We scheduled a full week’s vacation at a state park a few dozen miles south of Dover, Delaware for the first full week of August. Originally scheduled to be another joint family vaca like the one in July at Massey’s Landing, (shown here) schedule changes and school conflicts then interfered, and we ended up just taking Kamryn and Jeremy with us. KPSP is just a dozen or so miles south of Dover right along US Route 13. It centers around, not surprisingly, a large pond that is about two miles wide and a mile or so north to south. The campground part of the park is along the southern side of the park, and on the north are the park HQ, a music/entertainment ampitheater sort of thing, a nature center with exhibits running the gamut from squirrels to frogs, shed snakeskins and the odd fish, along with a large pool/waterpark that, while in the park proper, required a separate admission charge. Per Person. Per Day….
Jeremy and I headed south first, crossing the Delaware Memorial Bridge and then following US 13 down to where DE 1 split off. DE 1 is a nice, four-lane, mostly divided highway and carries most of the shore and Delmarva bound traffic, due to 13 being the more congested and stop-lighted route. Melissa and Kamryn followed in the truck an hour or so later. We needed the chase vehicle because the water park where we planned to spend a good part of our time was situated on the other side of the lake from the campground area, and it wasn’t within walking distance. In fact, the spots, while only a mile or so apart via a flying crow, were about six miles apart on foot.
We had a little bit of a glitch just outside of Smyrna. Heading south on DE Route 1, a light came on my dash panel suggesting that I ‘check engine’. I did, and it was still there. Hadn’t the foggiest what the issue may be. Then the beast started acting up a little, surging and bucking a bit and the trans shifted down and then up and then down again. Sort of disconcerting. I took the next handy exit and pulled into a gas station and shut the engine off. I made a few calls to my Good Sam roadside assistance line, but they were no help, so I ignored their advice to get the RV towed somewhere and fix it. I called Melissa and alerted her, and then decided to try to forge ahead and see what happened. I decided to stay on the Route 13 roadway, since it would take us past repair shops or larger parking lots if we needed to get off the road. The RV started right up again and no lights came on, so Jeremy and I hit the road and made the remaining 20 miles with no further issues, other than the stop-and-go traffic around Dover. We got to the campground just as Melissa and Kamryn caught up to us, so they were right behind us at the check-in.
Monday PM at the campgorund
The campground section of KPSP is composed of about half a dozen wooded circular cul-de-sac loops, each with seven or eight back-in sites with electric and water. They’re a bit narrow, and the placement of the posts with electricity and water varies from spot to spot. But there were guys there with 40′ Fifth Wheel trailers, so if they could get situated, so could I. And I did.
We all got settled in and then decided to take a quick hike around. There are several marked and notated trails around the lake itself. We did a little bit of exploring, found a small boat launch dock as indicated on the map, and posed for pictures. We found our way back to the RV and made dinner, and settled in. Tomorrow, we’d head to the water park, taking our lunch with us.
Tuesday – Water Park
I got up early on Tuesday to get some shots out around the campground. A big meadow was laid out across the drive from the camp spots. The morning sun was warm and it promised to be a hot and humid day, typical of August in the East.
We headed to the water park around 11 am. We took lunch with us to save driving all the way back around the park to the RV. The park was nice, with one large pool, one toddler pool that we didn’t go anywhere near, and a couple of smaller pools that were really dedicated to being the base of the water slides. Jeremy took off for the slides right away, and then we all dipped our toes in the pool for twenty or thirty minutes at a time, and then out to sun on the beach chairs, and then back into the pool. The grownups read, the kids swam. We stayed until around 3:30 or 4 in the afternoon and then headed back, sweaty and smelling of sun block and chlorine. Showers all around.
The kids enjoyed themselves. Here’s Jeremy coming down a slide.
And they both enjoyed the lily pad test of skill…
Wednesday – Hiking around the Lake
We decided to get some exercise on Wednesday. The park has several hiking trails that wind through the woods and encircle the lake. Looking at the park map, we decided to drive around to the other side of the lake where the formal park entrance was and visit the Nature Center, and then hike around a bit.We loaded up with water and sneakers, and Jeremy begged to bring his bike, so we relented and headed around to the Nature Center trails. The sun was warm and the area buzzed with insects and the happy shouts of children playing. We parked, and walked down the path to the surprisingly modern and Wright-looking Nature Center. The kids explored around outside, surprisingly excited and astounded to find bugs outside. In Nature.
