Day 5: Fall 2023 Adventure: Why leave?; Cape Henlopen State Park, Delaware
Another lovely morning at Assateague Island! Morning walk was towards the National Seashore part of the island. You can walk into the national park gratis, but have to pay to drive in. Was warm, but not too warm and sunny, too sunny. Did not see any horses on the walk but did see this mommy and baby deer. They were walking into the backside of our camp loop. Sadly, they did not wander past our campsite. We did see fresh footprints when we went to the beach though.
I cut the walk short at 4.8 km which got me to the entrance of the National Park and back.
Post walk we geared up and made the short jaunt to the beach. We arrived at about 0930 and stayed until about 1040 when we had to pack up to depart. Our dolphin buddies were putting on a show off in the distance. They were further out so we could not see the usual signs and only caught them when they jumped out of the water. At first we just caught the splashes and then I caught a glimpse of one mid jump and assumed it was a whale tail. That would have been a tale! But alas, no whales for us. But I’ll take the dolphins for the win! Some swam closer by just as we were departing
Right at 1100, which is check out time, we hit the road for Cape Henlopen. We decided on the more scenic route through Ocean City as we had not been there. That was an interesting drive through what felt like 50km of beach town. I think there were 47 “Candy Kitchen” stores. We didn’t stop anywhere, just took in the sites. It was not busy. Perhaps because it was 1130 on a late September morning. Right after Ocean City, MD is Fenwick, DE. Must have been founded by my people. Maybe the people from Fenwick, NS settled Fenwick, DE? Fenwick was like Ocean City junior. It was our second time entering Delaware and we have yet to see a “Welcome to Delaware” sign. Come on, Joe!
Mrs Milddogs had scoped out a food truck along the route so we stopped at it to get lunch. We gave it high ratings. Food truck is called “Guacanos Melting pot” and it is a fusion of El Salvadorian and Mexican food. We both got some tacos and shared some pupusa. We drove to Lewes, DE and ate at a nice municipal park. Lewes is the oldest town in the oldest state. The tacos were great but we had little room left for the pupusa so we just sampled them at lunch. Pupusa were really good. I shall have to check with Victor at work to see how authentic they were.
Post lunch we drove the remaining 5 km to Cape Henlopen State Park. We checked in and arrived at our site. Oh my, here ends the string of great sites we have had on this trip. We are jammed in like sardines here. The beach(s) are pretty far from the campground so we drove over to the main beach. Perhaps we should have e-bikes? Plenty of parking about 400 meters from the beach. Beach was nice and some dolphins swam by to say hi. Hi dolphins! I wonder if they were the same ones that visited us in Maryland? We had the good fortune of sitting near a couple from New Jersey. He sounded like Paul Teutul Sr. and she seemed to be auditioning for “Real Older Housewives of New Jersey”. We were treated to great conversations about surgery, how to talk to doctors, why you need physio before surgery, how old each one was (they seemed to not know for a bit). It was entertaining but not peaceful. Already longing for Assateague Island. After a few hours on the beach I was officially baked. But not the kind of baked that is legal in Canada now. We jumped in the van and toured around the park taking in the sites. Then we went back to the beach parking lot and hung out in the shade provided by the trees. We parked there because it was quiet and we have everything we need in the van. We ate our left over pupusa for dinner. Then we went to our campsite.
Well, let’s just say we might not make some new best friends here. Our side neighbours, literally 6 feet from the side of our van, were sitting at their picnic table, a bunch of discarded Miller Lite sitting on the ground, loud music playing (guess what kind…ok, you win). Oh my. I assume in the not too distant past, those would have been Bud Light cans sitting on the ground. The neighbours behind (like 10 feet behind) and I greeted while I plugged in the power and filled the water. We shared the “WTF” expression with a hint of perceptible sadness. Mrs Milddogs reported a similar exchange.
OK, enough about that. I headed off to the showers where I was pleasantly surprised by a semi-private shower experience. I was the only one there so I went for it. I give these a semi-solid 3 out of 10. Perhaps I am being generous.
Upon returning I was so pleased to discover that neighbour had taken out his guitar and was singing along. Double oh my. Quiet time is 2200. Please, please, please. Mrs Milddogs had completely closed up the van and turned on the air conditioning to block out the sound. That mostly works. At this point our air conditioning can’t be the most annoying noise out there. Hopefully Travis and Wynona did not have enough liquor to commence to arguing the night away in their tent. We shall see (or hear). We spent the rest of the evening hiding in the van. I shall grab some pictures of the site in the morning. I proclaim Cape Henlopen as Cape Hellnope. Great sights, but the campground is not great. I suggest visiting on a day pass.
Tomorrow is a new day. We are starting the trek home as we have stuff to do at the homestead. We are going to try a Harvest Host in Pennsylvania for our overnight. Been a while since we tried Harvest Host. We have some key stops set for the route as we wander towards the beautiful countryside of Pennsylvania
In Cape Hellnope State Park they are building “The Biden Center”. Looks like they are repurposing an older building.
That’s about it. Have to charge up the gadgets as no power tomorrow night!
Peace!
