Day 12- 7/28: Headed home

After a little waffling on whether or not to continue up the Adirondacks a few days, I decided to pack it in and head home. More than anything else, I'm a bit sick of sitting in the car, and want to get back to more of an easy routine of running. Fort Ticonderoga has made it this long, I'd imagine it will still be standing in a couple more years too. Drove through White Plains, then 80 across PA which was new for me and fairly interesting, if exceedingly long. Found a nice roadside taco stand somewhere west of the Scranton turn-off. Made my Cleveland Ramada destination by a few ticks after 7 (thankyou Hotwire). It's a little smoky smelling (damn OH), but otherwise reasonable. Drove into downtown to get dinner and walk around a little. It's nice. Not bustling (at least on a Sunday evening), but it seems like it's also had a bit of a resurgence and they have a nice scene. I like how they also have all three sports stadiums downtown. The waterfront is still fairly well blockaded off, but there's obviously still a large, active shipping industry, so I suppose that get's priority to a cargo-short clad midwesterner simply wanting to see the beach for the sake of it. LoPresti and I went back and forth a bit on whether Ohio is in the Midwest (I like to say that it's fringe), but it kinda felt like it driving back to my hotel through the neighborhoods. It was the smallest of sampling, but I could see coming back for an extended weekend sometime to check it out. I'm still a ways out, but feel like I'm within shooting distance now, which is comforting. Looking forward to the old routine again.

Day 11- 7/27

Up bright and early for a departure bound for New Haven, CT again to reunite with my car. Pit-stopped in Dover, DE to check out the capitol. LoPresti is on a quest to visit every state capital, so this was a must. A very quant downtown. There's only 38,000 people or so in town. The grounds were really nice though. It felt like colonial US, unlikely other parts of the state we witnessed. Churned up the NJ turnpike, and battled the NYC traffic across the George Washington bridge. LoPresti pointed out the exit that Chris Cristie blockaded as political revenge. So many sites to take it. Rolled into New Haven early afternoon and met Mike's dad at a classic New Haven pizza joint. They are known for the charcoal-fired pizza, kind of like Black Sheep (which actually credits New Haven for it's style). Fresh clam pizza and more of a classic pepperoni/Sausage were both delicious. Mike's dad is a little in the mold of Italian heritage east-coaster, but not nearly as much as his family friend Joe that had moved to Delaware. He was pretty complete with the accent, stature, and quips. Mike toured my around Yale (his alma mater) and North Haven (his hometown). His mom then cooked us dinner and we started making plans for our separate return trips. It's felt like more driving that average this trip touring with Mike, and probably more than I would have chosen to do, but I still feel like I've gotten a good sense of each of the places we visited and it was nice to travel with someone else for a while. It was a fulfilling last day on the east coast.

Day 10- 7/26: Atlantic beach goodbyes and dogfish heads

up for the standard run again by a little before 8. Delaware is not great running. I guess it’s been blowing up over the last 10 years with retirees from other east coast states. Low taxes and slightly warmer weather are pulling people from New York and Connecticut. There is developments everywhere. 800 house complexes filling in farm-fields all over the place. As like any new development, it looks like something out of the Truman show. I can get dropped off anywhere in the city and find my way home. Plop me in one of these compounds and I don’t know where to start. Headed out to the main road, which has lots of traffic, but thankfully a wide shoulder. A lot of the roads have a huge traffic load but literally no shoulder. Ran a fairly miserable 3 miles past development entrances and gas stations until I found a golf cart path that went between developments that was gravel and shaded. At the end of the day, if you’d told me I’d get three miles of soft surface off-road in, I’d have been okay with it, so there’s that.
     Mikes family friends are great . Very stereotypical Italian/Irish east coast people. Quite interesting to take in their world view. They leant is their bikes for the day and dropped us off at s nearby rail to trail that went out to the coast. New enough that google maps didn’t know it existed yet. Pretty quick ride into Lewes which is on the coast and had the ferry to cape May. We weaved through cape henlopen state park on some great trails and popped out at rehoboth which is a beach town complete with boardwalk, popcorn and crowded beaches. Plopped down at our spot, read a little, soaked in the ocean one last time, and biked back to get picked up again and headed over to dogfish head brewing. I knew it had quite the cult following, but it’s got a lot of muscle too. More than twice the production of summit or schells although the tap room was maybe on scale with indeed. Great beers though, and a good atmosphere as always. Dinner at a local cajan place that’s run by a New Orleans couple but with obviously local seafood. Excellent fare up and down from crawfish apps, to crab cakes entree, and pecan pie for dessert. Can’t complain about another great day on the Delmarva peninsula.

