We felt very welcome, especially by the gnats.
We stayed at a pretty nice KOA last week, but never got around to putt putt, so sad.
Site for the week.
Last Sunday we went to the Strawberry Festival at Outlook Farm Barn and Eatery. Had a nice time, it was a nice day and met some nice people.
We got there early enough to choose the seats we wanted.
The band getting ready to play.
There was a halo around the sun, someone said it was caused by the fires in Canada.
Westhampton was first settled in 1762. It was originally part of Northampton. Reverend Enoch Hale, brother of the American spy Nathan Hale, was chose to the be town's first minister. The town is one of the eight "dry" towns in the Commonwealth, meaning that the sale of alcoholic beverages is prohibited within its boundaries. As of 2018 the population was 1,641.
Cute little town.
As I was doing research on Massachusetts bird, flower, tree and motto, I found out the flower is The Mayflower and that took me down a rabbit hole looking up information about The Mayflower ship. We will go to Plymouth Rock but wanted to share with you the information on this post.
This is what the rock looks like.
The Mayflower set sail on 16th September 1620 from Plymouth, UK, to voyage to America. But its history and story start long before that. Its passengers were in search of a new life – some seeking religious freedom, others a fresh start in a different land. They would go on to be known as the Pilgrims and influence the future of the United States of America in ways they could never have imagined.
This story isn't just about the Mayflower's passengers though. It's about the people who already lived in America and the enormous effect the arrival of these colonists would have on Native Americans and the land they had called home for centuries.
More than 30 million people can trace their ancestry to the 102 passengers and approximately 30 crew aboard the Mayflower when it landed in Plymouth Bay, Massachusetts, in the harsh winter of 1620.
On board were men, women and children from different walks of life across England and the city of Leiden in Holland.
The Mayflower.
"The Pessimist complains about the wind; the Optimist expects it to change;
the Realist adjusts the sales." William Arthur Ward.
A significant number were known as Separatists, a group of people who mostly wanted to live a life free from the current Church of England. Others were on the ship for a multitude of reasons some anticipated the chance to build a better future for their families and the opportunity of new land, while for others the offer of freedom and adventure was too good to turn down. Then there were the crew themselves, plus the servants and unaccompanied children sent by their families to be looked after by the adults.
The passengers are often grouped into ‘Saints’ or ‘Strangers’ by historians, alluding to their motivations for the journey. But it’s likely that many ‘Saints’ were skilled tradesmen and many ‘Strangers’ had their own religious reasons for leaving 17th century England. The origins of these passengers can be traced across England and in the Netherlands.
Map of the journey.
Importantly, the Pilgrims were not the first to land in America, nor did they discover it. There were already established colonies at the time, not least Jamestown, founded in 1607. But the Mayflower story is renowned for its themes of freedom and humanity, including the relationships first formed between the Wampanoag tribe Native American and the colonists and the first Thanksgiving.
Fun facts: The Mayflower and the first Thanksgiving. The Mayflower didn't land in Plymouth first, they landed at the tip of Cape Cod, bad weather forced them to change their plans. Some of The Mayflower's passengers had been to America before. Stephen Hopkins tried to settle at Jamestown ten years earlier, but on his way, his ship wrecked off the coast of Bermuda, later he made it to America aboard The Mayflower. Nearly half of The Mayflower passengers and crew died during the harsh winter of 1621. To hide their dwindling numbers from the Native Americas, they buried their dead at night in unmarked graves. Today over 35 million people are direct descendants of the pilgrims, including John Adams, Franklin Roosevelt, Marilyn Monroe and Clint Eastwood.
Clint Eastwood.
Also, the first Thanksgiving meal wasn't like today's traditional meal. It included foods like venison, sea bass, cod, clams, lobster, eel, mussels, ground nuts, squashes, beans and berries. The pilgrims didn’t use forks, but used a knife, spoon, and their fingers to eat. The whole meal was prepared by four women and two girls. They also did the clean-up.
The Pilgrims and the Wampanoag tribe.
"Keeping it real" last Monday we started walking. Hubby has been doing research on ways to help his back and upon reading, a doctor said that walking 7500 steps per day is all that we need. Studies show that walking more than that doesn't increase health benefit much. We walked 7500 Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Friday was a rest day and I needed it, I was tired. Come to find out 7500 steps take a little over an hour and is three miles. The rate in which you walk doesn't matter and you don't have to do them all at one time. Thursday, I got over 10,000 steps in.
Friday, we headed out to fill up with diesel and went out to eat. Overall a very quiet week. Things will be hopping over our three week stay in Maine. Stay tuned for our next blog post.
Another new state! Here are the state bird, tree, flower and motto for Massachusetts.
*Massachusetts: Black-capped Chickadee (Bird), American Elm (Tree), The Mayflower (Flower), and "Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem" Latin for "By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty." (Motto).
Black-capped Chickadee.
American Elm.
The Mayflower.
"For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude; for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer." 1 Timothy 4:4-5 (NASB)
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God, the RV & me...
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