Episode 29: When I Was On TV; Top 5 Cape Cod Scenic Drives; Basketball Hoop Memories; Road Trip Middleborough, MA(7-15-2021)

Episode 29 kicks off with my memories of my one and so far only television appearance.  I go into detail about how I got on WCVB-TV Channel 5 Boston's Award-Winning show Chronicle in 2019 and give some behind the scenes fun stories.
We take a Road Trip to the small town of Middleborough, Massachusetts.  Nestled halfway between New Bedford and Plymouth it feels bigger than it is in some areas and in the middle of nowhere in others.  Come for the Ocean Spray cranberries and stay for the killer food at Dave's Diner.
This Week In History is all about the Live Aid concert event with a new Time Capsule going back to 60 years ago this week. 
For the summer season I'll share my opinion of the Top 5 Cape Cod Scenic Drives which you can GPS and enjoy for yourselves.
We'll go Back In the Day to when I had a basketball hoop in front of my house and how it attracted people, both friends and non-friends, to make my street like a playground.
Be sure to watch for my livestreams called Without A Map Friday's at 8pm on Instagram which serve as a sort of postgame show for the podcast. Find them on IGTV and YouTube after they've finished.

Helpful Links from this Episode(available through Buzzsprout)

• Purchase Iconic Hotels and Motels of Cape Cod
• Wear Your Wish
• DJ Williams Music
• My Chronicle Appearance
• Cranberry Country Chamber of Commerce
• Christopher Setterlund's YouTube Channel
• In My Footsteps Podcast Blog
• Christopher Setterlund.com

Listen to Episode 28 here.

Transcript

Intro

Hello World, and welcome to episode 29 of the in my footsteps podcast. I'm your host, Christopher Setterlund. Coming to you from the vacation destination known as Cape Cod, Massachusetts. On this week's episode, I'm going to take you on a little trip to the fun I had filming the TV show Chronicle, from WCVB-TV Channel Five, two years ago, this month, we're going to go on a road trip to Middleborough, Massachusetts, located right in the middle of southeastern mass. I'm going to take you back in the day to when I had my own basketball hoop in front of my house and some of the fun with it and how it ultimately ended. We're going to look at the top five Cape Cod scenic drives all of you that are down here on vacation this summer, you can take advantage of these. There's a new this week in history and a time capsule for another special birthday. All that coming to you right now on episode 29 of the in my footsteps podcast. Welcome in. And thank you all so much. Thank you to everyone who has tuned in to the first 28 episodes, any of them of this podcast. It's definitely been a fun ride. And I've started enjoying recording this all in one big shot before I was doing segments. So I do for example, like the road trip segment, record it and be done with it, and then stitch it all together like a quilt. But now things are a lot busier in my life. So I'm just doing it in one big shot the whole thing at once. And it actually works out well recorded in one shot than edited in one shot. For those of you that haven't tuned into the without a map live streams that I do weekly, Friday nights at eight. What I mean by my life is a lot busier as I got a new job working as a trainer in a chiropractor's office going along with my in-home personal training. I'm working on two books, I'm also working on a course to become a certified medical fitness specialist. So for a little while there, it seemed like I had too much time on my hands. Now I don't have enough. So I'm having to become a pro at time management. But so far it's working. I hope wherever you are right now, whether you're down on Cape Cod for vacation, or if you're stuck at work, or if you're anywhere in the country just driving around. Hopefully, you're having fun. Hopefully, you're staying cool. It was weird. A couple of weeks ago on Cape Cod, we went from being 90 degrees and super humid. And then it was like someone popped a balloon and it was barely 60 degrees and rainy for three days. That was the Fourth of July weekend. Which, you know, everyone comes down to the Cape. It's the busiest weekend of the year here. And people pack in and then you can't go to the beach. So hopefully all of the shops, restaurants and such made it well. As far as sales on that weekend. If you are down in the cape, make it a point to visit any of the places that I have had as sponsors for the show, going back to last November. Barb's Bike Shop in Dennis, the rail restaurant in Orleans, check out Cape hook designs.com Laura and Tony's gourmet kitchen in Eastham, the cleat and anchor restaurant in Dennis port. And of course, Wear your wish it were your wishes.com. You'll hear from them a little later. But as you heard at the top, this is a packed show, it's going to be a lot of fun. So let's dive right into my experience with the crew and the show known as Chronicle. That's been a staple of New England for decades. That's how we're going to start off right here on episode 29 of the in my footsteps podcast.

