Nothing But Nature... and footprints

Yesterday afternoon was devoted to the art of fishing, not for me, mind you but for Carl. Although to be perfectly honest, you have to actually catch some fish in order for it to be called fishing. I walked the beach looking for stuff, stuff to take photos of, stuff to fill my attention span and stuff to pick up and throw away later. I took a photo or two of all the human trash I picked up in just a one hundred yard section.  I vowed to come back today with a plastic bag to collect more. I had my hands full of camera, Crocs, sun umbrella and barn boots which were supposed to keep my feet dry while walking along the surf line. All it took, though, was one large wake wave to swamp those babies and then it was boots off for the rest of my walk.  If we sat very still, the plovers and sand pipers would come within 20 feet of us. Of course the minute one of us would move, they were off. By the end of the day, Carl had one striped bass in his bag. Today, we were off to another Wal-Mart for a proper pair of needle nose pliers to remove hooks and a filet knife, well to filet the fish of course. I stayed at the camper to listen to the Red Sox get beat by the Texas Rangers and Carl went fishing again. I caught up with him later, without the boots, umbrella and Crocs today. I did remember the plastic bag to collect trash and had no trouble filling it. I will be so happy on the day I can walk a beach and only find marine debris like bits of shells, seaweed and surf washed rocks. Human footprints are also acceptable.

Scituate Light

Okay, so with almost no humidity in the air and bright blue skies above, the light was a must see. The Scituate Light was built in 1810 and manned by two women during the war of 1812.  The Bates Sisters kept British shore parties at bay by beating on drums and burning huge fires on the breakwater. They were known as the army of two and their bravery is celebrated still today. Like so many still active aids to navigation, the house where the keeps once stayed is now private property but the grounds around the house are not. We walked the manmade jetties looking for just the right angle to capture a beautiful piece of New England history.  It was the navigational help I got from Verizon that left us wanting today. Thank goodness, my phone knew where we were because I didn’t. The sun high overhead caused the lighting to be a bit on the harsh side so I used my polarizing filter and stopped down to f7.1, a full stop less than I would normally have shot. Once we returned to Fourth Cliff, the ladies at the office were most helpful in directing us to the local bait shop ( it seems Carl may have not been using what the fish were wanting yesterday ) as well as a recommendation to Polcari’s Bridgewaye Inn and restaurant for lunch. After three visits to the seaside, I finally got my swordfish, grilled over rice with onions, peppers and zucchini. Carl had a fried fishermen’s platter with oysters and scrod instead of the usual clams and cod. If you’re ever down this way, I highly recommend the restaurant, the view, the food and the prices were all within reason.

A Day Of Expeditions

Today, I completed my very first navigation by Smart Phone. We needed to find the Wal-Mart in Plymouth to pick up a few thing. Go figure, us needing a Wal-Mart is kind of like a hummingbird needing nectar, right? So, I punched into the 4G lte Verizon Wireless network and searched for the location. Then the site very wisely offered me both turn by turn directions as well as a map. We arrived at our destination with no sexy lady’s voice to announce the feat, did our shopping and then I asked the smart phone to reverse our odyssey and get us home before the ice cream melted which it did although it probably wasn’t our smartest move to buy a quickly perishable item without benefit of a cooler or freezer bag. On our way home we passed several floating docks covered in diving birds, probably cormorants. The tide was on it’s way in and along with it must surely come a sumptuous buffet so they wait. Carl dumped me off to store our provisions while he dashed to the campground office to rent his fishing pole. He has it in his head to “provide for his family”. I have a box of Gorton’s in the freezer just in case. As it turned out later, Carl returned, sun burnt, frustrated and empty handed. I on the other hand had a great bone in rib eye steak ready to take center stage. Then, all we had to do was wait for the show, sunset I mean which was pretty nice. Note to self: Bring bug spray to tomorrow night’s sunset due to biting flies, mosquitoes and no see ums. We had them all.

Fourth Cliff, MA

The plan was to leave Whitefield by 9:30 to get ahead of the traffic but we were about ½ hour late. I didn’t think that would make a difference. By the time we hit the Hooksett toll booth rest area, the flow of vehicles was down to about 35 mph. And the line for the ladies rest room was out the door so I decided to use our camper “rest room” but not before I listened to the E-Z Pass promoters explain how the improved program works. Right now, the device is linked to 14 states and allows a 30% discount on all passenger class tolls. The initial investment was $25.00 and the device came activated with $9.05 credit on the account which meant the device we purchased today was mounted on our windshield before we left the parking lot and we sailed through in relatively short order for the amount of backup there was. Boston traffic flow for a Sunday wasn’t all that bad and we arrived at Fourth Cliff Military Reservation in the township of Humarock, just outside of Scituate, MA about 3:00PM. It took a bit of mastery on Carl’s part to get into our site due to the afternoon beachgoers all parked along the seawall. We knew it was warm but it was still a breath taker to climb out into the 94 degree salt air. By the time the camper was level, plugged in and hooked up to town water, I had the slider into position and the air conditioner on which didn’t shut itself off for more than two hours. By the time the temperatures outside modified, a thick and angry gray sky would prevent us from seeing much of our first sunset. The wind, strong when we arrived, has picked up considerably and is shaking the camper with fierce determination. I asked Carl if we were back in South Dakota where we were caught in the tail of a micro burst last year. I have high hopes for tomorrow but the Accu-weather forecast is calling for thunderstorms. It figures! The weather jonahs are in town.    

Another Photo Shoot?

We had only been home a few days when Carl announced he’d found a military reservation on the seacoast somewhere between Quincy and Plymouth, MA. It’s called Fourth Cliff and the site Carl reserved overlooks the ocean. We’ll be spending 5 days in a campsite where we can see sunrise from the passenger side of the camper and sunset from the driver’s side. He’s excited because they rent fishing poles.