We left Yardley on November 2, heading south. We took I95 through Philadelphia and into Delaware with Dover as our first stop. Since we both grew up within an hour of Philly we didn’t feel compelled to navigate the city streets with the camper to see historical sites we’ve already seen, so we stuck to the highway with the exception of a minor detour near the airport to avoid a toll we couldn’t pay. Even with the highway driving, and with exceptionally nice non-freeway roads in Delaware, it still took us almost four hours to reach Dover, which, since we hadn’t left Yardley until noon, put us there near the end of the day.
We found free parking on the street about four blocks from the Capitol. The city immediately around the Capitol is tree lined streets, mostly cobblestones, with lots of pretty brick buildings. However, within a few blocks we found residential neighborhoods with older houses that weren’t scrupulously maintained, and with lots of people just hanging out on the street. We were immediately approached and asked for money which didn’t make us feel so great about leaving the camper, but we risked a quick walk to see the Capitol complex, and everything was fine. This is where Tom stopped and went into the EZPass office, which I mentioned a few posts ago, and that stop took more time than seeing the Capitol. We made it back to the car only to be approached by two more guys hanging out on the street. One of them decided to tease Princha with a turkey sandwich, which resulted in her channeling her inner Rottweiler when she didn’t get a bite. That ended that encounter, and we got back in the truck to find a place to park for the night.
We found free parking on the street about four blocks from the Capitol. The city immediately around the Capitol is tree lined streets, mostly cobblestones, with lots of pretty brick buildings. However, within a few blocks we found residential neighborhoods with older houses that weren’t scrupulously maintained, and with lots of people just hanging out on the street. We were immediately approached and asked for money which didn’t make us feel so great about leaving the camper, but we risked a quick walk to see the Capitol complex, and everything was fine. This is where Tom stopped and went into the EZPass office, which I mentioned a few posts ago, and that stop took more time than seeing the Capitol. We made it back to the car only to be approached by two more guys hanging out on the street. One of them decided to tease Princha with a turkey sandwich, which resulted in her channeling her inner Rottweiler when she didn’t get a bite. That ended that encounter, and we got back in the truck to find a place to park for the night.
Our next stop was Assateague Island National Seashore, which was about a two hours’ drive. We didn’t want to do that at night, so we found a nearby Lowe’s and got permission to park for the night. We left fairly early the next morning and took the excellent Delaware roads to Assateague. Our first order of business was to see if they had room in the National Park campground; they didn’t, so we spent a little time booking a night at a fairly close state park campground before touring the park.
I’ve wanted to see Assateague since I was a little girl and read Misty of Chincoteague, which was required reading for every horse-crazy girl. We had been warned that the horses sometimes didn’t make an appearance, but we found plenty of them. We tried walking on the beach, but the horses weren’t there and it wasn’t much fun slogging through the sand with the dogs, so we ended up walking the bike path to the end of the “developed” part of the park, which took us through some scrub brush where we saw not only horses, but also both types of deer which inhabit the park.
I’ve wanted to see Assateague since I was a little girl and read Misty of Chincoteague, which was required reading for every horse-crazy girl. We had been warned that the horses sometimes didn’t make an appearance, but we found plenty of them. We tried walking on the beach, but the horses weren’t there and it wasn’t much fun slogging through the sand with the dogs, so we ended up walking the bike path to the end of the “developed” part of the park, which took us through some scrub brush where we saw not only horses, but also both types of deer which inhabit the park.
The horses were hanging out by the road as we crossed the bridge to the island. Signs are posted all over the park telling people to keep their distance from the horses, but it can be hard to do when the horses are hanging out where people need to go.
The island is very narrow, and it’s a quick walk to see both the bay side and the ocean side.
There were lots more ponies on the bay side. There were also fewer people.
I managed to get a photo of this white-tailed deer. We also saw a very cute Sika deer, but the dogs barked and scared her before I could get a photo.
