2008
Fall Tour



The Mid-Atlantic VMCCA              Fall Tour to Cape Cod
By Bobbie Cox

The 2008 Mid-Atlantic Fall Tour on Cape Cod,
Massachusetts was hosted by Jim and Emilie Scheidel
and Anne Marie Zerega. We all made some wonderful
memories, tasted some delicious food, toured beautiful
quaint towns and saw awesome sights on the tour.
The tour started on a sunny Wednesday with 47
members in attendance.  We visited the Three Sisters
Lighthouses and the Nauset Light (which many of us
went back that evening to see the red and white rotating
light of Nauset shine on the fog that came off the
ocean).  The views of the Atlantic Ocean and the beach
were spectacular and some of the ladies took the long
staircase down to stroll along the beach and walk into
the cool ocean water.






(L to R. Janet Prechtel, Bobbie Cox, Emilie Scheidel,
and Rickie Beardmore).



Our next stop was the Coast Guard Station where you could view the dunes, the ocean and
look across the salt flats.  We next drove to the Salt Pond Visitor’s Center where you could get
a closer view of the salt flats and learn more about the area.  

The tour then continued on to Chatham Lighthouse where we had a very informative tour by
knowledgeable guides, and if you had binoculars you could view the seals sunning
themselves along the sandbar in the ocean.  On the tour we viewed many of the Windmills
that are on Cape Cod that the farmers used to grind corn into meal.  We then toured to the
quaint town of Chatham where many of us stopped and shopped.  Our banquet was held that
evening at the Whitman House, a lovely old restaurant where we dined on great food and had
great fellowship with everyone.  A good time was had by all.

Thursday’s tour started off in the rain where we toured to see the Highland Lighthouse and
then on to Provincetown where the rain finally stopped and a spectacular sun appeared in the
sky.  Many toured the town and its many shops and restaurants.  Not far from the town is the
site where the Pilgrim’s first came ashore five weeks before they landed in Plymouth.  We
toured the Cape Cod National Seashore and stopped at Provinceland Visitors Center where
the views of the ocean and beach were wonderful.  For those who braved the high seas to go
on the whale watch we were not disappointed.  It was a wonderful trip that afforded us great
views of the whales while a naturalist taught us about these great mammals that live in the
sea.  After the whale watch trip we motored on to tour the Truro Vineyards where some of us
shopped for wine and other goodies.  The town of Wellfleet was our next stop where our
hostess Anne Marie maintains her summer home.  Again, Wellfleet is another of the beautiful
quaint towns on the Cape.  That evening we all dined at Marconi’s restaurant named after the
Italian inventor who made the first transatlantic wireless communication between the U.S. and
England from there in 1903 in that area of the Cape.

Friday we drove through many of those wonderful Cape Cod towns such as Brewster, Dennis,
Yarmouth, Yarmouth Port (where we drove past 53 sea captain’s homes which had the black
and gold clipper ship plaques on the front of the homes), Barnstable and then on to Sandwich
where we toured the Sandwich Glass Museum.  After the tour we drove to Seafood Sam’s
restaurant where everyone had lunch.  After lunch it was the end of the tour for many while
some of us went on to the Cape Cod Canal Visitor’s Center where we had an informative talk
by the ranger on how and why the canal was built to help shipping around the Cape.  That
was the end of another great tour.  Thanks again to our hosts, Jim, Emilie and Anne Marie for
a wonderful time.









      Joe Prechtel’s Toronado in front of Nauset Lighthouse, built in 1838.
          Photos contributed by Pattie Stonsifer and Roger de Socarras.
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