Dreary begining, wonderful middle, agrivating ending.

OK. So I have been back from you know where, since 4:30 or so yesterday. I followed the long range forecast for about two weeks and for the most part it looked perfect. As it turned out things changed after two weeks and suddenly it looked like rain both here and on the Vineyard. I know I know. That sounds so pretentious. The odd thing is, where we stay is the complete opposite of pretentious. Oak Bluffs is a working persons town. Of course there are some art galleries and book stores, plenty of restaurants, a nice coastline, off beat shops, colorful and fantasy inspired architecture.

A line of "Ginger Bread" Cottages.

  The cottages were all part of a Methodist religious revival meeting in 1835 that proved so popular that the cottages sprang up around the meeting area of the revivals.

  
There a still plenty of images and clips for me to go through. 

So as I was saying there was lots of rain to accompany us down to Falmouth on Cape Cod. Sometimes quite heavy. It rained right into the late evening the first night. It didn't bother us all that much as we couldn't officially get into our rooms until 2p.m. and it was 9:20 in the morning. Despite the steady rain we had umbrellas and we would inevitably have to eat lunch and it was good to stretch our legs after the white knuckle drive down. The manager knows us by now and will get our room ready as soon as possible. At least that's what she says. For all I know the room is 10 minutes from being ready and it's an act to ingratiate the hotel to the customer. It doesn't really matter, they have always treated us well here. The next three days were picture book perfect, though we noticed a significant influx of people by Thursday. This is the latest in Spring we have come here. It's around this time when the tourist start to flock in. The population grows from 15,000 to over 100,000 through the summer. No thanks! When you go early in the season or late in the Fall there are times you feel you've got the place to yourself. Sill, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were all quite lovely.

The Main drag in Oak Bluffs at about 9 a.m.

The other way.

The ride home on Friday was looking grim from the word go. As happened last September as we were leaving the weather was changing. The normally placid Oak Bluffs harbor waters and beach were churning. The wind picked up and it soon began to rain. Oak Bluffs Harbor is not a protected harbor. There's no bay. It sticks out to open ocean. So we go up the road to a town called Vineyard Haven. It has a protected harbor. None of this affected the departure time of the ferry. They are very good about departure and arrival times. As we drove to the other harbor we were stuck behind this large and long refuse removal trailers and this one, though covered with tarps, smelled of garbage. As it turns out he's haulin' this stuff back to the mainland. We were behind him right till the time vehicle boarding began. It turns out we weren't going back on the same ferry we came over on. The same one we always went over on. You drive your car in the belly. Get out go upstairs or go on one of several decks. Our ferry, as it turns out was a bit more utilitarian with a flat open rear deck where all the cars and trucks are parked. Maybe 30 or 40 of them. A very small cabin with a not very appealing men's room. On top of that the large garbage hauler was parked against the wall just below the cabin. We sat there with six other people, serenaded by the fragrance of rotting garbage. After about 10 minutes we decided to go and sit in the car like all the other smart people. I don't need to tell anybody about a popular bodily function we all share after drinking coffee. The men's room looked sketchy from glimpses I got as people entered and left. I was sure you weren't going to see this men's room in Better Homes and Gardens never mind Better Men's Rooms and Gardens, but it was at best functional though cramped, with little privacy, and not a little room you would want to spend any more time in then you had to. 

I come out of the men's room and ask Arlene if she has to got to the restroom so she can ah, "rest" before the long drive back. She declined. She wasn't in need of any "rest". The drive back was worse than the drive down. The horrendous rain storm, a detour taken by the GPS from our normal route. A near accident. A prolonged episode of the silent treatment who's answer may or may not be discerned by me. On the other hand after all was said and done we were still able to laugh about it.

Next time I will go more in depth on the long agonising ride from Falmouth up through Boston and home 5 from miles from there. A ride I hoped we would survive so we could live to die of old age.

      
OK I have more pictures and clips to go through. I may make a slide show and surely another major motion picture shot with a 5 megapixel camera.

I'm outta here.