Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #67: Monday Runday, Social Media Stalkers, 5K Fun, etc.

1. It was the return of Monday Runday this week. That is where I get out of work, meet my friend Mike at a local school track, and run or walk. It is so much fun, especially when the weather is good. The return of this fun event was not without its challenges. Mainly, it was do I beat the hell out of a selfish, entitled dog owner. I took a detour off of the track to find a porta-potty. Once done there I took a long lap around the school. It was here that I was met with a dog running free while its idiot owners just watched. I yelled repeatedly to get their dog while it ran around me. I kept running but made sure to toss several F words at the moron dude who stood there leaking brain cells on the ground. It did get my adrenaline pumping but man, stupid people.

2. A new piece of training equipment I got to try this week is resistance training for your lungs. It is a mouth guard with a valve attached to it. You can adjust the valve to restrict your oxygen intake. The gist of it is that if you have to breathe twice(or more) as hard as normal to get a full breath then when you’re exercising in reality, you’ll have far more stamina. I suppose you could use it to strengthen your lungs just for daily life as well. My hope is that using it will leads to more stamina running while my calf wedge will allow me to run longer due to increased ankle and calf mobility. We shall see.

3. I don’t know if it is an example of the Mandela effect or if it’s just me, but how did it take me to my late 40s to realize that Tom the Cat from Tom & Jerry was gray during the first years of the cartoons? I thought he was always blue, but it turns out he was gray for a lot of the time. Maybe my sense of color was different when watching the cartoons as a kid? Maybe I am putting way too much thought into 80-year-old cartoons? But also what else from my childhood am I ‘misremembering’ as Roger Clemens once said?

How did I not notice Tom was gray?

4. There are plenty of times over the last few years when I feel like I am working on so many different projects and making minimal progress on each. Typically, my content itinerary consists of podcasts, videos, blogs, and various social media posts to promote all of those. I have also been working for months on a website for my podcast. This is the project that feels like I am making little progress on. Usually it’s because the rest of the content takes precedence. As we speak, I am working on loading in all of the links I’ve shared in 194(and counting) episodes, along with all of the old shows and artwork. You can see that it’s slow going based on the fact that I chose to stop that work to continue this blog. I’m sure the site will be up before my podcast ends, pretty sure.

5. I always find it weird and a bit off-putting when a random stranger likes a photo or post of mine on social media that dates back several years. Like how much are you stalking my pages to find something that far back when I have hundreds, if not thousands of posts? It’s especially creepy on Instagram, where I have nearly 6,000 posts. If you’re that big of a fan to go years back in my archives, then go support me on Patreon, if you’re just a weirdo stalker, then please make yourself known so I can block you.

6. My 5K race this weekend left me shocked and speechless in the best possible way. I had only semi-trained. I looked at this race as a kind of barometer of where I went with running afterward. My goals were twofold. Don’t get hurt, and finish the 5K(3.1 miles) in less than 35 minutes. I ended up beating my goal by more than 6 minutes, and actually beating my last 5K time by a good 45 seconds. To say I am shocked is an understatement. I was tired for sure but I set a pace from the start and barely wavered. As a runner, sometimes the hardest thing to do is run your race and not change your plan based on others around you. I fell victim to that more times than I can count. For some reason in this race, I felt like it was just me against myself, and it turned out better than I could have imagined.

7. The race was the Dennis Chamber 5K. It started and ended at the beautiful Mayflower Beach, which is on the bay side. This marked the 4^th time I ran a race on this course. It’s relatively easy, there are a couple of hills but nothing that any average runner hasn’t seen before. This year’s race had about 250 people, so we were packed like sardines at the beginning. At my peak I used to line up right on the starting line and would take off in a flash. Now I tend to be in the middle of the pack. The faster people take off out of sight, while I still can pass my fair share of slower people who don’t understand that they need to be in the back of the group. There was music, free food, water, a potential free lunch afterward. It was a fun and festive time made all the better by my surpassing my own expectations.

