2004/04 Boston and South Carolina trip - Lumms Pond |
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We set off on the 900 mile trip south to South Carolina. We left Massachusetts for Connecticut and New York State, bypassing New York City by taking the Bronx Expressway. We crossed the Hudson River into New Jersey, and passed Atlantic City and Philadelphia, and crossed the Delaware River into the state of Delaware. There are a lot of famous names in that itinerary but I wouldn’t call it pleasant driving, as it’s mainly on overloaded and decaying tollways. A favourite sign in all these eastern states is “Bridge freezes before road”. It must be firmly imprinted in the minds of all easterners, unless of course they happen to be Brazilians.
We were planning to camp at Lumms Pond State Park, which has the biggest lake in 
Delaware, which isn’t saying much. We had trouble finding it, and executed even more u-turns than usual, but it was a well-manicured park, with some pretty tree blossoms, and a cheap spot to stay.
We had a number of people we needed to contact by e-mail, and our satellite phone does not work well under trees, so I set up a chair to hold computer and phone and we wandered around the campground in the dark carrying the chair and looking for a good signal. Some of the other campers may have wondered what we were doing! We had just got a connection and started uploading messages when this enormous police helicopter flew over with its searchlight looking for something. We readied ourselves for a missile attack, but they were probably looking for someone else.
We left a message with our friends Pam and Tony Jenkins who now live in Virginia, a couple of hours’ drive away from Delaware, but we found out later that they were visiting Richard and Kate who both now live in the Boston area, close to where we'd been that morning!.