Delaware - Day 18 - the drive back north

Lums Pond State Campground
Friday, 18 January 2019

today's route

Tonight I'm intending to stay in the campground I stayed in when I first came to the Delaware.  I don't have a reservation for tonight but I can see in their website they're about as empty as they were when I stayed there before, so I'm not worried about getting a spot.

That campground has decent water that I can fill my tank with.  It has asphalt pads at each site so I can clean my windows without my stool sinking into the muddy ground.  It has wastewater dumping ability at each site so I'll have water to clean out my hose.  It has plenty of room to walk the dogs in.  And it's not far from a liquor store that, at my suggestion, started ordering Hogue Sauvignon Blanc (a Washington winery) and Teachers Scotch, so I may as well stock up on what I like and not have to settle for whatever I can find when I get to Maryland.   So with all these advantages, that's where I aimed for.

I passed a sign on the road saying Dundalk is Maryland's most caring city.  Since I'm not actually in Maryland - or even on a road heading that way, that seemed odd to me.  Now that I've located it on the map it seems even odder: Dundalk is on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay.  What on earth would they want to do with an apparently pointless sign set up in a different state?  Another sign said the "caring" part refers to the number of nurses and others in the caring professions, which makes it seem even more pointless - I'd been envisioning a bunch of friendly townspeople.

I passed another sign saying Seaford has been voted the 28th best small town in the US.  This sign has a little more point, since Seaford is a town about 10 miles north of last night's campground.  28th, huh?

Several times I've seen signs directing people to a site on the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad.  Delaware, along with Maryland and Pennsylvania, has a byway designating sites of interest on the railroad path.  Delaware was part of the Union during the Civil War, but in general people sympathized with slave owners.  But given its position on the border between the north and the south, it had an active underground railroad.  They estimate more than 3000 people came through Delaware on the way to freedom.

I knew I was near the Chesapeake when I started seeing signs saying "no fishing or crabbing from the bridge."  I didn't see many prohibitions against crabbing in Texas.

I saw a field that was hosting hundreds of Canada geese.  I've never seen as many geese as I'm seeing this month.

I heard on the radio that Australia's having a heat wave and the overnight temperature was 97°.  During the night!  Bet folks weren't getting much sleep.

I saw a license plate holder for Gregory Automotive Group: Friends don't let friends drive junk.

Arriving at the northern campground I found I could get my previous campsite back again.  Still a fair amount of snow around the campground - much more than at the southern campground where most of it had melted in the last few days.

The nice woman at the last campground told me the reason this northern one is so fancy is that it got a major renovation.  She said that before, it only had about 5 sites that had electricity and, since it's so close to the University of Delaware, it used to get a pretty rowdy bunch of campers.  But with the renovations, she said it's getting a different clientele - like me, I guess.  It is a nice place now, and they only charge $5/night more than the less distinguished campgrounds.

The dogs were happy to get to a new campsite that was nonetheless familiar, and I was delighted to get all these chores done.  We're heading down near Dover tomorrow.

Delaware - Day 17 - Laurel

Trap Pond State Campground
Thursday, 17 January 2019

I've spent a lot of time lately trying to figure out where to stay for the rest of the month and when I'd be able to fit in day care for the dogs and what I still want to see here.  A lot more difficult to coordinate all this when there are so few campgrounds open, but of course much easier than in Connecticut or even New Jersey.

I'd intended Plan A to be sightseeing today and extending my stay at this campground a few days, but, because the dogs can't go to day care until next week, I decided I'd head up north for a while and then end the month back down here.  Only then I ran into a problem with my plan, which is that the online reservation site (I hate ReserveAmerica) says I can stay no more than 14 days in a 21-day period, the period apparently beginning with the 1st day I stayed here.

I talked to the very nice woman in the campground office about this and she suggested I not make another reservation but instead just come back as a walk-in camper, and then when my time is up she can extend my stay herself because the campground is empty.  I'm actually the only paying camper here, which makes it really peaceful.  So that's what I'll do.