We left Assateague and headed for Trap Pond State Park, where we had made a reservation for the night. The campground was a little crowded, but it’s situated in a pine forest near a small lake (or large pond, whichever way you want to look at it) and it was very nice. If we had known how much there was to do there we might have stayed for a couple of nights, but even at the end of the season it was busy with the beautiful fall weather, so we contented ourselves with a five-mile loop walk around the lake in the morning before heading for Maryland.
We got to the park just in time to catch the sunset over the lake.
The dogs don’t appreciate the scenery, but they love sniffing their way through the leaves. Squirrels beware!
From Trap Pond State Park, we went to the Harriet Tubman National Historical Museum. This was interesting to us on two counts. First, Harriet Tubman is a well known historical figure in Upstate New York where we used to live, both because of her work with the Underground Railroad, and because of her work with the Women’s Suffrage Movement. In my view, she’s somewhat overshadowed by Frederick Douglass with her involvement in the Underground Railroad as it is presented in NY, and is quite possibly better well known for her work with the Women’s Movement. In Maryland, at this museum, it’s all about the Underground Railroad, with very good reason, because what she managed to do is overwhelmingly impressive. The second thing we found interesting is that the museum isn’t the building on the site, which has a very interesting and impressive display, but it is a collection of sites and buildings around the area where Harriet Tubman had connections in her life and her work. We were disappointed, because if we had known what the “museum” really was, we would have set aside the whole day to drive around and take the full tour. As it was, we spent a couple of hours at the central museum building, and then headed for our Harvest Hosts overnight with plans to visit Annapolis and Washington, DC the next day.
We’ve tried to hit the capitals either late in the afternoon after work hours, or on weekends. We kept to this plan with Annapolis and DC, with a Sunday visit. Annapolis was less than an hour from Triple Creek Winery, which was our Harvest Hosts overnight, but we then spent another half hour trying to find a place to park because the entire area around the Capitol is under construction. Tom finally found a 2-hour place near a small memorial park, and we docked and walked the few blocks to the Capitol. Unfortunately, the construction around the Capitol extended to the Capitol itself, and it’s normally impressive dome was shrouded in tarps. We were impressed with the number of people out walking around the streets on a wet and chilly Sunday morning, and a number of them stopped to talk to us, and we are taking their word that the building and the dome are normally quite beautiful.
We’ve tried to hit the capitals either late in the afternoon after work hours, or on weekends. We kept to this plan with Annapolis and DC, with a Sunday visit. Annapolis was less than an hour from Triple Creek Winery, which was our Harvest Hosts overnight, but we then spent another half hour trying to find a place to park because the entire area around the Capitol is under construction. Tom finally found a 2-hour place near a small memorial park, and we docked and walked the few blocks to the Capitol. Unfortunately, the construction around the Capitol extended to the Capitol itself, and it’s normally impressive dome was shrouded in tarps. We were impressed with the number of people out walking around the streets on a wet and chilly Sunday morning, and a number of them stopped to talk to us, and we are taking their word that the building and the dome are normally quite beautiful.
From Annapolis, we drove straight to Washington, DC. It was a quick and straight shot into DC, but getting to the actual Capitol building was a challenge. While we were still in Annapolis, it took us a bit of time to manipulate the TomTom Trucker navigator to get us into DC on a road where we could fit. We ended up routing ourselves to The Mall, which worked, but it was definitely one of our tenser drives as we had to pay very close attention to stay on streets and highways where we were legal - and where we wouldn’t end up stuck in a bad situation. We finally made it onto the streets around The Mall, but our Sunday plan backfired since we didn’t realize that because parking is free on Sundays in the city, all the locals drive in to walk The Mall and see the sights. We ended up doing a few circuits of The Mall, and then following a security guard’s directions to get as close to the Capitol building as possible to snap a few photos, before resetting the TomTom to allow us to escape the metropolis. Even with the slow going and two capitals behind us, we made it to our friend Sarah’s house in Warrenton, VA, in time for a Caesar salad lunch and a very enjoyable afternoon and evening before heading for Shenandoah National Park the next day.
