A Relaxing Week

Denny and I spent last week at a member campground in Long Neck, Delaware and we were able to snag a site with a view of the Guinea Creek, located right across from our rig. The resort is divided into three sections; permanent manufactured homes, seasonal trailer/park model sites and the campground section. Strangely enough, the campground section has the best view of the water. Members can rent a boat dock on an annual basis and there were easily 50 pontoon boats docked along the creek during our stay. Folks would meander down the creek for an evening ride or to pick up their crab pots from further out towards Rehoboth Bay.
Standing at the marina looking towards the campground section of the resort.
If I had been equipped with a piece of string and a chicken neck, I might have been able to tempt this blue crab off his perch on the boat dock piling and into my cookpot for dinner!While we spent many an hour simply sitting and watching the world (and pontoon boats) go by, we did take one day to drive into the town of Rehoboth Beach, which is lined with shop after shop of this, that and the other and there were a lot of tourists wandering the sidewalks and crossing the narrows streets with impunity (or stupidity.) Since neither Denny nor I are shoppers, especially not having any extra room for gewgaws in our tin can on wheels, we headed south on Rt. 1 to find a place where we could wander the beach and search for sea glass. The first public beach we found was at Dewey Beach State Park, where for a fee of $8 for out of state transients one could walk the beach. The gatekeeper allowed us in free of charge since we arrived close to the time that they close up the gate house, which we appreciated since we were only going to spend a short time wandering the beach. But before we walked to the beach we were intrigued by the two tall concrete towers located just off the beach.

According to the placard at the base of the closest tower, in the early 1940s there was a line of eleven of these towers built along the Delaware and New Jersey coast lines to watch for German submarines. During the war the submarines were shooting down an average of one U.S. ship a week, including a destroyer off the Delaware coast which caused the loss of 100 American sailors. The towers were simply to watch for any enemy boats and then triangulate the ship's location between the towers so the nearby artillery locations could be advised where to shoot. The towers were simply for observation and contained nothing but an inner stairway; no heat, no weaponry, just slits for windows to look out. It's finding these kinds of things that make our travels so interesting and so educational.

Denny and I did get our round of golf, so we are able to check off Delaware from our goal of playing golf in all 50 states. We're down to Maryland and Oklahoma. I still can't believe we didn't play golf while we were in Oklahoma City, but according to Denny's records we missed the boat on that one. The rest of the week was spent with piddling little chores, chatting with the neighbors, walking Patches and watching the wildlife, including the ever growing fairy ring of mushrooms in our yard.

Early morning and dusk weren't bad, either.We learned that there isn't any sales tax on food here and that the sales tax on new purchases such as cars, boats and houses is very low. There might even be an exemption on the state income tax for our pensions since they are through a government agency. Combined with the proximity to beaches and the serenity of the resort, we might add this area to our "places we could live" list. Because those folks riding in those pontoon boats sure looked relaxed and happy going down the crick.