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It has been six months since we sold our home and began this adventure living on the road in an RV. The one question we are asked most often is, “What do you miss the most?” The response is usually different for Sara and me.

Sara says she misses those mornings and evening walks with her two dogs, Ollie and Rudy, through the orchard on the hill behind our old house. She misses having her own washer and dryer and her own bathroom where she could lay out all her stuff. She misses having a spare bedroom where she could retreat on nights when she couldn’t sleep or wanted to escape my snoring.

My list is different. I miss our 450 gallon Jacuzzi where I would lay each morning and night engulfed in warm bubbles staring at the stars or watching first morning light. I miss my workshop and building things with my hands. I had all my tools at my fingertips. I miss walking out in the orchard or garden and being able to pluck a plum or crisp apple from a tree. I miss the fresh tomatoes and potatoes from the garden.

But the one thing we both miss the most, above all other, is easy contact with family and friends. Not that we were social butterflies but being on the road can be lonely from time to time. While we have met countless new friends and have so enjoyed their company, it was always with the knowledge that in a few days or weeks we or they would be going our separate ways. When we lived in the Madison area, we could see our older daughter Amy often and our younger Polly was only a few hours away. My mother is still alive and at 95 quite active. Marge lived just a few minutes from our former home and she was always glad to see us. Then there were two gourmet groups we participated in on a regular basis. Mostly former teachers, we loved to share food, friendship and good times at each other’s homes.

Nothing could have brought home this desire for companionship with family and friends more than this past week in Cape Cod. We rented a lovely beach home overlooking the bay between the Cape and Boston. There we were joined by two of Sara’s three sisters, Mary and Rita and their respective spouses, Dick Cantwell and Kenny Guden. Rounding out the group of eight were two long time teacher friends, Mike and Kathy Henderson from northern Wisconsin.

Whenever older, retired adults share a week together, one would expect some issues but oh how we all had a great time. We are not sure if it was the charming Cape Cod home with its beautiful view of the falling sunset from bedroom balconies, a kitchen filled with every modern convenience imaginable and four men who love to cook, the wonderful summer like weather in the second week of September, the scores of beautiful beaches, delicious fresh seafood or the countless things to see and explore including Provincetown, Martha’s Vineyard, Hyannis, lighthouses, whales in the bay or the birds on the salt marshes, but everything clicked and it was a week to hang on to and savor.

Sara had looked forward to the visit with great anticipation which was somewhat tempered by an emergency root canal two days before its start. Mechanical problems with the RV also left us stranded over 150 miles from the Cape, but these problems were overcome because we were not going to miss the week. The smile on Sara’s face as she greeted family and friends made all it all worth the effort.

The first night we were treated to fresh tomatoes from Rita and Kenny’s garden, a delicious beef entrée, already prepared and ready to be served, and Leinenkugels beer, Wisconsin’s finest, and hours of conversation. The next seven days were filled with home cooked meals of lobster, fresh halibut, steaks and burgers on the grill, deer sausage, sweet corn, fresh fruit, and other treats that put our few restaurants visits to pure shame. What joy to party with people who love to cook. Kenny made his famous apple crisp dessert and Dick treated us to home made wheat pancakes from scratch. There were nights of playing a new dice game, Mexican Train, which had everyone screaming, alternately between victory and sudden defeat, and mornings of sleeping in late. Some days people would go their own way, but we did most activities together.

Our first visit was to Provincetown or P-Town as it is affectionately called by the locals. Billed as one of the most tolerant cities in America, P-town is probable best know for its very large gay community. That became fairly obvious to all of us as shared a trolley tour of the city. A rather beefy, bare chested fellow decked out in leather fringed chaps and a chrome studded jock strap, paraded by us. There were several “ladies” strolling on the street with those tell tale “Adam’s apples” and biceps that defied their gender but everyone seemed to having a good time. Our tour guides shared the history of the many houses of P-town designated by a little blue plaque that were floated out to the Cape from Boston on barges over a century ago. We saw the famous dunes of the lower Cape and briefly passed the National Seashore Park, a place we all wanted to revisit after the tour.

A few in the group decided to crawl up the famous Pilgrim’s Tower that dominates the skyline of the city some two hundred feet high, while those of us with weaker knees explored the harbor wharf with its many fishing and pleasure boats. Several tall masted schooners were visiting and it was fun to see wood decks and rope riggings. The day continued with a fresh fish lunch including steaming bowls of that famous Cape clam chowder and fresh salads. A visit to the many artist shops of P-town capped off the day, although T-shirts far outweighed any serious art purchases.