So Plan B was to spend today in the campground since I'd be on the road tomorrow when my reservation's up, but David had told me he's sending me a batch of mail General Delivery and I decided to pick it up today instead of on the way out of town.  That meant Plan C: a trip in to Laurel, the town about 4 miles from here, where the post office is.

Laurel is very small and old, but large enough to have a pretty big high school.  I know because the post office is right next door and I turned into the wrong driveway and found myself caught in the school-letting-out traffic.  Luckily there were several parking lots big enough for me to turn around in.

My sweet brother told me the DVD fairy had paid a visit, and sure enough, I found a bunch of movies in with my bills.  What a nice brother - like jam on bread, the entertainment with the bill-paying duties.

On the highway the town sits next to, I saw a tanker truck sitting at a red light and the tanker was completely coated with Starlings.  I've never seen anything like it.  There must have been hundreds of them and they flew off as soon as the truck started to move.  I can't imagine what they found attractive about the top of the tanker.

A historical marker in Laurel says it sits on Broad Creek, apparently known since before Europeans got here.  The Nanticoke Indians, part of the Algonquin tribe, knew this area as "the wading place," where they could get across the creek, which looks to me plenty big enough to qualify as a river.  It's just downstream from a small falls.

(I couldn't decide which of these photos best showed Broad Creek by the falls, so I'm adding both.)  As far as I can tell, being "the wading place" is Laurel's claim to fame.  

Sweet potatoes were a prime crop in this area from 1900 to 1940 when a blight hit.  During that period, potato houses were built to store the crop in and now at least 10 of them in Laurel are on the National Register of Historic Places.  I couldn't find a photo of a potato house online that I was allowed to use so I'm adding a link to this website that has a photo.  Rider_Potato_House  I didn't know sweet potatoes were grown in Delaware and I didn't know potato houses existed, so there you go.

Delaware - Day 16

Trap Pond State Park
Wednesday, 16 January 2019

Not having the dogs here was a vacation for me.  I didn't get dressed until about 11:00 when I would normally be thinking of taking the dogs for their 3rd walk of the day.  I finally stirred myself just before 3:00 so I could go pick them up from their day care/boarding place.

I couldn't tell whether Lily enjoyed their absence or not while it was going on, but when the dogs got back she started hissing and clawing at them again, just like she did when she first moved in.  Only worse because this time she not only sat on the very very end of the bench to claw them, but she also reached out as far as she could to get to them.  This is a very small space and what she was doing was not reasonable for coexistence, but pretty good if she was trying to drive them out - not an option, of course.

The dogs were glad to be home (jumping up and down when they saw me) but must have had a good time because they've slept most of the time they've been back.  So it looks like a successful idea and I'll do it again later in the month.

On our last walk of the night I talked to the only other camper in the park that wasn't a campground host (I was wrong before - there are actually 3 host couples here).  He had a new type of RV that I hadn't seen before - a Class C that looked like a small Class A.  He said his wife was inside and that they were staying only one night because she had medical appointments the next day.  He said she's fighting cancer and has recently discovered trouble with yet another part of her body.  He looked in his 40s, so his wife is likely to be about that age too, and it must be extra hard on them for her to be so sick at such a young age.

All different kinds of people are living on the road.  Who'd have thought it.

Delaware - Day 15 - Lewes

Trap Pond State Park
Tuesday, 15 January 2019

today's route

The roads seemed clear this morning, but I was still nervous about black ice because it was obviously below freezing when we left.  To safeguard as best I could, I took only main roads, figuring their level of traffic would have cleared the snow off yesterday.  The many side roads I've been taking lately wind around, sometimes in deep shadow from pine forests, and get much less traffic, so I was really worried about icy skids in inconvenient places.

I was late to day care, but at least we got there with no problems.  As usual, Dexter was overjoyed before I'd even parked.  I left them overnight for the first time, but I'm sure it'll work out just fine.

