Birthday Activities

 

Thursday April 29, 2021  

I think the was the first time we have been camping during my birthday! I had limited ability to check online-- other than my phone, we were not having success with the Internet. But with my phone I was able to see a lot of birthday wishes from Facebook friends, emails and text messages from my sister and sister-in-law, and get phone calls from lots of people, even from as far away as Israel! So I was feeling the love all day, especially when I finally was able to pick up and watch the Marco Polo video of Beth, Joe, and Juniper singing Happy Birthday to me.
 

In between the phone calls etc, Joe and I had a  very nice day in Lewes. We started off by taking the Jeep to explore the park. The museum and observation tower were closed, but we discovered the beautiful beach at the end of the park road. The weather was already in the high 70s even though it was still morning, and it was definitely a beach day! On the other hand, we didn’t have any sun protection, and Joe is not a beach person anyway. So we just satisfied ourselves by walking down onto the sand, and were delighted to see a pod of dolphins feeding right off shore. (We did not get photos.) But speaking of sun protection, we made the ride more fun all day by taking the roof off the Jeep.

Cape Henlopen Beach

From there, we drove out of the park and into downtown, “historic” Lewes. Lewes has a big welcome sign saying that it was “the first town in the First State.” The town is delightful, with many old homes lining the streets. Because we had no idea where to go, we just drove around town. We made a mistake by not stopping at the Lewes Historical Society, which had its door open, and I am still regretting that (Joe suggested we stop, but I didn’t make up my mind fast enough.) At that point, in turning right and left at random, we managed to get ourselves a bit lost, and my usual excellent sense of direction only managed to make it worse. We stopped at a Rite Aid to pick up camera batteries, but I didn’t think to ask the woman which way to turn to get back to the center of town, and of course we went the wrong way. We finally resorted to our phone maps to get us back to our campsite.

After lunch, we hung out for a little bit, I talked to Beth, and then around 3pm we set out again to find some ice cream. We had picked out Hopkins Farm Creamery, which was about 10 miles or so away, as being our most likely bet for something yummy, and we were right! After driving past the cows themselves, and inhaling the unmistakable perfume of manure, we came to the Creamery. People were lined up to order and were waiting for their ice creams, but everyone was being very good about distancing and masks. Joe got the no-sugar-added vanilla, and I got peanut butter ripple and chocolate brownie. The ice cream was VERY creamy and good, and exactly what we’d been looking for. One funny thing was, I was wearing my hat with all the National Park pins on it. The girl taking our order asked, "Have you been to all those parks?" It was cute to answer Yes, but when she asked how many more we had to go, it was hard to estimate. We've been to a LOT of National Parks... and I can't wait to add another one or two in the fall, if we are lucky.

From there, we retraced our steps back to the park again, and I plopped myself in a chair with my book and a drink for a while until dinner. Joe made us a delicious steak, along with the fancy ravioli I had picked up a couple of days earlier, and for dessert I had my special slice of my sister’s incredible chocolate pecan pie, which she doles out to me for special occasions. It came along in the refrigerator on our vacation, and boy was it yummy!

After that, I read some more, and we went to bed fairly early. All in all, we didn’t do anything super special, but it was a very nice quiet birthday and I felt very happy with how the day had gone. And I do think I have some sunburn  to prove it!

Ferry Across the Bay

 

Our RV on the Ferry

Wednesday, April 28, 2021
Our day got off to a slower start than we’d hoped, somehow, despite the fact that all we had to do was pack and leave! Joe spent some time searching for a place to fill our propane tank on the way to the ferry, and I spent time uploading my first blog of the season, along with photos. It seems that once again the blog software has changed, and the photos couldn’t be placed the way I preferred, but at least it is up! We finally left the campground at about 11 a.m., which we thought was plenty of time to drive about 50 miles to Cape May, where we planned to catch the ferry at 2:30 p.m.

It wasn’t long, however, before we decided that 1) it was going to take us 90 minutes to drive at least (we were not planning to take the GS Parkway), and 2) we needed gas more than we needed propane (neither tank was full when we left home--a tactical mistake.) I also had to factor in time for lunch, and it usually takes at least 20 minutes for gas, and I wanted to get to the ferry terminal an hour ahead of sailing time. We also needed some bread and cold cuts to make lunches, so stopping at a grocery was also on the agenda if possible. All of this left about 30 minutes to get propane, and that is usually a ridiculously procedure. It usually involves a difficult maneuver to line up the RV with the propane tank, waiting for the one guy who is authorized to fill us up, and sometimes we have to unhook the jeep to make it all work. We decided to skip the propane until later and just deal with getting to the ferry.