When I Was On TV

So this is going to be a fun segment I've waited a while to tell this story. I've had to show restraint because I wanted it to match up with the appropriate time of the year. For those of you that don't know, the television show Chronicle on Channel Five WCVB in Boston has been an award-winning news magazine show and it's been on since 1982. So it's been on basically almost my entire life. And essentially since my third book came out my travelers' guide to Nantucket I've been trying to get on the show because I thought being a 12th-generation Cape Codder and doing books that are tied in with Cape Cod would help me to get on the show and it would be good for people watching get them interested in coming down here. Try and try as I might. I failed with Book Three with book four, my historic restaurants book they got back to me and said if we have anything we'll let you know which is another way of saying forget it. It wasn't until my fifth book in 2019 Cape Cod nights that was historic nightclubs and bars. Then they got in touch with me. The best part is when I got the email from the producer that they wanted me to be on the show was that I was working at a retirement home in the kitchen. And when I opened the email and read it, and it was just blown away, and I was so excited, it was such a big moment. The kitchen was totally empty, except for one person. And this was the one guy that I worked with there that I did not like. So it was like, oh, man, this huge moment. And the only person I could celebrate with is the one guy that I wish wasn't there. I made it a point to text all of my family and close friends though. So while we were serving dinner that night, my phone was blowing up, which was good, because this was a huge thing I had been trying for four years at the time to get on the show. The gist of what it was going to be about was me being like I said, 12th generation Cape Cod or blah, blah. I would share a couple of lesser-known areas on the Cape, but then it would tie in with the Cape Cod nights book because we would meet at a local bar or nightclub and talk to the owner and how they're tied into the book and it worked out for travel and tourism. The place that we chose for the bar was the Beachcomber in Wellfleet. And I thought that was appropriate because this was right after they're right on the water in Wellfleet Cahoon hollow beach, and they had had a sinkhole open up in their parking lot. Because they're on the dunes it's they're in danger of having erosion basically eliminate the front parking lot at some point that will happen. But I thought it was appropriate to have us go there and showcase them because they had just gotten the parking lot fixed. So it was a nice way to get people to remember oh, they're still open, because the sinkhole thing a car fell into it. Go look it up about Beachcomber in the sinkhole, it's wild. And then we would tie it in with two places that were lesser known on the cape. I chose the Jenny Lind tower in Truro, which looks like a piece of a medieval castle that used to be in Boston, it was part of like an opera house slash railroad depot. And the legend was that Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind sang from the top of it because her show was sold out and there were 1000s of people outside of the building that you know, she was trying to calm the mob. So that's the legends that she sang to them from inside the tower. And it was bought when the building was being torn down and put basically in the woods in Truro. If you go to the Highland lighthouse in Truro and the Highland links golf course, and you're walking out towards the water, and you look off to the right, you can see this medieval castle tower there. The other place I chose was my favorite sunset spot on Cape Cod which was Bound Brook island beach in Wellfleet. Basically, it's down the end of a mile-long dirt road that's very bumpy and filled with holes and uneven. So it's great if you can get to it, the sunset is worth it. Because at the end, there's this tiny little sand parking lot that might fit for cars. In all of my years of going there, I think I've seen a car in that parking lot once or twice out of 50 times. It's just that slice of how Cape Cod must have looked 100-200 years ago. So I thought that would be appropriate to I got nice new white linen pants for this event to catch. You know you're going to be on TV you got to look good. And my buddy Fitzy Sean Fitzpatrick, he owned a company called Cape cloth. They still exist but he sold it last year the year before but I wore one of his polos, a blue polo shirt with his logo on it so it was prominent on TV. You figure if a million people are going to see you have you know if you can promote somebody that's great. So I drove up to the Beachcomber to meet the Chronicle people. It was a producer slash interviewer and one cameraman and I bought these white linen pants at a TJ Maxx and Orleans on the way there. So I pull into the Beachcomber and I'm in their back parking lot figuring obscured and I had to change into these pants in the parking lot while I was I wasn't quite late. I was right on time, but they were early. I