Sunday 2nd July – Full circle; the return to Massachusetts

That says Cape Cod.....

From our disappointing final campsite, we hit the road towards Cape Cod, Massachusetts having been warned about how heavy the traffic can be on Independence Day weekend.  In fact, it wasn’t that bad getting over the bridge to the peninsula so we were there in just over two hours.

For those of you who missed the early blog episodes, Massachusetts is where this whole trip began on 9^th October last year when we landed in Boston.  Before we left in our RV on 20^th October we had pencilled in our 4^th July celebrations having been invited by David and his parents to spend some time at their summer house in Cape Cod.  So here we were, as planned, but I have to say it feels like it has come around so quickly.  A few more months on the road wouldn’t have hurt if you ask me, but I’m not sure the bank manager would agree!

The whole idea of celebrating July 4^th in style sounded amazing last year and on arrival at the house we realised that our expectations had been blown out of the water.  

It was stunning, a sprawling, multi–level house with a dock on the river complete with sailing boat, jet boat and kayaks to paddle over to the private beach!  Why didn’t we make a bee-line here earlier?  There is also a plethora of things to see and do on the Cape so it was now a matter of trying to cram in as much as possible over the next few days.  We were introduced to other family and friends staying at Michael and Frances’ house.  As well as Tash, David and their three girls, David’s sister Christine was there with her partner Will and daughter Evelyn.  Then Frances’ brother Russ and his wife Julie and friends Belinda and Phil. A house-full of people who were keen to hear all about our adventures.  We were especially keen to show Frances and Michael the road atlas that was a gift from them and that had become such an integral part of our journey.  They could tell this from its now dilapidated state!

Despite the number of visitors, there was still plenty of rooms left in the house for us to stay inside.  However, we have become so comfortable in our RV that we hoped they wouldn’t be offended if we chose to stay in the camper which we’d parked on the driveway.  All we’d need would be to plug into an electric socket and we’d be set.  Except we had issues with that.  It was very warm but as soon as the air conditioning unit kicked in we were tripping the fuse because we were drawing too much power! We didn’t want to cause problems, so we resigned ourselves to staying in the house, sure it would be perfectly comfortable!  But Michael wouldn’t hear it, and despite our protestations, next thing we knew we were on our way to Home Depot via a scenic detour of the Cape including taking in the Kennedy’s compound.  The tour was great but Michael really didn’t have to buy a power lead that he may never use again once we’ve gone!  On returning to the house the new lead solved our power problems and we were set.

Meanwhile, everyone else had been preparing a dinner of chilli, rice and salad for us all.  Mid-meal, the evening was tinged when Eleri fell and smashed her chin on a heavy wooden chair.  The blood and tears flowed and it meant a trip to the emergency room for Tash and David.  Unbelievable.  For the second time we’ve visited in a row, poor Eleri has ended up in hospital.  And these are thankfully the only times she has ever been in hospital.  We felt like some kind of bad luck omen for her.

We went out to relax on one of the decks overlooking the water.  It was such a stunning view we went down to the river to get a closer look and started noticing some of the birds flying around. Russ joined us and our in depth conversation led to us getting an invite to join him on his boat up the river to take in the sunset and get a closer look at the osprey flying about.  

I could get used to this.

We Brits may quite rightly love our National Health Service, but thankfully Eleri was seen very promptly at the hospital and had her chin glued.  Better than getting stitches, but she will be bruised in the morning and it means that she must stay out of the water for the next week or so which may prove difficult in these surroundings.  But no lasting damage.

Everyone tucked into some good ol’ American Pie and Tash and I had a catch-up while I met her newest arrival, the very happy and smiley Aeofe (right). It felt good to be back amongst good friends knowing that we would have a really enjoyable few days ahead.