It was a nice day of riding through scenic farm land and marshes to Middletown. We are staying at a fancy Holiday Inn Express, because Jim stays at these all the time for his job and he gets loyalty points.
Middletown is a city I never knew existed until we started planning the route for this trip. It's actually pretty big and new, with a nice historic core. And there are lots of fancy stores. So there are obviously people with lots of money living here. I just can't figure out why. But it means we have nice lodging options with lots of food nearby, but we have to ride through five miles of Strip Mall Hell and heavy traffic.
We had dinner next door at the Crooked Hammock Brewery, which is this brightly colored places giving off a day care vibe.
Crooked Hammock is a small, growing chain in beach towns. It's very corporate. Nobody there knows why Middletown exists.
Most of the day was fabulous rural countryside, with lots of farms and marshes when we were near the Delaware Bay. The terrain is totally flat.
We started out at this nice old school diner next to our Rodeway Inn.
There are some tiny towns scattered among the farms. This is the Town Hall in Magnolia, population 235.
We spent most of the day riding up State Route 9, which is the easternmost north-south road in Delaware. But to get there we had to cross the St. Jones River south of Dover. The only option is State Route 1, which is a limited access freeway. Is that legal? Hard telling. Strava won't plan a route over it, but there are no signs saying NO BIKES, and the Strava Global Heatmap shows some people ride it. It was definitely not fun.
After that, we skirted the south side of Dover Air Force Base, past the Air Mobility Command Museum.
Dover AFB is where giant cargo planes are based. It's also where dead soldiers are shipped back to the USA.
The next location of note was Leipsic. I've been to Leipsic before. Back around 1990, I was driving around Delaware watching birds one morning, and I drove over that low bridge in the picture below. I pulled over and stopped where that pickup truck is parked. A policeman, who was parked across the street, walked over and handed me a ticket for going 45 in a 25 zone.
"How am I doing 45 in a 25 zone when I AM PARKED?" I asked, totally outraged.
"I have you on radar going 45."
This is a speed trap. When you go over the bridge, the speed limit is 40, but it lowers to 25 right before town. The cop records your speed going over the bridge, and then says you were in the 25 zone.
I have hated Delaware "The Shitty Little State" generally and Leipsic in particular ever since.
Leipsic, however, has the only restaurant for lunch on our route for 15 miles in any direction.
Unfortunately, this only lunch option is called "Sambo's Tavern".
Jim says you can only get away with that when you are far from any civilization.
Despite the name, it's a nice place, and it has a great view out the back window.
They also sell T-Shirts, which are very nice. They the Sambo's logo which features a big black Labrador Retriever, who presumably is "Sambo".
Jim: "Those are nice shirts, but I don't want to get one because I'd get beat up."
me: "Saying the dog is named "Sambo" probably won't help."
Jim: "Probably not."
I had tasty fried oysters.
We had tailwinds and crosswinds most of the day, but the last part was into a headwind. Here is a picture of Jim I took while waiting for him to catchup.
I love recumbents.
Here's the Strava track.
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