Getting Oriented | senseofplace

If I continue driving east on Route 6, I come to Orleans. Here the freeway ends and Route 6 becomes a regular two-lane road as the Cape bends north. As the road nears Provincetown it once more becomes a divided four-lane freeway. For the last few miles, Route 6 East actually heads west as it hooks around at Provincetown near the end of the Cape. Or the beginning. For this is where U.S. Route 6 begins. From here I could turn around and follow it westward back through the county I left behind in New York, and on west, more than 3,000 miles across the country to California.

Part of learning to feel at home in a new place is about finding one’s way around. I’ve always had a pretty good sense of direction, so it has been pretty easy for me to develop my mental map of the Cape. Heading onto the Cape over the Sagamore Bridge I am literally "oriented" as I head east on U.S. Route 6, the Mid Cape Highway. I follow the gentle curve of the Cape. Cape Cod Bay is to the north on my left, and off to my right is Nantucket Sound. Just over the southern horizon, I know, are the islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.