Foggy in the morning. Even after the fog burned off, the day stayed fairly cool.
Rode our bikes to Tom Nevers Head. I could scarcely believe my eyes. When I was a kid, Tom Nevers Head was a bleak, desolate, deserted stretch of waterfront. During the 1890's a hotel had been built there and the little narrow-gauge train went there, but the track had been torn up before I was born, and the hotel had been boarded up and was falling into decay. It was a spooky place that scared me. We didn't go out there very often. The only roads were rutted roads. Now there's a nice paved road, the old hotel is gone, there are lots of nice houses, and, even more astonishing, a Navy base had been built there and later abandoned. It blew my mind to think that in the fifty years since I was last there, someone had dreamed up the idea of building a Navy base there, the land had been purchased, the base had been built, it had been used for X number of years, then it had been abandoned long enough ago to fall into total decay! How could so much happen in so short a length of time? We wandered around the deserted buildings and looked at the eroded cliffs. It was easy to understand why the base had been abandoned; a few more winter storms and it will fall into the ocean. What's difficult to understand is why it was built there in the first place. Everyone knows those cliffs have been eroding for centuries.
Returned to the bike path to 'Sconset. Nantucket Island is a great place for bike riding, because it's so flat and has so many miles of really good bike paths, totally separate from the roads.
Came to the famous cranberry bogs. They had been started in 1857, and, until fairly recently, this was the largest contiguous cranberry bog in the world, covering 223 acres. To conserve water, it was split into smaller bogs in the late 50's. Roy had never seen cranberries growing, so we rode our bikes a short distance up a dirt road and got a good look at them. Originally, they were called crane-berries, because the bud looked like the head of a crane. When I was a kid, they were harvested by people kneeling in the water with pronged scoops, but now they're harvested by machine. Ocean Spray processes and packages them.
Continued on down the bike path to Siasconset, called 'Sconset for short. Passed a sign that stated the very first wireless station in North America had been built there in 1901.
It was lunch time when we reached the village, so we looked for a place to eat that didn't charge an arm and a leg. The last time I ate in 'Sconset, I paid $10 for a spoonful of carrots, so we wanted to avoid that restaurant. Found one little place that had sandwiches for a mere $5.75, but we decided to look farther. Went into a grocery store and bought ready-made sandwiches for $3.50. Sat on a bench in the shade and ate them.
After lunch, we took a look at the old town pump and then rode along the coast to Sankety Head Light. When I was a kid, I sometimes played with the lighthouse keeper's daughters, and they took me up the spiral staircase in the lighthouse. That was a lot of fun, and the lighthouse seemed almost infinitely high. It's a lot shorter now. Of course, the lighthouse keeper and his family and even his house are long gone. The lighthouse is automated now and closed to visitors.
We rode on out to Wauwinet. Saw the hotel I stayed in twelve or so years ago. Wauwinet is now closed to the public and has a guard at the entrance, but we sneaked in anyway. When I was a kid, it was a public beach, but everything's changed. There are a lot of expensive homes here now. The neat thing about Wauwinet is, it's a narrow strip of sand at the head of the harbor, so you have your choice of swimming in the calm water of the harbor or the surf on the ocean side. That is, you had your choice before it was closed to the public.
Some vehicles let some of the air out of their tires and drive up the beach to Great Point or Coatue. When they return to the paved road, there is an air hose right by the side of the road, so they can reinflate their tires.
Returned via Polpis Road. Went right by the Life-Saving Museum. Would have gone in, but it was nearly five o'clock, so we figured it would soon close. Decided we'd go there tomorrow, but when we got back to the hostel, we found a brochure for the museum. Guess what--it's closed on Mondays! Oh well, we can visit it when we bring the boat up.
We took an evening stroll along the beach at Surfside. We'd put our swimsuits on, but it was too cold to swim, so we just waded along the edge of the water.
Remember the toenail I had removed in Mexico last year? It had started growing out nicely, but it got infected again when we were in Manhattan. For a couple of days, my big toe was all red and swollen and painful. The infection went away when I wore open-toed sandals instead of enclosed shoes, but the nail remained thick and ugly and looked as if it was about to fall off. While we were walking along the beach this evening, a wave came in and carried my toenail off with it, painlessly. Saved me the cost of a visit to a podiatrist.
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