Harrington, DE

August 26, 2018

Well, back in the saddle today. In three days, I will be home and this tour will be done. But I'm in no rush for that! And I am enjoying my time in Rehoboth . . . but also don't want to overstay my welcome! So while I was up early, finished my packing, and did all the guest things a guest at the beach should do (change sheets, clean bathroom, and straighten up in general), I let Bill sleep in a bit. We finally got to breakfast at Crystal's near 10:00 . . . only to find an incredibly long line. Well, I had anticipated that and mentally was prepared to leave as late as noon. I was only doing 37 miles today, so there was plenty of time to get that in . . . and nothing to do in Harrington once there. So we could wait for breakfast, I should note, at one of my favorite breakfast restaurants at the beach.

But that finally came to an end. It had been fun catching up with Bill over the past four days, but I would see him again back in Washington. Time to hit the road.

The Surly, all loaded up and ready to go.

Today's ride to Harrington.

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When biking out of Rehoboth Beach, there are not many road choices. DE-1 is about it, and you either go north or south. Fortunately, there have been some significant improvements over the years since I last did much biking here, and one of the better ones was adding sharrows to the Route 1 bus lane . . . which also doubles as a right turn lane. This may not seem significant to many since it's a pretty standard treatment; however, there was a time when bikes were actually prohibited from using the bus lane . . . imagine that!

The bus/bike/right turn lane on DE-1. Not sure where everyone was, but I encountered no traffic for the two miles I rode this stretch. Although traffic on the through lanes to my left was pretty busy.

But I wasn't on DE-1 for long. There is a parallel and quieter road, DE-1D, that bypasses all that nastiness on DE-1. And DE-1D has its own bike lane, so no dealing with buses and right turns into (and out of) the plethora of shopping centers and malls that mostly define DE-1.

Headed north on DE-1D . . . past, at this point, mostly housing developments.

Still, it took about 10 to 15 miles to "shake" the beach traffic. But there is so much development here that traffic is never far away. But as I approached Milton, it was more residential (huge housing developments) and had next to no mega-retail centers. Milton is a cute town and apparently home to five Delaware governors.

The small business district that is Milton. On my many trips to the beach, I was always on DE-16, so never really saw the town the way I did today.

Beyond Milton, I was mostly in the rural Delaware I knew from my way-back days. One nice thing about Delaware roads is the generous shoulder you find on many of them. Of course, the real quiet ones have no shoulders, and I expect to see more of those tomorrow. And of course, most of the scenery is agricultural . . . that is, once you get away from the beach.

A typical Delaware road with a shoulder. It makes for easy riding.

And the typical scenery along that road . . . unfortunately, a crop I cannot identify.

And occasionally, you cross a body of water. There are actually many bodies of water, but this was today's most significant, Swiggetts Pond.

As I got closer to Harrington, I was able to ride some of those more quiet roads . . . and they were, being narrower, more shaded. A welcome relief given the heat today. But I had kept up a good pace, and there was a steady breeze out of the south (and occasionally out of the west), so I stayed cool most of the day.

A quiet, shady road in Delaware . . . more of these tomorrow, I hope.

So the four days of rest, the flat terrain, and the wind out of the south may explain my pace today — an average speed of 13.7 mph! Tomorrow, the route will be more westerly as I make for the Chesapeake Bay. Maybe I'll be lucky and the wind will be more easterly. But either way, it will be flat for sure.

Today's ride: 37 miles (60 km)
Total: 1,664 miles (2,678 km)

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