Massachusetts - Day 26 - potato chips and sandwiches

Sippewissett Campground

Wednesday, 26 September 2018

today's route

To continue my plan of slowing down a bit, I decided to limit my travels today to the Cape Cod Potato Chip factory near Hyannis, and then come back to the campground by way of Sandwich and other north coast towns.

You see the prominent picture of the Nauset Lighthouse I visited a few days ago.  Very Cape Cod.

The factory tour is self-guiding, but toward the end I grabbed a passing employee who explained some of the machinery better than the little signs and diagrams.

Cape Cod Potato Chips have been made since July 4^th, 1980. They’re kettle cooked in small batches (I saw the kettles), and the factory is closed on weekends, so you can see it’s not aiming for the major leagues.

They buy all their potatoes from the eastern US (e.g. Maine, Virginia, Massachusetts), except from April to June they buy from New Brunswick.  It takes 4 pounds of potatoes to make 1 pound of chips because potatoes are mostly water.  They buy 39,000,000 pounds of potatoes each year.

Before a truck of potatoes is unloaded, they sample the load for high specific gravity (low water content and high dry matter); potato temperature and size; raw potato defects.  Then they peel and fry a random sample.  If these tests come out okay, the potatoes are unloaded.  (This is what the sign said, but do you think they really keep the truck drivers waiting while they fry up some potatoes?)

The potatoes are cleaned, brush-peeled, inspected, washed and weighed (each kettle batch fries a set weight of potatoes).  They’re sliced and put in the kettles of oil, and stirred with a rake occasionally to keep them from clumping together and cook evenly.  A centrifuge spins off the excess oil.  Then they’re tested for color, moisture & defect levels, then seasoned and packaged.  The packages are inspected for appearance, weight, displacement, air leaks and breakage.

I’ve never visited a potato chip factory before – do you suppose they all do this?

Anyway, they gave me a small sample bag, and the chips were good enough that I bought a larger bag.  I always buy Lay’s regular potato chips; Cape Cod chips are similar but not as delicate.  I’m not sure – maybe they’re sliced a little thicker and the kettle cooking process produces a little firmness.

It was interesting.

I went from there up to Yarmouthport and picked up Route 6A we stbound. I used to have cousins that lived in Sandwich and I wondered if I’d see their house.  Actually, they were Momma’s cousin and her husband, my first-cousin-once-removed.  Momma and I stopped to visit them maybe in the mid-90s, but sadly both have died since then.

I might have been able to find their house if I’d turned down the road labeled Sandwich Center, but I’d already decided I needed to find Momma’s address book and look up their address before I tried to tackle the narrow roads around there.

Route 6A runs alongside the Cape Cod Canal.  Cape Cod is basically an island now, result of a canal that was built to connect Cape Cod Bay with Buzzards Bay.  The Cape is connected to the rest of the state by 2 very high bridges – the Bourne Bridge and the Sagamore Bridge, named for their nearby towns and built 1933-1935.  Ordinary bridges unless you’re driving a slightly larger vehicle, and for us they’re menaces.  Especially the Sagamore Bridge.  They've both got extra high curbs that aren't painted to stand out and are almost impossible to miss if you're driving in the slow lane, which I've been doing to be kind to other motorists.   When I hit the curb it's so jarring that Gracie would jump out if I had an open window and my jaw nearly hits the floor and my hands start shaking so much I can hardly hold the wheel.  

So today I tried to avoid the Sagamore Bridge, which is almost next to Sandwich, and cut over to the west side of the Cape.  I missed a turn (their signs assume local knowledge and aren’t put up to help tourists).  Of course I not only ended up on the bridge – hitting the curb again and scaring the life out of all of us – but also when I got to the other side I got confused about what road I needed to take (it’s Rt. 6 on one side of the Canal and Rt. 6A on the other side, but I guessed wrong which one I needed) and ended up going right back across the Sagamore Bridge.  I really hate that thing.  The second time across I drove sort of in the left lane and sort of in the center and too bad for the other cars, it’s not a long bridge anyway.  Then when I got back to the Sandwich side, I went back to where I thought I’d made the wrong turn and went down the other road, even though it wasn’t labeled the way I thought it ought to be – but that was indeed the right road and I got back over to the west side and, eventually, back to my little home away from home.

And this was supposed to be an easy day.