Well, I just finished a little weekend tour of the arm of Cape Cod, from the canal to Provincetown (if you are not familiar with Cape Cod, it is similar to someone flexing their arm biceps, with the canal where your arm joins your torso, and Provincetown on the inside of your hand). What made this tour interesting was it the first time my wife toured. Additionally our next door neighbours came as well (we are all in or past our forties, each of us as a couple has 3 kids each, so we are all working parents).

The Plan:
After driving to Plymouth, Massachusetts on a Friday, we were to load up all the bikes and ourselves into one car and be dropped off by a friend at the Cape Cod canal, cycle that day, and then stay at the Old Sea Pines Inn at Brewster, Massachusetts. The next day (Saturday) we would cycle up to Provincetown, stay overnight, and then catch the Provincetown to Plymouth ferry (Sunday).

The Bikes:
me: old steel Specialized Hard Rock mtb with trekking bars and 1.5" Panaracer City Slicks. Converted to a 9 speed gear system with mtb triple crank. Front handlebar bag and rear panniers.
wife: old steel Bianchi Timber Wolf with bar ends and Specialized 1.25" Fat Boys. 6 speeds with triple crank.

Total mileage: about 68 miles

Thoughts on the tour:
My wife has never really cycled before, and to be honest, cycling isn't something that fills her with glee. I was surprized she agreed to do this trip, so I tried to make things as easy as possible. This included me carrying all our stuff in my pannier bags and her carrying as little as possible. I would have liked her to have had a nicer bike -but to be honest since we were on a budget to start with, and since this was her bike and she liked it, I thought it would be adequate for the job. The gearing was more likely to run out going down a hill -and since she is not confident riding at speed, this wasn't going to be a problem.

This tour was never going to be long one -we had figured on 30-35 leisurely miles each day -the idea here was that this was my wife's first tour -we didn't want to make it an ordeal. The first day was all on road -following Route 6A to Brewster. Though 6A might not be the most scenic in places, it was chosen for brevity as well as relative flatness -again with a nod to my wife. Around Yarmouth, the road narrows considerably and traffic can get uncomfortably close. You are, however, treated to some nice scenes of saltwater marshes and you get a lovely cool ocean breeze. Given my wife is a newcomer to cycling, we still comfortably reached our destination of Brewster by around 3:30p! The second day's cycling was much more scenic, but also surprizingly more hilly. We joined the Cape Cod Rail Trail soon after our overnight stay at the Old Sea Pines Inn at Brewster (delightful, fully recommend it) and for a while, it seemed like our day would be full of flat, pleasantly shaded cycling without the rude interruption of traffic. This lulled us into a false sense of well being, and we decided to cut across to the other side of the arm toward South Wellfleet using Lecount Hollow Road. This is where the road began to become a little more rolling, though the magnificent view at Cahoon Hollow beach is worth it; the dune drops away very steeply and you are perched at the top of a hill overlooking a stretch of beach in the bright summer sun -the colours truly were Cape Cod colours. After stopping for a nice break and a drink at the bar at the beach, we continued on.

At this point, I realized my wife was in trouble -the hills became considerably more rolling as we followed Old County Road from Wellfleet, through South Truro and Truro until we eventually rejoined the flatter and more sedate Route 6. In the early afternoon, and powered by ample profanities, my wife gamely attacked each hill as it came. Alas, though sometimes maps suggest little centers where there might be convenience stores, South Truro and Truro didn't prove to be the case, and we didn't hit a sandwich store until after we'd come onto Route 6. It was a shame, as Truro -in the middle of the rolling hills -would have provided a very welcome place to rest and refuel.

At around 4:30pm on Saturday, we rolled into Provincetown, our destination. The weather had been beautiful for both days -warm and sunny.

Finally, I have to make mention of our final destination, Provincetown. If you lean more to an extremely conservative approach to social behaviour, don't go. Provincetown is the gay capital of Massachusetts and certainly outward affection is shown, as well as a smattering of drag queens and other strangely dressed people. Personally, I have no problems with that, and I find Provincetown to be a vibrant and friendly mixture of the quaint, the outrageous, the beautiful and the somewhat bizarre (my wife says she finds it the best place to "people watch"). On the final day this was summarized nicely; my neighbour and I were walking down the beach when we spotted a small personal helicopter had landed on the dunes. It seemed a strange -and possibly illegal -thing to do given the proximity of a road and houses, and we approached a very bronzed gentlemen, probably in his 50's, with gleaming earring who was sunning himself nearby in a beach chair. When we asked if the helicopter was his, he replied to the negative, and after expressing my surprize you could just simply land a helicopter on the beach so close to roads and houses, his response was quite iconic of Provincetown:

"You're not surprized by anything you see here...." he said as he lifted a rather large glass of an indeterminate beverage (quite possibly very alcoholic I suspected) "...and that's also why you should always have a drink ready". To which he gave a broad smile, put the glass to his lips and took a sip.

Amusing Epiphany of the Trip:
My wife: "Uggh, your cycling gloves really start to smell, don't they?"

Real Epiphany of the Trip:
Getting a break from being a parent is very good for the mental health.

Food Highlight of the Trip:
Italian restaurant in Provincetown had a brunch for $13 with a nice table looking out over the sea (the reason we went was because it was voted best brunch of Provincetown I think). The food quality and selection was excellent, though I think they make their money on charging for coffee and juice, but if you want to just eat for a great price at a great location, it was worth it. We ate heartily at about 10:30am, and this lasted us nicely until later that evening. I also have to mention I had just a fantastic sandwich at a little roadside place on the left of Route 6 about 5-7 miles before Provincetown.

Food Lowlight of the Trip:
JT's restaurant on Route 6A at Brewster -don't go there. It's simply a place that takes advantage of its location and that someone must own to just make money with as little effort as possible. The food was poor with meagre portions, and there is certainly no effort to excel except in pricing. We originally had gone there to save some money thinking a little roadside fast food restaurant would save money over the more posh looking Italian restaurant next door; it barely did (examples: 5 small mozarella sticks for $6, a veggie burger on a small roll with absolutely *nothing* else -no side, no fixings -was $7, what a rip off!!!). Really, the nice Italian restaurant wouldn't have been that much more. Two big thumbs down.