The theme of this trip seems to be “take the wrong road.” I drove today, and Joe depended on the GPS for navigation. I was planning to take Route 9 all the way, but the GPS was determined to steer me elsewhere. So we had several loud disagreements as to the route, and lost some of our time that way. In the end, when a detour forced us onto the Parkway, we decided in the interests of time to just stay on it. We arrived at the ferry terminal at 1:30, but without the propane (I did pick up a few groceries while we stopped for lunch, and to remove a noisy hubcap which was annoying us.)

Wake Surfer following the Ferry

The ferry, however, changed our moods entirely. It was hot all day, and a boat trip for 85 minutes seemed ideal. Sam was the first “long vehicle” they loaded into the ferry, so we were right at the front and got out as soon as we were parked in our slot. We hung over the rail for a while looking at the water and the other passengers (everyone was wearing masks). As we pulled away past the breakwater, a surfer followed next to us, surfing the ferry's wake for several minutes before jumping off the board and throwing up his hands in triumph! We settled down into Adirondack chairs in front where we could both see the water and feel the breeze. We even saw some dolphins! And that was where we stayed for the entire trip! It was utterly relaxing and beautiful, and we totally enjoyed it. As we came close to the ferry terminal, we could see a lot of people on the beaches nearby, enjoying an unseasonably hot summer-like day.

When the ferry docked at Lewes, we were only about 2 miles from the entry to Cape Henlopen State Park in Delaware. I had made reservations here a couple of weeks ago, and good thing, because the place is full. It’s a really nice campgroun with water and electricity at our site, but we’ve also noticed a LOT of pine pollen all over everything. I guess it’s the season for that. After I once again took the wrong road in the park (as I mentioned, that’s the theme of this trip!) I found my way to the campground, where we hooked up, put up our awning to provide some additional shade, and our lounge chairs. Then we got some cold drinks and sat for about an hour. I was reading my book, and Joe was still looking for propane, and also ice cream. It was such a beautiful evening, with the weather cooled down just a little bit and a pleasant breeze, that we decided to eat dinner on our picnic table outside for a change (it’s usually too much trouble to bother!) When we went inside, we decided that the breeze was not quite enough, and we turned on the air conditioner! It was on for much of the night.

Tomorrow is my birthday! We are going to explore the campground, look for ice cream, and then enjoy a steak dinner with some extra treats my sister sent with me for the day. The weather is supposed to continue to be hot, and I am tempted to say let’s go to the beach. I believe the park here has its own beach... we will find out tomorrow. We were given a campground map but not a park map, and I hope we can find one of those someplace. The wifi connection here hasn’t been working too well, making our hot-spot on our phones not function strongly enough. So we are stuck with our phones for information, and mine stinks. My gift to myself when we get home is going to finally be a new phone!

Birds and More Birds

 

Tuesday, April 27th, 2021    

 This year, we decided to do a “maiden voyage” for the year in the spring, over my birthday week. Joe spent weeks prepping and cleaning the RV, and yesterday we spent most of the day loading it up for a trip of about 9 days. Ironic that it took so long, considering the brief trip and the fact that we are not going very far all in all. Our first stop for the night was only about 70 miles away, at Bass River State Forest in south Jersey.

We finally left home at about 2pm. Our route took us into the Pinelands, where we’ve almost never been in the past. It’s very rural and not a bit like central Jersey--even the rural parts there are greener pastures, rather than scrubby pine trees in sandy hard ground. We found the park with no problem, and got ourselves set up despite the insane New Jersey-ness of the park’s set-up. There was no one to check us in, and the roads are not very well thought out. We had trouble making a left turn for lack of sufficient room. Then we wanted to stop at the dump site--but it was angled to be approached only by those leaving the campground. So again, I had to make a difficult turn (by this time, we’d unhooked the Jeep). Then the water at the dump was closed, and the instructions said to use the supposedly potable water nearby. That struck us as both extremely unsanitary and bordering on illegal, since dump sites must have water available. And once we had dumped, the only legal way to leave the dump site was to turn right--which would put us back on the main road OUT of the park, with no way to get back in easily other than traveling somewhere and turning around and coming back to the park. So I decided we were already in an illegal mess, and i turned left, ignoring the “Right only” arrow, cut quickly across the divide nearby, and got myself back on the right side of the street. It was all ridiculous--this is how New Jersey deals with campers!

