New York and Grad Alley

Monday, May 20, Day 28

A catch up day, we spent it cleaning up the camper after almost a month on the road, and packing for our trip to New York.    We met our cousin Jane and her son Kevin for dinner.

Tuesday, May 21, Day 29

We  headed into New York on the Bieber Bus.  We got there really early and got an earlier bus.  It was crowded and we didn't get to sit by one another, but I met a delightful woman, Monica Willard, who is the President of the Committee of Religious NGO's at the United Nations.  She has a fascinating job  working with various groups from different "faith traditions" to develop businesses.  One example is growing roses in Afghanistan to make perfume.  There is no importation of perfume, but they can grow this particularly fragrant rose to make perfume for the market.  And it is being done by groups from  various ethnic  and religious groups , the idea being that if they have a commercial enterprise together there is less likelihood of war.  Look her up on the web and you will find some very interesting information!   

We got out of the bus underneath Times Square, and went across the street to Lindy's for lunch.  Lindy's is a real New York institution, famous for their cheesecake.

This saying was on the wall.  I know it is not legible, so here goes:

Customer:  "Waiter these are very small oysters."

Lindy's waiter:  "Yes sir." 

Customer "And they don't appear to be very fresh."

Lindy's waiter: "Then luck for you they're small." 

The prices on the sandwiches were astronomical!  We opted for a turkey sandwich, which was $18 and came with a small piece of their cheesecake.  It was actually a very generously sized sandwich! And good!

We met our family at Washington Square for Cassy's first graduation event, called  Grad Alley.  It was hot!  92 degrees and humid.  This is the first really hot weather we've had on our trip.   Here's Cassy's grandfather Cesar, our son Jack and John

Dixie, Maria, Cassy and Mary, Cassy's grandmother.

They had street performers and snack stations set up in an area set off for the event.  We had red bracelets with tickets on them for the various items.

Happy graduate!

 Proud Mom of a NYU graduate.

 Posing with the Statue of Liberty.  Dixie, Cassy, John, Cesar, Mary, Maria and Jack

 Cassy and Maria boogying on down.  Lots to celebrate.   Cassy is graduating from the NYU Tisch  of Drama with Honors!

 Cassy's boyfriend Joel joins us.

Proud and happy parents Jack and Maria

And the school mascot., a Wildcat.

We ducked into a concert hall to hear some great jazz.  And it was air conditioned!

 And one of our tickets was for the photo booth.  Dixie, Mary, Cesar, Maria, Cassy, Jack, John and Joel.  Great fun!

North East Maryland - our Second Home

John's family settled in Cecil County, Maryland sometime before the Revolutionary War. The first relative we find here signed the Oath of Allegiance to the United  States in 1774.  His name was Solomon Blake.  The Blake family has had a presence here since then, and we are no different.  We purchased a home from a relative some years ago, and we currently have it rented out.  It is on the North East River where it comes into the Chesapeake Bay, just above the Susquehanna River.   And yes, the name of the town is North East, which is always a source of great confusion.

This is our house.  It was built in the 1930's as a summer cottage for people from the Philadelphia area. Over the years people started to stay in the area year around.

It's nice to be following the azalea's north. And especially since these are in our own yard.

The view from the back deck.

You can sit on the porch or by the bulkhead and watch "flotillas" of geese go by.

The house is facing West, which is always disconcerting to me, but the sunsets are beautiful.  John would have liked to stay in this hammock and watch the world go by!

This is the "back" of the house that faces the water.

Because we have a tenant in the house, we are staying at the Elk Neck State Park.  It is just down the road from our house, near the Turkey Point Lighthouse.   The Elk River comes in on the other side.  It was the Elk River that the British went up and then traveled overland to invade Philadelphia during the  Revolutionary War.

I watched a couple making a call from a pay phone booth.  How long has it been since you've seen that?

Ranger Parker came along and convinced John that he needed to buy a State of Maryland Park Pass, which he did! 

Friday, May 17, Day 25

This was the most peaceful perfect day of our trip so far.  We did practically nothing but sit in our chairs, look at this beautiful wooded area with the  Elk River in the background, and listen to absolute quiet.  John saw 9 deer come through here early in the day, and other than one Canadian honker, nothing broke the silence.   John is reading Guns, Germs and Steel, and I  and reading about the history of the Outer Banks, and  a book about Virginia Dare and the Lost Colony.  

