Today we awoke in Delaware and ate a smaller grab and go hotel breakfast. We rolled south along the Coastal Highway with a tailwind at our backs. The marshes along Rehoboth Bay and Indian River Bay were very scenic. By the time we rolled into Bethany Beach, the rain had just started to sprinkle. We stopped and put on the rain gear and decided to press on.
It might have been a bad call. We weren’t hungry and ready to stop yet, and the rain wasn’t so bad right when we made the choice. But it got worse, and before long we were riding in a moderate shower. My phone said something about water detected, and I decided to put it away in my jacket pocket. My outer layers kept me mostly dry, but before long my shoes and socks were soaked through.
We made it to a lunch spot we had decided to shoot for in Fenwick Island. It was nothing special but gave us time to warm up and dry off. As we rolled south from there, we passed unceremoniously from Delaware into Maryland. At the twelfth beach souvenir store we passed, I finally decided I was too cold and ready to buy another layer. My new Ocean City, MD sweatshirt made things much warmer for me and somehow changed the weather from cold and rainy to clear and sunny in a matter of hours! Plus everyone will know that I’ve been to Ocean City.
We looked around Ocean City and the boardwalk in the rain for a bit before deciding to head over the causeway to Ocean City West and find accommodations. We checked in to a hotel earlier than any other day yet, and the our milage was meager, but I can now say from first hand experience that riding around in wet socks is not great. As soon as we checked in the weather turned and looked fantastic.
We walked about 4 miles around the area scouting dinner and dessert places. We zeroed in on a local sandwich shop and had a pretty nice meal. I read about a rocket launch at NASA’s nearby Wallops Flight Facility, and we pulled up the livestream on Space.com. We had dessert at Dumser’s Dairyland where I ate a small sundae that was absolutely incredible and way too big for me. We ate our desserts and watched the southern sky and waited for the launch as it was eventually scrubbed due to high altitude winds.
Tomorrow, we plan to get on the road early and spend a bit more time on the riding. We may end up fairly close to Wallops Island, so maybe we’ll get to see that rocket launch up close after all.