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Day 9- 7/25: joe Biden’s stomping grounds

Woke up to the routine run. Not a ton of trails at the state park, but excellent quality. Cooler weather has returned, which is more than welcomed. Drove an hour or so north, and rented canoes at janes island state park, also on the Chesapeake side. We didn’t get s huge paddle in, but it was nice to check out some of the back bays of the big bay. Continued on to Delaware, and met up with family friends of mike that have retired down here. I guess that Delaware is going nuts with retirees right now. Housing developments are going up all over the place. It looks like the Truman show. Way cheaper taxes than all these east coast states and probably way less hassle. A lot of it looks like the Midwest. The infrastructure certainly hasn’t caught up. Many roads had literally no shoulder. Will have to be selective with my run tomorrow. The parents are nice. Pretty classic New England. Good accent, Italian/Irish heritage, sharp, and interesting to talk to. We'll be spending a couple nights here before returning to new haven. Dogfish head brewing tomorrow and perhaps a trip to the Delaware beach.

Day 8- 7/24: headed north again

Up again for the routine run, this time in ocracoke. After a very windy and fairly hot night of camping the night prior, we popped for the hotel in town, which was definitely worth it. The heat wave had broken though, so it was actually fairly cool, relative to the last few days. Jaunt around town, reminiscent of a lot of sleepy beach towns with lots of sand, scrubby trees, and plenty of hotels/ b and bs. They have a bike path that goes out to the nps campground as well, but that’s about the extent of roads on the island. Got a coffee after the run, and we spent another good late morning on the same beach as yesterday. Again sparsely populated and a nice day, despite all the rain they had predicted. Continued on back to the ferry, which takes an hour or so to get us back to Hatteras island, which then connects to the next island and then the mainland via causeways. The sleepy towns get more commercialized as you head north and it’s pretty congested by the time you hop the causeway to the mainland- only 90 min from Norfolk. Made a pit stop at farmhouse brewing, so huge converted farmhouse right in the middle of the Virginia Beach. The beer was solid, but expensive. Ambiance was hard to beat though.
Picked up some grocery supplies for a salad, and camped at kiptopeke state park at the cape of the Chesapeake bay. Great campsites and we had the non-reservable loop nearly to ourselves. Another solid day in the road.

Day 7- 7/23 outerbanks continued

A rather restless night sleep last night. There’s a reason the Wright brothers picked here for the wind and the temps were fairly oppressive as they are in a heat wave. Got up for a mediocre, but at least no miserable run along the single road that runs through the outer banks to the bodie lighthouse, and finished with an actually pleasant run along the beach for 10 min or so. We hit the road and drove to the next island over in an impressive causeway and meandered through the increasingly quaint small towns towards the ferry that would take us to okracoke. The ferry was an hour, which was glorious. Light bird watching and just soaking up the salt air. We stopped for lunch at the pony pen, the. Drove into ocracoke and checked into the hotel we had rental on the the whim last night in the head and with risk of rain much of the day. We did have some rain in the drive, but it ultimately held off and we rented bikes in the afternoon to head out to a beach a bit out of town. Absolutely glorious. Maybe 20 people in sight and not a man made structure to be seen. Biked back in, checked out the lighthouse, and hit the brewery after cleaning up a little. Solid beer with a great 2nd floor deck taking it all in. Seafood again in town at a place on the piers. Another day that’s quite hard to complain about.

Day 6 7/22: Overnight trains and Wright brothers

Day 5.5-6 7/22 and the overnighter

Well- the train was not dead in the slightest. Crammed with people to the point of having trouble finding a seat. I had commented to Mike’s stepfather that there was so much traffic on the freeway over to new haven despite the odd hour and relatively desolate stretch. He told me it was all traffic of people returning from their getaway place- somewhere north or on the ocean, presumably. I put two and two together and wondered if the train was jam-packed for the same reason. 

Basically emptied the train in New York, but picked up an equivalent amount of people, and then I believe did the same in Philly, although I was admittedly more dozing by then. It was a little rocky first couple of hours, but I did actually settle in and sleep for a good while south of nyc. Occasionally  woken up by a stop, but overall the sleep comes way easier than on a plan. Alert again on the outskirts of Richmond, va, so I moseyed down to the snack cart for a dunkin’ coffee (when in Rome) and a forgettable breakfast muffin. 

    The southern Virginia countryside ambled past and was pleasant, if uninteresting. Arrived in Newport News around 11:45, then transferred to a bus that rolled into just outside of downtown Norfolk on time, with a smiling LoPresti there to greet me. Grabbed lunch at a grilled cheese place downtown Norfolk, which was solid and the downtown seemed nice, then headed towards the outerbanks. 

     First stop was the Wright brothers national monument. I’d read david McCullough’s book on then this summer and it was interesting to see the spot where the first moments of aviation took place. We then  drove over to the fort Raleigh which was allegedly the site of the lost colors of Roanoke. Not as impressive, but still kinda cool to see.
     Drove down to our campsite at Oregon inlet and did a little beach time before heading back into town and getting some solid seafood and capped it off with a sunset at Jockey ridge state park. Huge dunes and lots of sand- reminded me of white sand national monument. A great first day on the outer banks.