Wandering America

   

     

While on the Cape we visited some of the beaches located around Falmouth.  Surf Beach overlooks Martha's Vineyard which is the land that you can barely see across the water.  Darrell served in the Coast Guard and was pleased to snap this picture of a 210 Class CG Cutter going through the Cape Cod Canal from Buzzards Bay.

     

On our last evening on the Cape we drove to Chapoquoit Beach in West Falmouth to watch the sunset.  It is still a little cool on the Cape to see many people out walking the beaches but there were a few hardy souls.  The sunset over Buzzards Bay was pretty none-the-less and we enjoyed it  -  only a lobster roll and an ice cream cone could have made it any better ;).

     

     

Plymouth Rock!

What's the most visited rock in New England?  Plymouth Rock, of course.  It's housed within the smallest state park in Massachusetts, Pilgrim Memorial State Park,  which is visited by nearly one million people each year.

According to legend, Plymouth Rock is the boulder upon which the Pilgrims landed when they arrived at the location of their permanent settlement in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620.  Most first-time visitors to "the rock" are a bit startled by its smallness.  How could such a monumental artifact in American history be so, well... puny?

For starters, the well intentioned residents of Plymouth who first set out to preserve the symbolic rock in 1774 had the unpleasant experience of watching the rock split in two when a team of oxen attempted to raise it.  Only the upper portion of Plymouth Rock left the waterfront originally for display in the Town Square.

Souvenir seekers who desired to bring home a "piece of the rock" caused further deterioration until Plymouth Rock was moved to safety inside an iron fence at the Pilgrim Hall Museum in 1834.  It had a rough trip to the museum, though, falling off its conveyance and obtaining its distinctive crack.

Remember the bottom part of the rock that was left behind at the waterfront?  The Pilgrim Society acquired the other half of Plymouth Rock in 1859, and in 1867, a Plymouth Rock canopy structure was completed at the waterfront to house it.  Unfortunately, the canopy was not large enough to hold the whole rock, so a few pieces had to be hacked off and sold as souvenirs.

Finally, in 1880, the upper chunk was united with the lower piece of Plymouth Rock--cement did the trick!  And "1620," the date of the Pilgrims' arrival in Plymouth, was permanently carved into the rock.

Plymouth Rock was moved for the last time during the celebration of Plymouth's tercentenary in 1921 to a new canopy designed by famed architects McKim, Mead and White and built by Roy B. Beattie of Fall River, Massachusetts.  Would you believe that the rock broke apart once again during this move to its elegant new digs?

Plymouth Rock, though a bit battered by time, remains a powerful tribute to the courage of the 102 Mayflower passengers who founded the land we know as New England.

     

The Mayflower II is a well researched replica of the original Mayflower.  It was built in Brixham, England using the same Devon oak for construction and sailed to Plymouth, Massachusetts as a good will project in 1957.  The ship is mainly a display owned by the Plimouth Plantation, however; it went on a brief sail in 1964, led a procession of Tall Ships through the Cape Cod Canal in 1992, and later in 1992 it went on tour cruise to Florida and back.

These two houses, that are located between Plymouth Rock and the Mayflower II, are typical of the type of houses that would have been built in the 1620's.  They are the basis for today's Cape Cod homes that are built throughout New England.

Leyden Street is the oldest street in Plymouth and the site of the first house built by the Pilgrims (it was located where the last house on the right sits).  Leyden street is not very long; it starts at the first Church and runs down the hill to the water which is approximately four blocks.

 

At the head of Leyden Street is this stone church which is the fourth church to occupy the site with the first church being erected in 1648.  Before that time church services were held in the Fort Meeting House at the top of Burial Hill.  The church is home to the oldest continually active congregation in the country.

Burial Hill is located up a stone stairway behind the First Church and was the site for first fort which had mounted cannons for protection of the entrance to the harbor.  William Bradford was the leader of the Pilgrims in Plymouth Colony and he was the governor of the colony for its first thirty years.  He died in 1657 and is buried on Burial Hill.  A statue of him is erected at the bottom of Leyden Street on the waterfront.  

     

Just down the hill from the First Church is the 1749 Courthouse which was build before the revolutionary war and served Plymouth County.

The National Monument to the Forefathers commemorates the Mayflower Pilgrims and honors their ideals.  The cornerstone was laid in 1859 and the monument was completed in 1889.  It is the tallest solid granite monument in the United States being 81 feet tall.  We were told by the clerk at the visitors center that the Statue of Liberty was patterned after this monument.

     

     

The tour was very interesting however we were not allowed to take any photographs in the production areas.  Barley and rice are cooked with water in separate vats and then the mash is strained and mixed together.  Next hops and yeast are added which begins the fermentation process and then the "wort" is chilled for a period of eight days.  Finally the beer is aged with beachwood, a process that only Anheuser-Busch utilizes.  The beer is then bottled or canned, labeled, and packaged through  maize of conveyors which was very interesting to watch and then it is ready for distribution.  They only maintain a two day backlog througout the "assembly" process in order to maintain the freshness.  Anheuser-Busch utilizes the "Born On" date which is stamped on each container to ensure that we get the freshest beer possible.  The plant is kept extremely clean throughout the entire process as you can well imagine.  This is a very good tour and we recommend it if you are ever near one of their facilities.  

After the tour we were treated to two beers and some snacks.  You can choose which two beers you want try and they give you about a 7 oz. glass of each.  They also have non-alcohol drinks available as well.

     

After the tour we visited the horse stables which are very beautiful and extremely clean.  This was an absolute treat as the Clydesdales are big, beautiful, and gentle horses.  The original Anheuser-Busch clydesdales were a gift to August A. Busch, Sr. from his son in 1933 and were first used to commemorate the repeal of prohibition by pulling the first post-prohibition case of beer down the street in St. Louis, Missouri.  

Anheuser-Busch maintains a herd of around 250 clydesdales throughout the United States to support their teams.  A team is made up of eight horses, one dalamatian, one driver, and a Studebaker wagon.  It takes about five hours to "hitch-up the wagon" and ready the team for a demonstration.  In the early days of brewing the dalmatians were trained to protect the horses and guard the wagon while the driver was making the beer deliveries.  We didn't see any of the dalmatians while we were at the stables.

           

Clydesdales originated near the Clyde River in Scotland.  When full grown a horse is about six feet tall at the shoulder and weighs in at around 2000 pounds.  That's a lot of horse!  Our tour guide told us how much a horse will eat each day but we are both having one of those senior moments and don't remember, but it's a lot!  Each horse is bathed once a week which takes about forty-five minutes and we arrived at the stables in time to see King finish his bath and be groomed.  Then we tour the rest of the stables and pasture area.