Wilmington
Finally, I had the chance to give the car a good run! Woohoo! Driving out of Washington was tricky, this car is big. On to the I95 and into the relaxed long sweeping curves of the American Interstate system. This is the life, shades on, leaning back, one-handed driving, “two hands on the wheel please” says Anne, ahh well, I can live with that.
The road from Washington to Wilmington is pretty easy going until you hit the city outskirts, I had forgotten how much concrete goes into American multi-level underpass, overpass and drive-through pass interchanges. (Junctions, but not as we know them Jim).
Wilmington, Deleware is where Nylon, Kevlar, Teflon and Lycra were invented. It was founded in 1638 by the Swedes who, very creatively, name it New Sweden. Colonized by the British in 1739 and renamed by Spencer Compton, the Earl of Wilmington to, yes you guessed, Wilmington.
The Wickens family, Mark, Joelle and Grace who are looking after us for this part of the trip were not due home until 5.00pm so we used the opportunity to visit the Christiana Shopping Mall. I needed some new Levis and Anne, well Anne likes ‘mooching’. I didn’t think mooching was a real word, it seems I am wrong, the definition is ‘To wander around aimlessly, often causing irritation to others’, enough said.
And on to 36 Baynard Drive. Our timing was perfect, Mark had just arrived as we pulled into the drive so big hugs, huge smiles and a tear or two in welcome. We haven’t seen the family for six years. Into the house and a short wait until Joelle and Grace to turn up and back to big hugs, huge smiles and more tears. So how long did it take before Mark and Anne struck up a conversation about running? I’d like to say at least until after we had gone through news about each other’s families, but no, it was 7 minutes, 35 seconds. Coincidentally about the same time it takes Mark to run a mile.
Mark prepared a wonderful meal, we chatted some more and then early to bed to finally sleep off the jet-lag. Its Saturday morning at the time of writing, Grace is at a sleep-over, Mark and Anne are training (swimming), Joelle is doing the laundry and I’m relaxing on the couch. Good times.
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