I was aiming for Lewes (pronounced "Lewis") on the Atlantic, and the already flat Delaware landscape seemed even flatter near the coast.  The fields were covered in snow and the pine needles were covered in frost - all very picturesque.

Venus Observatory
When I was in Lewes last spring I mentioned I'd seen a historic marker in a cemetery and would report on it when I came back through.  That would be now, and I can see why I thought it was worth mentioning.  This wasn't a marker about some person back in colonial days or something: this marker was titled "Transit of Venus Observatory."  I could see the title as I drove by today - sufficiently startling that no wonder I thought it might be worth checking out.

Venus moves across the sun (from our point of view) twice every 120 years, and 1769 was one of those years.  People around the world were working together to take measurements to use for figuring out how big our solar system is.  The measurements were taken in specific locations, and Lewes was chosen to be one of those places.   www.capegazette.com/  This article shows a clear photo of the historical marker and explains a little about the point of this exercise.  In another article I learned that Benjamin Franklin himself, as president of the American Philosophical Society, helped choose the Lewes site.

The next Venus transit is expected in 2117, and even modern medical miracles aren't enough for us to be alive for that one.

On the water
Lewes is pretty small (2,700) and it's easy to just keep driving through town because there's seems so little of it.  The 2 branches of Rt. 9 go over the Lewes and Rehoboth Canal, a part of the Intracoastal Waterway.  Built about 100 years ago, it was intended to be used to haul freight but in reality it's been used mostly by pleasure boats.

The Lewes town beach and some condos and vacation homes are on the ocean side of the canal.  Also over there are the ferry from Lewes to Cape May (NJ) and the Cape Henlopen State Park, including Fort Miles.  I stayed in that park when I was here last spring and wrote about some of the fort buildings then.  That campground is huge, though, and very civilized - great for herding large numbers of vacationers but not so great for people like me who appreciate quiet, which is why I'm not staying there this time around.

Historic Lewes
I'd planned where I was going to go in town - the Historic Society and some of the old buildings - but it turned out so many roads were blocked with construction I gave up my plan and just drove around a bit.  Plenty of historic buildings in the main part of town.

Beginning 1637, Lewes was the site of the first European (Dutch) settlement in Delaware; it didn't last long but still has its claim to fame.  There were several tries there over the next 50 years and finally one lasted.

I stumbled across Mulberry Street and had to check it out.  When we were kids we often read a book called And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street.  I have no idea what the book was about, but I had to see what I could on Mulberry Street.  (I've since looked it up and, if you don't remember either, here's what originally happened on Mulberry St.  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_to_Think_)

Mulberry Street in Lewes

Old houses.  That's what's on Mulberry Street in Lewes.  Very attractive, most of them in good repair.  Right behind me when I was taking the photo above was the building below.

Old Bethel Church

The marker shown on the right is on the building on the left.  If you can enlarge the marker photo, you'll see it mentions this building and Barratt's Chapel in Frederica as being the last surviving Methodist buildings from colonial days in Delaware.  As it happens, I've been planning to go to the chapel in the next few days, weather permitting, and I'm glad to have stumbled on this one as well.

The downtown area in Lewes is quite clearly old and very attractive, but didn't look like a good place for me to try to find a parking place.  Most businesses were lined up along Route 1 on the west side of town, and even there I couldn't always find an easy place to park.

I found a place that sold propane - just as well since I was nearly empty and it's expected to be quite cold tonight.  And I found a liquor store for a bottle of wine, and a grocery store for milk.  Lily was patient with all this but getting less so as lunch time came around.  I parked near the movie theater, bought my ticket early, and fed us both.

Movie
The movie I've been looking forward to is On the Basis of Sex, about Justice Ginsberg.  This is the first movie I've been to in over a year, mainly because it's taken me this long to figure out I need to dump the dogs at a boarding place to make the timing work.  Which is what I did.

