Mashpee

Catherine Wadsworth had given me the use of her Maspee cottage on The Cape for a few days one summer.Basha and I decided we would leave Northampton at ten pm and try to get there by two am. 158 miles east. Sleep in Mashpee, then head for Provincetown, where Basha had meetings with potential buyers for his rugs and knick-knacks.. His friend Lalya had agreed to put us up for the night. The challenge was to stay awake behind the wheel, on a Friday, end of the week. After a big meal at India House!
We were both sleepy at the beginning until Basha introduced "manic depression" into the conversation. His wife had suggested that perhaps he was during one of their fights. We debated this and it kept us awake for much of the trip.
We reached Mashpee at four in the morning after getting lost and driving up and down some back roads. We could hear the ocean and smell the salt and knew we were close. Then we couldn't find the cottage and Basha parked near the beach and went to sleep. I kept looking, walking round and round, and finally found it and the key was under the doormat as Catherine had said.(Later Catherine told me that one of the locals was watching us with binoculars from her cottage, in her pajamas, convinced we had come to rob them). I woke Basha and we went into the cottage and slept for a few hours.
When I woke up, Basha had already showered and flooded the bathroom. I soaked it up with towels and left a note for Catherine. And it was off to Provincetown, 60 miles up the Cape.