Mosquitos

Mosquitos, mosquitos,

God knows

how I hate mosquitos.

This eastern country has a few things it has way too many of.

The first is mosquitos. I thought we had plenty enough mosguitos by the time we left New Orleans. As we left Key West I was certain the mosquitos would become rarer the norther we went. At Okeefenokee I felt the mosquitoes were there only because of the swamp.  At St Augustene I hoped the Spanish moss explained the mosquitos.  At Chesapeake I saw fewer mosquitos and my spirits rose. There were even less at Lewes. Here we are at Belleplains State Park north of Cape May and we have clouds of mosquitos. We are hiding in our trailer. When will it end?

Another thing is trees. I like trees. A grove now and then, an occasional stand, a forest or two, these are all nice places for trees. However, trees everywhere are just too many trees. They grow up along the road right of way and block any view. They hide birds and other animals that cross in front of the car and escape unnamed. Birds hide behind them. For the past three weeks we have been driving through tree covered lands. When we bird there are trees in the way. I am looking forward to fewer trees.

Then there is water. There is way too much water here. Everything is wet. There are swamps and ponds and lakes and canals and drainage ditches and puddles everywhere. The stuff even falls from the sky. The locals can’t use all this water there is just too much of it. Maybe we can start a movement to pipe some to Ridgecrest where we need just a little of what they drain off.

I know moaning and complaining won’t help. You’ll just have to put up with it!

We passed through Virginia, Maryland and Delaware in the past few days.

In Chesapeake we stayed at the Chesapeake RV Campground. They have everything from model trains to miniature golf at this place. It would have been fun to be there during the summer. Our site was very nice and the place was quiet this time of the year.

The next morning we crossed Chesapeake Bay Bridge – Tunnel and drove north

through Maryland’s outer banks to Delaware. By doing this route we by-passed the heavily populated and heavily trafficked area from Fredricksburg through Washington D.C. and Baltimore.  So, instead of fighting traffic on highway 95 we were seeing the beautiful Virginia and Maryland countryside, what we could see through the trees.  

Lewes, DE, was an unexpected jewel. We arrived there Friday and had time to walk the town and sightsee before the day was done.

This is the first European settlement in Delaware. Lots of historic events have happened there and a lot of houses are still standing from when those events occurred. There is an historical society here that has several buildings and exhibits reported to be very interesting. Unfortunately their open hours were not agreeable with our travel needs. We walked around some but could only go into one building with an exhibit that ended up being provided by the Navy.

According to this exhibit the Navy and Marines saved the nation’s bacon a few times there at Lewes. Didn’t know that, did you?

Our camp spot for the night was at a run-down and overpriced “resort” campground near Lewes. Brenda keeps talking about this place as being a “rip-off”. They charged us $65, so I think Brenda way have it right.

The ferry from Lewes to Cape May took one hour twenty minutes and saved us hours of driving. This was the only way we would have seen Cape May. And we had to see Cape May. 

Our  rig on the Lewes to Cap May ferry.

Cape May is another world class birding spot. It is on the bucket list of every half decent birder. It is famous for the hawk watch that is here. Peter Dunne wrote about this in one of his books. We made it to Cape May and have a picture and sweatshirts to prove it.

Brenda at the Cape May Hawk watch location.

Now we are in the Belleplains State Park twenty or so miles north of Cape May. This is the first night on the trip we have stayed at a spot without electricity and water. I feel very outdoorsy roughing it like this. It is a great campground except for the lack of amenities and the excess of mosquitos and they charge non New Jersey residents an additional five dollars to enjoy the mosquitos.

Did mention how I hate mosquitos?