I took trips from New Jerz to Cape Cod

   If this journal doesn't give you enough Cape Cod goodness, allow me to recommend www.Codblogs.com, which is a collection of Cape Cod-themed blogs. If you are into the whole Cape Thing, this is the place for you to be.

   Now, I qualify as a J.O.C. (just off Cod). Even though I'm on the mainland side of the bridge, I'm a Cape Codder. I grew up in Duxbury... two towns off the Cape, and so amazingly different that it is almost like a whole other state. Where the Cape has a Summer of 42  feel to it, Duxbury has a Summer of (18)42  feel to it.

  The old-timers tell me that you're a Cape Codder once you realize that you are the only person you know (besides your neighbors) who has to drive Northwest to get to Boston. I may or may not be technically on the Cape here in Buzzards Bay, but I made it onto CodBlogs.

   The Cape is a fun spot. Yet, it is madly overrated. They may have 50 days of summer weather, and the principal economic activity seems to be selling antiques to one another.... then going to a seafood place with the profits. Buzzards Bay may have 3000 people living in it... but we have about 10 antique shops, and 15 restaurants.

   There's also an inordinate amount of people who grew up here, stayed here after high school, and found out that there were no jobs (there's a by-law concerning how many Antique shops one town can have)... and now sort of hang around at the bar all day.

   Throw in some Massachusetts Maritime Academy cadets, some beached fishermen, and a thriving biker community... and you'll have a very good chance of seeing a rowdy bar fight at 11:15 AM on a Wednesday morning in December. The Mass Maritime cadets behave worse than the Hell's Angels do, btw.... and the fights tend to go to whatever side rolls with greater numbers.

   Aesthetically, it is beautiful. Cape Cod was shaped by glaciers and gradual sea erosion. Sand dunes, cranberry bogs, pine trees, and never being more than 5 minutes from a beach (even a cold one) are good things to try to move near. The population density goes from neighbor's children walking into your house in summer to no trick or treaters at all by Halloween.

   Traffic is bad, until you find the Bournedale Road. This allows you to skip all the Sagamore and Bourne Bridge traffic by driving through a windy country road that passes a horse farm, two cranberry bogs, 5 miles of the Miles Standish State Forest, and Little Sandy Pond. It might add one mile onto a trip from Duxbury to Buzzards Bay, but it saves the driver 30-75 minutes... depending on whether it is a summer day or not.

   Now, this journal rarely covers Cape Cod events... I may have had one sports article about the Bourne Braves, and a few others concerning cranberry harvests, Nor'easters, and the season's first snow.

   Still, it is a Cape phenomena, and the people of Cape Cod may one day be held accountable for the damage that I do. Until then, go to www.CodBlogs.com and check out a truly unique corner of the world.