Wednesday, May 4, 2022. Visiting with Terri and John
We awoke to the sounds of rain pattering on the roof of the RV, and discovered the weather had turned more like the Pacific Northwest with drizzle and the temperature in the upper 50’s. It was very comfortable for us. We did connect to 15A shore power, but weren’t sure it could handle our air conditioner. But it did handle our little space heater when the RV interior dropped below 62 degrees.
Ben had ordered some RV parts after we had lost a tire pressure sensor on I-10 in Florida, and a lug nut cover. They had arrived just in time with the Terri and John’s mail yesterday. Ben was able to install both the lug nut cover and the replacement tire pressure sensor, which took a bit of engineering to figure out how to reprogram the display to remove the missing sensor’s ID code and enter in the new sensor’s.
Hopefully we will be back to reporting from all wheels when we hit the road in the RV on tomorrow.
Terri and John picked us up at the RV and toured the RV. We then rode with them to see the highlights of Wilmington and Newark. Terri and John have been volunteering a lot of hours removing invasive species from the grounds and forests of the Judge Morris Estate/White Clay Creek State Park. We had an excellent docent and naturalist led tour of the grounds and forest (Terri being the docent and naturalist), who educated us on the native vs invasive species that are common in the park and surrounding geographical area called the Piedmont.
The house itself is an interesting old field stone mansion in need of TLC and money for repairs. The grounds and gardens were in better shape thanks to the tireless efforts of an army of volunteers, many of whom are being directed by Terri.
There were so many different plants flowering at this time that it was a dizzying display of botanical diversity. Ben and Janet probably did manage to learn, at least for the short term, how to identify several species including beech, May Apples, native and invasive viburnums, garlic mustard, native orchids and poison ivy. Terri seems to know enough about the flora of these Delaware woods that she should have an honorary PhD in botany. We hiked through the woods adjacent to the mansion grounds to see areas where volunteers have been removing invasive species and replanting native species to restore the habitat. Terri pointed out areas where our son John has volunteered his labor on past visits, concentrating on garlic mustard and invasive viburnum removal. You can really see a difference where the invasives have been controlled.
We had lunch at Capriotti’s sandwich shop, home of the “Bobbie”- the sandwich of choice of President Biden, who is from Delaware. This is a Turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing and mayo sandwich. We picked up subs and returned to Terri and John’s townhouse and devoured them with local Herr’s potato chips.
After resting up a bit, we hit the road and visited the more formal gardens at Mt. Cuba. These are very extensive and palatial grounds with rolling hills, formal and natural planting beds.
There is an emphasis on native species through out, although there were a few notable exceptions allowed to remain because the family that owned the estate had emotional ties to these particular plants including a primrose and lilacs that were confined to specific garden beds.
We stopped at a hardware store so that Ben could buy some eye-hook latches to keep the pull out shelves in the pantry from bashing the door open on bad driveway approaches. He had tried to rig a fiberglass rod to restrain the shelves, but the inertia of the shelves laden with canned goods was too much for the rod.
We got to tour the University of Delaware campus and had a tasty dinner at the Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant. We indulged in their famous mushroom soup (mushroom farms being a local phenomenon), various sliders and craft beers, including a root beer.
After dinner, John was kind enough to take us to the local Cabela’s where we purchased a 50A male to 30A female RV “dogbone” power adapter and RV septic treatment pods. It was also just across the street from the Christiana Mall where there is an Apple Store. Ben discovered that his AirPod Pro’s didn’t emerge from the Tarpon trip entirely unscathed because his iPhone kept getting notifications that his AirPod Pro’s had been left behind at all of his locations even though they were in his pocket. It seems likely that the chip that interacts with the iPhone to relay its location is no longer functioning reliably. Ben was able to make an appointment tomorrow at 10:20am to get them looked at since they are still under the AppleCare warranty.
John and Terri dropped us off at the RV and came in for a bit to visit and have some ice cream. We then bid them thank you for the local guide/Uber service and farewell.