just remember it was raining out not pouring rain but enough that it looked like the places that we were going to have to go outside and film might be a bust. It was basically dark inside the Beachcomber, they had a spotlight set up at the bar so that the owner Dan Murray could be on camera with the spotlight and talk about the Beachcomber. I couldn't figure out how to get their attention to get me inside. So I'm wandering around the outside deck, trying to get let in. Eventually, I had to go in the back through the kitchen. And I got in there, you know, not fashionably late, but close enough. We did our interview where I talked about myself in the book, and I had a copy of the book. Then we had the scene where I showed Dan Murray the book the section with the Beachcomber in it. And he's thumbing through it and we got some photos and video of it, which was cool because he actually hadn't seen it yet. So at the end of every chapter in the Cape Cod nights book, there was a drink recipe from the decade that I thought that particular establishment was at its peak. I picked the 80s for the Beachcomber. I'm sure it's still big now, but I just thought that was a good decade. For the drink. I chose the Long Island Iced Tea, and he's thumbing through and he says Long Island Iced Tea. Why did you put that recipe in there? So the Beachcomber has a drink called the goombay Smash that's like their in-house special, and it's sold millions and millions. So he asked me why I didn't put the goombay smash in there. And I said, I didn't think you'd want me to put the actual recipe in there. And he laughed and he said, I would have given you the recipe for the goombay Smash just so that the Beachcomber wouldn't be associated with a Long Island Iced Tea. That part went well. Then we headed off to the Jenny Lind tower. And luckily the rain had stopped but everything was damp and wet. And in order to get out there, you have to walk through the woods is a path but it's kind of overgrown. So I'm walking out there with my white linen pants walking through water and leaves and dirt. So basically, my pants from white to they look like I slid in the grass like on a golf course or something. And it was covered with cobwebs and spider webs. God, I look classy, they're never gonna have me back. I felt bad for the cameraman because he came out in shorts. So he ended up with several ticks on him from walking out there. I said I'm so glad I could bring you out to a place where you can get ticks and thorns and dirt all over you. After shooting there, then it was time to go to Bound Brook island beach. I was worried because I have a regular sedan. So I'm thinking of driving down this dirt road if it's been raining, if it's wet or muddy, I might get stuck. They at least had an SUV with the Channel Five logo and stuff on it. So it looked cool. But we got there with no problem got down there to the sandy parking lot. That was good. And then I was essentially just walking through the dunes. They would do a voiceover later on of what I thought like my voice talking about Bound Brook island beach and such. But I laugh because the producer she was telling me how to walk, you know, and don't look at the camera and then walk away from the camera and look like you're interested in the scenery. So every time I see the video of me walking, I just laughed because I look so fake. They got all the video they needed. And we parted ways from that little beach parking lot. And they were in touch later to kind of ask for any other photos and info that they might need for the broadcast. But all I kept thinking was they've got the SUV there leaving this will be when I get stuck, that my car is going to get stuck at Bound Brook Island. And I'm just going to be there like that's how we wrap the day for Chronicle. But it wasn't I got free I got home. It was an amazing experience. And then to see myself actually on TV was wild to promote my book on a show that a million people or more would see. And it was basically two years ago, I think next week was when it aired. And the proof that it worked for sales for my book was that it was sold out, I believe through my publisher and through Amazon for about a month. It was so back-ordered from being on Chronicle. So it was a huge success. And I loved it. The funny thing is four books six that came out in May. I tried again to get on Chronicle. And I got more of we'll see if we have anything for you. I thought the connection of hotels and motels with the reopening of the state after COVID and the timing with the summer I thought it would work out but I guess they didn't see it that way. But if you're listening, folks from Chronicle, there's still time to get me on the show for the sixth book. But I'm working on another book right now that could be the biggest one I do in my career. So who knows you might see me on there again. And if not, you can go to their site wcv.com And I think it's called Exploring the Outer Cape. I'll put a link for people that are listening on Buzzsprout and I'll link it on Twitter and such I never have a problem sharing that. But go check out my appearance on chronicle from two years ago next week.

