September 2005    

Fact:  Anne's parents, Hal and Sue Mozer, who live in Bellevue, Washington, have participated in numerous activities sponsored by Elderhostel throughout the US and around the world, and they have consistently reported the experiences as both enlightening and enjoyable.

Fact:  When measured by the calendar (as opposed to by maturity level), it is becoming ever more difficult, at least for Marty, to argue convincingly that the term "elder" unequivocally refers to folks other than ourselves.

Conclusion:  In considering these facts in concert, we decided to embark upon our first Elderhostel trip, a six-day bicycling event in September 2005 in Cape Cod and Nantucket in Massachusetts.

Beyond the above, plus the description of the itinerary and lodging on the Elderhostel web site, we didn't quite know what to expect of this new vacation format, especially considering that we had not previously attempted a multi-day cycling trip of any type.

Our first introduction to most of our traveling companions was at a "welcome dinner" at the Ocean Edge Resort in Brewster, where we would be staying while on the Cape. The group comprised mostly couples, with a few singles, and had come from all parts of the country.  Everyone seemed quite friendly, but it was immediately apparent that we were among the youngest of the 24 riders-to-be, including the trip leader, Bob Leavitt, from International Bicycle Tours (IBT) in Essex, Connecticut.

We also learned in a series of conversations that nearly everyone other than us had already retired, a milestone that we have not even seriously begun to plan for ourselves.  After dinner, as Bob presented a preview of the route we were going to cover, we pondered whether some of the participants (including us) would have the stamina to endure the activity level we were soon to confront.

The following morning, after a briefing about the navigational protocols we would be using on the road, we headed out of the parking lot onto the Cape Cod Rail Trail.  Within perhaps the first hour, we experienced firsthand evidence of why judging a book by its cover is ill-advised.  These "seniors," (the oldest of whom we later learned was 80) were all in remarkable physical condition.

Each day of "serious" riding, we traversed about 25 to 30 miles.  (On the two days we crossed by ferry to and from Nantucket Island, the cycling distance was substantially less.)  While each participant rode at his or her own pace, when we stopped at roughly 1/2 hour intervals to regroup, the separation from the leader to the "sweep" was never more than about 3 minutes.  While Marty was among the more aggressive riders, there were at least 3 others who could readily leave him in the dust.

Below is a summary of each day's activities during our trip, including hyperlinks to the web sites of some of the places we visited.  Read it if you if you'd like, but feel free to bail out at any time and jump directly to our trip photos, by clicking the camera icon to the left.  This will open a new window, where the images may be viewed as a slide show on Webshots.com.  (You may be prompted to register on the Webshots site, but you can bypass this and proceed directly to the photos without registering.)  When you're done looking at the pictures, you can close that window to return to this page.

Sat, 9/24

We arrived at the Ocean Edge Resort in East Brewster late in the afternoon, where final fitting adjustments were made to the bicycles that had been delivered to the hotel from a nearby rental shop for each of us.  (The bike sizes had been predetermined from the heights we had each supplied on our advance registration forms.)  A few hour later, we walked down to the beach of Cape Cod Bay and watched the sun set, joining the Elderhostel group shortly thereafter in the Mansion (the Resort's main building), for the welcome dinner noted above.

Sun, 9/25

After breakfast, Bob, our trip leader, introduced us to IBT's "corner system," a very clever navigation technique that makes it nearly impossible for anyone to get lost.  Then we set out west and then south on the Cape Cod Rail Trail, riding past salt marshes, ponds and cranberry bogs, through the rail trail rotary in Harwich, and continued on the western branch, then took local roads to get to the Judah Baker Windmill on the shore of Nantucket Sound in South Yarmouth, which was originally constructed in nearby South Dennis in 1791 and subsequently relocated several times before arriving at its current site.  Then we headed east, traveling mostly on Lower County Road, through West Dennis, to Harwich, where we had lunch.

In the afternoon, we visited the Brooks Academy Museum in Harwich, originally built in 1844 as a private academy and "adopted" as the home of the Harwich Historical Society in 1988, having ended its tenure as a school 25 years earlier.  The lower floor displays cranberry harvesting and processing equipment, as testament to Cape Cod's historical dominance of the cranberry industry, a status it has since lost to the state of Wisconsin. A husband and wife team of local growers, members of the Ocean Spray producers cooperative, complemented the exhibit with an oral presentation about cranberry production on the Cape, past and present.  The upper floor of the museum featured an exhibit of the elaborate wedding attire of the 19th century.  We rode westbound on the Harwich extension to return to the rail trail rotary, then back north and east on the rail trail to the Ocean Edge Resort.

Mon, 9/26

Today's ride took us out to the eastern shore of the Cape, which directly faces the Atlantic Ocean.  We started out heading east on the Rail Trail, through Nickerson State Park, stopping to look at and learn about its “kettle ponds,” which are among more than 300 formed as glaciers retreated from the Cape over 10,000 years ago. Then we continued towards the town of Eastham, where the Cape's oldest windmill served very nicely as a backdrop for a group photo.

