The Mid-Atlantic - Day 2 - Crossing the Delaware

8/13/17, “Crossing the Delaware”

En route, I-84 E, New York

Seven.  That’s the number of times we crossed the Delaware today as we zigged and zagged from the Lower Delaware all the way to the Upper Delaware.  From Pennsylvania to New Jersey to Pennsylvania to New Jersey to Pennsylvania to New Jersey to Pennsylvania to New York, we spent almost the entire day crossing the Delaware.  It was an arduous quest, and, while we ran into our fair of share adversity, it was a success in the end, and all’s well that ends well.  In fact, I am happy to say that the entire trip was a success.

Visiting ten NPS units in two days is no easy task, even if they are only in the nearby Mid-Atlantic, but we made it happen.  This is the last such NPS run that I will do for the foreseeable future, the next one I do likely not being until I go to Alabama next year.  I have now been to 320 of the, I believe, 420 units of the National Park Service.  That leaves 100, but they are always adding new ones.

My readers are familiar with the goals I have set for myself by the time I turn thirty.  It is the inspiration for the URL for this blog.  I can now reveal that I intend to have visited every NPS unit in this country by the time I turn 40.  That is a very doable goal, and trips like this go a long way towards accomplishing it.

After I closed last night, I soon went to bed, and I woke up around 6:30 AM.  Breakfast would not be served until 7 AM, but we were hoping that we would be able to get an early start so that we could get on the road earlier.  However, they were strict about that 7 AM.  We were able to get coffee, but food was not for the taking until 7 AM.  I helped myself to a small bowl of fruit and a plate of hot food, a mere fraction of the two heaping plates I had been having at buffets throughout the summer in Iceland and Greenland and in San Francisco.

We were on the road around 7:25 AM, which was a little ahead of schedule, but I knew the schedule would be tight.  We were trying to hit eight VCs in three different NPS units, and the last one closed at 5 PM.  I also wanted time to do a hike at each NPS unit.  My reader will need to pay close attention, as each unit had the word Delaware in its name.

We stopped at the Maryland House service plaza, the third time I had been there this year, and we were at the first site before long, after crossing the Delaware from Pennsylvania into New Jersey at the Benjamin Franklin Memorial Bridge.  The first site was known as Lower Delaware National Wild and Scenic River, but it did not have any NPS facilities.  While the river itself was designated an NPS unit, all the land was owned by local authorities.

We first stopped at Washington Crossing State Park, the site of Washington’s famed crossing of the Delaware.  It was a bit of a process to find the VC, but I had my stamp around 10:30 AM.  Well, let me rephrase.  I had a stamp.  It was an Eastern National NPS stamp, but it was for a heritage area, rather than Lower Delaware NWSR.  I was very disappointed then, but they had the brochures, and an NPS stamp is an NPS stamp.  We drove a little closer to the water and made a tactical error, as there was actually parking right next to the river.  This was our first big mistake of the day.  I lit up a Fuente, and it was a fair walk to the river, where we took our ceremonial picture.  However, if we had parked there, we could have had a nice walk along the river instead.  That was things started to get interesting.

We got back to the car and continued to what I thought was the next stamp location.  Once we crossed the Delaware, for the second time now, back into Pennsylvania.  We then saw a historic park that recreated Washington’s camp across the Delaware.  I thought the VC would have a stamp.  They did not.  Second mistake.  From there, we did continue to New Hope and went to the VC in town, which I thought would have stamps.  They did not.  They said the State Park might have stamps.  It was a short walk, but it was added time.  The State Park did not have any open facilities today.  Third mistake.  It should be noted that mistake zero was not figuring out in advance which places had stamps and which did not.

We then drove to Bull Island Recreation Area, once more crossing the Delaware into New Jersey.  They did not have stamps.  This was becoming very disconcerting.  We crossed the Delaware again, for the fourth time now, into Pennsylvania.  We then went to Delaware Canal State Park, which I had hoped would have stamp.  As I we drove, I decided to do the research that I should have done before we left on the trip.  It turned out that stamps did not exist for Lower Delaware NWSR.

The closest I would get was the heritage area stamp I got at Washington Crossing.  I also learned that there was a fourth unit I had not counted, called Middle Delaware National Scenic River, but that was actually contained within Delaware Water Gap National Recreational Area, although they are two separate units.  Confused yet?  The State Park only had their own stamp, not an Eastern National stamp, so I got that on my brochure, to have something from Pennsylvania.  They also had the NHL Plaque there.

It was now 12:30 PM, we were done with Lower Delaware NWSR, and we had not lunch, but we had no time for it.  We hoped to have better luck with the Middle and Upper units.  I had a better handle on things now, and, I knew where to find stamps, but time would be a major factor.  We crossed the Delaware for the fifth time, into New Jersey and were soon at Kittatinny Point VC in Delaware Water Gap NRA.  I was almost out of water at this point.  Our bad luck would continue.

The parking lot was full, the electricity was down, and they had no running water.  We got the brochure for Delaware Water Gap NRA, and the ranger explained that there was no separate brochure for Middle Delaware NSR, but the water we could see right by us was the Middle Delaware NSR.  He said the stamp was at headquarters in Bushkill, but it was closed on the weekends.  No stamp or brochure that said Middle Delaware NSR, there would only be one way to claim the unit.  I would need to step in the scenic, Middle Delaware River.  I lit up a Perdomo, and we went on a walk along the river, cut short since we were worried about being parked illegally.  With my feet in the water, we took our ceremonial picture.  There were two more stamps to get in the park, and I needed water, badly.

We drove up to an area called Millbrook Village, and it looked abandoned.  Off in the distance, I spied a water spigot, so we walked there, and I was able to refill my water bottle.  I then saw a building that looked like it might be a ranger station.  It was.  Stamp number two.  This was going well.  We even allowed ourselves a few minutes to go on a nature walk before returning to the car.

We crossed the Delaware for the sixth time, into Pennsylvania and we went to the last VC, Dingman Falls.  There was a huge line to get into the VC, for parking, so I walked.  I got my stamp there, along with a pin, keychain, and cashews, as I was starving.  By the time I got back to the car, my mother had not even proceeded halfway along the line to get in, so she made a U-turn, and we headed to our last stop, the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River.

We could get the stamp on the Pennsylvania side of the river at a place called Zane Grey Museum.  We were there before long, and they had it all: brochures, stamps, and pins.  It was a success.  I lit up a PDR, and we took our ceremonial pictures before walking around a bit and getting a very late lunch.  I got a roast beef and Swiss sandwiches and pretzels and soda to share, and we headed back to the car.

We crossed the Delaware for the seventh and final time, into New York, and I ate my sandwich as soon as we were across the bridge.  It would be about two hours to Scarsdale, and, as soon as we got onto I-84, I proceeded to write this entry, which I will now close, along with closing out this very successful trip.  Next stop: the Jersey Shore and Great Egg Harbor River.