8. I took pride in my outfit for the race. I had an idea for it in my head and had to hope for the weather to cooperate because a rainy day would put the kibosh on my setup. Luckily, it ended up being sunny and around 60 for the race. This meant that I was able to go all out. I had some styling powder from a company named Level 3. It’s great stuff, you can use it on your dry hair. So I spiked up my hair I’ve been growing for the last few months. This didn’t go off without a hitch, as when I opened the container of the powder, I did manage to spill some on my black shirt and shorts. Smooth. Then I had a killer headband from the Junk company. It was blue and black Hippie skulls. Combined with sunglasses, it was a great look. Things went off without a hitch until a few hours after the race. This is when I looked at myself in the mirror and saw that, thanks to the headband, I had a very specific red area on my face. The headband and sunglasses covered my forehead and eyes, so I ended up with what boiled down to a red line about ¼” wide going across my forehead right above my eyebrows. Nice. It was still a good look though.

You can see where I might have gotten red...

9. The weather has been perfect especially over the weekend. It was time to throw open all of the windows and get that spring air flowing through my space. Of course this is the time then that the next door neighbor has a thorough cleanup done on their yard. This was complete with a backpack blower going nearly nonstop for close to 2 hours. It was the ultimate background music for me trying to edit my podcast. I ended up having to close my windows just like it was January again. Booo.

10. In this day and age I rarely have cash on me. I rely on my debit card for all purchases. Only when an issue arises do I wish we were still in the cash days. I was in a supermarket and only when I was at the self-checkout did I realize that the card reader was having issues. I had cash on me but only $5. I wasn’t going to leave my stuff, go run to an ATM, and then come back to pay the rest. After close to 10 minutes of trying and failing a different employee came over and suggested I try the ‘tap’ option. I had done it several times with no luck but to humor her I did one last time. Lo and behold it worked. I was so relieved and said she was a good luck charm. I then bumped into a few people I knew. I felt so good when leaving that I took that $5 and gave it to a group of little girls collecting money for their dance academy. Good karma for me.

Just a little spring photo to end the blog.

In My Footsteps Podcast Episode 4: Bradlees, Mystic Connecticut, Retro Clothing Brands, This Week In History

 

In Their Footsteps: Cape Cod History - The Pilgrim Landing 400th Anniversary

    It’s Thanksgiving time again. That means turkey, football, and family for most. However all of these blessed events and traditions would not be possible if not for a group of English settlers known as the Pilgrims. 2020 marks the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the Mayflower on this continent.

    The collection of 102 passengers aboard the famed ship is most commonly connected with their landing in the future Plymouth Colony; however they have a large connection to Cape Cod. It is on the Cape where the Pilgrims first walked and explored.

    First off a little bit of the journey of the Mayflower. It was the initial intention of the Pilgrims to land somewhere in present-day Northern Virginia. The ship was to be accompanied to the New World by a vessel named Speedwell. This ship was cursed it seemed as even on its way to meet the Mayflower in Southampton in July 1620 it began leaking. In fact the pair of vessels departed twice from England only to have to return to port when the Speedwell began leaking. Finally on September 6th the Mayflower left Plymouth, England to cross the Atlantic Ocean. 66 days later the Mayflower found land and docked. However it was not Northern Virginia, it was Cape Cod, more than 400 miles north. These locations that follow are spots where the Pilgrims explored on the Cape and can still be explored today.

1. Pilgrims’ First Landing Park, Commercial St., Provincetown - On November 11, 1620 the Mayflower circled around the tip of Provincetown and docked in Provincetown Harbor. The first steps on shore by the Pilgrims are commemorated here at the rotary at the west end of Commercial Street. There is a plaque which celebrates this moment of not just American but World History as well. The location was discovered via a map in the 1622 book Mourt's Relation written by Edward Winslow and William Bradford. It was a firsthand account of the landing and thus the map is seen to be accurate.

