Getting there: Driving through New Hampshire I experienced something new. Official highway signs alerting you to the location of a liquor store – and lottery tickets! Seriously!?! I had to get a picture. I think the signs began about two miles out from the exit. I was ready with my phone and captured the last three! The highway exit appears to be just for the liquor store–and good to know…It is even open on Sundays!
We hit a lot of rain and traffic on most of our drive today which made it more stressful than usual. Hindered visibility is never fun, let alone when driving a big rig. I was glad it was Barry’s turn to drive. We made it to a dry Cape Cod Thousand Trails and found a great spot. Our site was huge. This would be home for eight nights!
We enjoyed a campfire that night. It was nice to just relax, be present and reflect on our journey so far. As expected, the rain made it here for a couple days.
A Day Exploring PLYMOUTH – September 15
We found a convenient place to park along the water. The weather was great. We completed a walking tour of the historic Plymouth via the Action Tour Guide app. Plymouth is called “America’s Hometown”. The tour began right by the Plymouth Visitor Center nearby where we parked.
Background:
Back in the 1600s people of England had only one option for church. It was the Church of England. Some Englishmen were frustrated. They believed in the Bible, but not in England’s interpretation of it. Today, you would just find another church, but having only ONE church and failing to attend was against the law! If you missed a Sunday mass, you were charged one shilling. That’s about $27 today. It got quite expensive to commit heresy. Such heretics were called “separatists” and every week they were fined, jailed and generally despised by the rest of the society. They began looking for a place without such laws. Some went to mainland Europe. Others looked beyond…
On September 6, 1620, 102 passengers boarded the Mayflower and set sail toward the New World. Their plan was to land at Jamestown, Virginia where an established English colony already existed, spend the winter with those experienced settlers before moving on to form their own town. Unfortunately, huge storms in the Atlantic blew the Mayflower way off course. Hurricane force winds broke the main mast of the ship. All 102 passengers were forced to stay in the cramped lower decks, waiting for the storms to let up.
On November 9, 1620, the pilgrims reached land. They were on the sandy shores of Cape Cod – NOT Virginia. There were no experienced settlers here. The pilgrims had to figure out life here and endure a harsh winter by themselves.
The pilgrims established the “Mayflower Compact” as a set of rules for their survival. It was a “rule by the people” system that set a precedent for the other colonies, and then inspired the Founding Fathers when they wrote the “Declaration of Independence”!
- The colony would maintain its allegiance to the King of England.
- In elections, the “majority rules”.
- The continued survival of the colony would be the top priority.
The Mayflower II – This is a full-size replica of the original Mayflower. The original ship returned to England in 1621. It was too decrepit to be seaworthy and was dismantled and sold for scrap. The Mayflower II was built in 1955, and sailed to America in 1957. It sailed purposely and directly into Plymouth Harbor. This ship recently completed a massive 6-year restoration for the 400th anniversary of the 1620 landing. Ironically, the big celebration was postponed due to Covid.
The Society of Mayflower Descendants, is a group dedicated to documenting the lineage of the first pilgrims. This group is housed in a beautiful 3-story house that they say resembles a tiered wedding cake. (Currently undergoing some restoration.) The home used to belong to Edward Winslow, grandson to an original Mayflower passenger of the same name. In the 1700s when talk of a revolution spread through the colonies, Winslow, chose to stay loyal to the crown. Branding himself as a British Loyalist, he was chased out of Plymouth. He fled to Nova Scotia.
Plymouth Rock – Where the pilgrims first landed? None of the journals mention the rock at all. The story comes from Thomas Faunce, the son of one of the pilgrims. He claims his father pointed to the boulder and said: “That’s where all of us first stepped onto dry land.” Maybe it was near the ship, so at the time it made an impression on his father, but Thomas Faunce told this story 120 years after the Mayflower landed. Regardless, this rock still holds great symbolic power. It marks the pilgrims “official” entry to the New World and them making this spot their home. The current rock you look at is only about 1/3 of the original boulder due to tourism. Visitors chipped off pieces, the Pilgrim Church in New York took a big chunk, the Pilgrim Hall Museum and the Smithsonian each took sizable pieces. In 1880, enough was enough. It was time to preserve the historic rock. The portion that was up in the town meeting house was dragged back to the beach to join the boulder half that was mostly buried in the sand.
The grandiose portico for the Rock. It was pretty cool.
Nearby in the park area adjacent to Plymouth Rock is a statue of William Bradford. Bradford was the Pilgrim’s leader and governor of the colony. Here Bradford wears the same Puritan style cloak and hat as we saw on the statue of Roger Conant, the founder of Salem, Massachusetts.
Chief Massasoit, the leader of Wampanoag was friendly to the pilgrims and established a peace treaty with them. The Wampanoag would show the Pilgrims how to farm, hunt, and survive in Plymouth, and in return, the Pilgrims would supply the Wampanoag weapons to fight the neighboring Narragansett. The agreement worked. The Pilgrims survived, and the rival Narragansetts backed off.
This impressive bronze stature of Massasoit stands proudly on the hill over looking Plymouth Harbor.
An unexpected discovery. National Day of Mourning and the marker for it here on Cole’s Hill helps us remember the entire picture, and show respect for the Native Americans that were here at Plymouth Rock before the arrival of the Mayflower, as well as Native Americans throughout America.
Brewster Gardens:
This garden is named for William Brewster, one of the original Mayflower passengers. He was Plymouth’s minister for 35 years, and was a talented carpenter. His famously decorative Brewster Chair is still preserved in the Pilgrim Hall Museum.
Cool triangular statue dedicated to the personal sacrifice made by the pilgrims to start a freer life in the unknown New World.
