72 miles
9hrs 45mins
Trip total 221 miles
Today was much cooler as we pedaled toward Easton. Easton was only 9 miles away and we were there in no time, and in no time we missed our turn and rode about 2 miles out of our way. A quick stop for directions and we were back on track. Of course this was Susan�s fault since the stoker (the back seat rider on a tandem) is supposed to be the map reader. She, of course, refused to take the blame saying my bad driving had scared her too much to look at the map. Since I was faced with an argument in which I had no chance of putting a favorable spin on or of diffusing by skilful debate, I took the next best option and adopt a stance of astonished innocence. You know, �What! My driving? What could possibly be wrong with my driving?� With both of us now debating a line of logic completely off topic of the root cause, we burned up the next 10 miles into Denton before we knew it. We do make a great team.
Denton turned out to be more than I had expected. We had coffee and an English muffin at the Market Street Caf�. The folks were really nice there and we enjoyed the stop. The town was also neat and we walked around looking into the shop windows for a while. The �whose fault argument� was long forgotten; but like all good arguments it is immortal and I�m sure it will arise again one day to be fought once more.
I must make it clear that my actions here seemed perfectly rational at the time. I've mulled them over since, of course, and I�m relieved to find that they still hold up to examination - it's pleasing to know I can make good decisions under pressure. We did end up having to push the bike and trailer about a mile or two, but it was a nice break from the bike seat. Yeah, right, whatever.
After leaving the dirt road behind us we crossed the Delaware state line a few miles further up the road. The terrain was now much more rolling as we cut across the peninsular towards the Atlantic coast. It was not hilly like home, but it was no longer completely flat. We actually got to coast a little on the down hills and it wasn�t long before we rolled into Harrington, Delaware.
While sitting in a little diner eating lunch, I decided to call a B&B in Milford for a room. Milford was the planned stop and would give us around 50 miles for the day. Today was going to be a short day. After a brief conversation with the inn keeper I knew we were in trouble. There were two B&B�s in Milford and no hotels. I called them both and the Chamber of Commerce and there were no rooms in Milford tonight. There were a couple of other diners eating while I was trying to find a room and they all gave us options and advice. After talking with some folks we decided to head on towards Georgetown. The good news was, Georgetown was in the direction we needed to go to continue our trip; the bad news was, it was thirty miles away. What was going to be our short day just became a 70 mile plus trip. Oh well. Like they say, �Forget the potholes in the road and enjoy the ride.� Who are �they� anyway?
After 72 miles we pulled into the Comfort Inn in Georgetown. I have never seen a Hilton look any better than that Comfort Inn, except, well, maybe Paris (just kidding honey). They did indeed have a room and there was a Ma�s Home Cooking diner within walking distance. Things were looking up.
After a shower we walked down to the restaurant for one of the most mediocre meals we had eaten to date. They sure didn�t cook like my ma. As we walked back to the room we tried not to sweat. Even doing laundry yesterday we were running close on clothes. I had actually picked the shirt I had on because it smelled better than anything else in the bag. We definitely were going to need to wash some stuff out tonight.