We started down the Nature Path which, if followed to its conclusion, would wind around the lake for about three or four miles, terminating at a section of the park that was closed off to foot and vehicular traffic while the Delaware Department of Transportation put new bridge decking down. The path was easy to follow though, and we established a pattern where Jeremy would pedal madly ahead for about a hundred yards until Melissa yelled for him to come back, and then he’d pedal back, sweaty and out of breath, with the news that there were big trees and maybe even a spider or two up ahead. We planned to walk about half way around the pond and then double back a little bit, where there was a detour off to the left that would take us back to the truck at the parking lot.
Everything was fine Until I Made The Big Mistake.
I made the offhand remark that “this trail actually goes all the way around the lake to the RV . . .” Jeremy disappeared off into the leafy distance. We kept walking. The temp kept rising, taking the humidity level along with it. After about 10 minutes, the small party was quite Jeremy-less. We yelled out for him, but no answer. We sat on a small bench for a moment to catch our breath and rest. Kamryn ran ahead a little bit, but still no Jeremy. Melissa decided to wait there, at the little fork where we’d planned to branch off and head back to the truck. I set off after Kamryn. We met several joggers and hikers coming from the other direction but none had seen Jeremy. I called Melissa on the phone, and relayed the information. We decided that she should stay there and wait for word. We weren’t sure whether Jeremy might suddenly come pedaling out of the blue somewhere and show up back where she was. Kamryn and I followed the trail for another three-quarters of a mile or so, until we came to the bridge over the creek that fed the lake itself. We were halfway around.
After the bridge, the path split and we couldn’t tell which one J might have taken. I called Melissa and reported our plan. She was getting frantic, pretty sure that Jeremy was either hurt, lying in a crumpled heap off in the woods, or kidnapped by some mad back-woodsman. So I sent Kamryn down one trail, and I took the other. About ten minutes in, huffing and puffing, she called to report that she’d found him circling around the RV, all was good, and they’d wait for us there. I called Melissa, who was understandably relieved, and she headed back in the truck, while I continued on another half mile or so until I came to the path from the lake up to the campground.
Of course, once we all gathered around the RV, we severely admonished Jeremy and tried to impress upon him the foolishness of his actions. Not sure it sank in. We dined, and then the rainstorm that had been threatening all day arrived, so we hunkered down in the RV and watched a movie. Tomorrow we’d head back over to the water park. I didn’t get any pics, so we’ll skip ahead to Friday . . .
Friday – Pirate Gold and Cape Henlopen
We decided to tour around on Friday. I found an interesting possibility – the campus of the Georgetown Technical University about 20 miles away was hosting an exhibit around the treasure found on the storm-sunken Spanish galleon “La Nuestra de la Atocha”, which had burbled beneath the waves back around 1620 or so, packed to the gunwales with gold and silver looted from the natives. Famed treasure hunter Mel Fisher and his gang finally found the old scow buried beneath the sand off the Keys, and after a protracted legal battle with Florida, the US and even Spain, was finally granted ownership of the wreck full of stolen wealth. Far as I know, he didn’t offer to share any of it with the Aztecs… Anyway, we hopped in the car, buzzed down good old US 113 for a few dozen tree-lined miles, and found the campus. It was a pretty neat show, actually. They didn’t let us photograph much of the exhibit, especially the vault with a couple kilograms of Au laying around under bright lights. But the kids did get to sit on a cannon.
After the gold rush, as Neil Young might say, we decided to head towards Lewes and Cape Henlopen. In all the dozens of times I’d been down across the bay on the ferry and passed by the Cape park, I’d never actually been in the place. We lunched at an Arby’s somewhere down there, and then, navigating the myriad of clogged roadways that seem to have gotten much more crowded since the last time I’d been in the area, which was, I reflected somberly, sometime around 1998… We found our way to the C/H state park and flashed our camping badge from back at Killens Pond so we wouldn’t have to pay the freight again. A quick stop at the Nature Center, some pix on the natural-looking bronze crabs, and then out to the point, where the Bay met the Ocean and the sand met the inside of my sneakers.
We spent about ten minutes enjoying the view and by then the truck was fully of crabby, sandy, hot, sweaty passengers, so we headed back home. Saturday was another day at the water park, and we enjoyed a dinner out in the gustatory megalopolis that was Camden, Delaware. Sunday we came home, and I don’t have any pictures. I was more concerned with the RV, but the beast never skipped a beat all the way up Route 13. We got home around noon.