The Middle of Nowhere

One thing I love about lighthousing is the way that the lighthouse guides take you into the "Middle of Nowhere", along streets where nobody but the residents drive, through paths that none but lighthousers traverse. There's something unique about the feeling.

I especially got this feeling last week at Race Point Light. Race Point is at the outer part of the tip of Cape Cod, in Provincetown. You could either walk 4 miles to the light, or view it from the top of the closed visitor's center, where there was an observation deck. We chose the latter.

I had learned about this deck from the staff at the Salt Pond Visitors Center at Nauset Light. Obviously, I'd rather do this then walk to the light. We took this road through one of those "middle of nowheres" to the VC, where it didn't look like anyone had been since September. There was an almost eerie quality to it...the lighthouse out there, presumably empty...the Coast Guard station and Life Saving Station nearby, our Land Rover, the lone vehicle within 3 miles, in the parking lot.

That's one of the plusses of lighthousing - exploring. I have seen all sorts of parts of the country this way. I have "snuck" (perfectly legally..."lighthouser's advantage") into so many Yacht Clubs, Golf Clubs, and Country Clubs (that's something for another blog entry). I have seen so many quaint spits and lanes.

To reuse an old Cunard Line slogan from the '20s, "Getting there is half the fun." And I think that is as true on a lighthouse trip as it is steaming across the ocean on the Queen Mary.