Road Trip: Middleboro, MA

This week’s road trip we're gonna go to a mid-sized town, small city. I don't know what you would call it but it's right in the center of southeastern Massachusetts. This is Middleborough, Massachusetts. I went a couple of weeks ago well now more little over a month ago there and shot a video for 4K New England for my YouTube series. And I thought it would be nice to talk a little bit more about the town on the podcast. As of 2020. The population in Middleboro is 7343. So it's a small town, not a small city, I should have rephrased that. It's in an interesting spot in Massachusetts where you get off Cape and you get past Wareham, which has a lot of stuff built up, and you get into this little it's not a dead zone, but there's more. It's way more spread out. It's basically this big chunk of land in between New Bedford to the south and Plymouth to the east. And there's all these little towns Lakeville, Rochester, Acushnet, Carver, Plympton, it reminds me of driving out way out in the middle of nowhere, Maine, where it's just all sprawling farms. But yet, it's right here in Massachusetts, and it's not far from Plymouth or New Bedford. And then there's Middleborough, right in between route 495. And route 44. Kind of wedged in between this little triangle. I tried to figure out what exactly the region was where it was located. And when I looked up their Chamber of Commerce, I found that they're part of the cranberry country Chamber of Commerce, which I hadn't heard of before. It made sense pretty quickly, though, when I realized that the corporate headquarters of Ocean Spray, the huge cranberry producers, they're located in Middleboro. Ocean Spray today is a cooperative of more than 700 Cranberry producers from the United States and Canada, and more than 70, grapefruit producers from Florida. They were first established in 1930. It was only three producers then, but they all had the idea of basically creating cranberry-based products and sharing them. If you grew up in New England, Ocean Spray was everywhere. I would think everyone in the country would know Ocean Spray cranberry juice, and then their fruit blends. They have it's usually cranberry with a couple of other things. They employ more than 2000 people worldwide. So it's pretty good. their corporate headquarters is right on the Lakeville Middleboro line at One Ocean Spray drive. So there are not too many Ocean Spray roads. So I'm pretty sure you could find that in Middleboro proper. They have a headquarters located at 152 Bridge Street. And you can always go and check out their website, ocean spray.com Or go to the store and buy some Ocean Spray and think of Middleborough if you're not close to it. Ocean Spray is really the big claim to fame, I suppose for Middleborough. It's located 40 miles south of Boston and 30 miles east of Providence. So like I said, it's centrally located between those two places in this little nook where it's just all this wide open countryside, you wouldn't expect it. If you don't drive up that 495 corridor in Massachusetts. If you're strictly 195 or route three, you'll see all this development but right in the middle, it's wide open. When I went there about a month ago to shoot a video for the 4k, New England, the place I went to was Oliver Mill Park that's at eight and mascot street right off of Route 44. And it was an old colonial mill sawmill grist mill, run by a man named judge Peter Oliver. And this was back during the colonial days. So before the Revolutionary War, and at one point, there were as many as eight waterwheels here working as the mill. The Damascus river is what runs through there. It's also a herring run. So there's signs around there saying Don't touch the herring. It's a beautiful spot now for recreation and picnics and great photography. I'll tell you that. The story is that Peter Oliver, when the Revolutionary War broke out, he was found to be a British loyalist. So he and his family fled they got out of the country. So the mill became a shovel shop at the turn of the 1800s. This operated into the 1840s. After that, it basically fell into disrepair. So now in the 1960s, they started working on cleaning it up to use for recreation. So if you go there, there's bits of the foundation of the old mill that are there that make it a neat backdrop for photography. Also, when they were fixing it up, they did some archaeological digs and found some Native American artifacts that go back almost 10,000 years. So it's a really significant site, and it's a little bit off the beaten path, so it's worth visiting. At one point Middleboro was called the shoe capital of the world and it's still home to the Alden shoe company. It's actually right on the Lakeville line at one Taunton street, or at Alden shoe.com. There are a couple of great places to go to eat in Middleboro. You can check out Harry's Bar and Grill that's located at 407 West Grove Street. They've been around for 14 years and they've got that traditional American Bar fare, pizzas, sandwiches daily specials, check out the Piper Cub roast beef sandwich or Harry's hanger wrap. They've also been on phantom gourmet So that right there should give them a lot of credibility. Even if you've never been there. Phantom Gourmet doesn't go to just anywhere. So check out Harry's Bar and Grill. They also have an awesome authentic old school diner. Dave's diner at 390 West Grove Street. It's good that 50s Feel, the actual diner restaurant car was built in 1997 with the diner restaurant and Middleborough opening the following year. They have all the traditional diner fare, amazing breakfasts. Last time I went I had the Elvis pancakes, which are stuffed with bananas, chocolate chips and peanut butter chips. It's wild. Ah, that's one of those. You eat this meal and then you go sit at the park or you go sit on a bench and in front of the 1870s Victorian style Town Hall, which is incredible to see that that 10 Nickerson Avenue but you go and sit there and you just relax, digest the amazing food you had at Dave's diner and take in the scenery of Middleborough. It's a small town. There are places where it feels bigger than it is. But for the most part, it's just part of this sprawling, wide-open countryside that's in between New Bedford and Plymouth. It's just got a cool feel to it. I can't describe it. It's like if you go there and you eat at Dave's diner or eat it Harry's Bar and Grill, go to Oliver Mill Park or just park your car and walk around the streets and go to the little parks they have. You'll feel it forgot to mention Dave's Diner is at Dave's dash diner.com It's got the little hyphen in there. So go check out their menu and I dare you not to want to go there. I want to go there now. Go to the Chamber of Commerce at cranberry country.org That'll give you a lot of what the town's about in the surrounding area because the cranberry country Chamber of Commerce is more than just Middleborough. And like I always say when you go to a place like middleborough or any of the cities and towns I've mentioned before, find your own way. Don't just take my recommendations, point your car and go or just get your feet moving and go. That's the best way to see and explore any of the hundreds and hundreds of amazing cities and towns that New England has to offer. And I'll be back in the next podcast episode with another road trip another place for you to hopefully go check out explore and joy