The stream running through the park is called Town Brook. This is where the pilgrims got all their drinking water when they built Plymouth-and is why they built right here. It is still clear enough today to drink. (We did not choose to test it.)
The Pilgrim Maiden Statue was added to the park in 1922. It is dedicated to the women who left behind their homeland for a chance at new life. She stands proudly atop a rock reminiscent of Plymouth Rock, looking ahead, toward the future.
Town Square
1749 Court House Museum – a free museum that opened as such in 1970. This is the oldest wooden Court House and the longest used municipal building in America. Housed here is a fire engine from 1828, and the town hearse.
Upstairs is the court setting.
Across the street is the Church of the Pilgrimage.
At the base of the hill is the First Parish Meetinghouse.
Cole’s Hill and Burial Hill
“Only forty-five Pilgrims from the Mayflower survived the first winter in their newly-christened Plymouth colony. The bodies were buried across the street from where Plymouth Rock stands in Cole’s Hill, now Pilgrim Memorial State Park, a U.S. National Historic Landmark. Burials may have continued until 1637, approximately when Burial Hill was established on higher ground. The steep geography of Cole’s Hill made it untenable as a burial site; by 1735, erosion and weather exposed many graves, and their bones were lost to the sea. Most of these remains were eventually housed in a monumental granite sarcophagus on Cole’s Hill.” For more information click here.
The hill behind the First Parish Meetinghouse is Burial Hill. The Pilgrims built their first fort/meeting house here. This burial ground was used from the 1620 – 1957. The early grave markers were of carved wood, but did not survive the ages. Stone markers likely began being used in the mid-17th century. At this point, the oldest known stone on here is that of Edward Gray, 1681. It is protected by granite all around it as shown below. The pink granite “frames” the front of the stone and covers the back where additional identification is provided.
National Monument to the Forefathers – It was quite a walk to this National Monument and State Park. The statue is enormous in a land area bordered by residential communities. I’m sure many people never make it out here. This granite monument stands 81 feet and is the largest solid granite monument in the United States. It is quite impressive. The entire monument represents five virtues that were core to the pilgrims. The main figure on top represents faith and was the main reason the pilgrims came to the New World. She points upward to God and holds an open Bible. The four figures around the base that represent education of youth, civil and religious liberty, law and morality. (Things we should still be upholding!)
Interesting that the morality figure has no eye detail. It is because we should be looking inward to check our own morality.
I also enjoyed the smaller relief sculptures that accompanied essential words connected to each virtue. One is on each side of the seat. You really can’t have the specific virtue without demonstrating the supporting characteristics. Here you see “Mercy” on the seat of “Law”, “Justice” is the other integrated characteristic with “Law”. “Youth” and “Wisdom” are with “Education”. “Tyranny” and “Peace” connect with “Liberty”, while “Prophet” and “Evangelist” are with “Morality”.
In addition to all the history of Plymouth and pilgrims, I equally enjoyed the beautiful artistic seashells that were prominently displayed throughout the historic area of Plymouth. The ones included in this blog were my favorites.
More outdoor art!
Additional sites along our walk.
Plymouth Memorial Building – Sitting on the steps I felt like I saw a dear friend who passed away way too early. An undescribable feeling went through my body. I had to zoom in to take this lady’s picture. Even if others don’t see it, in that fleeting moment I felt reconnected with an amazing person! Just telling common friends about it would not be sufficient. We love and miss you, Gina!! I was thankful for today.
On our way to the National Monument to the Forefathers, we met a guy walking toward us who had two large snakes around his neck; a boa and a Burmese python. He was happy to let us hold them. Barry eagerly held the Burmese python. It was a pretty active guy. The owner had a container with their recently shedded skins. We asked why he had them. Evidently there are people who buy them.
Having never held a snake, I decided to give it a try. I wasn’t quite sure what to do…Where’s he going??? Ah…here’s his head. Hold it. OK – I got this. Cool. I’m holding a boa constrictor! Her name was Stella. Uh-oh..She seems to be wrapping her “tail” around my thigh….OK. I think I’m done.
Earlier in the day we noticed a couple lighthouses in the distance from Plymouth Harbor. Since we needed to move the Jeep anyway, we decided to take a little drive out of town a bit to a beach area that would provide a better vantage point of Bug Light that sits out in the water, and give Barry a little beach time. The other one (Plymouth Light in the second picture) was not a possibility at all.
Duxbury Pier Light (Bug Light) is NOT open to the public. Obviously, it is seen best by boat. The light is two red flashes every five seconds. The fog signal is one blast every 15 seconds. This is the light that we thought a road took us closer, but it was not open to the public.
Standing on the sidewalk below we could see along the horizon an area with homes and a road. That is where we headed for a closer view of Bug Light.
Made it – but the road beyond the public beach area is open only for those with a home along here or those with a special permit. We went a ways, but then decided it wasn’t worth it. We decided it would be a better use of our time to return to historic Plymouth to finish our walking tour.
Before heading back into Plymouth we found Keto 1620 Bakery. It had rave reviews, so I had to go. OMG. I only bought three items that were gluten free/Keto. There was so much to choose from. I decided upon one pumpkin spice doughnut, one pumpkin spice cheesecake bar, and one cheddar jalapeño bagel. OMG each one was INCREDIBLE!! Definitely worth the prices. I wish we were closer to get more, but it’s probably a good thing we aren’t! I can’t believe I didn’t take a picture of them. Highly recommend this place if you are anywhere nearby!! (Brian – LivinRVision – you will be in heaven!)
Closing shots of Plymouth as the sun was going down and we walked back to the Jeep. We were ready to drive back to Cape Cod Thousand Trails. Today was an awesome day!