First Landing Park

2. Pilgrim Monument, High Pole Hill Rd., Provincetown – This granite tower was erected in 1910 overlooking the harbor. It is 252-feet tall and stands 350-feet above sea level. The view from the top is simply incredible. The first stone of the tower was laid by then President Theodore Roosevelt in 1907 and is a very fitting tribute to the colonists. Although not directly tied to the Pilgrims landing it is still an impressive attraction and one of the best known locations on Cape Cod.

3. Pilgrim Spring Trail, Pilgrim Heights Rd., Truro - This trail leads through the woods out to a breathtaking scenic overlook of the dunes and ocean from a raised vantage point. From the overlook it is a quick walk to a plaque telling the tale of the Pilgrims’ first drink of fresh water in the new land. On November 16, 1620 an exploring party came upon a spring from which they drank. There is a small pool there to this day but it is not certain if this is the very same one since it was 400 years ago.

4. Pilgrim Pond, Pond Rd., Truro - It was here that a group of sixteen Pilgrims, led by Myles Standish and William Bradford, spent their second night on the shores of Cape Cod. It is an unassuming piece of history with a small park complete with a couple of benches along the water. The best view of the pond is a short walk from the park but overall it is difficult to see much of the water. However it is still a marvelous chapter of the Pilgrims’ story on the Cape.

Pilgrim Pond 

5. Corn Hill/Corn Hill Beach, Corn Hill Rd., Truro - It was near the beach on November 16, 1620 that the same group of sixteen Pilgrims purportedly came upon a Wampanoag stash of corn and fresh water which they took and used to sustain their people. The physical Corn Hill stands upwards of one hundred feet above the beach. The views are somewhat limited due to the homes which dot the area atop the hill. It is possible to drive the road and gaze down at Little Pamet River to the south to get a taste of the amazing panoramic scenery.

6. First Encounter Beach, Samoset Rd., Eastham - The ‘first encounter’ the name speaks of is one between the group of sixteen Pilgrims, led by Myles Standish and William Bradford, and the Nauset Tribe of the Wampanoags. On December 8, 1620 the two groups met along the beach here. Earlier European explorers had visited and even captured members of the Nauset Tribe leaving them with rightful bad memories of white travelers. Thusly the ‘first encounter’ consisted of arrows being slung from the Nauset Tribe and musket fire being directed by the Pilgrims. In the end both sides retreated.

The plaque at First Encounter Beach

As a result of this encounter the Pilgrims decided to look elsewhere for a settlement fearing more hostile interactions with local natives. Within days the Mayflower set sail across Cape Cod Bay and landed at Plymouth on December 16, 1620 where the new settlement began. Cape Cod would not see another attempted settlement until 1628 when Plymouth Colony established the Aptucxet Trading Post in present-day Bourne. It was created to allow settlers to trade with local natives and traveling Dutch sailors. That was a trading post and not a village though. In 1637 the town of Sandwich was formed and gave the Cape its first true settlement.

In five weeks on Cape Cod the Pilgrims explored much of the bay side coast from Provincetown down through Eastham. Their footprints are all over the land and their influence is as well. Take a few moments this Thanksgiving season to walk where they walked and feel the history and their importance all around you.

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View my previous blog posts: 

In Their Footsteps: New England History - Mercy Brown and the New England Vampire Panic

In My Footsteps: The Time Period I Wish I Could Visit

Be sure to check out my website: Christopher Setterlund.com

In My Footsteps: 4K New England - Myles Standish Monument & Burying Grou...

In My Footsteps: 4K New England - Plymouth Waterfront

In My Footsteps: Myles Standish Monument

Here is a video featuring a monument dedicated to legendary Pilgrim and leader of Plymouth Colony Myles Standish.  This is located high on a wooded hill in Duxbury and is a great spot to visit.  There is also a visit to his grave located nearby which is surrounded by four cannons.




The three books of the In My Footsteps series are available at Amazon.com.


