MONDAY 9.30.19 DELAWARE

After the weekend activities we had to sit back and take care of things around the house.  Laundry had to be caught up, bills needed to be paid, Walt washed the travel trailer and truck and we spent time playing with Boss.

Monday evening we went to Walt's stepson's, (Lyle) home to visit. We got quite a surprise there too! Lyle called his 14 year old son to the kitchen and told him he wanted to show us "the trick".

Let me first explain that Roman is autistic. So they proceeded with the trick. Lyle brought up calendars on his phone and then said to Roman, "The year is 2005 and the month is January. What day of the week was the 19th? Within seconds Roman responded, "That was a Wednesday." We were amazed. He did another one and again Roman was quick and right.

I asked Lyle how this came about that he knew he could do this. He said that about a month ago Roman wanted to see a show on TV from 2004 and Lyle has the ability with his system to bring that up. Roman proceeded him to tell him that the show started on a particular date and a few seconds added that it was a Monday. Lyle didn't think anything of it at that particular moment but did think about it a little later.

He quizzed Roman and again Roman was correct with his answer. They have tried several more dates and sure enough he was correct. They have even gone as far back as calendars from the 1600's. Roman has never been wrong! So we tried one more. The year was 2009. Roman was asked to tell his dad what months had Saturday's that fell on the 28th of the month. In just a few seconds he answered, "February and March." Lyle, Walt and I are all looking at each in amazement when he said, "And November." We all turned back to Lyle's phone to look and sure enough, he got it and we missed it! Lyle said they are going to teach him to count cards!

It was wonderful visit with Lyle and his family and quite an amazing one to boot!

SUNDAY 9.29.19 DELAWARE

Today was the day for family. Walt's family gathered at his niece's home for tons of food and chance to visit. Walt is one of nine so there were quite a few of us there!

Besides seeing family, the highlight today for Walt was having the chance to eat some blue claw crabs. 

Bev's next door neighbor is a professional crabber and he brought us bushel and a half for today. We, in the mid-Atlantic states, LOVE OUR BLUE CLAW CRABS!

Kids get taught when their young how to pick a crab.  Of course it helps when the uncles and great uncles feed you crab meat too.

All the generations of our families love crabs!

There were lots of hamburgers and hot dogs and side dishes to eat and after all that was done the Wannadinger sticks came out! They loved them!

A good time was had by all.

SATURDAY 9.28.19 DELAWARE / MARYLAND

Today we spent the day in Maryland. Our first stop was a little town called Cecilton. This town is very small although we saw homes that we know weren't there the last time we were here.  Oh Cecilton, please don't become another Middletown!

We came here for a memorial dedication. Friends of our lost their son in Afghanistan in 2007 and today the town unveiled a memorial for their fallen soldier, Brandon Michael Craig It was a beautiful and touching service.

Brandon's dad had the honor of raising the flag.

A large number of family and friends gathered for this long awaited ceremony.

At last,  the memorial plaque for CPL BRANDON MICHAEL CRAIG was unveiled.  What an honor it was to be able to attend this ceremony.  Thankful we got home in time.

While we were waiting for the ceremony to begin I happened to glance over and saw this woman that I recognized instantly.    This is someone who I had lost touch with many years ago and I had been looking for her on Facebook but couldn't finder her.  I knew she had married and her last name was Fisher, or so I thought.  Well, I walked the few steps over to her and asked her her first name.  When she answered, "Sharon", I knew I had found her.  I said her maiden name and she nodded, looking at me all the while.  I took my sunglasses off and she slowly nodded her head no.  When I told her my name she then recognized me.  We sat together at the get together at the fire house after the ceremony and we caught up on the last 44 years.  Oh, by the way, the last name was Farmer, not Fisher.  At least I had the F right.  We are now FB friends and won't lose touch again, I hope.

From there we went to Crystal Beach Manor. This is where I spent my summers as a kid and where Walt and I met back in '71. First stop was the cottage I own with my brother. He and my sister in law were there for the weekend so we stopped to see them.

From there we went to see some other friends that we knew were at their cottages for the weekend.

At two we went to the pavilion on the beach grounds and met up with about 30 of our many, many friends from back in the day. We hadn't seen some of these people in 45 - 50 years! 

Some we just looked at them and new immediately who they were, others we had to ask. Of course once they told us their names then we could "see" that 16 year old again!

What a great afternoon that was!. We played "remember when" with so many and we laughed so much! Several had brought pictures from when we used to hang around together. They were lots of fun to see.

