Berlin to Lewes

May 5, 2015

Our last beautiful morning before our layover in Washington. As promised, here are some pictures of our hotel in Berlin.

After breakfast at Rayne's Reef Soda Fountain & Grill (which is right next door) . . .

We headed out of town on Bay Street, which becomes Assateague Road, before turning left on Sinepuxent Road. These roads are all bicycle-friendly, but Assateague Road leads straight to Assateague Island, a popular destination point during the season. Even today it was not overly quiet, so I suspect during the seasonal months, traffic would be much heavier. But once you're on Sinepuxent Road, it's more rural and quiet and a pleasant ride.

Today's ride to Lewes

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The problem, of course, is that we were trying to get to Ocean City. It doesn't matter too much which route you take (although ours was probably the best); you will have to deal with the increasing congestion when approaching such a popular beach destination. Fortunately, Sinepuxent Road gets you most of the way and puts you on Stephen Decatur Highway, which has good shoulders.

Then you meet the US-50 bridge crossing the Sinepuxent Bay. As we approached the bridge, which is fairly long, I decided to use the sidewalk. Traffic on US-50 can be heavy, and the bridge has zero shoulder width. I guess this was our best choice, as I knew we would want to stop for pictures, but I didn't realize the challenge until I was actually up on the bridge.

The pedestrian/bicycle crossing on US-50 into Ocean City.

I mean, that sucks. I understand why they did it; they were concerned about cyclists and pedestrians being pushed into the travel lanes and getting hit by a car. I never saw the sign directing cyclists to dismount and walk their bikes (Happy told me about it later). But it is something I would never do, and apparently no one else does either.

Four cyclists converge on the US-50 bridge into Ocean City. On a Tuesday morning. In early May. Imagine the height of the season!

That last picture was taken on the movable span, which rotates up; hence, there is no fence on that portion. But it picked up again once off the bascule span. The bridge is planned to be replaced . . . in 2035! In the interim, your only alternative is to cycle in the travel lane.

Once across, you're deposited in the older, original part of Ocean City with a few remaining structures from days gone by.

From there, it was straight north to Lewes with side trips into Bethany and Rehoboth, two favorite haunts. It was about nine miles to the Delaware border. The first 2-1/2 miles were along Baltimore Avenue, a one-way street three lanes wide. That put us on Philadelphia Avenue/Coastal Highway, which is a wide two-way road with a dedicated bus/bike lane. We saw no buses — I think they are seasonal — and had the lane to ourselves all the way to Delaware.

Arriving in Delaware, we were properly welcomed.

Delaware arrival. I have ridden this route many times from Rehoboth to Ocean City and knew we would have wide shoulders to ride on.

Delaware's practice is to provide nice shoulders on most of their roads, at least in Sussex County, where I have done most of my riding (I used to own a condo in Rehoboth Beach, so I rode here a lot). Our next stop was in Bethany Beach, seven miles further up the road. Today we were in no rush, as it was the last day of our southern leg. So we stopped for lunch at Baja Beach House Grill, something we rarely do.

Continuing north, I was anticipating our last big bridge crossing at Indian River Inlet. This bridge is relatively new and replaces an older span that I had crossed many times, so this was my first crossing of the new span.

Nice play of the cables overlapping each other. Normally you might not have this view, but the low profile of this bridge makes it available.

A close-up view of the cable stays. This bridge is different than the one in Charleston, where the towers are braced against each other. Here they are free-standing (like a flagpole).

I'm not sure why they went with a cable-stayed bridge here other than for looks. It's certainly a dramatic structure. During construction, there were significant geotechnical issues that delayed construction and added to the cost. It seems this crossing could have been accomplished with a more simple structure at less expense. I also think the low profile detracts from its appearance, but that is just a personal opinion, but it speaks to the appropriate bridge type for this setting.

OK, enough bridge talk. We exited DE-1 at Dewey and took the back entrance into Rehoboth past Silver Lake.

And then arrived at the boardwalk.

*Dolles*, a traditional symbol of Rehoboth Beach.

We were going to have a beer downtown to celebrate our arrival and the end of our first leg to Halifax but didn't really find an appropriate place, so we decided to continue on to Lewes. We took the Junction and Breakwater Trail most of the way.

Junction Breakwater Trail is a very nice alternative to DE-1. Note, however, that the trail is cinders with some exposed gravel areas.

Unfortunately, this trail dumps you onto a busy road at a signalized intersection. But there are shoulders, and we were able to make it comfortably over to my brother's house, where he is putting us up till Thursday, when we head back to Washington for our two-week layover.

Today's ride: 45 miles (72 km)
Total: 1,842 miles (2,964 km)

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