John unwrapped our bikes and we took a ride around this very large park.

We spotted this Eastern Painted turtle on the road and I turned back to take his picture.

This is the kind of day we like to spend.  John takes a look at the Elk River, which was really calm.

Assateque's Wild Ponies

Wednesday May 15, Day 23

Farms are getting bigger along this eastern shore.   They have large above ground sprinkling systems.
This area is a huge producing area for livestock fruits and vegetables. Wheat, corn, tomatoes, strawberries, peaches, and of course chickens (Perdue)  are among the crops they are known for.

Just keeping the orientation on what roads we are taking.  this one goes very close to the Atlantic shoreline, and we will cross over it from Virginia to Maryland.

I wanted to show my farm family what kind of equipment they are using. 

Finally, off onto the road to Assateaque! 

We were surprised to see this bridge called the Verrazano.  We knew of Verrazano Narrow Bridge in New York, but this guy was busy!

And we get our first glimpse of the wild ponies.  North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland all handle their wild ponies differently.  In North Carolina, they are managed by a non-profit.  In Virginia, it is a fire department that lets them breed, makes a roundup that forces the ponies to swim across the sound to the mainland where they are separated, mare from fold, and the excess horses sold.  This is to keep the population at a sustainable level.

In Maryland, the ponies are left to be as wild as possible.  They are not treated by vetranarians, for example.  They are managed with birth control administered by dart, which keeps the herd at exactly 103 animals.

This is an absolutely beautiful area that I would recommend to anyone.  Just be prepared for a lot of wind and sand blowing.  The horses eat the grasses in the marshlands during the spring, move to the beaches and water in the summer, primarily to avoid the mosquitoes, and then head into the scrub forest in the winter to get protection from the wind.

This girl is headed out to go windsurfing.

And a group of third graders are on a field trip to catch little fish, crabs, etc. and learn about the ecosystem.

Hoofprints in the sand...

This woman is fishing for blue crab.  Undoubtedly she has a line with a piece of bait on the end.  When the crab grabs ahold of the bait, it won't let go, and you can bring it up.

The Rangers had provided a program for the third graders, and afterwards, the Ranger asked John to help him dump the fish back into the sound. 

This man is surf fishing.  Hope he catches something to make up for the wind and sand blowing all around him! 

I liked this rig - it has a canoe, surfboards and a bicycle.  Ready for anything! 

On the Sound side - marsh combined with open water.

On our way off the island, we spotted this house which is being overtaken by vegetation.

And we are heading into another state, Delaware.  The States are coming quickly now, much different than in the West when you are in the same state for several days

We stopped in Milford, Delaware, to pay our respects at the Odd Fellows Cemetery to Louis and Bessie Spath, John's great grandparents.  Remember her?  She was the grandmother-in-law who accompanied John's mother to Las Cruces to get married.  

Louis worked at Sun Ship in the shipyards in Philadelphia.  He was a painter and became foreman.  He died on the job and his co-workers purchased this headstone for him.

This man George Wood was the Chief of Police in Prospect Park, PA, which is where the Spaths lived.  In fact, George lived with them through two census records.  I guess he was a good friend, or maybe like a son.

Dover, Delaware and getting our glimpse of C-17's on the ground.

We are passing over the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, which connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Chesapeake Bay. Huge ships go through this 15 mile canal.  It was conceived in 1764, but finally built in 1829 and it cuts off 300 miles of the route between Philadelphia and Baltimore.  One of our favorite spots in the past was a restaurant where you could sit and watch the pilot get on and guide the ship through the canal.

Shaefer's Canal House restaurant reopened in 2012 after having been closed since 2005.  It is an enormous place and it was sorely missed by the many generations of people who came to eat and watch the ships go by.  

In looking at this map, we have come from Assateaque, which is near Ocean City Maryland, through the Pocomoke River Basin near Salisbury, then Milford  Delaware, and Dover, and we are headed to a town near Elkton, Maryland.  The C&D Canal is near Elkton.