Rock of Ages - Plymouth, Massachusetts

Today we did the historic tour of Plymouth.  Of course, it all started here.  The Pilgrims sailed on the Mayflower and landed on Plymouth Rock.  Except that no one knew the ship was called the Mayflower until U.S. historians delved into the records of ships harboring in England and deduced that it must have been Christopher Jones's "Mayflower" due to the time that boat was - and wasn't - docked in London.  And as for Plymouth Rock, well, we all thought it was this big rock the Pilgrims landed on, but, in fact, Plymouth Rock is perhaps 8 feet by 5 feet, and has been mostly buried in the sand since at least the early 1800's, according to historic photographs.

So history isn't exactly as we were taught.  Nevertheless, here is where it all started:

Sometime in the 1800's, someone chiseled "1620" on poor little plymouth rock.  To add to its indignities, someone tried to move the little rock up to the center of town and it broke in half - so they only took half of it up.  The other half lay neglected  in the sand, until decades later, with appropriate remorse, the town fathers took the Prodigal Chunk back down to reunite it with its sibling - and you can see the patch of concrete binding the two together.  Oh, well, history isn't what it was cut out to be.

On the other hand, the "Mayflower II" - an exact replica of the original ship, built in the 1950's and sailed across the Atlantic from England to the U.S. and gifted to us by our English brethren - did not disappoint.  It was really interesting to learn how these 130 people - 102 passengers and 28 crew - lived on this little vessel as it tossed for just over 2 months across the storm swelled waves of late autumn, finally landing in desperation in Plymouth Bay after having missed the mouth of the Hudson River, which was their original goal within the Virginia Colony.  The tour of the boat was well worth it!

But all of that pales in comparison to the good fortune, hard work and tribulations the little colony suffered in order to live down in the history books.  Just half of the original passengers survived until Thanksgiving the next year.  The reconstructed Plimouth Plantation brings it all alive - from the conditions of the European colonists, to the homes of the Native People who greeted them, assisted them, and allied with them, to the animals they husbanded, the vegetables and herbs they grew, the potage and soups they cooked, and the pottery, woodwork and metalwork they crafted.  While the reconstructed Plimouth Plantation is on a hill 2.5 miles from the location of the original colony (buried under the buildings currently set in the center of the town of Plymouth, it nevertheless provided a genuine recreation of the colony and life within it.

Our travel through history began with a drive in our truck to Plimouth Plantation.  From there, we left the truck in the parking lot and bicycled the 2.5 miles down to the center of Plymouth, where we at a wonderful beef sandwich at Ali's Galley on Main Street.  Ali herself was very kind and provided recommendations to us on a place to toss back a brew - the Driftwood, further down on Main Street - as well as free coupons to some attractions.  From Ali's Galley, we biked down to Mayflower II, toured it, then headed up to the Pilgrim Hall Museum.  This last attraction has an incredible collection of actual relics from the Plymouth colony and is well worth visting.  After Pilgrim Hall Museum, we stopped at the Driftwood for a brew.  Contrary to the forecast, by the time we finished our beers and came back out to our bikes, it was pouring rain!  So we pedalled (yes, Mark, pedalled, not peddled, nor petaled) back up to Plimouth Plantation, hopped in our truck, and hightailed it home to the RV, where we nested in warmth and comfort to reminisce over what we learned today.

And so ends another adventure. What will tomorrow bring?