The Van Blog: P Town

Yesterday we left Hingham, Massachusetts and headed towards Cape Cod with the intention of going to Martha’s Vineyard for the day and possibly overnight. Once we arrived at Cape Cod we found camping at Nickerson State Park, which is on the bay coast about halfway to the end of the island. Kyle and I decided to stay there for the night and play the next day by ear. We spent the rest of the day driving up the island, stopping for raw oysters and shrimp cocktail, and eventually landed in “P Town” which is what the natives, locals and even the tourists call Provincetown. What’s the difference between natives and locals you ask? Well, we learned yesterday, that a native is someone whose ancestry is from Cape Cod and basically the pilgrims who came here on the Mayflower – they also distinguish themselves by tying a rope to their front bumper. As badly as I wanted to see an Amish horse buggy when we were in New York, I wanted to see this too with my own eyes… but I did not get the fortune of seeing the infamous bumper rope. A local is someone born here but whose extended family is from somewhere else (clearly not a true native). And, obviously, a tourist is not from there at all. We stopped to check the rate on one of the adorable, tiny, one room cottages that sit on the sand dunes with a clear view of the bay ($135 a night) and the woman who owned the establishment followed me out to the van while I told Kyle the price, and as soon as she saw the van said in a heavy east coast accent, “Well, you sure ARE a tourist!” I guess we kind of stand out. I would describe P Town as a mix of New England and The Castro – it had an energy that was electric. We parked our car and rode our bikes around - or at least tried… the crowds were so thick you could only go a few feet before needing to stop completely from running into someone. We hung out for a few hours, even getting our feet wet in the crystal clear waters of Cape Cod bay before heading back to our campsite. When we woke this morning we decided Cape Cod gave us the best of the islands and we didn’t need to go to Martha’s Vineyard, so we headed south.