Delaware, the first state... Saturday, September 22, 2012

Today both Chris and I went to Delaware for the first time. Period. That means ever. Over the last few years we've sometimes gone to states for the first time together, but this time neither one of us had ever been here!

We had both forgotten that Delaware was actually the first state in the U.S. It's even printed on their license tags. Another tidbit of information is that they have no sales taxes!

Have you noticed that when you use a road atlas they give Delaware (and other smaller states) a full page. Kansas gets two. So we think of the distances shown on the map as the same scale we are used to. Not true. We did most of the state north to south, from Middletown to Trap Pond State Park. Tomorrow we will go past the southern border, back in to Maryland for a brief spell.

It was interesting driving down the section that might be called "the beaches." This is a skinny section of Delaware running down the east side. From the highway you can see water on both sides, the Atlantic on one side and a couple of bays on the other! We wanted to camp there, but the campgrounds we were hoping to use were already full. We are here at Trap Pond State Park, which is further inland. It looks like it is a pretty good campground, but it was dark when we got here!

It started raining a little while ago, but appears to be tapering off. Today was the warmest day we have experienced on the vacation; even with the rain it may be warm sleeping tonight. (Quite a change from needing the sleeping bag as a comforter a few nights ago!)

We went grocery shopping both at an outdoor farmer's market and a supermarket (called Acme, no less) today and replenished some of our supplies.

All in all a pretty uneventful day. We watched the end of Season two of Deadwood tonight on DVD.

Tomorrow's plans (if you can call them that) is to keep moving south through Maryland and Virginia. We are aiming for Kitty Hawk in North Carolina, for sure.

Friday, September 21, 2012: It's the vision thing

Today we drove into Baltimore.

Our first and major stop was the American Visionary Art Museum. This art is very similar to the grassroot art in Lucas, Kansas, full of color and whimsy. Outside the museum is a large mirror egg I hugged.

The first major piece we saw inside was The Bra Ball, like Cawker City's twine ball, but made of bras donated to the cause.

In the basement, was The Flatulence Post by Bob Benson (scroll down page). I recommend watching the video. This is an exhibit Austin would love.

Each May the American Visionary Art Museum sponsors an annual Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture Race. One of the museum's out buildings had several entries in this year's race.

After the museum, we followed Google Map instructions through narrow streets to Edger Allen Poe's house and museum. Unfortunately, it was closed.

Then we tried driving out of town east toward Annapolis. We made slow progress through Baltimore's after work traffic.

We are at a KOA camp just outside of town. This camp has a giant jumping pillow that even adults can jump up and down on.