Delaware - Day 3 - Newark

Lums Pond State Campground
Thursday, 3 January 2019

When I was giving the dogs their 2nd walk this morning, we were overflown by a flock of geese so large it had 4 Vs at the same time.  There was one long line that was in the shape of a W with 2 shorter Vs inside the bigger Vs.  I'd never seen anything like it.

today's route

The roads in this state are so close together it's hard to show my route on this map, which anyway doesn't show a lot of the state routes that I've been taking.  But this is my best approximation of where we went today.

On the way I heard a radio story about some kids from Baylor University - yes, the Texas Baylor University - where they had a rock-scissors-paper tournament.  I'm sure their parents are glad their money is being so well-spent.  The winner was interviewed and he explained his method (huh? what method? it's rock-scissors-paper) and how from that he learned how to mediate settlements in business disagreements.  I'm all for mediation under most circumstances, but I'm betting this kid will have a rude awakening when he tries it in the real world, with real passions on both sides.  Never know what you'll hear on the radio.

Speaking of which, I've had a hard time finding a public radio station, which seems so odd as I've always thought of Delaware as having high education standards.  I finally found WHYY, but it keeps bleeding into classical music when I turn south.

I went to Newark (pronounced new-ARK, though not quite that emphatic) to try to find the University of Delaware.  The internet directions were wrong and there weren't any directional signs on the roads, so basically I just stumbled on it.

Old College

You can tell from the leaves on the trees that this photo is off the internet.  There wasn't any place to park that I could find, so I couldn't walk the dogs or take my own pictures or do any exploring, all of which I'd intended to do.  Oh well.

This building dates from 1834 and was originally the Newark Academy before it became part of the Univ. of DE.  Edgar Allen Poe lectured there in 1843.

The Deer Park Inn not far away was built on the site of St. Patrick's Inn after it burned down in 1851.  Poe stayed there and possibly wrote part of "The Raven" there.  George Washington went to a wedding there and may have stayed overnight once.  And in 1764 Mason and Dixon made the inn their headquarters while they were doing their surveying in the area.  Too bad the original inn is gone - what a chunk of history!

Newark has embraced the one-way street method of managing traffic, and it being an old town (founded in 1694) means those streets are narrow, especially with cars parked on both sides of the 1-lane roadway.

One of the main streets in town has multiple very large warning signs on both ends saying there's a 12'0" clearance and "Your truck will not fit!"  Very emphatic signs.  They say pickups and RVs and trucks should think carefully before going down that street.  They really do say that.  Well, I know from Amherst, MA, that I fit under an 11' clearance but I found those signs very intimidating and decided not to chance it.  Until I was sitting at a red light at the other end of the street reading more of those signs - and I saw a large dump truck driving under that 12'0" bridge with plenty of room to spare, so of course I decided to try it myself.  And of course I had no problem.  "Alarmist" scarcely begins to describe this experience.  How many trucks do you suppose got stuck under there before they went to all the trouble and expense of putting up multiple warning signs?

I would have liked to walk around the downtown/campus area to get more of a feel for the place, but between the parking problem and the narrow streets, I guess I'll just give it a pass.

I stopped at the memorial for the Battle of Cooch's Bridge, which you will undoubtedly never have heard of - I certainly hadn't.  As a battle, it's mostly of the historical footnote variety: Gen. Washington had ordered 800 American soldiers to harass 17,000 British soldiers to try to delay them, and it sounds like they did a decent job of it.

You'll need to enlarge this photo to get the details, but it's moderately interesting, historically.  

The soldiers flew the Stars and Stripes, and there's some belief this was the first time that flag was ever flown in battle.  With that kind of claim, it's odd this battle is nearly unknown.  What's more, it's the only battle of the Revolutionary War that was fought on Delaware soil.  Another oddity.

Just down the road a short way from the campground is the Delaware Veterans Memorial Cemetery, so I stopped off.

a few of the graves

 

the entrance garden

The graves all had the same kind of wreath, so I'm assuming those were provided by the cemetery or by a veterans group.

While I was there, a funeral was just concluding.  There were 6 soldiers in dress uniform providing a 6-gun salute, and a 7th who played Taps, which I always find very moving.