Day 28

Day 28-Tuesday, May 18

We were up early and on our way to a coffee shop and then the ferry by 6:30 AM.  It was a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky, and the water was smooth as glass so we had a delightful crossing from Lewes, Delaware to Cape May, New Jersey.

A school of dolphins followed us for quite a while.

After arriving in Cape May around 10:00 AM, we stopped for lunch in Beach Haven NJ, 82 miles to the north.

My grandparents had a vacation home in Beach Haven, and every time we visited them our first dinner in  Beach Haven was always at the Snack Bar.

My grandparent's house was torn down and replaced with the huge home pictured below, which I photographed on September 27, 2020.

I have many happy memories of my summers in Beach Haven, so anytime I can, I drive by the location of their old house.  Yes, I'm sentimental.  So we did that today and were shocked to find the above house gone, and just this empty lot remains!  I'd love to know what happened.

We’re home!  We arrived in East Sandwich around 8:30 PM.

We drove 449 miles today with very heavy traffic before and after the George Washington Bridge, and 5,410 miles over 28 days!

When we left Sandwich on April 21, it was early spring, and from what we can see of our lawn and shrubs, it looks like summer. I'll be mowing the lawn on Wednesday!

We had a great trip, the weather couldn't have been better, it was wonderful to reconnect with family and friends, and visiting the civil rights shrines of Selma, Montgomery, Birmingham, and Monroeville moved me beyond words.  

 

Day 27

 Day 27-Monday, May 17

This was our last full day camping.  Tomorrow we will take the 8:00 AM ferry from Lewes, Delaware, to Cape May, NJ, and then drive home…hopefully making it before it’s dark!  Once the ferry arrives in Cape May, we will have 400 miles to go.

We slept relatively late, not getting out of our sleeping bags until after 7:00 AM, and then fixed our usual breakfast, which was yes, the same as last night’s dinner!  We’ve been incredibly lucky with the weather.   We’ve only had to wear raincoats once, during our mid day stop in Asheville.   We did have a couple of rainy nights, but other than nothing but sun and a few clouds for the past 27 days.  

After breakfast we went for a ride along the park’s bike trails, checking out everyone’s camping gear, and coming across several of the wild ponies, including one mother and her foal. 

Returning to our van, we packed up all our gear and headed north along the coast into Delaware, first to Rehoboth Beach, and then to Cape Henlopen State Park in Lewes.  

We stopped for wonderful lunch at the “Egg” café in Rehoboth Beach, and as the name suggests we had eggs…regular eggs benedict for Joni and eastern shore benedict for me.  Eastern Shore benedict replaces the Canadian bacon with lump crabmeat.  

After lunch we tried to find Joe Biden’s home, expecting to see heavy security measures in front, similar to what you saw in front of the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport, or the Bush home on Walker Point in Kennebunkport, but there were none, so I’m not sure if we saw it. 

Leaving Rehoboth, we had a very short drive to our campground.  When we checked in I asked the ranger if they’ve had a busy spring, and he said, “yes, in fact, every campsite is booked from now until the end of October!”.   Hard to believe.

We set up our campsite, and remounted our bikes and took off on another ride along this park’s bike trails.  This park is located on the grounds of what was Fort Miles, a WWII military base that was established as part of the coastal security measures all along the eastern seaboard.  Throughout the park there are observation towers and a variety of cannons, all pointed out to sea, waiting for German warships or U-Boats.  

 By the time we finished our bike ride it was time to clean up for dinner.  We decided that since this was our last full night for this trip we needed to celebrate, so we went out, returning to Matt’s Fish Camp, where we’d dined last fall.  Our meal was very good and included a variety of oysters, soft shell crabs on a bed of risotto, and fried chicken.  No room for dessert.  A great last supper.

As I write this day 27 summary, we’re listening to the Bruins-Capitols playoff game on Sirius XM…and they won!

Days 25-26

Saturday/Sunday-May 15/16

We left Paul and Joy's on Saturday morning after a delicious breakfast of coffee, juice, and  home made almond sweetbread. Our destination for the day was Grimesland, NC, the home of Paul & Pam Gares, long time friends from my days at Middlebury.  

Finally found a Steak-N-Shake for lunch around Winston-Salem.  It did not disappoint.

Paul & Pam

Arriving at Paul & Pam’s home around 4 pm, we spent the remainder of the afternoon catching up and reminiscing as we sipped fine wine and nibbled on cheese and a melon wrapped in proscuito.  For dinner our hosts prepared a delicious dinner of "chicken shish kebabs in a cumin, turmeric, garlic, coriander marinade with couscous mixed with a mustard/apricot sauce."  We continued to chat well into the evening before turning in.

