Looking for Pilgrims in all the wrong places…

  “The Plymouth Rock”

Cool morning air greeted us on Friday morning as the temperature dipped into the mid forties but as soon as the sun rose the temperature rose nicely into the mid sixties. A good day for a drive to Plymouth, Massachusetts, a place where the Pilgrims landed in the Mayflower… or so we were told!

             

One of the first places most people go when visiting Plymouth is the famous Plymouth Rock. As we were taught in grade school this is where the Pilgrims first landed and founded Plymouth Colony in 1620 after disembarking the Mayflower. But this is not necessarily all true says Wikipedia…

“a 94 year old Elder of the church named Thomas Faunce (who was the town record keeper for most of his adult life), identified the precise rock his father had told him was the first solid land the Pilgrims set foot upon. (However, the Pilgrims first landed near the site of modern Provincetown on the tip of Cape Cod in November 1620 before moving to Plymouth).”

So the Pilgrims first landed in P-town (Provincetown as the locals call it) but Plymouth can still lay their make the claim for some fame by saying that it is where the Pilgrims first made a permanent colony. So to see the infamous rock in the harbor of Plymouth you need to lok for a structure that loos like a shrine of sorts where the tourists are flocking to see and photograph it.

Plymouth is a nice little town and very friendly for walkers. There is pay parking everywhere and the closer you get to the rock the more expensive the parking. However, if you park in town, a mere two blocks from the harbor, parking is free along the side of the road for a two hour limit. From here we walked the Pilgrim trail through the town of Plymouth and took in all the sights: the rock inscribed with the year 1620, the Plymouth harbor, the Mayflower two docked harbor side, the old churches, the William Bradford statue, burial hill and other 1600-1800’s sights.

After enjoying our time in Plymouth it was time to tend to some chores as the laundry basket was overflowing so off to the coin cleaners we went. We have a few more (chilly days) left here at the Cape Cod Canal before we head to Connecticut with Monday our next moving day… and no, we didn’t find any Pilgrims!!!