Purple Martin Nests

 

Red Wing Blackbird

 After that, though, we were fine. The campground was virtually empty-- didn’t see ANYONE near us. Most of the sites were closed for the season, which explains why I had so few choices to reserve a spot. But we were all alone, and spent a very quiet evening, with sandwiches for dinner and going to bed very early. We were both tired from a busy family weekend and then all the shlepping during the morning.

We started today by taking a walk through the campground. We saw exactly two other campsites being used, and they were nowhere near us. The area is piney, and we are next to a pretty lake. I think there is swimming and canoe/kayak rentals during the summer, but everything is still shut down for the off-season. After our walk, we packed ourselves up for a day excursion, and headed to the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge. It is located among the estuaries between Atlantic City and the “mainland,” and on the way there, we passed many boatyards and lots of beautiful watery scenery. It only took about 20 minutes or so to drive there.

Ibis

Egret

Once we arrived, we walked around the vicinity of the Information building, but of course everything is still closed because of Covid. One thing that was striking was the cluster of birdhouses outside the building, put up for Purple Martins. We realized we lucked out coming in late April to this place, because it is nesting season. The birdhouses all had Purple Martins in and on them--we could see them go in and out, or just sit on the perches of the houses. They are interesting looking birds and although I’ve seen houses set up for them in many places, I’ve never happened to see the birds nesting. The do have a purplish sheen to their feathers, and a yellowish belly, and fly a lot like a swallow. Of course, that’s when I started taking pictures. I was VERY happy to have brought my “real” camera with the excellent zoom lens, and made good use of it today.

Egret

 

We walked a few more trails near the information building area, one with Cassie, and a couple without her, including a boardwalk along the edge of the forest where the estuaries begin. The views across the area are lovely, and there were very few people there. So it was always quiet wherever we were, and extremely relaxing just to lean on the rails and look at the water and the birds. On the forest trail, we saw a red-winged blackbird and a vireo, both of which we identified by their songs (we have an app on our phones to identify those, and as I said, it was quiet and there was not a lot of other noise besides the wind and the birdsong.)

Osprey stretching out

By this time, it was about 1pm, and we had to get something to eat. There was nothing in the park, and we had not brought sandwiches with us. So we drove out of the Refuge about a half mile to a local bagel restaurant, bought sandwiches there, and ate outside at a table. Then we went back to the Refuge and drove along the 8-mile drive through the estuaries. We crawled along at 15 miles per hour or even less, stopping frequently to look more closely at the egrets, pipers, and swans (and for me to take photos.) We were also stopping at every osprey nest-- every nest had an adult either sitting on the edge, or sitting right in the middle, we assume on eggs. We saw several of them take off or land on their nests, and I finally was able to catch one of them with wings spread. They are large birds.

Osprey

 

Osprey sitting on her next

It probably took an hour or so to do the whole 8 miles, and toward the end we walked on a trail (with Cassie) which was a mile long through the woods. It was pretty, but we didn’t see any birds this time until the very end, when we heard and then saw a stunning bright yellow goldfinch. We got back in the car and drove to the end of the road, which took us outside the gate to the Refuge.

From there we headed home, but made a “quick” stop at a huge antique store, the size of a warehouse. I say “quick” because although I’d noticed it on the way past earlier, we almost missed it this time, and we went in the “do not enter” exit (we got used to that yesterday getting into Bass River Forest campground.) Joe was such a good sport; he waited (and napped) in the car while i walked through the entire building, stopping only to check the Roseville (prices and availability). Even so, it was probably a good 30 minutes that I was in there.

After that, we headed for home again, looking for an ice cream place we had noticed in the morning. Unfortunately when we stopped there, they had no sugar-free ice cream for Joe, so that was disappointing. We came back to the RV and discovered that tonight, we do have neighbors-- two more people set up next to us. It’s quiet tonight, though-- we were probably the noisy ones, because we ran our generator for a while when we got back. But now we are all tucked in. Joe grilled chicken for dinner outside, we had some salads from home to go with it, and after I get this blog uploaded, it’s time to go to bed! Tomorrow we are moving on, via ferry, to Delaware.

Swans landing on the water

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