I really like an earlier movie that Mimi Lederer directed called The Peacemaker, with George Clooney and Nicole Kidman, like it enough to have brought it with me on this trip.  I'm not quite as enthusiastic about this new movie, though this one wasn't intended to have the fast-paced action of the other.  It's well-done, though, the acting is good, the cast is sterling, and as a lawyer I really enjoyed the final courtroom scene (I've been in similar situations myself, though sadly didn't come off as well as she did).

The drive to the campground
Even though I went to the earliest showing of the movie, Lily and I still didn't get back to the campsite until going on 5:00.  The sun was setting and driving visibility was a challenge.

I passed a couple of advertising signs for someone named Schagrin.  I don't care how you spell it, if your name was chagrin wouldn't you change it?

I passed a sign advertising Frets 4 Vets, which I'd never heard of so looked it up, and it looks like a worthwhile group.   https://www.fretsforvets.org  I remember hearing about a similar one in an NCIS program a few years ago, called MusiCorps.  http://www.musicorps.net  But anyway, this one looks like they're working on a good idea.

I passed a small sign saying "Hatchery" by some very large buildings and thought Aha! I was right.  These buildings are housing chicken farms.  For once, this place had a sign with a name: Mountaire Farms.  I looked them up and yes, that's exactly what they raise.  I tried to find some photos online to show what kind of buildings I've been seeing, but none of them were available for me to use.  I haven't been able to take any photos of my own because when I see them I'm always going down narrow (no shoulder) country roads with zero turnoff areas.  Maybe I'll get lucky.

I passed an open snowy field and - even from a ways down the road - saw hundreds of birds circling around.  When I got closer I realized they were all Snow Geese.  They seem to be all over the state.  Big white birds with longish necks and black wing tips.  So pretty.

I was tired by the time I got to our spot.  Plugged in the electric cord, put on my flannel pajamas, and reveled in the thought that I didn't have to take the dogs out for any walks tonight.

Delaware - Day 14

Trap Pond State Park
Monday, 14 January 2019

I'm glad I decided not to go sightseeing today.  By midafternoon it warmed up enough so I didn't have to put on 3 layers of clothes to walk the dogs, but it was still only in the mid-30s.  And that was by about 3:00.  It didn't actually get up to 30° until at least after 9:00. 

The overnight cold made the snow so crunchy I didn't worry about whether we'd be sneaking up on the deer on our early morning walk, because that would have been impossible.  There was plenty of crunchy snow on the roads too, but there was also plenty of black ice and I had to be careful walking on it.  And that's why I'm glad I was staying put.

I spent most of the morning trying to figure out where I'd be able to go for the 2nd half of the month and what campgrounds I should plan to stay in, because I don't have a reservation after this Friday.  Part of my consideration is doggy day care.

I could find almost no day care facilities in the whole state of Delaware - all I could find online were kennels or in-home dog sitters, which isn't at all what I want.  Where I'm taking the dogs now is one of the only ones.  I tried several different search engines, too.  Weird.  And that fact really complicates my planning process, which is why I spent so much time on it.

Lily found a place in the sun

By midafternoon much of the snow on the roads was evaporating so I'm hopeful that I'll be able to make it in to day care tomorrow as planned.

I talked to Jo Ann about maybe having the dogs stay overnight on Thursday night because I want to go to a movie in Lewes, over on the coast.  Turns out, though, that I can't even take them in for day care on Thursday or Friday because she's too full.  I suddenly realized it's the start of a 3-day weekend and that might be why she's filled up.  She agreed, though, to let me bring them in Tuesday morning and pick them up on Wednesday afternoon, so I'll get to see my movie, I hope.

When I was walking the dogs this afternoon I found some of those cypress I hadn't been noticing.  These were just across the campground road from our site - I've been looking at them for days without registering what I was seeing.  You can even see a few knees here and there.

