Dover to Wilmington

Today is the first of June, which means I have completed five months of my journey.

This morning I drove the short distance from Dover to Wilmington. Well, everything in Delaware is a short distance. Because it was such a short trip, just under an hour, I went looking for something to do along the way. I found the Augustine State Wildlife Management Area, which consists of several tracts. Delaware asks that you purchase a three-day conservation pass to visit any of the State wildlife areas. I was happy to do so, but they don’t make it easy. You have to navigate a confusing on-line registration, which I finally worked my way through. Very few people visit these areas and I doubt anyone does much checking, but I did want to comply with the rules and support the effort to maintain these areas.

By the time I packed up, checked out and took care of a few tasks, it was late morning before I arrived at Ashton Tract, one of several areas in the Augustine State Wildlife Management Area . I could hear a Pileated Woodpecker, but he declined to come out and play. I’m still waiting to capture a photograph of one. A couple of birders (Dick and Jane - yes their real names) mentioned that they thought they had seen a Sandhill Crane at the Port Penn Tract. So I drove over to look. All I saw were more Great Blue Herons. Pretty, but not Sandhill Cranes. It would have been an unusual sighting, both geographically and seasonally.

I continued on to Wilmington, which is the biggest city I have visited in a couple of weeks, since Baltimore. I wanted to do some food shopping, but the closest Whole Foods was across the border in Pennsylvania. It was not far, just odd that I crossed into another state that I am not scheduled to visit for a couple of weeks.

In looking at the city offerings, I notice that a wine and jazz happy hour was scheduled at the Delaware Art museum. I thought it might be a good place to grab some photos. As it turned out, not so much. Unlike the young rowdy crowd at the Baltimore wine event, this was a mature staid crowd. Pleasant, but not photographically interesting. I spent some time talking to Fran and her daughter Bethany. They told me that a second event was taking place inside the museum, the opening of the Into the Light Project .

This was quite interesting - heavy - but interesting. The show comprises many portraits by several artists, and the attendant stories by a number of narrative writers, commemorating the tragic loss of young people to drug addiction or overdose. The goal of the project is to open a conversation and de-stigmatize what is a disease rather than a personal failing. I went up and viewed the portraits and read some of the stories. It was quite moving as well as educational.

Tomorrow, the high is predicted to be 92 degrees. Definitely unseasonably hot. I’ll look for some indoor activities.