Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island – We’re on a Roll!

 

Whiskey Beach, Cape Henlopen State Park, Delaware.

After leaving Tom’s we had two nights scheduled at Cape Henlopen State Park in Delaware. And here’s how we screwed up…we only scheduled two nights! Sometimes you get to a park and it dramatically exceeds expectations. We checked in on Monday, 5/25, and started going over the campground maps and realized we really needed at least a week to see and do all the things we wanted to. Ugh! With just one full day, we did our best. Lol.

There were tons of hiking and biking trails, coastal forests, dunes, ocean beaches, wetland habitat, historic Fort Miles, WWII observation towers. The fun didn’t end at the park boundaries either, there was a well-developed system of bike lanes that went into the nearby town of Lewes and several interesting restaurants and breweries to explore. As you can see, we had to pick and choose and dodge the rain while we did it. Lol.

 

Base camp for our explorations.

In 1682, William Penn proclaimed Cape Henlopen would be forever preserved for public use. However, during WWII Delaware turned the land over to the US government to establish Fort Miles and protect the Delaware River. It remained under military control until 1964 when 543 acres of Cape Henlopen were declared surplus, allowing Delaware to create a state park. In 1989, then Senator Joe Biden directed the US Army to report to Congress where they ceded the rest of Fort Miles to Delaware. The final parcel of land, Herring Point, was returned to the state in 1996. Altogether Biden helped restore 1,350 acres of Cape Henlopen to public use.  The former Naval Reserve training facility was rededicated as the Biden Environmental Center to honor his contribution to restoring the public lands. The center serves as a hub for environmental education and coastal preservation.

Biden Environmental Center.

 One of the first things I wanted to do was climb one of the observation towers. From 1939 to 1942, there were 11 concrete observation towers built along the Delaware coast. The towers were the eyes of Fort Miles guarding against German ships and acting as spotters for the Fort’s 6, 12, and 16-inch guns. The towers range from 39 to 75 feet high, are 16 feet in diameter with one-foot-thick concrete walls. When built, the soldiers had to climb a ladder all the way to the top, only one tower was open to visitors and happily there was a spiral staircase installed. (With 114 stairs. Yes, I counted! Lol.)

 

One of several observation towers in the park.

This is the only tower open to the public.

The ladder to the top was replaced with a spiral staircase. Looking up, up, up.

Looking out from the top of the tower...

...you could see historic Fort Miles.

Rog and I rode our bikes about 9 ½ miles on the Gordons Pond and Bike Loop trails. Gordons Pond is more of a huge swampy wetland and a vital habitat for all kinds of birds. We also saw hundreds of small fish that were darting and leaping out of the water. Super fun to watch!

On the Gordons Pond trail.

 

Looked more swamp than pond to me, but...

...whatever you call it, the birds loved it.
Top to Bottom: Snowy Egret, Willet, Black-Necked Stilt,
Red-Winged Blackbird, Laughing Gull, Blue Heron and a Green Heron

Beautiful marshland.

Schools of tiny fish were leaping out of the water. 

We parked the bikes and walked out to Whiskey Beach. The day was foggy, but we were able to see several more observation towers in the distance. On the way back we explored several spur trails. I loved the variety of the trails. We rode on boardwalks over the dunes, paved and gravel trails beside the marsh and through coastal woodlands. And best of all – it was flat! Lol.

 

More observation towers were visible along the beach.

Stepping stones on the beach.

Loved the boardwalks over the dunes, and...

...the paths through the trees.

In the afternoon, the pups got their chance to play on the beach. We wanted to optimize Riley’s play time, so we drove them to beach. They were so excited! We got far enough away from everyone that could have a little off leash play time. Riley headed right for the water and then made “sand angels” on the beach. Such a silly boy. Raney was content to sniff and explore and get her feet wet. I entertained myself by filling my pockets with ocean-smoothed stones and seashells. After our soggy, sandy pups were cleaned up and fed, Rog and I headed into town for a treat.

Riley. Surfer dude.

Raney. Sandy-faced beach bum.

Two lighthouses were visible from the beach.
(L) Delaware Breakwater East End Lighthouse, circa 1885
(R) Harbor of Refuge Lighthouse, circa 1926

What are the odds a few of these found their way into my pockets? Hmmmmm??

Riley making sand angels on the beach. What a goof ball. 

Back to the car for a drink and a wipe down before nap time. 

