There were moments today, when the rural roads found wooded stretches not yet converted to agriculture or housing developments, that the walk was genuinely delightful. The sun shined brightly, bestowing a pleasant warmth on one’s face, but the air remained crisp and refreshing. The light was brilliant and grassy fields thus emanated a bright emerald color. The sky was a pristine blue.
Of course, those were just moments. Most of the time, the woods failed us, and that cleared the path for a relentless headwind, which Fritz’s weather app informed us was often peaking around 25mph. We leaned in, hard, and powered through it, but it made every mile more dearly bought. After cursing our bad luck, that the wind was always in our face, the road curved and we suddenly had it blasting away at our sides. For a stretch, my head was probably 18 inches to the right of my feet, as I bent sideways to keep my balance. Careful what you wish for.
Around 2pm, we cleared Delaware. As Terry had warned me two nights earlier, there was no sign, no celebratory indicator of the feat as we crossed into Maryland. Instead, the paving simply expired and we found ourselves on dirt roads for the next mile, a pleasant escape from the otherwise unremitting asphalt. However, we did get to enjoy the splendor of two bald eagles frolicking overhead in the wind, circling above the trees.
The final approach was painful–the wind clearly wore us down and we were actively re-calculating our remaining distance every few minutes as we drew closer to Denton. With our hotel finally in sight, and the clock passing 4pm, we saw a Burger King to our right and made an impromptu call to bail on check-in for the time being and fill our stomachs. Two Impossible Whoppers later, I was ready to flop into bed for the rest of the evening.
I’m not sure what to make of Delaware, given the short visit and the largely unrepresentative itinerary. I didn’t see Ocean City or Rehoboth, and certainly didn’t get anywhere near Dover or Wilmington. I saw three towns of any size–Lewes, Milton, and Milford–and a whole lot of farmland. Nonetheless, it’s a state with a fascinating dynamic. On the first full day, we passed through a ton of new housing developments. Delaware’s low-tax context draws in a lot of retirees and vacationers, happy to use it as a tax haven. Walking eastward from Lewes, though, one could see the layers peel away like an onion–big, new houses giving way to older, substantial ones, yielding in turn to weather-beaten farmhouses and mobile homes. Before long, the scene wasn’t wildly out of step with what was commonplace in the midwest: large agricultural fields interspersed with a similar array of homes. I passed another Trump flag today (boasting “No More Bullshit” — do with that what you will) and cleared the state without seeing a single statement of support for a Democratic candidate.
It seems on the surface–and man, I’m deeply unqualified to offer anything more than some really superficial spitballing–like the long-term Delawareans lean more rural and conservative, while the populations clustering in the larger towns (especially closer to the coast) are predominantly out-of-staters. Having dug a little deeper, it seems like this is mostly a phenomenon in Southern Delaware, which is the conservative heart of a majority liberal state. Nonetheless, I wonder what it will mean for the long-term dynamics in this region, as the farmland continues to erode, replaced by more and more housing developments, and more and more retirees.
In any case, on to Maryland!
