Monday, March 4, 2013

Day 005 - Sharptown NJ to Bear DE

The steady wind kept the chill factor in the 20's on a mostly sunny day.

Ellie Kuntz joined me for the New Jersey half of the walk. This is the 3rd day that she has joined me for a portion of a walk. She is an avid golfer and walker. Since I retired last June if the phone rang before 7:30 AM I knew it was Ellie wanting to do an AVA walk.

We walled thru Cowtown and saw the site of the Cowtown Rodeo (often imitated but never duplicated). Halfway to the Delaware Memorial Bridge we were met by Deb who lives near Woodstown who took our picture and gave us a snack and water.

I called the Delaware River Port Authority. They would not let me walk across the bridge. Ron & Janet drove me across the bridge which is one of only three bridges that I will not be able to walk across en route to San Francisco.

They had done the Newcastle AVA walk. When Joan and I did a group walk there onHalloween of 2009 there were some wedding parties taking some very interesting pictures by the bay in full Halloween attire. On our 2012 group walk I was surprised at how much damage Hurricane Sandy had done to the walk along the bay.

Once on the Delaware side of the bridge US 40 joins US 13 for 4 miles as an extremely busy 8 lane highway. Since leaving home in 1969to go to college this four mile stretch is by far the portion of US 40 that we travelled the most. I used US 13 traveling from Norfolk when we were engaged, then visiting her family when we we married then making trips to Ocean City, MD.

Went near the Entenmann's discount store that Joan and I would stop at on the way to Ocean City MD and the location where there was a Dutch Pantry we frequented that has been closed for decades.

Passed the southern terminus of US Route 202 by the Wilmington International Airport where I had landed once dropping of a visitor to the Air National Guard facility. I remember my 20 year jogging buddy Tom McFadden describing a harrowing flight in the Lukens company jet where he had to divert here from Chester County Airport due to severe weather.

Today's US 40 Today picture was titled Six-Lane Highway. It is now an eight lane highway which made it really hard to find the exact location. Trees are gone. Many more businesses. Wide median is much narrower. I feel certain I have the right spot based on a portion of asphalt that had been repaired probably over some utility exactly matching the 1983 picture.



1 comment:

  1. Glad to hear you had yet another successful day. Sounds like it was a bit cold brrrrrr . Your walking is inspiring me ....I do not exercise at all . However ...I just signed up for a study on the effect of exercise (walking) on Ovarian Cancer . I will need to walk at least 30 minutes , 5 days a week . After reading what you are doing for the cause ...I think I can handle it !

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