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After a week of sleeping in our own room, eating at nice restaurants and hanging out with people we knew Rich and I realised that this wasn't really travelling and we should probably hit the road before we became too comfortable. So we bade farewell to Regan and Rhode Island, home of the worst drivers in the world (bar none) and boarded a bus bound for Cape Cod.
Before we arrived, I knew two things about Cape Cod: it was the place where Tom Hanks first encountered Madison in "Splash" and it's where wealthy Americans from New York and Boston go to spend the summer in their mansion-like second homes. Given the latter, I was looking forward to seeing some top notch beaches and seaside towns. I was, sadly, disappointed. The beaches were there, but most of them were out of bounds to commoners, as the numerous "Strolling Rights Only" signs in the sand made clear. The beaches I did see were underwhelming at best - the whole peninsula is flat without a single cliff or cove to break the monotony. One spot that is meant to be a particular gem looked exactly like the beach at Coatham (see photos, all that's missing are the Teesside industrial works in the background). Even the towns were uninviting - character-less main streets full of expensive seaside themed tack and Barbour shops. Compared to the (significantly cheaper) highlights of the north east coast back home Cape Cod was sadly lacking.
Nantucket, a small island just off the Cape, was slightly better. We took a bike ride out in search of cranberry bogs (more of them later) and lighthouses and enjoyed pottering round the small town centre which I thought looked a lot like Cheltenham. It was all a bit eerie though, as we had arrived out of season and so many of the shops and restaurants were closed and the enormous houses would stand empty until next summer.
Finally we moved on to Provincetown, which thankfully was a world apart from the rest of the area. Renowned as the best gay summer resort on the East Coast, the town was a vibrant hub of artsy activity, even out of season. The weekend we were there it also played host to the 13th Mates Leather Weekend (sponsored in part by the Provincetown Tourism Fund) which explained the large number of leather clad men we encountered in town. Had a great couple of days there, enjoying the laid back, fun and friendly vibe that was completely lacking further down the road. They even had a pirate museum, home to genuine pirate pieces of eight and other loot that was found on the Wydah, the only authenticated pirate shipwreck ever recovered. Ooh Argh.
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