Rog was looking at the area on Google maps when he saw that one of our favorite brewers, Dogfish Head, was located just down the road in Rehoboth Beach. In 1995 they opened Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats - the state's first brewpub. The plan was to bring original beer, original food, and original music to the area … and they were wildly successful! Not only was Dogfish Head Delaware’s first brewpub, it was the smallest commercial brewery in America. The very first batches were brewed on a system that was essentially three little kegs with propane burners underneath, brewing 12–gallon batches of beer for a whole restaurant. It is safe to say they have expanded and grown their brewing operations since then. Then in 2002, after spotting a stainless-steel bin in a rural Delaware scrapyard, they began to explore the world of spirits. They worked with engineers and welders to reshape the tank in the form of a pot still – named it ‘Frankenstill’ – and began distilling gin, rum, and vodka. Their small batch operations allowed them to be very creative and we love the weird and wacky. Roasted Peanut Vodka anyone? We had a great dinner and enjoyed tasty beer flights and then shopped at their Off-Centered emPOURium, a retail space filled with Dogfish Head brews, spirits, and swag. A super fun outing!

Flights all around, please. 

Dogfish Head Brewery - a great end to a fun day!

On Wednesday, 5/27, we bid Delaware adieu and headed to New Jersey. We had an overnight stop at a Harvest Host site, Readington Brewery and Hop Farm. We got there in the early afternoon and, after getting set up in a huge grassy field, we popped into the taproom for a beverage. When the bartender found out we had two mastiffs, she asked us to please bring them in. That early in the day it wasn’t busy, so the pups got to come along and hang out for a bit. Super nice place with a large outdoor family-friendly play area.

Riley and Raney were invited to join us at Readington Brewery.

Beautiful taproom and pup-friendly inside too!

Family friendly too, with a great outdoor play area.

Handsome boy, and...

...pretty girl, just...

...handing out with Dad. 

In the morning we pulled out and made our way to our next stop, yet another Harvest Host site, in Woodbury, New York. Spirits Lab Distilling Company was a small distillery in a farm-like setting. I’m not a whiskey person, so I had an Espresso Martini made with their small-batch vodka. Rog tried the Caipirinha, a sweet-tart Brazilian cocktail. Our friends, Bob and Carole, introduced us to the Caipirinha and Spirit Lab’s version was excellent. They bottle and sell their signature mixed drinks, so guess what followed me home for a happy hour. (I’ll be saving that to celebrate meeting up with Bob and Carole on the road in July!)

Parked at Spirits Lab Distillery.
(Notice the sunshine and blue skies.)

 

We popped inside to sample their wares.
(Notice the sky is not so blue anymore.)

Raney is not amused at the turn in the weather.

Another one-night stay and we were on the road again. Our next destination, on Friday, 5/29, was George Washington Campground in Rhode Island. That’s four states in four days and Rog was ready for a break. We had three days scheduled in the campground, which is located on the shores of the Bowdish Reservoir in the 4000-acre George Washington Management Area.

The campground is rustic, with spaces spread out under the trees. There are no hookups, but keeping the pups cool was not a problem. In fact, we had to run the furnace! Yes, the daytime temps were topping out in the 40-50’s and dropping to the low 40’s at night. Brrrrrrrrr. Time to get the down comforter back on the bed. Lol. It was also rainy with a wind advisory on Saturday calling for north winds 20 to 30mph with gusts up to 50mph. I’m just glad we are parked and cozy, warm in our Short Bus. The tenters just looked miserable. ☹

Love the wooded campsites!

We dodged the showers on Saturday to take the pups on the one-mile Angell Loop trail. We paralleled the lake shore and then looped through the woods. It was a super fun trail and a gorgeous walk in the woods. The pups certainly enjoyed the cool, misty weather and the long sniff-walk.

A drippy walk in the woods.

 

The trail wound through the trees, and...

...beside the lake, and...

...through wetlands. 

Check out this beaver nommed tree. 

In the afternoon we left the tired pups to nap and drove into the nearby small town of Chepachet. We popped into a few antique stores and the Brown and Hopkins Country Store founded in 1809, which is famous for being the oldest continuously operating country store in America.

Rainy days call for indoor entertainment - shopping!

We got a break in the weather Sunday morning and took Raney on what was supposed to be a two-mile loop on the Walkabout Trail. We somehow missed a turn and ended up going about three miles and returning to the campground on a dirt road. It’s all an adventure. Lol.

 

Beautiful lake, quite a different view when the sun is shining. 

Notice the clearly marked blazes on the trees,
and we still missed a turn. Lol.

