Us Cape Coders love our rotaries, or more formally known as round-a-bouts. They are an effective way to manage traffic flow and alleviate the need for long back-ups at red lights. These large circular movers of traffic seem to stump those not from these waters. First off, yield means to progress slowly . . . cautiously into the traffic circle. Under no circumstances does it mean you should jam on your breaks and wait for a green single that will ever appear. Speaking of brakes, if you happen to miss you exit of the rotary, don’t ever . . . EVER stop and attempt to back up. For God’s sake it is a circle, simply progress around it again until the exit re-appears!
I live on Cape Cod simply because I love the water and for no other reason. With that love comes a host of water toys, many of which need to be launched at the public boat ramp. The town graciously supplies you with a dock to tie up to for the brief (and I do mean brief) moments it takes to park your car. So here is a shout out to the random guy from Ohio who backed his boat down the public ramp and tied up to the dock, then proceeded to pull out a cooler and fix himself a sandwich. I held onto my Northeastern patience as long as I could (a whopping three minutes) before I kindly asked him to move. He replied with a gentle, In a minute Darlin’ Needless to say I unleashed my own brand of New England sarcasm on him – the kind that had even the burly local fisherman next to me howling in laughter.
Contrary to popular tourist belief, the little sticks floating in the middle of the bay were not place there as a courtesy to out-of-town boaters. They are private mooring, paid for and maintained by locals like me. So next time I pull into Lewis Bay with a boat full of strippers I will not call the Harbor Master and ask him to ticket you. I will not call the Yacht club and ask them to find you a different transient mooring. Although tempted, I will not even cut your boat lose and let if float back to Delaware. I will climb aboard you vessel, make myself a cocktail, and wait until you return, at which point I will not so eloquently school you on whose mooring this really is.
Thanks for listening to me gripe and do know that usually we locals are more then happy to have you visit. It was just a bad weekend for me. But be forewarned, this is what you have to look forward to when you and a couple other thousand people decide to leave – Twenty miles and three hours of bridge traffic! But just for you, my writing friends, I will give you a map of the back roads so you can avoid the delays