In My Footsteps: A Cape Cod Travel Guide

In My Footsteps: A Traveler's Guide to Martha's Vineyard

In My Footsteps: A Traveler's Guide to Nantucket

In My Footsteps: Cape Cod - Bourne Recreation Area

The 4th video presented by In My Footsteps features another hidden gem. Although hundreds of thousands pass over the Bourne Recreation Area each year on the Bourne Bridge few know about it or stop there.  It is a unique mix of humming highway traffic with boats and birds.  There are picnic tables to relax and the Canal Bike Path passes right along.     
     My first book, In My Footsteps: A Cape Cod Travel Guide, is now available at SchifferBooks.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and Amazon.com, in stores everywhere!  Follow me on Twitter!

Bourne on Dwellable

In My Footsteps: Trip 25: Plymouth & Duxbury, Mass.

In My Footsteps

Christopher Setterlund

Trip 25: Plymouth & Duxbury, Mass.

February 19, 2010

            It is one thing to discover the amazing historical sites that nearly every town in New England has to offer, it is another thing all together to go to where the history of the country began.  Sure Jamestown, Virginia was technically the first settlement in the New World but the spot where the Pilgrims landed in 1620 is overflowing with history and that is Plymouth, Massachusetts.  One only has to round the corner on Water Street and come face to face with the Mayflower II or the granite monument housing Plymouth Rock to realize that you are in a very special place.

            Before hitting the two main attractions of Downtown Plymouth there is another area that needs to be seen.  Located diagonally across from the parking area for the Pilgrim Memorial State Park is the Elder Brewster Gardens.  This park which runs along both sides of Town Brook is on the original grounds of the garden land given to Elder William Brewster in 1620.  There was a huge congregation of ducks on this day despite signs telling visitors not to feed them it is safe to assume that people still do as these ducks were quite docile and showed little fear of humans.

            The park grounds include a paved pathway that travels underneath both the Market Street and Route 3A bridges.  The water rushing by echoes against the walls of the bridges as it heads down toward Plymouth Harbor.  The end of the pathway is the Jenney Grist Mill(left) and Museum.  Built in 1636 by John Jenney the mill is still operational.  It was strategically placed along Town Brook because the drop in elevation of the river allowed for a great amount of power in the water flow.  The river is spring fed which meant in times of drought for the Pilgrims the river never would run dry; also Town Brook is home to ample amounts of herring during the warmer months.  The Run of the Mill Tavern is located next to the mill and is a great family place to stop for lunch or dinner.  This park is a great first stop on a walk through downtown, but it is only the beginning of a magical trip through American history.

            Across the street from the Brewster Gardens is the Pilgrim Memorial State Park.  Here you can see not only a replica of the ship the Pilgrims took from England to America, but also the spot where they landed.  Plymouth Rock(right) is located on the shore of Plymouth Harbor at the foot of Cole’s Hill and is an amazing symbol of our heritage.  Although it is open to debate as to whether the rock is actually on the exact location where the Pilgrims disembarked one cannot deny the rock’s meaning.  The current granite house that covers the rock was built in 1920.

            Sitting a few hundred feet north of Plymouth Rock is the replica of the Mayflower called Mayflower II.  The ship was built in a joint effort between Englishman Warwick Charlton and Plimoth Plantation in 1955-56, and used 17^th Century building methods.  It was also built using Plimoth Planation’s Mayflower blueprints and is considered to be a nearly exact replica but for small enhancements like electric lights.  The ship is only 106 feet long and 25 feet wide which makes it even more amazing that such a vessel carrying about 130-135 people made the voyage across the Atlantic nearly 400 years ago.  The ship can be toured during the warmer months and I highly recommend it.