Sponsor: Wear Your Wish

time has come it is July it is time for the summer relaunch of Wear your wish at Wear your wishes.com I am extremely excited to share with you all of the new things that are now coming from Katie marks the owner and all of the hard work she put in. This is the second launch because their first launch was so successful that she ran out of all her products which I have said is a great problem to have. In addition to the clothing that you've seen before with the logos on it when you've checked out the site now we've got a lot of bracelets, awesome bracelets, poor shoes, mermaid bracelets, and crystals. There's a beautiful shamrock one that is dedicated to our grandfather Sully John Sullivan. There are beautiful necklaces with intentions on them to get your own vibe your own feel. There are rainbow bracelets. There's something for everyone for every vibe for every feeling where your wish has it. Go to the website Wear your wishes.com Find them on Instagram and wear your wish. I've been waiting for the relaunch so that I can start sharing all of this with you again and we can try to sell out everything again. Sorry Kate. I want it to be so successful that you've got to do a third relaunch. So visit Wear your wish at Wear your wishes.com and see all of the new clothing, and accessories apparel that is now available for the summer relaunch.

This Week In History

This Week in history, we're going to go back to one of the most famous concert events ever held in this country. So let's just dive right into it. This week in history 36 years ago, on July 13 1985, the Live Aid concert was held in America and in Britain. This concert was held simultaneously from Wembley Stadium in London, and JFK Stadium in Philadelphia on July 13, it was organized by a man named Bob Geldof. I only knew him as the Live Aid guy, but he was the frontman of a band called The Boomtown Rats. And to say it was a big deal is an understatement. The event drew an estimated 1.5 billion television viewers. It was organized and based around the years of drought civil war and failed attempts at government control of the grain market that led to a catastrophic famine in Ethiopia. And after seeing the news about this in 1984 Bob Geldof wrote the lyrics for Do They Know It's Christmas which was eventually released in November 1984 under the name Band-Aid, and then after that came Quincy Jones, who worked on We Are the World USA for Africa. Those videos got everybody that was anyone in music at the time. And even Dan Ackroyd, the Live Aid event was huge though. Bob Geldof got a lot of bands to reunite for the event, including the who, Black Sabbath, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and the surviving members of Led Zeppelin who got back together in Philly. And they were supported by Phil Collins on drums. And Phil Collins was one of the big stars of this because he had performed at Wembley Stadium earlier in the day, then took the Concorde jet and flew across the Atlantic, and became the only artist to appear on both shows at both places. As far as who was the star of the show, it was probably a toss up, you could say it was you two who were really about hitting their peak as artists. But I think more people would say it was Queen with Freddie Mercury just dominating the stage during their performance. All you have to do is find video from it. Find radio Gaga when he does that, and he's got 80,000 people clapping with him. I'll admit that being I think I was seven, seven and a half when this came out. I didn't know who Queen really was. I didn't appreciate Zepplin getting back together. But I watched it. So I saw this. And only now decades later, especially with the queen movie Bohemian Rhapsody and seeing that knowing what a big deal it was at the time, and the millions and millions of dollars that it raised. It's hard to argue that Live Aid was one of the biggest concerts ever and one of the most important ever. And it all went down 36 years ago this week in history.

And now it's time for another time capsule. That also appears to be every time I do these it falls on someone's birthday. For this time capsule. We're going to go back 60 years ago this week in history to July 16 1961 for the birthday of Serpa. My stepfather, now you get to find out everything that was going on the day you were born. The number one song was tossing and turning by Bobby Lewis. It spent seven weeks at number one. The song was also featured in animal house in 1978, if that makes it sound familiar. It was featured on Bobby Lewis his album of the same name tossing and turning and was definitely his biggest hit song. The number one movie was Fanny. This movie was a strange love triangle between a young woman, a 60-something-year-old man, and an aspiring sailor set in Marseille in France. It starred Lesley Karen Horst Bucholtz and Maurice shivali and made a total of $4.5 million. I couldn't find what its budget was. It has an audience score of 68% positive on Rotten Tomatoes two, so I guess it's pretty good. You can check it out and decide and let me know. The number one TV show was Gun Smoke. This is one of the most well-known and longest-running TV shows ever. It was a Western drama based around Marshal Matt Dillon in Dodge City, Kansas. The show ran for 480 episodes between 1955 and 1975. And actually was a radio show before it was a TV show. It was the longest-running TV show until 2018 When the Simpsons passed it, and The Simpsons is still going. So I don't think any show is going to pass that one. But Gunsmoke was number one for a long time. And back on July 16 1961. If you wanted to buy a Manhattan bowling ball and bag combo, you could get one for $24.88 at Lechmere. And they drilled the holes custom-made for you. So if you wanted a bowling ball, get the Manhattan one, at Lechmere rounded up inflation. For today. It'll be about $224. I don't know anything about the Manhattan bowling ball. But Happy Birthday to Serpa. Hopefully you have a great day and I will see you and hopefully you listen to this. I'll know if you do or not. But that wraps up another time capsule. That wraps up this week in history. Now let's jump into another top five. This is going to be the top five Cape Cod scenic drives

