Here's a photo of the harbor, around 4 p.m. yesterday. The wind was howling last night, rain whipped against the screens, any non-secured objects, such as plastic planting pots, flew past windows, like banshees. This morning I looked out at a patchwork of snow where the drifts had not already washed away and sighed. Sure enough. The temperature’s back in the 40s again. All the slush on Old King’s Highway must have melted. The back roads of Wellfleet no longer challenge drivers, except today the issue must be the puddles. I’ve never seen such puddles as in the woods near Newcomb Hollow. There’s a maze of dirt roads back there. Puddles? It’s more like fording a stream.
My godmother used to live in this area, on Slough Pond. You’d turn left at the dozen names, on boards, nailed to a tree, then right, then left, then right again. The roller-coaster ride doesn’t bother summer residents, because they value their privacy, but my dad hated driving to Nancy’s, which was where Mom always wanted to go. It takes a lot of nerve to negotiate the puddles, so if I happened to be around, I became her chauffeur. I'd drive on the extreme edge of the road, so the wheels on the left or right could cling to dried pine needles, when the rest of the car descended into the puddle. All this to say the weather has not been ideal for travel, and more rain is in the forecast, to complicate life for the folks heading off-Cape. Yesterday, near twilight, I went for a quick walk at the harbor with my daughter and her husband. A chilly wind was blowing. Today they are driving back, in the rain. At least the Sagamore Bridge is open ….