            The whole of Plymouth’s downtown is a great way to spend a day from Brewster Gardens to Plymouth Rock and the Mayflower II(left).  However there is much more including several monuments to 30-time Governor of Plymouth, William Bradford and Wampanoag Indian legend Masasoit who is credited as being a ‘protector and preserver of the Pilgrims.’  Plimoth Plantation, a faithful recreation of the first colony at Plymouth, is also a must see.  It is located on Warren Avenue and is made a memorable experience thanks greatly to the folks who are completely dedicated to portraying their 17^th Century counterparts. 

            Another legend of American history, Myles Standish, has his own monument located a short drive north of Plymouth in Duxbury(below).  Located on Crescent Street atop the 200 foot Captain’s Hill, the 116 foot granite shaft is topped by a fourteen foot statue of Standish.  Myles Standish was hired to be a military advisor for Plymouth Colony and served as Plymouth’s representative to England.  He also helped found Duxbury and named it after Duxbury Woods in Chorley, Lancashire, England. 

            The monument itself can be seen from miles around as it rises high above the trees.  During the summer months it can be climbed and rewards those who do climb with an amazing view of Kingston Bay as well as Duxbury Bay and Clarks Island.  The forest surrounding the monument is beautiful and even on a winter day the sweet pine scent filled the air and made me hopeful for a return trip in the spring.

            Plymouth is the Holy Grail, if you will, of historic towns.  No other place in the United States can top being basically the starting point of all that we are today in this country.  It goes deeper than just Plymouth Rock and the Mayflower II, there are many other historic places and monuments to see but those two should be first and foremost on any visitor’s list.  Take an amazing trip back through the first period of American history and visit Plymouth.  Have fun and happy traveling!

Directions: Plimoth Plantation: From Rt. 3 take Exit 5, turn right at South St., take 1^st right at Obery St.  Take slight left at Sandwich St.  Turn right at Rt. 3A/Warren Ave.  Plimoth Plantation is on the right designated by a sign.

Plymouth Historic Downtown: From Rt. 3 take Exit 5, turn right at South Street and keep right on South St.  Turn left at Rt. 3A North, take 3^rd right onto Water Street.  Parking is available at Pilgrim Memorial State Park.  Plymouth Rock and Mayflower II are on the right side, Brewster Gardens is on the left side diagonal from the parking area.

Myles Standish Monument: From Rt. 3 take Exit 10, turn right at Rt. 3A.  Turn right at Chestnut St., right at Standish St.  Take slight right onto Crescent Street.  Parking area for monument is on a hill on the right, if gate is closed road must be hiked to the top. 

References:  Plimoth Plantation

            Pilgrim Hall Museum

            Visit Plymouth - Plymouth Rock

            Mayflower History    

Plymouth on Dwellable

Plymouth on Dwellable

In My Footsteps: Trip 11 - Eastham, Mass.

In My Footsteps

Christopher Setterlund

Trip 11: Eastham, Mass.

January 26, 2010



It is the gateway to the Outer Cape. Once you pass through the Orleans Rotary into Eastham it is as if you have traveled to a different place and time. Except for very sparse clusters of shops and restaurants along Route 6 the remainder of Cape Cod up to Race Point in Provincetown is nearly unchanged from the 19th Century. It is out here that the true soul of Cape Cod can still be felt. Eastham is only the first stop through the Outer Cape, but like the other towns it has many amazing sights that need to be discovered.

The first place comes up on you fast along Route 6. A sign on the right points you toward Fort Hill. Before reaching the scenic overlook there is a parking lot on the left directly across from a piece of Cape history. The Penniman House(left), built in 1867 by rich whaler Captain Edward Penniman, was the most expensive house in town when it was built. It was a testament to his fortune he had gained through seven successful whaling voyages; his love for whaling is also depicted by the pair of whale ribs acting as a trellis to enter the front yard. After taking a stroll around the grounds of this marvelous olde mansion it is a short drive up to the lookout area of Fort Hill. There is a panoramic view of Salt Pond Bay and the Atlantic Ocean with a trail to lead you down to the water, or back toward the Red Maple Swamp.