The next adventure was a full day’s visit by all of us to Martha’s Vineyard, and I do mean a full day. Keep in mind that the land of Cape Cod and the surrounding islands are some of the most expensive in the nation and have long been the playground of the rich and famous. From the Kennedys to the Clintons, Martha’s Vineyard boosts summer homes of James Taylor, Carley Simon, Walter Cronkite, Barbara Streisand, James Cagney, Mike Wallace, Ben and Jerry of the ice cream fame, Martha Steward, and hundreds of others whose names you would recognize. Martha's Vineyard is a picturesque New England island with captains' houses and lighthouses, white picket fences, ice-cream shops, an authentic fishing village, a Native American community, miles of pristine beaches and rolling farmland. The name refers to the thousands of wild grapes that blanket the island. Unfortunately, Martha’s Vineyard has been discovered in a big way! If you can survive the hassles of getting to the island, and the crowds and traffic once you arrive, you may just have the perfect vacation.

Unless your own your own boat or plane, the ferry at Wood’s Hole is the most popular method of reaching the Island or the Vineyard as it is referred to by the locals. And do I mean popular. There is absolutely no parking at the ferry and you can save a lot of time by just parking in one of the several lots that dot the road from the dock. We were lucky to get in Lot #2 and took the shuttle bus. Then you stand in line for a ticket on the ferry and hope you can board soon. Forget about taking a car across. It will cost $124 round trip plus your passenger fee and that line is really long. Poor planning can result in spending most of the day just getting to and from the Vineyard and not seeing much of it. We decided to purchase a two hour bus tour of the Island and that was the best decision of the day. The tour guide Lisa was a life long resident of Martha’s Vineyard, her chubby face and 250 lb frame belied her 50 year background. She had the bus in stitches during the entire tour with anecdotes and insights at every turn, included her personal experience of clam digging with James Cagney. One of the highlights of the tour was a visit to the colorful Gays Head on the western tip overlooking the vast holdings of former Jacqueline Kennedy, now used by her daughter Caroline’s family. Named by sailors over a century ago due to the colorful sands of the cliffs, Gays Head is a mere four miles from where John Kennedy Jr. and his new wife and sister in law died in a plane crash. As we gazed over the blue water, I remember thinking of how wealth, a requirement of residency on the Vineyard, usually is a part of power, but so often is accompanied by tragedy. Remember the bridge at Chappaquiddick on the other end of the Island. The story of the Kennedy’s brings to mind a famous quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby. "It was all very careless and confused. They were careless people.....They smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made."

Due to high waves, we had to switch ferries for the return trip to the mainland. Then it was back to the shuttle bus and the long drive home for a truly unique experience. No visit to the Cape would be complete without a visit to Martha’s Vineyard.

The beaches of Cape Cod are world famous and an excellent place to begin is the National Sea Shore Visitor Center in Eastham. There a series of films on the geology, ecology and history of the Cape which is not to be missed. The Center has an excellent set of displays on the formation of the Cape Cod and its history. Cod was king and millions of tons of this rather ugly fish were taken from the water, salted and shipped throughout the world. The Cape acquired its name from the resource which is now so depleted that even sport fishing for cod is severely restricted. We visited the Center and then took a tour of several light houses in the area. Our favorites were the Three Sisters Light Houses for obvious reasons and could not leave without snapping a picture of each sister at a light house. The day would have been perfect if Sara’s third sister Ann could have been with us. We took a ranger lead nature tour and learned about the formation of the dunes of Cape Cod and its variety of wildlife. A lot of history about the early native peoples who first lived on the Cape was fascinating.

One day was spent the girls traveling to Hyannis Port for a shopping spree while the guys stayed on the deck, solving world problems, drinking Leinies and worrying if the credit cards had melted from overuse.

We toured a local vineyard on one of our last days together on the Cape. It was a beautiful day complete with wine tasting. Several bottles of our favorites were purchased. The last night we packed up hot dogs, buns, and baked beans and marshmallow and headed for the beach. It was dogs cooked over an open fire; is there any way better to make them, as we watched the sun slowly dip below the horizon. What a wonderful way to end a great week together.

Sara and I will never forget our Cape Cod Connection and look forward to another get together with family and friends somewhere else on our adventures. Who knows where it will be and with whom. We hope that it might be with you!!!!!!!