[DVBC] Correction--Dreamer's TOPA 2007 Ride Report

[dreamer]

Just wanted to correct that we didn't ride through Delaware City on Day 
7, we rode through Chesapeake City on Rt 213.  The reenacters we saw 
were Revolutionary War not Civil War.  Hey, they were old stuff .  .  .
Debbie

dreamer wrote:

> YEAH BABY!!!  I'm happy to say that I hung in there and completed my 
> first _full_ ToPA today.  Got home about 3:45.  The Tour was great 
> overall and the last 3 days were especially fun.  Some tour highlights 
> for me:
>
> Day 1
> Rode up a 30% grade hill on Callowhill Rd.  The route went past Lake 
> Nockamixson and along the Delaware River and was quite beautiful.  We 
> crossed over into NJ just past Easton.  Stayed at a great hotel in 
> Belividere NJ.  Bought dinner at a deli, got some six packs of beer 
> and ate at picnic tables in town and we all had a grand time.  Two hot 
> air balloons passed by as we were eating.
>
> Day 2
> Started the day at Uncle Buck's for breakfast.  Dom got a belly-buster 
> which was a lot of food!  Then we headed for the hills and were 
> climbing most of the day until we got to Princeton.  Again beautiful 
> scenery.  Dave had his little incident looking at the helicopter which 
> we laughed about since he was okay.  Got to ring my bell at 3 cute 
> guys running shirtless by a lake--they got a kick out of that.  A 
> great Italian dinner with some beers in the lobby of our hotel at 9:30 
> p.m. sharing stories from the day.
>
> Day 3
> Not too many hills and a mostly flat ride to Seaside Heights NJ.  We 
> rode past a field of sunflowers where I just had to stop and take a 
> picture since it reminded me of the TDF.  Just down the road a few 
> miles we passed the place where it seems all the world's Port a 
> Potties are kept--there must have been a thousand of them all lined 
> up.  Lunch stop at Art & Kathy's which was a real hoot!  They were an 
> elderly couple who ran a country store/deli.  The store was very 
> interesting and they had quite a selection of varied items for sale 
> and a signed autograph of Ozzie Osborne who apparently likes to eat 
> there.  They had a selection of hot sauces including but not limited 
> to "Colon Cleaner", "NJ Roadkill" and "Hula Girl".  Some of us went to 
> the beach and Mike, Nancy, Doug and I actually braved the cold water 
> and went all the way in the ocean.  We all had an excellent dinner at 
> the Fish Market restaurant.
>
> Day 4
> This was a tough one!  Weather was hot and humid.  Nancy, Doug, and 
> Dave were the only ones who chose to do the 100 mile route through the 
> Pine Barrens down to Atlantic City.  The rest of us thought we'd take 
> the  shorter Route 9 down to A.C.  Well, as it turns out the ride was 
> much longer than expected and we wound up with 85 hot miles since 
> parts of Route 9 are for cars only so we had to find an alternate 
> route.  Later, a good dinner and  some brews at an Irish Pub in the 
> Tropicana Casino helped make us feel much better.  Ironically, the 
> other 3 riders got in much sooner than we did and they only did 85 
> miles!  Go figure .  .  .
>
> Day 5
> This was a fun day.  We rode from A.C. down to Cape May and caught the 
> ferry  to Lewes DE.  We had a good breakfast, stopped to see Lucy the 
> elephant, saw the house and met the people where Dave vacations in 
> Ocean City (see you there the week after next Dave--we know where 
> you'll be now!), saw Nancy's friend's old pink shack.  Dave got a flat 
> on Route 9 and was working on it when a truck with PA tags stopped.  
> Lo and behold it was Garth Donaldson, a DVBCer from Springfield who we 
> had never met.  He had seen the guys' jerseys and said he just had to 
> stop and help.  He walked up to Dave with a foot pump and saved the 
> day.  Thank you Garth!  The ferry ride was fun and brought back 
> memories for me when I used to go to Lewes DE with my grandmother and 
> ride over to Cape May.  Another good dinner in Lewes DE along with 
> some excellent Mojitos.  The guys seemed to appreciate the cute blond 
> working the counter at the motel.
>
> Day 6
> At this point we were down to 4 riders--Dave, Doug, Nancy and  
> myself.  We rode from Lewes to Middletown  DE since we decided not to 
> go all the way down to Cambridge MD.  We rode Route 1 down to Dover 
> where we picked up Route 9.  We stopped at the Dover Air Force Museum 
> and got to see some cool stuff.  I've always wanted to ride Route 9 
> since I used to drive that as an alternate route going to O.C. MD so 
> that was  pretty cool.  We had lunch at a little deli in Little Creek 
> and met some of the locals.  We beat some pretty nasty storms out and 
> got to Middletown in time to have some ice cream and then hit the pool 
> and the hot tub before dinner.
>
> Day 7 (Today)
> The weather was much cooler and less humid although we had a strong 
> headwind all the way back home.  We rode through  Delaware City and 
> saw some civil war re-enacters and then tackled the bridge over the D 
> & C Canal.  We rode half way up and had to get off and walk because of 
> the high winds.  It was a beautiful view from way up there.  Dave 
> mapped out a great route home although our legs complained a little 
> since we were now climbing hills again.
>
> Now I'm looking forward to _not_ riding tomorrow, sleeping late, and 
> watching the TDF time trial.  Well, that's my greasy, grimy, road dirt 
> for now!  See you on the roads.
>
> Debbie
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> DVBC mailing list
> DVBC at list.dvbc.org
> http://list.dvbc.org/mailman/listinfo/dvbc-list
>
>
>