Time for our last "destination" camp before heading for home. We hit the road for Cape Henlopen State Park, Delaware. Lynn chose it because it's sort of near the Assateague Beach National Park where wild ponies are said to roam the marshland and beach. Henlopen ended up being a terrific spot to play for a few days, and we learned a lot about this part of the "Jersey Shore". To get here, we had to drive through some crowded Delaware & NY thoroughfares. In fact, we crossed the famous George Washington Bridge at one point! Pretty good, towing a small trailer, but it didn't leave any opportunity for looking around at the scenery.
The camp was pretty full for a weekend, with MANY tent campers and a mix of big RV rigs mixed in with us little guys. We got set up fast, and spent our first full day riding the FERRY! It runs across Delaware Bay from Cape Henlopen, DE to Cape May, NJ. We'd heard the little town of Cape May was scenic and fun, and that the ferry was a must-do ride. The latter part was true...we had a fun ferry ride both directions...windy, cold, but fun!
However, Cape May was mostly a huge collection of tacky tourist shops and schlocky beachfront attractions, many of which had closed from the now-past summer season.
We even found "Madison's Bakery" on the beach walk, a welcome reminder of our own granddaughter Madison!
Someone got married at Cape May, and used a horse carriage for their getaway; we liked seeing that. We got a late lunch at an Irish Pub, a fun place with great Guiness & Shepherd's Pie, and about the only commercial spot we felt at home on the tourist strip. We were glad to get the ferry back to our camp, and don't plan to visit Cape May again!
Our plan was to just hang at camp the next day, and enjoy the stuff in the State Park. I got in some great biking: good paved trails all over the place, past all the beach and natural & man-made sights. Lynn and I hiked around those trails, and explored unexpected WWII artifacts of Fort Main. This place was an important installation to guard against German submarine attacks on shipping and industry in the Bay. Huge observation towers, Fort Main barracks and huge guns were available for us to explore.
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| VIEW from the top of the WWII observation tower. They looked out over the Bay to watch for enemy incursions, and directed cannonfire if needed |
While walking the lonnnnnng fishing pier, one of the fishermen insisted on taking our photo, so we have this cool portrait of us on a chilly windy day.
Then, we found the secret trail for launching a kayak on Delaware Bay by the extended fishing pier...so I got a good kayak jaunt in on the new water there. TWO lighthouses are visible from the water near the fishing pier, plus the tall observation towers left over from WWII. I tried to photo them from my boat, no telling how that came out. The part of the Bay I was on was protected from angry conditions by long stone breakwaters constructed out in the Bay. Nice paddling conditions for a novice in these waters.
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Oldest house in Delaware, built in the 1600's   |
After all our goofing around, we went to nearby tiny town Lewes, Delaware for supper. What a COOL little town!!! Geez, it was everything Cape May wasn't: quaint, beautiful, OLD and unspoiled by excess tourist-crap. This is the first and oldest town in Delaware, founded in the 1600's. We crawled around the ancient Episcopal church in the middle of town, read lots of the old, old gravestones, some dating back to the early 1700's, walked around the beautiful residential streets, grabbed supper at a Main Street pub, then drove down to the harbor to see the historic "lightship" anchored on display there. What a nice surprise...we had no idea Lewes was a destination to visit!
Back in camp, we were goofing around our campfire with the guitar, when a lady who was camped nearby stopped in and spent some time playing with me. I dragged out the mandolin, and we banged around some songs. The music was of questionable quality, for sure, but it was a fun end to the camping part of our travels.
BTW: You would be surprised how may people talk to us about our Casita camper, all the time, everywhere. It's a fun way to meet new folks...sometimes. When they don't ask about the Casita, they seem to want to talk about the wood kayak on top of our truck. Lots of meeting friendly strangers going on during this trip!
Tomorrow we drive out of here headed for Assateague to try to see the ponies, then onward to another Cobra-related visit in Greensboro, NC, before hitting home in Waynesville. Good times, indeed! Thanks for reading this stuff. We are truly the luckiest people I know.
Here are more photos of our trip if you'd like to see:
TRIP PHOTOS ALBUM
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