Kevin’s “Rule” Might Be A Problem!

You know Kevin’s rule, don’t you? If not, here it is. Well, a little background first. We started camping in Sept 2020 with our new 25 ft long travel trailer. We camped over 180 days in 14 months. We loved it so much we decided to travel full-time. A month into our full-time lifestyle and we wanted a bigger trailer so we bought a new 36 ft long 5th wheel. We named it HOWE, pronounced How-ee, for Home On WhEels. Kevin’s rule is that THIS HOWE, not our first one, has to stay overnight in a state before we can add the state sticker to our map. HA 

Rhode Island. I found a campground on the state line for one night. That way we can add the state sticker. What did we learn? Only the playground at this campground is IN Rhode Island, the rest is in Connecticut. 🤪 Not kidding!

Well, we had a family meeting, Kevin and I, and discussed that IF we stood on the playground and camped in that campground, we could count it. Whew! I guess since we drove across the entire state of Rhode Island the next day helps.

The next day, as soon as we were on the road, we were in Rhode Island. It took less than an hour to drive across the state. In fact, the whole drive today was 1 1/2 hours. In Massachusetts, the trees changed; around New Bedford, which is next to the water, the trees were shorter and like big bushes. You could see quite a ways. Then as we got to Gateway To Cape Cod Campground, Rochester, Massachusetts, it turned into Ponderosa-looking trees with pine needles on the ground.

One day we went to Cumberland Farms gas station. We found this convenient store chain when we were in Connecticut. I looked up their history online. “Founded in 1938 in Cumberland, RI, as a one-cow dairy farm…” What, 1 cow dairy? OH boy, that got us laughing long and often.

In this whole entire area there are slight hills, lots of trees, and not a straight road to be seen. In fact, the roads come together in a different way – not like a T but as Ys and all sorts of variants of Y. Most houses, barns and buildings are covered in shakes on the sides. We passed fields with small flowers on plants and a rim of dirt around the edges. We finally figured out they are cranberries. We must learn more! 

We went to Pilgrim Hall Museum in Plymouth. The town is busy with lots of traffic. Thankfully we got a parking spot right down from the museum. It is free 2 hour parking, then, the sign says, you have to move at least 5 spots. HA! 

Saints and Strangers, as they were called, landed at Plymouth, MA in 1620. Jamestown, VA had been settled in 1607. They had originally planned to go to northern Virginia to start their own place but storms got in the way. “Saints” were the people who came for religious reasons. “Strangers” were ones who came for other reasons. Today they are all knows as “Pilgrims.” Here are a few things I learned from this museum: *By late 1621 they had built seven dwellings and four storehouse *”The Pilgrims bought their land from the Natives, but the Natives expected to continue to use the land’s resources. The colonists built fences where no fences had ever been before, closing off their property to make the land their own.” *King Philip’s War happened in 1662, after many of the first generation colonists leaders had died. Colonial forces kidnapped Wampanoag leader at gunpoint and took him to Plymouth. He got sick and died soon afterwards. His brother, King Philip (Metacom) became the leader and went to war. After this “Wampanoag people were not allowed to move freely, but were restricted to ‘Indian Districts,’ or early reservations, or to Christian ‘Praying Towns.’ From the late 17th century to 1869, guardians were appointed to manage their affairs. Corruption was rife.” 

There is a neat display of the Mayflower passengers, outlines of people and grouped by families. Then below it are “those who made it to the first Thanksgiving in 1621” and those that died are in gray. So many died that first year.

Turns out that I have 3 direct lines, grandfathers, that were on that Mayflower in 1620! Kevin has 5 direct lines of grandfathers. I added a red stars for Kevin’s grandfathers and purple stars for mine. 

Plymouth is definitely on a steep embankment/hill. We walked down to the Fishermans Memorial Park along the bay. Lots of boats in the harbor and several fishing boats. We walked along the water to Pilgrim Memorial State Park and saw the replica of Mayflower 2. We just marvel at how small the ship is, same as we did at the ships in Jamestown, VA. And, we live in a 5th wheel, so it should look huge! But add all those people and their stuff, oh boy! 

Kevin “insisted” that we go to the Plymouth Rock. I totally and completely refused to take a picture of the rock. My picture is of Kevin laughing at me. LOL You see, that rock wasn’t even thought of for about a hundred years! And there is no records of the pilgrims stepping on that rock when they first reached land. I refused to take a picture of it! HAHA (Turns out that is a funnier memory than if I did take a picture of it.)