Beastly tired last night when I crashed to bed so sluggish getting up and sluggish through breakfast, shower and packing. By the time I did my blog entry and dropped off my trash, it was 11:30: my latest start yet. Thinking it could be the two days of riding in the rain to Middletown, could be having no functional Thermarest because the glue patches dissolved in all the wetness.
Stopped almost immediately for second breakfast at Red Robin. The salmon sandwich was fine but rather expensive: $25 with the Guinness and tip.
Spent pretty much the rest of the day on PA896, which became DE896. The skies were solidly overcast the whole time but the rural scenery was amazing: fields of corn, tobacco barns stuffed with drying tobacco, rolling countryside. I waved to all the horse-and-buggy drivers and they all waved back. A barefoot man mowing the lawn with his riding mower stared at me with admiration, continued with his mowing, then looked back over his shoulder at me.
The section of Delaware I crossed into was, I learned, claimed by Pennsylvania for over a century even as it was governed by Delaware. A joint commission awarded the "wedge" of land to Delaware, a decision ratified by Pennsylvania in 1897 but by Delaware not until 1921!
In Newark I saw several businesses named Claymont _______. I wondered how close by Claymont was, as my sister lived there for ten years. I visited her, as I recall, just once. Passed the SEPTA/Amtrak station. Passed the University of Delaware football stadium.
Darkness started falling around 6:30: an hour earlier than normal. I felt light rain. I seemed to be running a low-grade fever. The road got insanely busy but, thankfully, the shoulders were two-and-a-half meters wide. The road turned into a motorway for a couple miles, so I got off onto Business 896 through some small town. Missed the turn off for the campground as it was only posted from the south! Knew I'd gone too far a kilometer later when I came to a large bridge I was sure I wasn't meant to cross.
The "primitive" campsite is $27 for the night, *plus* a mandatory $4 "reservation" fee: by far the most expensive state park yet. I had only $17 on me and -- naturally -- payment is cash only when the office is closed, which it was/is till 11:00 tomorrow. A gentleman who was trying to figure out the self-registration system himself -- he'd accidentally reserved for *next* weekend -- gave me the remaining $14.
As I was settling in, a big, strong-looking gentleman came over from the next site and said he'd paid for this site, too. He came across initially rather aggressively but quickly relaxed and said it was fine that I stay -- which was good because by then it was pitch dark.
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