September 4

September '07 - Page 4

Tuesday, Sept. 18

Love this picture. Took it of a poster on the wall....

On our way again, we found the USAF Air Mobility Command Museum just south of Dover Air Force Base. Many large planes and reconstructions of the use of this base in supplying various war efforts. The volunteers working this base were at least as old as we were, and we were treated to big band and swing music piped into the main building.

We stopped as well at the DuPont Nature Center in Slaughter Beach. On this beach, we were surprised to find hundreds of horseshoe crab exo-skeletons. These are discarded by the crabs as they are molting. Also to Patty’s delight, the beach was strewn with a large number of colorful pebbles.

Other things we saw:

No vacancy?

That's Patty with a big horseshoe crab shell found on the beach.

These are interesting creatures. In mid-May about the time of the full moon, for a period of about two weeks, thousands of these come to shore to lay their eggs. At the same time, redknots, a bird species, come from South America hungry after their long flight. They feed on the eggs, really fatten up (we saw some pictures) and then fly to the Arctic to lay their own eggs... Now, tell me how evolution worked that out!

The crabs lose their skeleton about once a year after their fourth year, gaining about 25% volume after each shed. In the first four years, there shed many times. The one Patty is holding is about 10 years old.

A few miles further south, we asked some of the volunteer firemen at the firehouse if we could spend the evening in their parking lot overnight, and they said yes. We had plenty of time to get back to the beach behind the firehouse and enjoy the ocean and sand once more.

Wednesday, Sept.19

There was lots of activity at the firehouse last night, but no one was parked in the parking lot in the morning.

We spent a good part of the day, further south, at the Prime Hook Wildlife Management Area. There were great walks around the marshes with many bird sitings. We found that pishing works.

Endangered squirrels?

We saw much that day (or at least that we took pictures of):

Several kinds of dragonflies; d'jever see one like the last?

Some interesting plants, and a stick insect!

Later, we took a day pass on the State Park on Cape Henlopen near Lewes and Rehoboth Beach. Great wide beaches and sand dunes at the point growing every year. We were surprised at the large number of towers (some even further south), and many embattlements used during WWII to guard the inlet to the bay. On the park is the remnant of a WWII Fort with cannons with 6, 12 and 20 mile ranges. The towers were to be used to find an enemy ship and give triangulation data to the cannons.

Don't you love this sign?

It's about time those primitive youth had a place to camp...

Our target was Wal-Mart in Rehoboth beach for the evening stay, but signs in the parking lot made it clear there was no overnight parking allowed. So, we went down the road to a Safeway grocery store parking lot. Needed groceries too!

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