Today I added Dover as my second state capitol. Otherwise a not very difficult day with a variety of landscapes. Delaware is not a very big state, but still enough to spend two days cycling.

Smyrna is 10 miles from Dover and after that I was heading north again in the direction of Philadelphia. The hotel checkout wasn’t until 11am, so this let me do a round trip day ride to the capitol, grab breakfast and then set off. It also meant I didn’t have to carry my 50+ pounds of gear.

I debated wearing a jacket but quickly needed it as it was ~50F and then started to sprinkle lightly. The road to Dover was four lanes with a shoulder and enough traffic lights to keep starting and stopping.

I took a photo or two before realizing I had the wrong building, but this was fixed in checking my map. Then back 10 miles to the hotel. It was nice riding without luggage for a change.

After breakfast, I packed and set off. First 11 miles was more of the same busy highway but then set off to smaller roads along the Delaware River. It was a weird mixture of small shore communities and industrial installations.

For example Port Penn including the post office above gave off the small shore community. Also Delaware City where I had lunch at a crab shack restaurant (but didn’t order the crab).

Leading to Delaware City was one of few climbs for the day – up the bridge. Not difficult though the cross wind blew me a bit. Not much of a shoulder but also not much traffic.

This industrial area outside Delaware City was representative of some other landscapes. The last bit into Newcastle was also rather busy.

At the motel they asked if I worked at the refinery. I guess cyclists and refinery workers must look alike. They looked amused when I asked if the motel was owned or managed by a family named Patel (it wasn’t).

I lost about 5 miles on Strava here and here because the unit wasn’t turned on and also had a restart. So overall statistics: 51.95+5 miles, 4:39:37 elapsed time, average moving speed ~11.1mph and 3955 calories.

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