urban bicycle journeys

Finding a legal place to park the Ford Focus for four days in Dover DE was difficult.  I finally parked the car in front a housing project near the state capital.  That afternoon I cycled the fifty something miles down to the ferry landing at Lewes DE, for the ferry to Cape May NJ.

Delaware is indeed small.   Road signs advertise town distances in single digits.    I passed through mostly agricultural land.

Most roads in Delaware are great to cycle on, because they are built with wide shoulders.    This road in North Carolina would have stopped two inches to the right of the white line.

The major four lane through the state does have the usual suburban sprawl.   However, on the two lane roads, I passed through small towns, some of which could indeed be described as quaint.

In one such town, Milton DE,  just about cocktail hour,  I just stumbled onto the Dogfish Brewery.    I had seen their beer on the shelves in North Carolina;  they can be incongruously described as a large microbrewery.    Young people were spread out on the lawn in front, drinking beer and playing games.

Three days later, I rode south from Wilmington back to the car in Dover.   Once I got out of the postindustrial debris of Wilmington, route 9 passes through miles of beautiful wetlands that line the Delaware river.