Life on a Sandbar.

Life on a Sandbar.

It is a 20 miles out in the middle of the ocean, it is 60 miles from when you cross the bridge to the tip of the Cape. You see the welcome to Cape Cod sign and you think “I’m here!” but there is still over an hour drive to the tip of the Cape.

I bought rolls before I left home @ 91 cents each… at the tip $1.39 each!

I bought gas at home for $3.39/gal, out here it is $3.59/gal!

You want crushed stone? Well it has to be trucked all the way from the mainland (After all you are on a sandbar which means no stones!)

Everything has to be trucked all the way from the mainland which means $$$$!

Everything has to be trucked all the way on Route 6… and only Rt. 6. If there is an accident, everything stops!

You need to be hospitalized… one hour drive in an ambulance!

On Saturday there is a 60 miles traffic jam to get to Provincetown. On Sunday afternoon there is a sixty mile traffic jam getting off the Cape. (The “Great Migration!”)

Saturdays and Sundays are known locally as “Switch Days” the cottages usually run from either Saturday to Saturday or Sunday to Sunday… out by 11 AM in at 3 PM! (So a week’s vacation is reall only 164 hours! Sue! Sue! They lie!)

From Memorial Day to Labor Day you can’t make a left turn on to Rt. 6, instead you make a right turn then a left turn on to a side street, and then you make your classic “K” turn. Then you make a right turn on Rt. 6. Yesterday morning I went to P’town for groceries and a stop at the hardware store and coming back there was continuous line of cars heading toward P”town. (I am constantly surprised at where they put all those cars!)

From Memorial Day to Labor Day it is international employees. The hardware stores… eastern Europeans. The restaurants are Asians. The landscapers are Jamaican. The cleaning crews that rush in at 11 AM and out be 3 PM on switch days are mainly western Europeans. 

But… but… just down the street is one of the town beaches on the bay side and on a hot summer day there are maybe ten cars there! Maybe four or five dozen people there! Go a mile the other way (But first you have to cross Rt. 6) and it is wall to wall people there on the ocean side. The local restaurants businesses know the locals, and they know that once the summer madness ends we will still be coming back.

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There is crisis on the ocean side with too many people at the beaches! Local entrepreneur have bought up old school buses and are shuttling people to and from the ocean beaches. It wasn’t a problem at first but as the services gained popularity the beaches are getting packed, but more importantly the facilities were based on the size of the parking lot. As a result of the crowds the septic systems are backing up and overflowing!

The other problems that has just started up are businesses that just thumb their noses at zoning laws. In Wellfleet a landscaping company created a lot to store gravel and mulch. The zoning laws does not allow commercial businesses there and trees are not to be cut down between the road and 100 feet... they cleared cut the trees.

In Truro someone who was just selling camp fire wood decided to expand cutting the trees down and adding bins for mulch and stones.... inside the Cape Cod National Seashore boundaries! Not only is the town hopping mad but the CCNS threating to sue because they bought the development rights to the land back in the 60s. Only existing businesses could operate there (i.e. Selling firewood).

Even living on a sandbar has it Peyton Place moments!