Rehoboth Beach, DE 2

Finally on the road ….

We had an early start today as we haven’t quite adjusted the body clocks yet ! Not a bad thing as today was probably one of our longer driving days for the whole tour.

It is Labour Day weekend so there are lots of travellers about. When we walked next door for dinner last night there was extremely loud music playing down the street somewhere and at breakfast about 6.30 this morning there was a loud group who looked like they had just arrived back after last night’s festivities !

Anyway, we were on our way not long after 7am and skirting the southern part of New York, over Staten Island and heading south – we will be back to stay in central New York later in our trip.

First stop was into New Jersey and out to the famous “Jersey Shore”. The whole coast is boardwalks, beaches and fun piers with the more famous locations like Atlantic City adding casinos into the mix. We headed for the northern shore at a place called Seaside Heights.

And it is no simple “lets go to the beach” trip either. It costs $10 per day to even be able to get across the sand dunes to sit your backside on the beach ! They have access manned points along the boardwalk where they check you have the appropriate wristband proving you have paid your money and checking your bags for contraband – alcohol presumably. So we just stuck to the boardwalk with our expensive ice cream and watched as the crowds flowed in and the shops began to open.

We had a couple of planned routes heading south – down the Jersey Shore and take the ferry across Delaware Bay from Cape May or inland to cross the Delware River and down to the state capital, Dover. We decided that one boardwalk was probably sufficient so headed for Dover instead.

For a state capital, Dover is a pretty sleepy town – well on a Sunday anyway. We made our way to Green Square and the State Capital building. Unfortunately the museum was closed however the square is famous as the location of the ratification of the American Constitution on December 7, 1787 – Delaware thus becoming the “First State” of the United States.

Whilst we had been through Delaware on our 2008 tour we hadn’t actually spent more than a few hours at best in the state so it was good to be seeing a bit more. It is fairly flat but very green – and who would have guessed – even corn fields !!

We stopped for coffee at a park along the highway and then headed toward our destination of Rehoboth Beach out on the coast. Delaware is a “tax free” state so there are numerous outlet shopping centres along the way. We stopped at a couple to stretch our legs and for Adrienne to part with some cash and eventually arrived at the Beach Boutique Motel – our stop for the night.

It was soon 5pm – American dinner time – and the nearby Thompson Island Brewery was a great choice. The food and beer was excellent ! We shared the chicken wings for starters then Adrienne had a Creole Shrimp dish and I had a catfish – with cheedar grits, pork fat collards and a delicious jalapeno jam. The sample flight of beers was also excellent – a malty red ale and 3 quite different, but very tasty, IPA’s. Adrienne tried a seasonal “Fall” drop – brewed with pumpkin, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice & clove – more like a cold hot toddy !

It was great to be back on the road again and we are looking forward to covering such a lot of new territory as we knock over the last 6 states of the “Lower 48”. On to Wilmington, VA tomorrow …