Top 5 Scenic Cape Cod Drives

Cape Cod, like I said, it's so full of beautiful scenic routes to take. It's one of those you just get lost. Go find your way around, you'll always find your way to the water. But I figured for those that aren't from here, or those that might need a little inspiration, I would share with you my pick for the top five scenic Cape Cod drives. And like I say these aren't in any particular order. Just go and find them and drive and enjoy. But first we've got a few honorable mentions. Honorable mention one, route six A between Yarmouth and Dennis number two Tonset Road in Orleans which kind of brings you down near Nauset beach but kind of veers you off to the side. And another honorable mention is Sea Street to Craigsville Beach Road in Centerville, which that whole area leading you down to craigville beach is beautiful. It's a great running route to so those are the honorable mentions. But let's dive into the actual top five scenic Cape Cod drives number one shore road and Chatham. This is kind of an easy one. It's hilly, it's where Chatham Bars Inn is located, the Chatham fish pier is located. You get up on some of these hills when you're driving and you look off to the east and you can see the fishing boats going out the barrier Beach North Beach island out there. There's the hydrangea house that's in bloom for about five seconds each year but if you get there it's beautiful. And it's also a row that if you want to when you get to where it intersects with Main Street and Chatham you can just keep going straight and you can get to Chatham lighthouse, so that's like a little bonus segment number two province lands road to Race Point Road in Provincetown. This is untouched Cape Cod dunes at its best. The road will go up above the dune so you can see the whole sprawling province lands you can see the pilgrim monument you get down to Race Point Beach you can stop there if you want or you can continue this loop and get to the province lands visitors center where there's an incredible view you go up on the observation deck and then you'll get to a point where it's overgrown forest it feels like you're in two different worlds at once and that's another one it's like a Choose Your Own Adventure book you can follow this route there's other offshoots of it you can take but that's the main gist of it. Number three, route six A from Truro to province town. This is a little bit lesser known I guess the name of the road is lesser known because most people think route six A ends at the Orleans rotary but it's not true. It actually starts up again way up in Truro. If you like scenic views of the ocean and the boats and summer hotels and beautiful summer homes, then you definitely want to check out six A and Truro and Provincetown. If you're heading I guess it's north they say it's east but if you're heading north on this road, it keeps going until it hits commercial street and then that's the end of it. But on here is where you've got the amazing cottages like the days cottages that have the periwinkle blue shutters and they're all identical that people post all the time on Instagram the photos of the layout of all of those cottages that's route 6A in Truro and Provincetown number four, Ocean View Drive and Wellfleet. I mentioned the Beachcomber earlier in the Chronicle segment. Beachcomber is on this road. But there's Cahoon hollow Beach, there's whitecrest Beach, you're up on the bluffs of Wellfleet. So you've got this amazing view of the Atlantic Ocean. You don't even have to get out of your car. It's just there you see it because everything's wide open. You've got these beautiful cottages that had been grandfathered into the National Seashore, and it brings you all the way down to LA count hollow beach and LaCount hollow road which will lead you back out to route 6. It's a nice little distraction from the busyness of the route six highway. And number five is Bridge Road to herring Brook road to Massasoit Road in Eastham. So they're all really connected like one long road, they just changed names. This is basically you. You start in Orleans right on the Orleans Eastham line near Rock Harbor. And it brings you down past all of these little secret beaches in Eastham like Thumpertown Beach, campground beach, cooks Brook beach, and you just wind through these quiet roads that are so close to route six, but it's not there. And I enjoy it because it brings you behind the Wellfleet driving before it brings you out to route six. There they are my opinion, the top five Cape Cod scenic drives, have you been on any of those roads. Luckily, with GPS, they're not hard to find. Now go and take a drive on any of those five roads and let me know what you think of them. Or if you have different ones that I left out, let me know about those two, shoot me a message. And I'll be back next time with another top-five.

