Day 47 - Jody Returns - Delaware Will Never Be The Same

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Today is Jody's turn for the pilgrimage to the place of her childhood. Unlike my returns to Lowell, MA which have happened every few years, Jody has not been back to Dover, DE since she was 15. The changes in Lowell have happened gradually as I notice when I return each time. To Jody, the changes in Delaware are dramatic as it has been over 35 years since she has been back. Since Jody was excited about her visit and didn't sleep well last night, we were able to get an early start this morning , so we had breakfast and were on the road by 7:30.

The first couple of hours of the ride were really beautiful. We were traveling through southeast Pennsylvania farm country and most of the farms looked either Amish or Mennonite. We did see a couple of horse drawn plows in use, lots of clothes hung out to dry on clotheslines, and lots of horse crap in the road. But the farms were beautiful, without all the mechanized irrigation and equipment of the agri-business commercial farms of the Midwest. When most city people picture what a farm looks like, these farms are what they imagine. The roads were great and before we knew it a couple of hours had flown by.

As we approached the border to Delaware, the farms disappeared, and the more typical suburban landscape appeared. The roads in Delaware were fine, none of the urban and suburban blight of New Jersey, it was mostly clean and suburban. Traffic was good and once we reached Dover, we decided take RT-13 down to Bethany Beach so we could come back up to Dover on US-1. When Jody was a child, Bethany Beach was a quiet, unpopulated beach where you could walk and see crabs and collect shells and sea glass. Needless to say, in 35 years things have changed a little.

Bethany Beach is no longer an isolated beach, it looks like most any beach town from Hampton Beach, NH to Cocoa Beach, FL but you can tell the buildings are relatively new and so everything looks fresh and clean. Even though it was Monday, the temperature was hovering around 90 degrees so the beach was crowded. It was mostly families and it looked like everyone was having a good time. We were wearing long pants, but managed to take off our shoes and socks, roll up our pants and take a walk along the sand. We visited a few of the beach shops and picked out some good t-shirts before stopping in at Grotto Pizza for some lunch.

We left Bethany Beach around 2:00 and headed north on US-1 through some of the narrow shoreline of Delaware. It was really pretty and there were lots of nice houses along the way. We could have turned onto US-1A and followed the shoreline up to Rehobeth Beach, but figured it would just be too crowded and too much traffic, so we stuck with US-1. It was a nice, pleasant ride up, most of the suburban homes looked nice and even the strip malls were not overdone. As we reached Dover, it was time to see the home where Jody spent her childhood from age 8 to age 13. She'd also lived in Dover earlier from age 1 to 6, but that was in on-base housing at Dover AFB.

Jody recognized the house immediately, and also the house of her best friend at the time, Fran. We visited with Fran and her family earlier this trip when we passed through Columbus. We took a few pictures and headed down the street to Moore's Lake where she caught minnows and frogs when she was younger. That still looks about the same, but much of the surrounding neighborhood as built up around it over the years. Jody really enjoyed her visit back to her "roots", and Dover still seemed to be a nice place to live.

The hotel was only a few miles up the road, and as we pulled up, we noticed an Outback within walking distance. Dinner problem solved! We hadn't been to Outback in a while as neither of us are big steak eaters. Besides, the one near our house fills up at about 3:30 and there is always a wait. This one was pretty empty at 5:00, so we were able to be seated right away. Dinner was great, steak tips for me and crab cakes for Jody - we weren't very hungry since we had pizza for lunch.

Tomorrow we leave the North behind and head for the real south. We are heading west through Maryland and over to Shenandoah National Park and Skyline Drive in Virginia. Tomorrow night, we will be staying in Luray, VA outside one of the entrances for Shenandoah and right next to Luray Caverns.

235.2 Miles Today

7231.0 Miles Total

4.659 Gallons Today

181.932 Gallons Total

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