Little Delaware

Wednesday, November 7th, 2007
Absecon, New Jersey to Killens Pond, Delaware


135.7 miles
Mostly sunny, windy and cold


Started the drive today with a lovely sight – a street of color! It’s not over yet!!

Saw piles of leaves on the side of the road, and was reminded of something I meant to mention several weeks ago, somewhere I rented a car…saw lots of piles of leaves, and I asked the Enterprise guy about it, partly because a good friend had asked me to take an extra whiff of the smoke of burning leaves for her, and I hadn’t seen any burning. Apparently the City comes by periodically to pick up the piles, then they grind them up and use them as mulch! Great idea!!

Another idiosyncrasy of mine is license plates – I’ve always enjoyed keeping track of plates – started way back when, on road trips when I was a kid. Kept me busy, I guess. Anyway, while all the states seem to have 20 or more plates now (which always makes me feel sorry for the cops!), I’ve only seen two plates in NJ – surely they have more, but either people are too cheap, or they’re too expensive! It’s supposedly a great money making scheme. And they obviously need the money – for the roads, if nothing else!

Did a drive by of Atlantic City this morning. Other than the typical huge glitzy hotels, it’s a pretty skuzzy city. Awful roads, run down buildings, unfinished construction, dirty. The most interesting thing was the five huge windmills as I approached the City, and the nuclear power plant across the Delaware River/Bay.

They do have Las Vegas quality entertainment – Stevie Wonder, Jay Leno, Dierks Bently, Aaron Lewis (whoever he is, covered with tattoos), Patty LaBelle, Travis Tritt, Marie Osmond, Frank Sinatra Jr doing a Sinatra special.

Best part was the riding mower I saw on the way out of town, towing a small trailer with a dog riding along happily!

And then there was the “Video Pipe Store” – huh?

Got my bridge fix again today! Back into Delaware – flat, windy, and big acreage farmland! Headed to the shore for a bit – not a resort area, that’s for sure. No beaches! But they have Christmas tree farms, one offering hand dipped ice cream cones with your Christmas tree.

Several new subdivisions – must be for Dover.

I drove part of the Coastal Heritage Byway, “the mostly rural two-lane road that parallels the western shore of the Delaware winds past a variety of landscapes that are the essence of Delaware: heavy industrial sites, forests, wetlands, tidal and non-tidal marshland, historic towns and quaint villages as well as cultivated fields of corn and soybeans. Route 9 is also rich with the wildlife, wetlands and ecosystems of the Delaware River and Bay estuary,” according to its nomination last year as a Historic Scenic Byway.

Saw several huge flocks of small dark birds, apparently finding something to feed on in the recently turned fields. Huge, as in thousands of birds, all taking flight at the same time and landing enmass!

Turned 30,000 miles this afternoon!

Garden State

Monday, November 5th, 2007
Abingdon, Maryland to Absecon, New Jersey

194.5 miles
Clear and cold


I lied about the great color at dusk last night. My polarized lenses deceived me. It was actually just shades of faded browns again. Oh well – it looked good last night!

Wonder what treasures you’d find at the “5 and dime Antique Store”??

Passed thru the top part of Delaware, the “Home of Tax Free Shopping” – at least that’s what the welcome sign says!

Into New Jersey, saw lots of ‘vote green party’ signs. Tomorrow is election day and there are signs everywhere!


Surprise, again, for me – New Jersey isn’t just a giant city. At least this southern end of the state is pretty fertile farmland! And several subdivisions with two and three story homes on acre sized lots. Most of the little towns are, for instance, Absecon Twp. Had to look that up – Twp? Appears to simply mean township . . . weird bloody abbreviation for township, if you ask me!


And I must say, this ‘Garden State’ doesn’t spend any money on its roads! One assumes that the State makes some money off Atlantic City, but it obviously goes somewhere other than onto the streets – worst roads I’ve driven on this entire trip!


Nice countryside though. But it’s closing down – almost all the farmers markets are closed, businesses are closed, RV parks are closed! Many of the homes have sun rooms, and apparently they do have winter, because they have more of the signs saying ‘no parking when the roads are snow covered.’ Guess people stay home in the sun rooms.

Interesting sign “Deer Corn and Horseshit for Sale” - I’m not kidding!

The center of this peninsula, around Buena and further south, some trees still have good color, and there are still crops in the ground. Pretty!

I cruised the resort area of Cape May – pretty much shut down. New Jersey’s attempt at Cape Cod, I think, but doesn’t approach the class at all, in my humble opinion.

Shady Pines Camping Resort
443 S 6th Avvenue
Absecon Highlands Galloway TWP 
NJ  08205