Before the Storm

Generally speaking I've found that a few days before a major storm there is some rather lovely weather.  True this week and we took advantage of it.  Yes, I suppose that the good weather is given as opportunity to do the preparedness thing for the bad weather to follow...we've done a bit of that...but we took the day off on Wednesday to travel to 'the other Cape'.

The four of us loaded ourselves and some cut flowers into the car at 9 a.m. and headed for my dad's grave at the National Cemetery in Bourne.  As expected it was beautiful weather, not expected was the miserable traffic.  'R' makes fun of my complaints about highway traffic around here (I know, I know, it's not like real traffic in CA). Anyway, mid-week-after-morning-rush-hour and it should have been better on the roads.

This trip we would not be staying overnight at my cousin's house.  They already had company from out of state.  So.....the BIG drive there and back and a tour around all in one day trying to get home before too much night driving yet after Boston rush hour......phew.

We arrived at the cemetery before noon and found that they were doing some renovation work just where we needed to get by.  A slight detour brought us back on track with the first stop at my aunt and uncle's grave.  Then back to dad's.  'A' was surprised to find that her penny was still on his stone (well, slightly off the edge) from when she placed it there last year!  She put it back at top center and added another.  I guess it's 'a penny for your thoughts' kind of thing.

After the cemetery we headed along Rte. 6  west and stopped for lunch with my cousin 'D'.  Then on to cousin 'P's house for a quick visit with her and her family (those out-of-state guests).  By this time it was getting to be mid afternoon and we still had more traveling and stops to make.  Onward to New Bedford where we toured around the south end where my mom grew up and where we made another cemetery stop.  Rural cemetery is where another uncle and my grandparents are buried.  More flowers to deliver graveside and then off again!

Our next stop was to waste some time!  Yep, even though it seemed we had been traveling foreverrrrrrrr, it was too early to finish and head home.  It was only 4:15 p.m. and I didn't want to be on the road north until 5:30ish.  Had to miss that late afternoon traffic around Boston and Boston was only an hour away.  So we stopped at the Friendly's in Dartmouth for a drink  (lousy service!) before heading further west on Rte. 6 to check out the remains of Lincoln Park.

One of the spots where we could see through the fence (The Comet in the background)

Lincoln Park was a local amusement park from 1894 to 1987.  You can read a brief history here.  If you search for "Lincoln Park, Dartmouth MA" you'll find a lot more.  Our family spent many happy days at this amusement park from the 1940's through the 1970's and over more recent years have watched as the park closed, fires consumed familiar buildings and vandals left their marks.  We were curious as to how much would remain.  The answer?  Not  much at all except for a portion of the roller coaster.  The Comet, which lost it's BIG hill to collapse under the weight of snow in 2005 (I think).  When the park closed, all the rides were auctioned off.  The carousel was preserved and moved to Battleship Cove Park in Fall River. MA.  Neglect and fires destroyed what remained of the park's ballroom, rollerskating building, concessions, funhouse and arcades.  As much as the desire exists to discover old, hidden treasures within the off-limits grounds, they are just not there.

All that is left of a spot that brought so much joy.

So after a bit of peering through the chainlink fence for photo taking, we drove back east a mile or so to take a look at the house my grandfather built in the 1920's.  Then on to the highway and home, stopping only to get dinner at our local Friendly's.  It was still daylight when we arrived there but dark by the time we left for the final few miles to our door.