Keep Right, Keep Right!!

On our way along highway 3 to Cape Cod
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Today it was off in the hire car for a leisurely drive to the area of Cape Cod. One plus was that the Ford Focus that I booked ended up being a VW Jetta, which ment that I was used to the controls being reversed being a european car. This was at least one less thing to worry about, besides the driving on the other side of the road, while sitting on the opposite side of the road. After a shakey start with the GPS system that we bought with us, off we went into the city traffic, battling the road network and the crazy non-indicating Boston drivers. The day today was overcast and I was hoping that the rain would hold off as I didn't want to have to deal with wet roads as well.

The replica Mayflower
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We got onto Highway 3 without incident and were making good progress when I decided that I needed my morning coffee. You'd think I would have picked this up at the Starbucks in the lobby of the hotel before we left, but hey, you can't think of everything. I pulled off at exit 12 and headed straight for Burget King. Once inside I decided on a Coke rather than JD's working man's coffee - the image of strong muddy coffee came to mind and I didn't want that. While waiting at the register I was amused by the fellow in front of my that bought a single cheeseburger for $1.14 and paid for it with a $100 note. He had the 14 cents though, so the server counted out his $89 change-double-checked it, then looked at the register change total and said - "oh, it's $99". You obviously don't have to be that smart to work the register at Burger King.

Those are Aussies at Pilgrim rock...

An amusing road sign.. lunch anyone?
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Back on the highway, we saw a sign for Plymouth, and decided that we could use an Historic break. After parking we walked down the main drag and saw the replica Mayflower, then walked up the street to peek at the Pilgrim Rock. This would have worked fine if the monument area wasn't boarded up and under renovation. They did leave a viewing window to see the actual rock, but unless you were 6ft you couldn't see the date inscribed on it. We got back on the road and after a wrong turn or two, was directed by the GPS down the scenic route. This took us down quaint "country" roads with pretty houses, which I am sure are worth much moola! I played chicken with three squirrels that ran across my path.

Large Cape Cod House
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We eventually wound our way back to the highway and found an tourist information hut. Here we found that saying you are going to Cape Cod is like saying you are going to Brisbane - it is a very large area broken down in to suburbs. We didn't really know where we should go - but I did know I wanted to eat clam chowder by the water somewhere. In one of the tourist books I found an ad for the Lighthouse Inn restaurant in the middle of the bay area, so we headed off in that direction. We arrived there about 2pm to find that they were not serving lunch, only open for breakfast and dinner. By now my desire for chowder is waning and I'll eat just about anything. We pressed on and in the area of DennisPort, found a cafe called The Sailing Cow Cafe. This place overlooked the water, but there was no chance I was sitting outside, as it was very very windy making it way too cold. I ordered a bowl of their "famous" clam chowder and absolutely loved it. After sandwiches and warming hot chocolate we decided to head down to the tip of Cape Cod.

Plymouth Rock monument - closed off for renovation
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This drive took longer than we thought due to reduced speed limits. We arrived at the West end, driving through compact holiday homes lining both sides of the ocean rode. At the west end we saw a tall brick tower and headed in that direction to find that it was anoher "Pilgrim Monument" called High Pole Hill. After taking photos it was time to head off on our return trip. About now it also started to spit rain lightly, and turning on the car wipers had me cursing the rental company as they did not work very well. There was a 120 mile, nearly 200klm drive home. It was now about 5:30pm and I was not looking forward to driving back into Boston in rainy twighlight traffic. We adjusted to GPS to get us home the quickest way, which kept us off the "scenic" route on the way home. With speed limited to 70-80klm/hr, after 90minutes I was getting very tired and needed to stop. We found a place, you guessed it, a Starbucks, and I ordered a double-shot latte to jolt me awake. This worked like a dream and helped me prepare for the busy city traffic.

Plymouth Rock sign
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The final 25miles were the most stressful driving I have ever done, but we finally made it back to the hotel without incident and threw the car keys at the hotel valet. I hope it is going to be fine tomorrow as I am not keen to head out again on wet roads, but we shall see what weather tomorrow brings.