The sad part was that we've lost so many of that old crowd. On the table with pictures was a list of those who passed and the list seemed to grow and grow as people arrived and names were added with the ones they knew of. Several we knew about and others we were shocked. It seem the "Big C" has hit our crowd hard!

Walt with our friend Doug.

Here's Walt with Susan.  She and I met when we were 5 and 6 years old and we've been the best of friends ever since.

Just a small portion of the friends we have in Crystal Beach.

What a great day this was!

FRIDAY 9.27.19 DELAWARE - HOME!

Wow! Are we ever tired! I guess after packing up, driving for 7 hours and then setting up took its toll. It seems like yesterday that we would have done all this and then gone out and partied to all hours. Oh how times have changed.

We spent the day with Bev, Walt's sister in law and took some time to mark the the calendar with upcoming plans and make a list of some of the things we need to get done while here. How long are we going to be in Delaware? We don't know as of yet but I would imagine around 10 days or so.

Back in the day, when Walt and I dated when we were teens this was a small town. The main roads were Main Street and Broad Street. Walt lived on Main Street. The population in 1970 was just over 2,000, in 2017 it was close to 23,000. People from New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania are moving here like crazy. Back then there was one grocery store, now there's at least a half dozen. At one time you had to travel to Dover or Wilmington (a half hour either north or south) to shop in a Sears or Penny's or a store of that type. Not anymore. We literally have to use our GPS to go to places we used to know like the back of our hand. The town has grown so much.  Not such a good thing according to the ones who have lived here forever and a day.

This used to be all farmland. In fact, today if you talk to someone who grew up here and you tell them to go to an address in a new housing development (and they are dozens!) the first thing they are going to ask is "What farm is that?"

The traffic is unbelievable. We have both said that we couldn't live here again.  But it sure is good to be home for a little while.

So today we rested.

THURSDAY 9.26.19 NORTH CAROLINA / DELAWARE

Today we bid farewell to the Outer Banks. If the truth be told we would be very happy to have another week or two here. Just to smell the salt air,,,,even if the fish weren't biting!

We were pretty well ready to travel this morning so it didn't take us long to get on the road.

Just before we took off these pelicans flew overhead.

When I first came here, years ago, I bought some corn relish from a farm market just outside of the Outer Banks. I haven't been able to find it anywhere since. Yes, I've seen corn relish but I know it isn't the same as what I had that time just by looking at it. Today, I wanted to find that corn relish! On our way out we stopped at farm market and they had corn relish and it kinda, sorta looked liked it so I took a chance and plunked down the $6.50 for the jar. Of course a couple miles up the road I saw another farm market and I'm pretty sure THAT ONE was the one I went to before. I just didn't have the heart to ask Walt to turn around. Next time. While I was at the farm market I was drawn to the fence out in front. Pumpkins, pretty as you please, all lined up.

When we pulled out of Kitty Hawk RV Park we had every intention of stopping for the night in Fort Story, an Army base, in Virginia Beach. We had reservations in place but we arrived at 10:30 in the morning. Walt asked how much farther to Delaware and when I told him 4 hours he looked at me and just said, "Babe, let's just go home." That was fine with me!

Let me say now that I am not a fan of tunnels. Ones that go through a mountain and especially not ones that go under water. Well today we were crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. Had I been through this before? Yep. Was I white knuckled and praying that a ship wouldn't hit the tunnel and spring a leak with us in it? You better believe it! 

Nope, I don't like underwater tunnels. I look for trickles of water every inch of the way.

So Walt paid the $24 fee to cross this 17.5 mile bridge and tunnel combination and the white knuckle journey began. 

In 1964 it was named “one of the seven engineering wonders of the modern world.” After all, it isn't too often that you have a bridge/tunnel combo and certainly not one this length. It runs across a large water expanse with the Chesapeake Bay on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other. Without it, it would take hundreds of miles and several hours to get from Virginia’s Eastern Shore to the Norfolk-Virginia Beach area.

This massive bridge/tunnel cost $200,000,000.00 back in '64. More than 100 million cars and trucks have passed over this bridge and through the tunnels in the past 50+ years. Between 1995 and 1999, more roadway was added, making the bridge two lanes in each direction. A new tunnel will be built beside one of the originals; a second new tunnel is planned for 2030 or later. The new tunnel is being built now I believe. There was a lot of construction and I'm assuming that is what is going on there. I was watching for oncoming ships to pay too much attention.

So we made it home to Delaware! We are parked in Walt's sister-in-law's driveway and have electric and water. We are set! We have lots planned for these next days!

WEDNESDAY 9.25.19 NORTH CAROLINA (OUTER BANKS)

Our last full day here on the Outer Banks. 

