Size Matters

When we last signed off we were in Cape Cod. Starting out at 2 pm we took a leisurely drive along the coastal roads through many pretty villages (minimal store signage, no big retail / food chains) and beautiful properties. We were told that the Kennedy compound in Hyannis was only visible from the water so we made no attempt to locate it. Realizing that our daylight was disappearing we made a dash to arrive at Provincetown (the northern tip of the peninsula) just in time to see a lovely sunset on the beach. The town itself had nice looking shops and restaurants but the streets were very narrow, catering to walkers, and since the only parking lot wasn't eager to accept our 20' beheemoth we moved on and found a wonderful restaurant (Montano's) just outside of town.

The next day was filled with constant rainfall so we abandoned our plans for a ferry ride and bicycle tour of Martha's Vineyard, driving south and narrowly avoiding the afternoon rush hour as we bypassed New York City. We spent the night at a campground just outside of Atlantic City where we were several days too early for a Joe Walsh / BB King concert that would have been a fun time.......but Atlantic City, which is working hard to improve it's image, is still not a place that you would want to spend a lot of time walking around so we continued driving down the coast.

We drove through many beautiful seaside towns (Sea Isle City, Avalon, Stone Harbour, Wildwood), all with populations in the 1,000 - 5,000 range that swell to 25,000 - 200,000 in the summer. It was a good time to visit (unless you are a party animal). In Wildwood we saw numerous kites on the beach so we stopped and wandered over, discovering 30-40 kite buggies being propelled by the wind. We had observed kite surfing before but this was a first for us. Talking to one of the enthusiasts we found out that it was a perfect time of year for them since no one else was on the 5 km beach and they could reach speeds of 50 - 75 kmh (they wore helmets!).

After reaching Cape May, the southern tip of New Jersey, we toured the town and had a tasty seafood lunch, then drove over to the ferry terminal for the 2:30 pm trip to Delaware. We arrived 30 minutes early since several locals had advised us that it was a quiet time of year and we would have no trouble getting on. Unfortunately we ended up being the second vehicle in the standby lane........the vehicle in front of us made it on, and then the attendant advised us that we were too big but the 16' sedan behind us would still fit! It wasn't a significant problem for us since we aren't in a hurry to get anywhere at this point (unlike the other 10 vehicles behind us) so we found a fabulous seafood market and enjoyed a campsite dinner of shrimp and lobster. Life is good.