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Before now, I'd never been to Cape Cod. But I'd read a few novels set there, and the Cape Cod of my imagination was dreamy and mystical and quiet. I couldn't wait to take a camping trip with Daniel and Michelle and see it for myself! Turns out, Cape Cod was full of surprises.
In my imagination, all of Cape Cod was windswept sand dunes. But it's actually very wooded. It felt very New Englandy, which surprised me. And the woods, it turns out, are chock-full of ticks. Beastly things! Nasty creatures! Horrible, loathsome bloodsuckers! We had eleven ticks between us all, and seven just between Marc and me! I googled "Cape Cod lyme disease", hoping to find something that said, "incidents of lyme disease on Cape Cod are extremely rare," but instead came up with this:
"Lyme disease on Cape Cod has reached near epidemic proportions, with Nantucket being called the Lyme capitol of the world."
oh goody!
Another surprise: giant horseshoe crabs!I had also imagined sleepy, dry hot summery days on Cape Cod. But instead, we got a monster thunderstorm with hail the size of dimes pounding down on our heads! Here Marc and Daniel are rushing to save our tent from the pool of water that surrounded it in a matter of minutes:
Another surprise is that there's an amazing Portuguese bakery out on the tip of the cape, that makes the most amazing malasadas!
Maybe my favorite surprise, though, was the one we offered to other beach patrons. Harnessing our European sensibilities, we decided that it was fully permissible to be semi-nude on the beach. Shirt or shorts, take your pick.
4 comments:
Looks like you guys had a great little adventure! When I was working out in the field in Florida I came home one day with forty ticks on my body! I was sure I'd get a horrible disease, but all was fine... Except for the emotional trauma of removing forty ticks from my body.
HOLY CRAP! I'm traumatized just thinking about it!!
Please don't pick up a horseshoe crab by it's tail ever again. It can cause them serious injury. Instead if you wish to pick one up put your palm against the side of it's shell near the top and wrap your fingers under. They still can't pinch you as long as you keep your fingers near the top. Plus, honestly a pinch from them won't hurt you nearly as bad as a major tail injury would for the crab.
Thankyou for the comment Wuchak - I grew up on Cape Cod with these peaceful - and I think beautiful-creatures and was taught at an early age not to pick them up by the tail. Unfortunately many are injured or left to die because of uninformed people doing this, not realizing that a horseshoe crab can not right itself without it's tail and will soon die.
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