We only had one thing that we absolutely, positively had to do today. A trip to Kill Devil Hills for lunch at Awful Arthur's.   (Look at that blue sky!)

A trip to OBX isn't complete without a bowl of Awful Arthur's crab soup. Gotta have it. I first came here back in the late 80's. I had lunch there that day and ordered the highly recommended crab soup. I haven't missed a trip to Awful Arthur's since and I've been here about a dozen times or more now. Unbelievably delicious! We bought a quart for soup and salad dinner tomorrow.  We got there at 11:30 and had our choice of seating. By the time we left 40 minutes later there wasn't a seat to be had and majority of the diners had, you guessed it, the crab soup.

It was time for a beer run so we went to one of the Brew Thru's.  A drive in beer store, imagine that.

We took another walk on the beach and Walt tried some surf fishing. He didn't have any better luck from the beach than from a pier.  Fishing just hasn't come back yet after Hurricane Dorian. We did hear stripers were running in Delaware so he's looking forward to that.

Instead of saying KEEP OFF!  This sign says "Baby Dune Trying to Grow."

I took note of the shell garden on the way back to the camper.

Deep in thought.

It was kind of lazy, laid back day but that's what vacation is all about isn't it?

TUESDAY 9..24.19 NORTH CAROLINA (OUTER BANKS)

Today we took in the Wright Brothers Memorial.

The last time we were here we couldn't go into the pavilion to see the display as it was under construction with a complete remodel. It was well worth the wait. 

In one wing was a life size replica of the Wright Brothers' 1903 Wright Flyer.

The pavilion now has many interactive displays. I was also able to get our National Parks and Monuments Passport stamped today which I couldn't do last time.

We got back in the truck and drove up to the outside display.

Here is where we saw another life size replica of the Wright Flyer, this time made of stainless steel, as its taking off for its first successful flight.  

Orville Wright is laying on the lower wing controlling the plane.

Can you imagine what he must have been feeling those first moments when he felt the lift?

Thrill?  Fear?  Exhilaration?  Anticipation?  Joy?  Confidence?  I can't even imagine.

This is a bronze statue of Wilbur running along side with his arm reaching out until the plane is now out of reach.

A little more than 80 back is photographer, John Daniels who is ready to squeeze the bulb to activate the shutter on the camera.  

The last sculpture is of friends cheering them on.

Every piece is done to perfection.  The detail is incredible.

At the base of the memorial above is a sculpture of the Wright Brothers.  In October, some idiot decided to take the bust of Wilbur Wright and in the process damaged the granite base when it was toppled over.  I hope they catch them!

I'm looking at the two pictures above and taking in the difference in the sky.  These pictures were taken about a half hour apart.

A mural on the side of the visitors center.

The plan WAS to go down to Hatteras but neither one of us felt like driving that far. So I won't get the lighthouse pictures after all but I took them last year when we were here.

We couldn't have gone over to Ocracoke on the ferry anyway because so many workers are going over there to help after Hurricane Dorian hit. The island still doesn't have power! Unless you have business there they are asking to keep the ferry open for workers and supplies.

After seeing Wright's Memorial we stopped in at Tuesday Morning as that is where we find good toys for Boss. Besides dog toys we also found a new hamburger press to replace my broken one.  Well, we did find some toys for Boss that we know he can't destroy for Christmas but we also bought him a toy to play with today.  This is the toy we thought would be ok for these jaws about a half hour after we gave it to him.

Boss was happy just to be with us. Didn't matter that he had to sit in the truck he was just happy to be in the backseat. We had good laughs at his expense today. As we were going down the road he was hanging his head out and in the opposite direction a firetruck was coming with siren blaring. Boss started to howl. Boss is terrible at howling. He just doesn't know how to do it. When I first heard this strange noise I was thinking a fender or something had fallen off the truck and we were dragging it. Walt busted out laughing and I looked in the passenger side mirror and see Boss in mid-howl and then watched him choke. He just doesn't get it.

We took him to the beach this afternoon. He's afraid of the water. He runs from waves and then chases them barking all the way. Its a vicious cycle.

Listening to the waves crashing is music to our ears. Growing up on the east coast we were at the ocean a lot both in our childhood years and in our adult years. We didn't realize how much we missed our Delaware beaches.

Walt walked down the beach to see if this fella was catching any fish.  No, but he's feeding something he said.

One last picture before we leave the beach and head home.

We have seen maybe a half dozen people here in the park since Sunday evening. This place has emptied out but I bet Friday evening it fills back up again when everyone returns to their rv's and park models.