Oh well, this works too. Lol. 

After our walkabout, Rog got up on the roof to clear away the debris from Saturday’s windstorm. He’d just finished when the weather turned nasty again. Raney and I sat outside under the awning and watched it pour. It rained hard for several hours and then slacked off. That seems to be a repeating theme. Lol. While it may limit our outdoor activities, we still manage to have fun. And honestly we are enjoying the down time. Sometimes it’s just nice to (gasp!) push the pups off the couch, curl up with my kindle and a cup of tea, and listen to the rain.

The roof and solar panels were covered in tree debris. 

More rain. Time to snuggle up with a cup of tea.

Next stop, Maine. We’ll be in Maine for about three weeks, so we have some longer stays coming up including a visit to Acadia National Park!

Family, Food, and Fun in Virginia

The gang's all here!

On the way to visit my brother, we had one night at another interesting Harvest Host site, Shenandoah Heritage Market in Harrisonburg, VA. When I went to make our reservation, I realized the market is closed on Sundays and, of course, that was the day we would be arriving. I checked in the area to see if there were any good alternatives, no love. So, I decided to call and see if they might be willing to let us come in on Sunday, 5/17, and shop Monday morning before we left. They very graciously agreed, so we had the whole place to ourselves Sunday evening. The grounds were lovely and the pups had plenty of room to explore.

Lovely landscaping at Shenandoah Heritage Market.

On Monday morning, I went into the market. What a fun place! It’s a collection of over 20 individual shops/vendors under one roof. A mini-mall of locally owned and operated businesses. They had antiques, custom furniture, handcrafted items, kitchen gadgets, gifts, home décor, a quilting shop, a café, baked goods, canned goods, western wear, toys, and Grandma’s Pantry, which was filled with bulk foodstuffs and a large selection of meats and cheeses. Pro tip: Grandma’s homemade fudge was excellent! It was no hardship spending the requisite $30 and I’m sure I managed to contribute a little extra to the local economy. Lol.

The variety of shops made this a fun stop.

We had a week scheduled to visit Tom and Kim and see their new home in Stephen’s City, VA. We’d originally reserved the full week at Candy Hill Campground in Winchester, VA about 15-20 minutes from Tom and Kim’s place. The private campground is large, nicely maintained, offers full hookups, and is really the only decent option in the area. Unfortunately, they take full advantage of that by charging a pretty penny to stay there and then nickel and diming guests for everything. They charge $10 per day/per person for visitors and they define visitor as anyone driving onto the property. I get it if visitors are using the pool or any of the amenities, but just coming by to say hi or pick us up, really? It didn’t set well with me, and yes, the policy was strictly enforced. If you call for an Uber, you have to meet them at the office or they won’t let them in without paying! That’s just nuts.

So, I was already not enthusiastic about the campground. Then Tom called just before we arrived to let us know that he’d talked to his HOA and they were ok with us parking in their driveway. Conundrum!  The temps were in the mid 90’s and we didn’t think we could keep the pups cool in the coach, but the weather was forecast to change and get significantly cooler on Thursday. Hmmmmmm. We decided to split the week and stay at Candy Hill for three nights and then moochdock at Tom’s the remaining four nights. It worked out brilliantly!

Nice campground, but the rules were a bit much.

The pups were very interested in the chickens. 

Riley on his couch with the air conditioning running full blast.
He doesn't look too stressed. 

The pups enjoyed the airconditioned coach while we had fun. We went with Tom and Kim to see the movie, The Sheep Detectives. (Two thumbs up!).  We did an Escape Room. (My first!) The premise was that you were hunting for a friend who went missing in a spooky cabin in the woods while searching for a cannibalistic serial killer. What could go wrong? Lol. Lots of fun puzzles to solve and we managed to “escape” with just a little bit of redirection from the host. I would totally do one again! FYI: Cameras were prohibited in the escape room, so no gory pics. But it definitely had a Dexter vibe. Lol.

We escaped The Cabin!!

We did the escape room on Wednesday in Winchester and then had dinner at the Water Street Kitchen. It started to sprinkle just as we entered the restaurant. We needed to feed the parking meter and Rog volunteered to do it. Let’s just say that what followed was a deluge of biblical proportions and by the time he got back to the restaurant he was soaked. On the up side, he took first place in the wet t-shirt contest. Lol. No pics, he was being a good sport about it, and I didn’t want to push my luck.

Old Town in Winchester, VA.
It was blue skies when we arrived, that didn't last long. Lol.  