The itinerary was to have included a stop at the Salt Pond Visitors Center in Eastham, but the facility was closed for renovations.  Cycling past the Visitors Center, we continued out to Coast Guard Beach, where abandoned our bikes, and then our shoes, for a barefoot stroll in the sand to the very cold water's edge. From there. we could see the former Nauset Coast Guard Station, taken out of service in 1958 and now used as housing for students and community groups who come to study the natural resources of the Cape Cod National Seashore.

Returning to our bikes, we headed further north to Nauset Light, reputedly the Cape's most photographed but currently surrounded with scaffolding for a fresh paint job.  After lunch, we road southwest to First Encounter Beach.  Then we worked our way back to the Ocean Edge Resort, where it began to lightly drizzle just as we arrived, followed by real rain only once we were comfortably indoors.

Tue, 9/27

We began our day with a visit to the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History in Brewster, where two docents worked as a tag team to present talks on the human and geologic history of the Cape respectively.  Later in the morning, we returned to the Ocean Edge Resort, where we loaded both our bikes and our luggage into the rental shop trailer.  We then drove in our own cars to Hyannis, where we reclaimed the bikes and boarded the ferry to Nantucket.

If you've already peeked at our photos, you probably noticed that there are relatively few up to this point in our itinerary.  That's primarily because Marty's multi-tasking skills do not include cycling and snapping pictures simultaneously.  Now, however, the two-hour crossing of Nantucket Sound, mostly devoid of alternative activities or attractions, provided the impetus to begin photographing people and places, and to continue to do so more frequently for the remainder of our trip.

As we approached Nantucket Harbor, we were greeted by Brant Point Lighthouse, which is the second oldest lighthouse station in the US and perhaps the Island's most recognizable landmark.  After leaving the ferry, we bicycled to the Nantucket Inn and Conference Center, located near Nantucket Airport, where we would be staying for the second half of our travels, while our luggage was transported simultaneously to each of our rooms at the Inn.  Unlike the Ocean Edge Resort, Nantucket Inn only serves breakfast, so we gathered later for dinner at a nearby restaurant.

Wed, 9/28

The first destination of today's ride was the town of Surfside on Nantucket's southern shore, where we made a stop at of the Star of the Sea Youth Hostel, which had been originally constructed in 1873 as a life saving station.  Then, after a bit of backtracking, we rode west to Madaket, the westernmost point on the Island served by roads.  We again posed for a group photo in front of the "Crooked House," the former summer home of Fred Rogers, better known as "Mister Rogers" of PBS children's television programming fame.  From here, we looped back to Nantucket Town for lunch and meandering on our own around the quaint village.

After lunch, we reconvened at the Nantucket Whaling Museum, where we attended a lecture on Nantucket's involvement in the whaling industry. When we finished looking at the exhibits, we biked back to the Nantucket Inn to relax before heading out to dinner.

Thu, 9/29

In the morning, we rode via the Milestone Road Bike Path to Sconset (Siasconset for purists) on Nantucket Island's eastern shore, stopping briefly at the Sankaty Head Lighthouse, originally erected in 1849 and for a time the most powerful nautical beacon in New England.  We then headed west via the Polpis Road Bike Path to the Nantucket Life Saving Museum in Polpis, where we learned about the history of life saving and saw a live simulation of a rescue of a victim from a ship in distress.  (The "victim" for the demonstration was a stuffed puppy.)  From the museum, we bicycled back to Nantucket Town for lunch, followed by a walking tour of Nantucket's architectural and social history, led by a docent from the Nantucket Historical Association.  After the tour, we rode back to the Nantucket Inn, again managing to do so just as the first drops of the evening's precipitation began to fall.

Fri, 9/30

After breakfast, we rode our bikes for the last time from the Nantucket Inn to the ferry terminal.  We loaded the bikes and ourselves onto the ferry.  Arriving in Hyannis about two hours later, we collected our luggage and exchanged goodbyes, expressing the hope that we might meet again someday.  We then packed our car and began our drive back to New Jersey and reality.

Epilogue

Over the course of our week together, we also gradually became aware of other significant commonalities among our traveling companions, besides the obvious enjoyment of bicycling, that made our time together even more enjoyable.

First, while most were, as noted above, retired from active employment, the fields they had retired from were widely varied but consistently noteworthy.  The group included a college professor, a doctor, an electrical engineer, a rocket scientist, and a management consultant, to name just a few examples.  This made for very stimulating conversation both on and off the road.

Second, as dialogue eventually ventured into the controversial realm of politics, we were pleasantly surprised to discover that we were part of a decidedly liberal-leaning crowd, and Bush-bashing soon became a common discussion theme.

Elderhostel's promotional material for this trip warned that we would cycle every day, rain or shine, but the daytime weather during the entire week was virtually perfect.  That, coupled with sharing our time with a group of terrific people whose company we truly enjoyed, made this a vacation we will fondly remember.