Back In the Day: Basketball Hoop Memories

Growing up in the 1980s I was a huge baseball fan and basketball fan. I played both. I've already told you in the past about my farm League and Little League adventures. As far as basketball goes, I attended Kevin McHale basketball camp twice, which that will be in a future podcast, I'll bring that up. But you need a place to practice if you're going to get good at basketball and play on the school team I did in middle school. In high school, it was more intramural and such. But you need a hoop. And so I was lucky enough in the late 80s that my mother and stepfather put the money together to get me an actual hoop. And these are some of the fun adventures of having your own basketball hoop before I had mine, and maybe even while I had mine, there was a so our neighborhood was like a rectangle with streets intersecting, going from one end to the other. And one of those streets was bunting lane. And there was a man named Andy. And he had a basketball hoop that was like a paved half a court with the free throw line three-point line. And he had a glass backboard. Well, I think it was hard plastic. But me and my friends, we would love to go and play there we if he let us play, we would play there forever. And when I got my hoop, I wanted to imitate that. So I remember getting the spray paint. And trying to make official free throw lines, the free throw line I think was pretty accurate in the street, the three-point line would sweep around like a half circle. And I believe it was mostly accurate until you got to the edge of the road because it would have to go into the dirt across the street. So we kind of had to just guess. And so there was no real three-point line like straight away from the hoop, because it was just dirt. The big thing about this hoop was that it was adjustable. So you can raise it and lower it, which meant you know, when you're 12-13 years old, you could lower it and actually be able to dunk and do slam dunk contests, which was always fun. The irony is now I can't remember the name the brand was of the hoop that I had. It was a hard plastic backboard. So it makes more of a hollow sound when you hit the backboard with the ball. I constantly had friends over we just either be out there shooting or playing horse, or doing one on one. The slam dunk contest though was always where it was at. And back then there was this music that was on the NBA on NBC, their music in the early 90s. You're gonna have to look it up because I can't do it justice. But that would be like playing in my head if I was out there by myself pretending that I was Larry Bird or Michael Jordan. I don't know how we scored these dunk contests, though. I don't think there was ever a winner. But we would do weird stuff we would find props to put in the way. The top one that I ever remember doing was we grabbed my picnic table me and one of my friends who was probably a son. Yeah, probably Hasan and I grabbed the picnic table and put it in front of the hoop. And we jumped over the picnic table. The width, not the length. There was no way we could do that. But we jumped over and dunked over the picnic table. At times it felt like it was a like street ball park like in a city because we have six or eight of us out there playing and I would have my boombox on a chair with a cassette playing. I always remember Public Enemy, fear of a black planet. if you like hip hop, even if you don't that album, it's awesome off to do a breakdown of that on a future podcast. But we'd have public enemy playing. And it was just it felt like it was something out of a movie sometimes, except that we were mostly white kids on Cape Cod, so it wasn't quite as cool. But it was me and my friends our little clique. So me, Hasan, I remember Tim used to come and play my friend Matt, who lived right a couple houses over. And then we'd have other people that would sometimes come over, they'd be like guests, players, friends of friends. We were very cliquey though, there was a kid that lived next door to me, he was a year ahead of me, I think in school. And I remember one time we were out there shooting around, probably three or four of us. And he came over. And he said, Hey, you guys want to play a real game. And we all looked at him, like, get the hell out of here. And I don't think he ever came back to ask us to play again. Because I think he wanted to come over and like, show off and dominate us younger kids. And we're not stupid enough to fall for that. One of my favorite things about having this basketball hoop back when I lived on Cherry Lane was Hasan lived, probably a five-minute walk away. And so he would come over with his ball. And you know, anytime my friends wanted to come and shoot, even if I wasn't there, it was fine. My mom was cool with them just coming by themselves, Hasan and I would practice together like running plays. And he and I would do this thing where we'd pretend there was defense. And the defense were these guys known as the invisible ghosts. So you'd have to pretend there was a guy guarding you, but he was invisible, and a ghost. And you would just be defended. It made it seem more real, but we were also 12 years old. So I don't know what you expect from us. Man, the invisible ghosts. I haven't thought about that or talked about that in a couple of decades. I also remember, if you're constantly doing layups or dunks, and you're landing underneath the hoop, you were landing in the dirt right on the edge of the road, and it got packed down. And that was another fun little offshoot of having this hoop was that I rolled my ankle repeatedly. Underneath that hoop, I would land with my foot, like partially on the asphalt, and there was the dip going down to the dirt, I would just roll my ankle repeatedly. In fact, I think right after I graduated eighth grade, I think I was playing and I rolled my ankle like either that day or the next day, and ended up having to spend at least a few days to start my summer on the couch with an ice pack on my ankle that was ruined. That was just part of the risk, though, I guess. And I don't think we ever filled in that area. We may have at some point poured some dirt there, but it would just get packed down. I had the hoop for probably a good five years, I would think. But eventually, it all came crashing down literally. I'll never forget. So my friend Hasan had cousins in Boston, and they will come down and play and it was just, you know, whatever. They would come down and shoot around if they were around. And one day, I was at my Nana's house. And I remember she was driving me home to drop me off at Cherry Lane and we came around the corner to pull on to Cherry Lane. And there's my hoop laying there beside the road. Because they had come down and must have dunked on it too much or too often and it just rip down. And that was the end of the hoop. I remember Hasan called me and he felt so bad. And I was like, Well, you know, what are you going to do? We had all dunked on it hundreds and 1000s of times over the years. So it's not like it was brand new. And the first person dunked on it and hung on it and tore it down. It was probably going to go at some point. I just didn't expect it to be then. I think it was 1994 Summer of 94 because I bought my camcorder to start making movies in July of 94. And I don't believe the basketball hoop was up then I think it got torn down like right before then. So no videotapes of me shooting around at my hoop exist. That was the legend of the Cherry Lane basketball hoop the neighborhood gathering place for at least a few years. Did any of you out there have a basketball hoop or did you like going to someone's house and shooting it? There's there were other people in the neighborhood that had hoops. Andy who lived on bunting Lane was the only one that had one better than me. But that's it for this trip back in the day to the early 90s of my basketball hoop days on Cherry Lane.