Cheers!

The cool thing, pun intended, was that the storm broke the heat wave. It dropped thirty degrees in 24 hours – the highs went from the mid 90’s to the mid 60’s overnight. Which made it easy to keep the pups cool when we moved the rig to Tom’s driveway on Thursday. Keeping them dry was another matter. It pretty much rained from Wednesday afternoon right up until Sunday evening. There may have been short breaks, but it was steady just varying in intensity from misty wet air to I’m not going out there until this lets up. Ugh. We took advantage of any short break in the weather to take the pups walkies. Tom and Kim’s house is right across the street from the community center and there was a huge lawn behind it. We never did get a chance to property introduce Luna and Raney. Our plan was to take them on a long walk together to see how they did, but the weather just didn’t cooperate. Even the birds looked damp and unamused. Lol.

Our new moochdock at Tom and Kim's house.

A houseful of unhappy purple martins.

Luna.
Maybe next time Raney will get to make friends.

While our grand plans for long walks and bike rides got rained out, I was thrilled to finally get in some pickleball! Tom and Kim play indoors in a church gymnasium from 6 to 8pm on Thursday evenings. Only five of us showed up, so we played pretty much non-stop for nearly two hours. Yay! The competition was fierce and so much fun. Oh, and check out Tom’s custom pickleball paddle! I loved it. That’s his girl, Luna.

Tom with his Luna paddle. Love it!

 

Pickleball Time!

On Friday, Rog pulled out the Traeger and smoked a pork butt for pulled pork sammies. I dedicated the day to trying to remove at least the top three layers of dog hair, drool, and general grime from the coach. I lost count of the number of laundry loads. I think Kim got tired of me monopolizing her machines and she dried and folded the last loads for me. Why doesn’t that ever happen at home?  Lol. Rog also installed the new “pup cam” that I’d ordered off of Amazon. As long as we have the Starlink up, we can monitor the coach temps and now we can spy on the pups too. We’ll know for certain who is hogging the couch (Riley). Lol.

Setting up the Puppy Spy Cam.

We had loads of fun just hanging out together. We introduced Tom and Kim to Shut the Box, a fun dice game and Mille Bornes, a racing card game and they taught us how to play Left, Right, Center. They love games and Kim always has a jigsaw puzzle going. She completed two puzzles in just the time we were there. Very impressive.

Luna is a master of just hanging out. Lol.

We had dinner at Hank and Liane’s (Kim’s youngest daughter) on Saturday. They have two girls, Abi and Ali and live less than two miles from Tom and Kim. I’m sure that being within spitting distance of two grandkids had nothing to do with Tom and Kim’s decision to move from Pennsylvania to Stephen’s City, VA. Nope, nothing at all. Lol.

Lasagna dinner at Hank and Liane's.

Sunday was our last day, and Kim pulled out all the stops (as usual) and hosted a fantastic family BBQ. I think the total headcount was 14. Kim’s brother, Steve, and his wife, Wendy, came. Of course, Hank, Liane, Abi, and Ali were there. Kim’s oldest daughter, Jen, and her husband, Justin, came from Maryland along with their two kids, Eden and Evan. The cousins had a blast playing games and chasing each other around the back yard. (How did I forget how loud little kids are?) Lol.

Game time with the kids.

 

The cousins: Abi holding Evan, Ali and Eden in the chair.

The adults enjoyed playing games too, although there was a little less screaming (maybe). Lol. Kim made several new converts to Shut the Box. I learned how to play Rummikub (Steve was an excellent coach), while the kids (big and little) kept the PlayStation busy. Tom was in charge of the grill, and there was so much food! Hamburgers, hotdogs, homemade potato salad, baked beans, buffalo cheese dip, all kinds of munchies, four kinds of pies and brownies too. And for those that know me, yes, I did my “one job” and supplied the deviled eggs. Lol. Kudos to Jen for herding the cats and making sure we had some group pics. 

Tom on grill duty.

L to R (or tall to short): Justin, Tom, Steve, Hank, Teddi,
Jen, Roger, Abi, Wendy, Kim, Liane, Ali, Eden, and Evan.

Thank you Tom and Kim for a wonderful visit!!

We had a truly lovely visit and were sad to pack up for an early departure on Monday morning. My fridge and freezer are full, my laundry is done, and the rig was clean for at least five minutes. Lol. Guess it’s time to hit the road. Our next stop was a state park in Delaware where we made a big mistake. What? You’ll have to wait to find out. 😊