Do you remember that scene in The Simpsons when Homer thinks that Bart is gay and tries to straighten him out by taking to a nice hardworking manly steel mill.  It turns out that all the workers are gay.  As Homer's jaw drops Bart asks him why he had been brought to a gay steel mill, and Homer sobs that he didn't know.

Welcome to Provincetown.

I had been recommended this "picturesque village" on the very tip of the cape, and since I wanted to see Cape Cod I was keen to go.  As I pulled up I saw lots of rainbow flags and wondered to myself about the naivety of the owners, not knowing what this flag symbolises.  Then in the hostel there were only immaculately-manicured and coiffured pretty-boys. 

It turns out that Provincetown is a gay resort.  Perhaps even America's gayest gay resort.  Ooops.  Someone had mentioned this fact to me but I had either forgotten or assumed that it would be no more flamboyant than San Francisco.  How wrong I was.

Not only were there no women apart from the odd girl there with her family, but I had visited in the middle of "Bear Week."  Apparently a "bear" is a large hairy gay man... the place was crawling with them.

On the main strip at night there were drag queens, convincing or otherwise; endless bears, "cubs" (a young bear), "twinks"  (good-looking clean-shaven men), and sight-seers like myself.  I went to see some drag karioke and get a bite to eat, but I really didn't fancy attending the Vault or Purgatory night clubs.

Before reaching Provincetown I stopped at Plymouth to see the world-famous Plymouth Rock.  I assumed that this rock was a large cliff or similar, but in actual fact it is simply a rock.  A boulder about 5 feet long with "1620" carved on it.   In the words of Alexis de Tocqueville, who would have known that the foot falls of a "few outcasts" would make it so famous.

Plymouth itself is a very nice town, with old mills, stocks, 17C houses and a lovely park housing the rock. 

One the downside my latest run-in with the motoring authorities:  I returned to my car to find a note alledging that I had dinged the adjacent car as I parked.  Sadly a cop was nearby and wrote me up.  I visited the station and they gave me some paperwork to complete, but no fine.