In the morning Pam prepared homemade scones with raisins and apricots to go along with the fresh OJ and cappuccino.  We said goodbye around 10 AM, knowing that we’ll see them both in less than a month. 

 

Our next destination was the Assateague Island National Seashore located on Maryland’s eastern shore.

I don’t know much about Cape Charles.  There were lots of beautiful old homes and many newer vacation homes and condos. Thanks to her research, Joni discovered a waterfront restaurant, the Oyster Farm Seafood Eatery, which was part of a vacation home complex for the well heeled as evidenced by the Aston Martin that was parked next to our Ford in the parking lot.  For lunch Joni had fried haddock and chips and I had a cup of “she crab chowder”, fried oysters, and chips.  Both our meal and the setting were delightful.

Water tank or light house?

We continued on to Assateague, arriving around 5 pm, set up camp, made a fire and enjoyed the view of Sinepuxent Bay, as we dined on toasted oats, blueberries, raspberries, and milk.  

Campsites throughout the country are being reserved faster than ever this season, and the National Parks locations are no exception, and in fact are the hardest sites to reserve.  We reserved ours months in a advance and were only able to secure a site for one night.  We visited Assateauge last October, but did not stay there. The island is well known for the wild horses that roam throughout the park, and we saw many of them during our brief stay.  Including some 3 day old foals!

 

Day 24

 Day 24, Friday-May 14

 Today we left our Tim's Ford campsite, and headed 372 miles to the east to our friends, Joy & Paul, in Boone, North Carolina.  Joni, Joy, and I were all English teachers at Massena High School way back in the 70's.

of course we couldn't leave without fresh brewed coffee

We stopped in Chattanooga for a late breakfast at the Blue Grass Cafe   

Joy & Paul's home in Boone, elevation 3300 ft.

Day 23

 Day 23-Thursday, May 13

Woke up to a chilly 51°F inside our van, so we activated the remote starter from our sleeping bags to warm things up. 

We left the campground around 8:30 AM, and headed north along the Tennessee River to the nearby town of Savanah, where Grant located his headquarters when he arrived in the area.  This house still stands, although it is a private residence, and not available for tours.  When the Confederates attacked the Union troops on April 6, Grant was having breakfast at this home.   An interesting piece of trivia, Roots author Alex Haley’s grandparents were slaves at this home, which was owned by William Cherry, who the ferry operator.

 

Savanah was a charming town that was mostly destroyed during the Civil war, however a few charming homes remain. 

After hearing about the gas shortage in the Southeast that was caused by some hackers, we decided to fill up our van in Savanah despite eventhough we still had half a tank remaining.  The gas station where we stopped was sold out of 87 and 89 octane, so we had to fill up with “super”.  Hopefully we won’t have more problems during our last week of traveling, we still have a lot of miles to go.

 Our big destination for today was Lynchburg and the Jack Daniel distillery.  I’m not a big Jack drinker, but having developed an taste for Scotch, and having visited several distilleries in Scotland we thought it would be fun to compare.  The town is small, and has a Disney World feel to it, with every shop and restaurant displaying a Jack Daniel’s theme.  One shop even sold souvenirs with Confederate flags and stickers, but after our two hour “Angels’ Tour” of the distillery we were thoroughly charmed.  The distillery offers three types of tours, but only on the “Angels’ Tour” are you allowed to sample the whiskey.   

 

This is where they make the charcoal used to filter the whiskey.  The stacks of wood, sugar maple,, on the right of this photo are each aged outdoors for a year before burning, and after burned for a while are doused in whiskey to put out the flames!

The cave spring which is the source of the magical water used.

One of the many buildings where 20,000 barrels of Jack are stored for 4-7 years before being bottle.

I just deleted the photo of our tour guide posing next to a statue of Jack Daniel.  In my photo the tour guide was displaying a white supremacy hand sign, a disgusting gesture that I will bring to the attention of the distillery.

Leaving Jack with smiles on our faces, we headed to our campsite for the night at Tims Ford State Park which is located on the Tims Ford reservoir on the Cumberland Plateau in south central Tennessee.  Although the campground was not as new as the one at Pickwick Dam, it was very nice clean and quiet.  

 

Our dinner menu tonight will include hot dogs, baked beans, sweat potato casserole, and probably a little Jack to go along with the Moon pies that we purchased in Lynchburg.