Day 54

Today I was on the move. I started with my morning walk along Hwy 1. Since the Falmouth Inn was near the edge of town, traffic was never busy at 6 in the morning. For two weeks, I noticed this piece of blue/gray slate in the ditch. It had obviously fallen off a load of stone. Today, I decided I had to have it as a reminder of my journey in the northeast. It was heavier than I thought but I lugged it home anyway. Slate is obviously durable which is why many of the tombstones here are made of slate. The piece is actually shaped a bit like a tombstone - and is now stashed in the back of the car with the other ephemera that I am acquiring.

After doing laundry, I took US route 1 south from Portland towards the Massachusetts border. Slow going with all the traffic in the towns but the countryside was lovely and beats taking the interstate. I do love New England architecture. It is just my favorite.

Along this back route there are HUNDREDS of antique stores. I guarantee you that the ancestors of our family and everyone else's you know couldn't possible have had the quantity of possessions purported to be "antique." I did succumb when I got to Gloucester and went into a jumble/antique store. Some things were very organized, some were just boxes of stuff. One box was filled with nothing but old (1870-1930) family photos. Everything resembling what I have been cherishing and documenting for the last two months was just thrown in a box to be sold. No one will ever know who these people are. UGH! The box also contained a hodgepodge of files. Business receipts, letters, stock certificates from long dead companies, etc. I salvaged a small book on the civil war that was in tatters and several letters and a ship's manifest from the late 1700s. They have nothing to do with our family but will be useful in showing young family members the type of paper and writing I have been looking at during my journey. Plus is made my soul feel better to rescue these documents.

Gloucester's harbor is glorious - large and deep with endless sky and puffy clouds. Nice to think that some of our whaling relatives walked its banks. Earlier I had a few minutes on Plum Island (wrong turn) where the ocean resembled what I remember from summers on Long Island.
Tonight I am in Wakefield, MA. I will get some work done over the next two days and venture east to Salem and the witches.