Another relatively uneventful day. The Explorers left the Residence Inn after a hearty breakfast. Yesterday, Sidekick Sue lost one of her biking gloves. This morning, she went to put on her back-up pair, and they are mysteriously missing too. Duh! A quick Google search showed it might be a couple of days before they get to a town with a bike store. So Sidekick Sue unhappily saddled up for glove-less day of riding. (As silly as it might sound, biking gloves are padded in a way that helps ones hands from going numb while gripping the handlebars). The first part of the morning took the Explorers through historic downtown Dover, over cobblestone streets and past colonial buildings.
Gradually, the scenery became more rural again. They passed hundreds of cornfields, and some other fields that they think may have been peas, although they didn’t stop to investigate. Every so often, they passed a new subdivision with a prestigious name…. obviously a tract of farmland that was sold off to a developer. There were lots of cars about, but very little in the category of amenities like stores or gas stations. The route today was extremely flat compared to prior days…. not even one torturous climb (although Sidekick Sue dreads going back up the downhill that led to their camp ground tomorrow).
It was around noon before the Explorers reached the town of Felton, which seemed to have some significant buildings like a post office, a school and a library. The Explorers were searching for their morning soft drink refreshment and were just about to turn around and give up when they saw they were just about to intersect with their old friend, Route 13. Sure enough, there were a couple of gas stations at the intersection and the Explorers finally got their morning refreshment.
The afternoon scenery matched the morning. More cornfields and the mysterious fields that might be peas. The Explorers had no idea how much farmland there was in Delaware. They were expecting the state to be much more developed.
The official route to their campground would have taken the Explorers through more farmland, so they diverted to the good-sized town of Milford, which had plenty of stores and restaurants. The went to Food Lion and Wawa to stock up on protein bars for the morning, since there would be no breakfast at the campground, and no restaurants nearby. They popped into Polisenos Pizza for their late lunch/early dinner and then jumped back on the bike for the last 8 miles to the campground.
The campground for the night was a Jellystone Park featuring Yogi bear. As it is mid-week in late-September, the place was relatively empty with the pools and amenities locked up. That didn’t stop the campground from charging the Explorers a $12 amenities fee. 🙁 At least they were able to negotiate a tent site with electric that was near the showers so they didn’t have to hang out in the laundry room to charge their electronics. The sun is setting at 7:00; a sure sign that summer is officially over.
