Day 1 Boston, MA June 22, 2021, On the road again FINALLY !!!!!!!!

    This morning we flew from Orlando to Boston, checked into the Four Seasons Hotel and have reservations at a fine French Restaurant this evening. It sure feels good to finally be traveling again. To steal a famous quote: "Free at last, free at last Thank God we're free at last." Tomorrow we are picking up a rental car and spending the day in Plymouth, MA. Since Holly has been able to trace her linage to the Mayflower and is now a member of the Society of Mayflower  Descendants, she has done a lot of research on her heritage and has a full day planned in Plymouth starting with a 2 hour private tour of the Plimoth Pautext Museum. It is called that because that is how the Pilgrims spelled Plimoth and Pautext is the land they claimed. It was an area where the entire Native People, as they like to be called, once lived before their extinction due to European diseases.

   Well travel is alive and well.  The Orlando Airport was a total zoo. Fortunately we were first class and given our choice of two different box lunches with an assortment of snacks. One learns to savor each Gold Fish cracker and chew each one slowly so you don’t have to wear your mask. Otherwise they are like the Gestapo. They also give you miniature bottles and a can of mix so you can make your own Bloody Mary’s. By the way, Marcy, you would not have liked the ride. It was super rough. A few people fell down when trying to get to the bathroom.

   Tomorrow should be interesting. The museum has two parts. The Wampanoag village. Which all of the workers are either Wampanoag people or another closely related tribe. At first we know that they just let the Pilgrims suffer and die off, 51 of them to be exact. The Pilgrims tried to keep all of the deaths secret but the Wampanoag knew.  It wasn’t until late Feb they came and made friends. That was because the Wampanoag and the Narragansett Native people were not getting along and Massasoit, chief of the Wampanoag knew the Pilgrims had guns so maybe they could be helpful.  Of course that worked out rather well because if it weren’t for the Wampanoag, I would not be writing this as all of the Pilgrims would definitely have died. They had no idea how to plant crops. By the way, I will refer to them as Pilgrims but that is not what they called themselves.

  We all learned in school, how Squanto, helped the Pilgrims. Squanto’s real name was Tisquantum. He was captured at the age of twelve and taken back to England as a slave. He was sold to a group of monks who were kind to him and taught him how to speak English.  He finally made it back to his home land to discover that all of his people had perished. He went to live with the Wampanoag.  So he was the only one who could speak both languages. There are many stories of how he played both sides and that will be one of my many questions tomorrow.

  The other half of the museum is the 17^th century English village. They are all reenactors. When you speak with them they are only living in 1621 which would be a year after they landed. That should be fun. I have a list of questions for them. I did decide to hire a private tour guide. I will probably only be here once and don’t want to wander aimlessly around.

   After that we will go and visit an exact replica of the Mayflower.  I also plan to visit the Jabez Howland house. He was one of the sons of John and Elizabeth. John and Elizabeth supposedly lived four houses down so they know they were in the house. It should be like standing on hallowed ground. We also plan other stops.

 More to follow,

Tom & Holly