The intense storm that whacked into the Cape last weekend dislodged a chunk of shipwreck from the sand off of Wellfleet’s Newcomb Hollow, pushing it ashore and above the high water line where it rests today. Cape Cod Times had a story and I made a note to check it out this weekend, an excuse to journey to the most remote and beautiful edge of Cape Cod where the Atlantic meets the sandy berm that Thoreau walked in the middle of the 19th century.
So Cousin Pete, Wife Daphne and I grabbed digital cameras and drove east at noon on Saturday, hoping to get some fresh air on a nice 40 degree February day with a lunch stop at the Chatham Bars Inn (chowder, fish & chips, Cape Cod Red Beer).
The traffic was a little heavy on Route 6 as we drove through the middle of the afternoon. As we turned off onto Ocean Drive, it was obvious we weren’t the only rocket scientists with an urge to gawk at a fifty foot section of 150-200 year ship side on the sand. As we pulled into the parking lot of Newcomb Hollow it was hopeless. When you see an SUV parked at a 45 degree angle on a sand bank you know parking is tight, and we had no desire to stare at the wreckage in the company of a bazillion others. And Cape Cod used to be deserted in the winter …
So we banged a u-turn and came home.
Sigh. No side stop at First Encounter Beach where the Pilgrims killed their first Wampanoags. No side stop at the Pilgrim Springs where the Puritans found their first fresh water in the new world. No stop at the cemetery to look at the graves of the unknown dead who were buried there after washing ashore from wrecked ships.
Nope. No history today but I got a good lunch out of it.
Here’s a link to the slideshow at the Cape Cod Times.