Closing

That will wrap up episode 29 of the in my footsteps Podcast. I hope you enjoyed it. Hope you had a few laughs at my expense with Chronicle and my Cherry Lane basketball who tune in next week for the special bonus episode number 30. This one is going to be a little bit deeper a little bit. I don't want to say darker. But I'm going to speak about the loss of one of my oldest friends, one of my childhood friends, and kind of dealing with that loss and coping with grief. Hopefully, none of you have gone through loss yet like that. But everyone does. So I think all of you will be able to relate. So we're gonna dive into that next week. It'll be a tough one. But it'll be a necessary one to kind of get that out there. And hopefully, someone can relate to it. Find me on Twitter at Chris Setterlund Find me on Instagram. Same thing, Christopher Setterlund. That's where I have my without a map live streams every Friday at 8pm. They're fun, I go over the podcast that just happened. Preview the one that's coming up. And then I just dive into a lot of random topics. Sometimes they're funny stories, they go off the rails. But it's a good time, it's a good way to kill a little bit of time in the evening, and have some laughs find my newest book, iconic hotels and motels of Cape Cod, either through the history press or Amazon, or local bookstores on Cape Cod and southeastern Massachusetts. If you're interested in Cape Cod history, and some of the iconic hotels, resorts, places people stayed over the last 150 years, you'll definitely enjoy it. It's the final in my trilogy of Cape Cod history, along with historic restaurants of Cape Cod and Cape Cod nights where you went to eat, where you went to drink and party. And then where you went to sleep off the damage you did become a subscriber on YouTube. I do clips from each podcast up on there that you can watch I guess. I also do 4k New England videos, I'm trying to get more of those done. It's difficult around this time of year because everything is so crowded. But I'll try my best to get some more going up there. The end of July and August. Visit my homepage Christopher setterlund.com created and operated and updated by one of my oldest and dearest friends Barry Menard, a great graphic designer from Rhode Island. So if you liked the way the site looks, he gets all the credit. Like I said during the time capsule, happy birthday to Serpa, my stepfather. That's his last name slash nickname. I've always called him that for 25 years. So that's just how I know him,  visit Wear your wishes.com Like I've said many times, Katie marks has a whole new collection, clothing, apparel, accessories, jewelry, all of that visit the site, she just re re-launched because she sold out of everything that she had initially put up. But now she's ready for the summer push. Once again, thank you so much to all of you who have listened to this podcast. I'm so thrilled that when I was checking my numbers for downloads with Buzzsprout, which is my hosting site, over the last five episodes, the top 10 cities for downloads, only three of them are actually from Massachusetts. That means seven of them are from places outside of the region that I live and outside of the region I'm covering. That means that more people around the country are finding this podcast interesting and finding it. So if you're listening, thank you, if you listen and like it and share it thank you even more. If you want to donate, buy me a coffee.com Just find in my footsteps podcast. I use any donation to do advertising for the podcast. But obviously you don't have to do that. Just listening and sharing and telling people about it means more to me than any donation. Take care of yourself. Take care of your own mental health. Do things that make you happy, follow your passions. Because there's nothing that matters more than your own happiness and you're way more in charge of it and in control of it than you think. Any obstacle that is being put in your way is something that you can handle. And any opportunities that are coming to you are things that you deserve. Just remember those things, the positive vibes. I'll be back next week for bonus episode 30. But until then, remember, in this life, don't walk in anyone else's footsteps. Always create your own path. And enjoy every moment you can on this journey because you just never know. And I thank you all again and I will talk to you all again soon.