barn door. Breakfast the next day was the best all week! We slept well!

Heading Home

We were off to a good day starting with this sunny view from our breakfast table.  TaGeez and I would like to come back for our Central Park adventure next year.

Off to an early start, we enjoyed the hills and roads through central New York and Pennsylvania.

Positron Emission Tomography GCXX6A

Did I mention "hamburger stand" Virtual rewards? You can't scoff when the food is this good!

Wow...Whatta Burger GC7B64W

Signal seems happy! Fried pickles!

Why is it that whenever we return home, it's raining in upper Ohio/lower Michigan? 

Twice we had to pull off the freeway because visibility was non-existent, but it was an amazing sight to see!

It was an amazing adventure with beautiful backroads, magnificent ocean views, favorited geocaches, and the love of my life. Stealing from the welcome sign as you cross into Maine -- "The Way Life Should Be"!

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Signal had a great time, too!

It was a hoot posing my trackable friend at some of the most memorable stops on the adventure. We logged him at every geocache along our path for a permanent record of our trip. He was the best companion as he never complained, didn't leave wrappers on the floor mats, left the buttons on the dashboard alone, and was willing to go wherever we wanted.