Day 34 - Hail to Thee, Proud Delaware

July 10 - We got back on the road Thursday morning, bound for a return visit to the Wilsons in Chester, VA. I left my Phillies cap there on the way down. Allen offered its return in exchange for beer. With the unspoken promise of a night's lodging and a meal, this seemed like a no-brainer to me.

En route we drove through Delaware. In particular, I wanted to see what the University of Delaware looked like. I graduated there in 1976 and haven't often (ever?) been back since I left the Delaware Valley for South Carolina in January 1977.

The quad where my dorm was located, and the adjoining academic quad were essentially unchanged, but otherwise I could hardly recognize anyplace for all the new construction. Main Street was still the commercial district, but as you'd expect, all the business names had changed in the intervening 32 years, and many old buildings had been torn down and replaced. I saw a poster for the Deer Park Tavern, notorious watering hole for underaged drinkers in my time at the U of D, but didn't see the tavern itself.

The basketball arena and football stadium on South Campus were also easy to spot. Delaware's basketball team has produced no legends or reasons to upgrade the arena. Delaware Stadium exhibited one change--the field was named after legendary coach Tubby Raymond, who led the Fighting Blue Hen football teams through the '60s, '70s, '80s and '90s. He was also the father of Dave Raymond who was at Delaware the same time as me. He went on to fame as the first Phillie Phanatic, the greatest mascot in sports, as I've mentioned at least twice before.

Kallie drove when we left Newark, giving her the privilege of driving over Delaware's greatest physical landmark, the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, affectionately known as the "Big Ditch". The bridge was under construction, but Kallie held herself together well driving on a narrow lane with pylons on one side and a concrete barrier on the other.

Later I drove across the large and much more impressive Chesapeake Bay Bridge, which connects the Delmarva (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, get it?) peninsula to the mainland. The remaining trip through Maryland and Virginia was uneventful. We found some Yuengling Beer (brewed in Pottsville, PA) in a convenience store in Chester and were ready to go.

After dinner we watched History Channel shows about car crashes and the history of ice cream. The youngsters (now there's an old-fashioned word) went to see Will Smith in Hancock. Later on we switched to Baseball Tonight and watched Ryan Howard hit two home runs vs. the Cardinals. The Phillies won the afternoon game 4-1, and the series with the Cards two games to one.

Tomorrow the Wilsons board a plane for Florida and we continue south by CRV to Myrtle Beach, SC for a couple days on the beach.

Day Eight - East Coast Corridor

We start our run up the East Coast corridor today with a short jaunt to Columbia, MD. Here's the Google map of the route, with a stop at our old Richmond house along the way. There's a lot of urban interstate driving on this route, including about 30 miles on the Washington DC Beltway. I don't think Kallie will be doing much driving today. Maybe in Columbia.

Chester to Richmond

Richmond to Columbia, MD

Check out my photoblog for pictures from the day. www.photoblog.com/dadlak

We had a fun morning at the Wilsons', sitting and chatting on the sun porch, enjoying a big home-cooked lunch and tossing frisbees around on our way to the car. Allen and I played a homemade version of frisbee golf incessantly during our time together in Orangeburg, SC. The year of 1986 was essentially an extended tournament interrupted by work and sleep (and sports on TV). Kallie called a shot into the pool. Unfortunately, the frisbee sank, putting us down to one.

We drove through Richmond on our way to Columbia, MD and looked at our old house (significantly expanded by the current owner) and the hospital where Kallie was born. We hardly recognized any other landmarks or roads. Without Sac we would have really been lost.

The trip from Richmond to Columbia featured (and not in a positive way) the infamous Capital Beltway. We averaged about 20 mph for a stretch of about 30 miles from just south of DC to the reconnection with I-95 just south of Columbia. I was amazed at the volume of traffic at 5 p.m. on a Saturday. You'd think that a few people would be home with the their families or on the golf course, but everyone seemed to be on the highway.

On To Day Nine

Day Seven - Crossing Virginia

June 13 - We're at the Wilsons' in Chester, VA. I worked and partied (and watched football and played Frisbee golf) with Allen in South Carolina about 20 years ago. The 430 mile trip took 9-1/2 hours. Props to the girls for being ready to go at 8:00 a.m. We ate a late breakfast on the road; the girls at Subway and Kay and I at McDonalds.

We drove on I-40 and I-81 as far as Lexington, VA where we found US 60, a two-lane road that headed dead east to Richmond. We ate lunch at Nick's Italian Restaurant in Buena Vista, VA, just east of Lexington. Owned by a pair of brothers from Montenegro, Nick's food was surprisingly good given that it's in a drab-looking town of 6,000 in the middle of Virginia. There was a sign proclaiming Buena Vista as the home of Phillies manager Charlie Manuel. It's been a good year so far for Charlie.

We let Kallie drive out of Buena Vista, not realizing just how far up in the mountains we were. Her 25-mile stint consisted almost entirely of curves and downgrades--another new driving experience. She took it slow and did quite well, even though six or seven cars passed her, a couple even going across the double yellow lines. Near Amherst, VA we saw a sign warning of a roundabout ahead (Sac told us about it as well). Not knowing what this might entail, I suggested that Kallie pull into the CVS on the corner and let me take over. The roundabout turned out to be not much more than a curve in the road, but better safe than sorry. My leg of the trip--about 100 miles, was much straighter and flatter, what I had in mind for Kallie when I looked at the map.

Sac provided excellent directions and we pulled into the Wilsons' driveway without incident at about 5:30 p.m. We visited for awhile and then went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Chester. We considered a Mexican restaurant in Buena Vista for lunch, but Kay, who was driving at the time, opted for Italian. Good choice.

All the kids (Kallie and Erin and the Wilsons' two sons, Riley and Owen) went swimming after dinner. Riley and Owen provided the entertainment with a water basketball matchup and a diving contest. We called out scenarios and they tried to dive them. Among my favorites were "YMCA" and "speedboat wreck".

The Wilsons have a Noah's Ark scene going here - two horses, two dogs, two cats and two sugar gliders (flying squirrels). Their property was a working dairy farm in a previous life, so there's a barn. The house dates back to 1877.







Here's our route from Pigeon Forge, TN to Chester, VA

Pigeon Forge to Chester

On To Day Eight