Bizarre shower facilities they have here.  For one thing there's so much iron in the water that all the fixtures are stained red or pink.  But the nuisance was that to take a shower you push a button and water flows from the shower head for 10 seconds.  Only 10.  Lots of hot water.  Great water pressure.  But after 7 seconds (one thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three ...) the flow starts to taper off, and after 10 seconds there's no water at all.  Try taking a shower sometime where you have to interrupt yourself every 7 seconds.  But there was plenty of hot water and there was great water pressure, so you can't have everything.

Delaware - Day 13 - snow

Trap Pond State Park
Sunday, 13 January 2018

Even before I got dressed this morning I opened the door to see if it had snowed.  It had!  Lots of snow all over and no rain in sight.

The dogs loved being out for their early morning walk, and when we got back I measured what was on the picnic table: 3".  The table is under some pines so may not be the best place to measure, but I imagine it's pretty close.

Between the first and second walks it started snowing again so when we got back I measured again and, sure enough, there was now 4" on the table.

this is what 4" looks like

It kept up snowing off and on all morning, though sometimes it sounded like there were sleet pellets instead of snow.  And soon after lunch I started to hear big clumps of snow falling on our roof.  The noise scared Gracie quite a bit, but there was nowhere for her to escape it.  When we went out for a third walk, I found that the temp had warmed up a bit so the snow on the trees was melting, a wind had come up and was blowing the snow off, and also that there was so much snow accumulated that the tree branches couldn't hold it all anymore.  No wonder it was so noisy inside the RV.

By the time we'd finished our walk, the roads were slushy but there was still about 3" on the picnic table.  The forecast is for below freezing temps tonight, so I feel pretty sure the roads will be icy for much of tomorrow.  Unless things are a lot more melted than I'm expecting, I'm not going out again tomorrow.  But we'll see.

Delaware - Day 12

Trap Pond State Park
Saturday, 12 January 2018

The forecast keeps changing.  I've been hearing all week that we'd be getting a lot of snow during the day on Saturday with some possible on Sunday.  Then yesterday they were saying the snow would start late Saturday afternoon.  This morning they're saying maybe not till midnight with rain moving in before sunrise.

I've been hoping for snow for the dogs to play in, and now it's sounding like a very short window for snow during the night, to be likely all rained away by the time we get up tomorrow morning.

If I'd known this, I'd have stayed in to write yesterday and gone to the beach with the dogs today.  Oh well.  I'll still hope for snow.  I like it a lot as long as I don't have to shovel it or drive in it.

We mostly got clouds today and some quite chilly temperatures.  In between my blog-catching-up stints, the dogs and I walked all around the campground.

There are only 4 campsites being used besides mine - 2 of them are campground hosts and 1 is a youngish guy who leaves at 7AM and returns at 7PM, usually in a monster truck - big enough to tow a large piece of equipment.  It rumbles for a while when it's warming up in the mornings and upsets Dexter.

One of the campground hosts has a small dog he takes on brief walks occasionally; the other has a cat they let outside for a few hours every day.  The young guy doesn't seem to have pets.  The fifth camper, staying at the other end of the campground from the rest of us, turns out to have 2 dogs the size of mine.  I've been here for 4 days and only saw them for the first time today.

This campground is quite large, having 4 loops that each have about 30 spaces for RVs and a 5th loop just for tents where you're not allowed to drive. 

There are trees everywhere and close enough together that I have to watch out for them when I'm backing in to my site.  Mixed pines and various deciduous trees.  Massive amounts of leaves on the ground, which Gracie loves to roll around in and Dexter likes to search through and I like to scuffle as I walk.  It's a very comfortable place, especially with almost nobody else here.

Most of us are camped at the end by Trap Pond.  A decent-sized flock of Canada Geese seems to be living here, mostly on the other side of the lake but sometimes over here.  I've seen a Great Blue Heron here.  And a woodpecker and assorted other birds.  Very pleasant.  I was afraid being by the water would mean we'd be more subject to weather disturbances, but I've been noticing that even very strong wind gusts get funneled up to the tops of the trees and we don't feel them much at all down here on the ground.

I sure hope the snow doesn't disappoint me.