October 14, 2011: Grasonville, MD to Greenwood, Delaware (50 miles):

Well, the storm system did not move out of the area overnight!! No at all!  There was rain off and on all day until after Cal stopped riding this afternoon.  Interestingly the temperature has stayed warm so Cal is not chilling when he is wet.  At one point it poured so hard that he crawled into the vehicle with me.  However later, the evening was beautiful, including a red sunset.  We think the system has now moved on, as tonight there is a clear nearly full moon. 

Today we left Maryland and entered Delaware – Cal has now ridden through 13 States, and we have driven in 15 States to complete the bike trip. 

Cal rode to Greenwood, Delaware where we had planned to stop for the day.  We wanted to take Hwy #13 North into Dover as we are spending the night with friends.

The land on this side of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge is totally flat.  When you ride a bike you think of this little item called ‘elevation change’!  We were again on ‘back’ country roads. There were little roadside stands selling end of the season garden items on the honor system.  I stopped at one stand and bought a few garden items for tonight’s host. 

Today I saw a flock of wild turkeys – I counted at least 35.  This photo shows just a few of them eating their way across a field. 

Later we saw a huge flock of Canadian Geese around a pond.  I don’t think we have ever seen so many Geese in one area at the same time.  I know there is hunting in this area – for geese, duck and white tailed deer.      

We have had a delightful evening with our friends here in Dover.  It is great to see them again and catch up on their lives here.  We had a quick tour of the area – Dover Speedway, State Capital area, and Wesley College in Dover.

While at a restaurant, we were introduced to a group as “almost completing a bicycle trip across the US”, when one of the guys at the table asked if we knew of RAGBRAI? Of course we did! The guy jumped out of his chair! He was so excited to meet us!  He has ridden on 2 RAGBRAI’s! In these parts you seldom meet someone who has ridden RAGBRAI or who even knows about it.    

In our later discussion it was said, ‘RAGBRAI is a fraternity’! If you have been on it or around it, you know and understand the event.  Someone like this guy tonight and the guy I met the other day in Silver Springs, MD cannot discuss RAGBRAI in this area unless they go into great detail about the event, and even then people do not understand RAGBRAI language, whereas with someone like us, we can share ‘the event’. 

Tomorrow the weather is to be beautiful and we are hoping to be standing the beach at the Atlantic Ocean!  We cannot believe how close we are to checking this item off of Cal’s ‘bucket list’!