July 28, Truro MA to Plymouth MA, to Arlington MA

Up early and goodbyes after a great visit on The Cape.  We needed to get going quickly, because the traffic of people pouring onto and off of Cape Cod was heavy.  We were successful in beating the worst of the traffic.

Our journey took us to Plymouth Mass, and PlimothPlantation, home of the original Pilgrims. (We discovered that the two Plymouths are spelled differently.  The original folks used Plimoth and so that is what they names the plantation and museum after that spelling.) We spent a fascinating morning at this living history center. 

The first of two main areas was dedicated to the Native American people who lived there.  This group, the Wampanoag…. lived in this area for thousands of years.  In this village area, interpreted by members of the tribe, there were houses, and other buildings, gardens, and cooking areas. 

The tribal members were dressed in traditional clothing, but spoke from a current day perspective answering questions both about their ancestors and themselves.  We got to see some pots of soup cooking that looked delicious, and have many interesting discussions including the fact that they consider lobsters to be bottom feeding garbage fish that they use only for bait.  It was powerful to see many customs and skills still being taught and passed along.

The second main area was that of the English colonial settlement, set in 1627.  These interpreters, also in period dress, spoke to visitors as though they were actually living at the time of 1727, the 7^th year after the colonists landed on the Mayflower.  These interpreters were excellent, and we both learned quite a bit about the day-to-day life and politics of these people who came basically working for a corporation who was hoping to make profits off of their labor. 

We learned that there was a good bit of communication with the colony at Jamestown, and some of the representatives from the village were able to return to English to do trading or bring items back to the colony.  It was clearly a very harsh life, but we got a glimpse of how hearty and hardworking these people were in taking on these enormous challenges.  They also were not at all a religiously tolerant group of people.  They came to be able to freely practice their highly conservative brand of Christianity, and were not at all interested in others having religious freedom.

The final part of our Plymouth visit included and visit to The Mayflower II.  This was a ship commissioned in the 1957 to be as closely as possibly a copy of the original Mayflower.  It was then sailed from England to Mass. We discovered that it was actually a freighter that had been engaged in the wine trade and was temporary contracted to transport these colonists to the new world.  The ship was not constructed for passengers, so over 100 people had to make the over two month passage in the cargo hold.  

 As small as this ship is, we assume that many of these passengers spent the entire voyage seasick, which resulted in a weakened condition when they arrived at the beginning of winter causing a higher death rate during that first terrible winter.  The passengers also shared space with chickens, pigs and goats.  And there were not good bathroom facilities.  It must have been stinky!

We also found that less than half of these settlers were part of the original religious group that went to Holland.  This was also the first time that they tired doing colonies including families with women and children. 

We made the obligatory stop at “Plymouth Rock” and read the story that the pilgrims had stepped on land at this rock, although that story was most commonly told over 120 years later.  The ship was way more impressive.

Then we made the quick drive into the Boston area into the city of Arlington.  This is the home of old friends from Minnesota, Dennis and Kathryn.  They treated us to a lovely walking tour of the area, including right kitty-corner from their home was the site where the largest engagement with the largest death count of colonists on that faithful day when the British marched to Lexington and Concord at the beginning of the revolutionary War.  (Our time travel machine continues to bring us back and forth between these major wars and time periods.)

The neighborhood is filled with historic sites and plaques and great old tree lined streets and bike paths.  We learned that Arlington was formed at the same time as Boston and is a very old city.  The people of Arlington are sensitive that they are NOT a suburb of Boston when they were founded at about the same time. 

We had a fabulous time catching up with these drear friends and they prepared a lovely meal for us and we talked late into the night about all of our mutual travels and families and life events.