… about last night’s sleep.
Still wide awake at 02:00 not being able to sleep
But I must have gone off to sleep at some point because the alarms did go off to awaken me at 05:00 – and again at 05:15.
Nevertheless I did manage to bring the paperwork up to date (well, sort of) and do a few other things before leaving the motel. But there was no coffee, which was rather disappointing, to say the least.
It was a cloudy day when I sat off, but I didn’t go far because there was a Food Lion just down the road. That called for some bread and some orange juice (although I forgot the orange juice).
And once more, when I said that I didn’t have a fidelity card, the girl at the checkout said that she loved my accent and gave me the discount anyway, which was nice.
After about half an hour of life on the road I came to to the Virginia – Maryland State Line.
I’d blinked and missed it on the way down as you might remember, and so I made sure that I stopped here on the way back up just to take a photograph.
And they had no coffee in the welcome centre either, which was even more of a disappointment. They are missing out on loads of commercial opportunities here in the Capitalist USA.
I must have missed the Delaware State Line somewhere, and I’m not sure how. But when I hit this enormous traffic queue somewhere near Laurel I noticed that all of the number plates were Delaware plates.
But never mind the licence plates, just look at the queue. And I’ve no idea why there would be a queue here either because there’s nothing particular to hold up the traffic.
A sudden downpour of rain didn’t help matters much either.
But there were a few cars here that caught my attention.
It looks as if there had been some kind of hotrod contention and there were dozens of cars in the queue that looked as if they had been heavily modified.
This VW on the trailer was one example – and looking at how the suspension has been arranged, it’s no surprise that they had to trailer it away.
All of the others that I saw were however running on the road (although I’m not sure how, given how they were all set up).
But had I not been in a hurry, I could have stayed around here for a while. I saw a kids football match – only the second one that I would have seen in North America, and on several occasions there were old vehicles at the side of the road that I would ordinarily stopped to photograph.
Nevertheless, I did stop for two minutes at the local bank to withdraw some cash. My supply of American cash has started to dwindle down almost to nothing.
But having missed the entry sign for Delaware, I take the opportunity to photograph a suitable convenient sign just to prove that I did make it here.
It’s the second-smallest State in the USA, with only Rhode Island being smaller. Quite easy to blink and miss in fact, at about 2,500 square miles.
But I bet that you are wondering why I’m actually in Lewes, and what this sign is all about.
The answer to that is quite simple. They have long-distance thru-way ferries in Delaware too.
And so I turned up at the ferry terminal, which was pretty crowded. No room on the 13:45 ferry but there was a place on the 14:45 so I took that.
It saves a long, winding trip through all of the traffic around Wilmington, Philadelphia and Camden
There were clearly a few people who didn’t turn up for their booking on the 13:45 because a few of us early arrivals were passed forward. And that’s good news.
An 18-mile crossing, taking 95 minutes, and all for $37:00 too. And in the Capitalist USA too.
Does anyone get the feeling that someone is taking the Mickey out of the British Cross-Channel ferry passengers? How much would you you have to pay for a crossing like this across the English Channel?
The mouth of the Delaware River is an absolute Paradise for ship-spotters too. Well worth the price of admission just for that alone.
I counted about a dozen out here either heading upriver or downriver and while I couldn’t read their names, I could still photograph them with the telephoto lens.
Here’s a couple of them to be going on with
I didn’t have time to take a photograph of my ferry – the “New Jersey” – but instead I can show you a photo of her sister travelling the other way.
There are three of them apparently and run every hour during the day at this time of year.
It’s a comparatively modern service too. Despite having been first proposed a long, long, time ago, it was only set up about 50 years ago, which is a surprise, seeing how many miles and how much time it saves.
While you admire the New Jersey Shore and Cape May in particular, I can tell yuo somethign exciting about the ferry.
Having missed out on my coffee so far this morning, it seems that on board, you pay $1:95 and you can have as many mugs of coffee as you like.
And as I’m sure that you might have guessed, I took full advantage of this opportunity – even taking one with me in Strider.
So here we are, just pulling in to the ferry terminal at Cape May, New Jersey. From here, it involves heading north-eastward sup the New Jersey coast.
I was planning to stop for the night at Atlantic City with the casinos and the glitter, but with me running an hour early, I was quite well ahead of myself;
It’s my policy not to stop until 18:00 hours unless an irresistible opportunity presents itself or I’m feeling ths strain, so I pushed on.
One thing that I did want to do was to visit Long Beach Island – scene of my triumphs back in 1999.
I was looking for the motel where I stayed back then and although I found the site, it’s not there now – the ground’s all flat.
That’s a shame, for I had had a really good time there. And there are many other motels that merit” removal” well before this one did.
I ended up at Seaside Heights as 18:00 ticked over. Full of motels but for some unknown reason, no-one was about at all.
In the end, I managed to persuade the proprietor of the Sea Palace Inn to open his doors, having agreed on a very reasonable $68:00.
No complaints with that – seeing as there’s a fridge and a microwave. A few potatoes and a tin of chili beans went down well for tea.
Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that I’VE BEEN HERE BEFORE – and back in 1999 too – on one of my very early forays into North America.
However I didn’t remember all that much about it. I wasn’t as sophisticated and prepared in those days, with a dictaphone and a digital camera, and so I was keen to have a look around, even though it was dark.
That was one of the reasons why I had come here this evening. Another reason being, of course, that my motel from 1999 had been demolished.
My notes in those days were non-existent and relying on my memory is a pretty pointless exercise these days, so I have to say that I didn’t recognise anywhere at all
The dark didn’t help very much in stimulating a visual trigger, but it had its compensations because everywhere always looks so much nicer in the dark when the lighting can bring out some spectacular effects
And the big ferris wheel in the background – that was one of the things that I’d noticed on a photograph that I’d taken back in those days
But anyway, I continued on with my stroll along the boardwalk.
One thing about the Atlantic coast of the USA (I’ve never visited the Pacific) is the beaches. The sand is really nice and looks so good, even in the pitch-black.
Anyway, after a good while and a good wander, I ended up back at my motel. In the words of Maréchal Macmahon, j’y suis, j’y reste – at least until tomorrow morning when I shall be hitting the road.
There’s still a long way to go.
