DELAWARE  4.21.24

A lazy day.  We didn't do much of anything today because yesterday was so long and so tiring.  

Finally, needing to get out of the house we went for a ride.  Susan took us to the Christiana Mall to show us how much had been added to the surrounding area.  It's a shopping mecca now! 

While in the area I asked Susan to go to my old neighborhood.  What a mistake that was!  I bought a house in Woodland Trail back in 1980.  It was brand new and a small little starter home, but it was only me when I bought it, so it was perfect.  The price was right for my little piece of real estate at $29,900.  I spent 26 years in that little starter home.  I guess I never finished starting because I left that in 2006 and we moved into our 400 sq ft 5th wheel!

So we drove through the one development to get back to mine and my heart just broke as soon as I saw the entrance of my old community.  It looked so run down and the yards of the homes I could see were unkempt.  Tall grass, broken toys, a pool with the side caved in.  Oh no!  What happened to the manicured lawns we all had?   I didn't see flower beds anywhere.  No one cares anymore it seems.  We finally came to my house.  Tears sprang to my eyes as I looked at what has become a, well, there's no other way to say it.  A dump!  I have no idea who lives here now but my beautiful lawn was gone.  My beautiful flower beds are no more.  What bushes there were, were overgrown and in need of a trim and shaping.  The fellow we saw in the yard must own some kind of construction business I'm guessing because of the piles of wood, large tools, metal barrels filled with who knows what.  The north side of the house was covered in green because no one took the time to power wash it anymore.  My picket fence that kept our dog in the yard was peeling and in much need of a coat of paint.  I wish we hadn't made this part of the journey.  It was just heartbreaking.  I won't make this mistake again.

On another note, Delaware is just beautiful!  Its so GREEN!  Don't get me wrong, Show Low is green but this is different.  The trees are so tall here, oak, maple, sycamore, locust and poplars.  The pink and white dogwoods are in bloom as are the pink, red and white azalea bushes.  They had quite a bit of rain this spring so everything is so lush.

After a bit more riding around, trying to figure out where we were most of the time, our tummy's started rumbling and it was time to eat.  We all had a wonderful steak dinner at the local Texas Road House that Susan treated us to.

Back at her house we watched a 4 part series on Netflix about the earth and then settled around the kitchen table for several games of Five Crowns and Farkle.

We didn't stay up until two in the morning and we called it a night around eleven.  Sleep came quickly for all of us.