The next stop up along Rt. 6 is First Encounter Beach(right). A left turn at the set of lights at Samoset Road leads you past Windmill Green. This winding road will take you to the beach area. This beach is historic as it is the place where the initial, peaceful meeting between Myles Standish and the crew of the Mayflower met up with the local Nauset Indians in 1620. The Mayflower crew kept on to Plymouth and the village of Eastham was not settled by the Pilgrims for another twenty-four years in 1644. At low tide there is a mass of open wet sand and mudflats for shell fishing. There are frequent seal and sea turtle sightings along the eastern most Cape beaches and signs posted around them alert you to this fact and ask you to leave them alone.

Nauset Road, a right turn less than a mile from Samoset Road takes you to my favorite spot in the town of Eastham: Nauset Light(right). Nauset Light, located on a hill overlooking the similarly named Nauset Light Beach, was originally built in Chatham in 1877. The cast iron giant was to be dismantled in 1993 but was saved through a tremendous effort by the Nauset Light Preservation Society. It is open Sunday’s during the spring, summer, and fall.

There are actually three more lighthouses located only a third of a mile away on Cable Road. The ‘Three Sisters’ lighthouses can easily be missed by travelers as they are not located on the shores of Cape Cod, but instead they sit spaced out across an open field. Their story is possibly the most amazing of all of the Cape lighthouses but it also the least known.

The diminutive Three Sisters, only fifteen feet tall as opposed to the forty-eight foot tall Nauset Light, originally sat overlooking Nauset Light Beach from as far back as 1838. The original brick houses were replaced in 1892 with the wooden structures that are still standing. After being systematically separated during the 1920’s to make way for the recently moved Nauset Light, the Three Sisters were one by one purchased by the National Park Service. In 1983, after 73 years apart the Sisters were reunited in the field where they currently sit. They were restored and placed in the field at the same distance apart as they had been when they watched over the Atlantic. Only the middle Sister(left), the last one that stood over Nauset Light Beach, still has its lantern adorning its top; there was not enough funding to repair the lantern rooms on the other two.

Nauset Light Beach, as well as most beaches up and down the National Seashore area of Cape Cod, showcase the biggest waves and are hot spots for surfers at all time of year. During this trip there were several surfers out on the waters near Coast Guard Beach located at the other end of Ocean View Drive from Nauset Light. The Outer Cape in general due to the rough seas has claimed more than 3,000 vessels in 400 years. It was this fact that led to the founding of the Massachusetts Humane Society which set up nine stations along the eastern coast of Cape Cod. They would be there to rescue and assist any ships in need. There is a set of trails that lead from Coast Guard Beach to Nauset Marsh. The boardwalk area is great for bird watching and photography.

Though it is considered the gateway to the National Seashore by many, Eastham is a prime spot for nature and history. Rather than just passing through on your way to the Seashore or to Provincetown make it a point to check out the places mentioned here as well as many of the other gems hidden around this 350-year old village. Have fun and happy traveling!

Directions: Fort Hill & Penniman House: Follow Rt. 6 north, there is a sign for Fort Hill. Bear right, the Penniman House is on the right, the Fort Hill overlook is straight ahead.

First Encounter Beach: Follow Rt. 6 north for just over 2 miles after Orleans Rotary. Turn right at sign for First Encounter Beach at Samoset Rd. Follow the road to the beach.

Nauset Light: Follow Rt. 6 north 2.75 miles, bear right onto Nauset Rd. Keep straight, road turns into Doane Rd., turn left onto Ocean View Rd. Follow it to the end. Nauset Light should be visible, Nauset Light Beach parking lot is on the right. The Three Sisters Lighthouses are a 1/3mi. walk down Cable Rd.

Coast Guard Beach: From Nauset Light Beach follow Ocean View Dr. back south.

References: Cape Cod Travel - Eastham

The Three Sisters Lighthouses

Nauset Light Preservation Society

Eastham on Dwellable