You Know You're in the South When...

You know you're in the south when - you go into a farm market bathroom and there's a sign posted that says "Please keep the lamp on. It keeps the Potty seat warm. Thx -Mgt." The bathroom was barely the size of a small closet with a screened window that looked out onto a peach tree farm. It was a quaint and sufficient little closet. The indoor temperature/climate was the same as the outdoor climate - 80F a little overcast and about 80% humidity. The lamp was off, the "potty seat" was warm, so I made the personal decision not to "keep the lamp on". I quietly bought my pint of peaches, ate one (oooh so yummy), and made my way further south.


This farm stand was in DELAWARE. Yes, I am now convinced that Delaware is part of the south. They may have sided with the union, but they are NOT a mid Atlantic state. It is SO true what they say about Delaware - "there's nothing in Delaware". Well, that's not entirely true, I drove the whole length of Delaware on my way to Virginia's Eastern Shore. As far as I can tell, Delaware has toll roads and farms. I hear the beaches are nice, but I didn't make it to the shore. The peaches were wonderfully tasty. I thought I had the right idea about how to eat those peaches by biting right into one in the parking lot, but my Grandma Peggy had a much more creative way of eating the peaching. My Sunday morning breakfast at my grandparents' house consisted of a home made Belgian Waffle topped with peaches, strawberries, syrup and whipped cream. A meal fit for a traveling granddaughter. Grandmas can't let grandkids travel hungry.


This is Grandma and Grandpa's house in Portsmouth, VA (that's right next to Norfolk and Virginia Beach). It's been their house since 1951, that's 57 years!

The shortest way to get from Philadelphia to Portsmouth is through southeastern Pennsylvania, straight through Delaware, through a short stretch of Maryland, then into Virginia's eastern shore using US 13. Even though New Jersey is a little uglier than Pennsylvania (sorry NJ loving people), it's worth a trip into NJ for the frugal traveler because gas prices are really that much better in New Jersey than in Pennsylvania. Gas average about $4.14/gallon in Philadelphia, PA and about $3.98 across the Delaware river in Camden, NJ. I found a gas station outside of Camden that cost $3.86/gallon. Unfortunately for Philadelphia residents, there is a $3 toll across the bridges on the way back to Philadelphia. If you do the math (using the average gas prices), Philadelphia residents wouldn't save on gas unless they are buying about 19 gallons at a time. You'd have to have pretty big tank. If you can find the $3.86/gallon station, you start saving at 11 gallons. But if your not going back to PA, it costs nothing to cross into Camden on the Ben Franklin Bridge, so you might as well get your cheap gas in Jersey.

Before my trip, I did plan out which states I was going to buy gas in. There's a really cool website (gasbuddy.com), which you can interface with google maps and map out the least expensive gas stations along your planned routes. I drover through MA, RI, CT, NY, NJ, PA, MD, DE, VA and NC. Along that route, the least expensive places to gas up are MA, NJ, and VA. DON'T get gas within 5 miles of a major interstate; you'll save a good 10 cents per gallon.

OK... enough about gas. Bact to the vacation.

Back to where I was - Philly is awesome, gas in NJ, there's nothing in Delaware (and it's part of the south), next is Maryland. They have Chesapeake bay crabs... didn't get any this time through, but I know they're oooh so good. About 10 years ago I went to a MD crab house. They gave me a bib, a bucket of crabs and a little wooden hammer. It's a lot of work for a little food, but it's so much fun. Then, VA's eastern shore. Growing up, I read all about the wild horses on the eastern shore (Misty of Chincoteague by Marguirite Henry), but I didn't see any wild horses. All I saw were chicken factories. I passed Perdue, then 10 miles later, I passed Tyson. It was still a really pretty drive even without the horses, and it brought me straight to one the Engineering Wonders of the World - The Chesapeake Bay Bridge, which connects Virginia's eastern shore to Virginia Beach. This bridge is 17.6 miles long and contains 2 tunnels. It's one thing to pass through Delaware and see nothing but land ahead, but it's really something to be in your car (or on a motorcycle - oh how I wished I had one at this point) seeing nothing but water for miles around you.

This is a picture of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge where the bridge goes under water for it's second tunnel (coming from the north). When you pop out of the second tunnel, there's the Bay Bridge rest stop. The rest stop has a fishing peer:

After the Bay Bridge, it was off to visit with my grandparents. We took a walk through the Portsmouth City Park. I went here so many times growing up, swinging on the swings, meeting up for family reunions, feeding the ducks and geese, riding on the park train, called the Smoky Pokie. And of course I know my dad has many more memories from this park than I do. Here are some of my favorite places in the park

On this day in the park, Grandma and I talked to a turtle for a little bit. We named it "Speedy Junior", after a turtle that used to hang out in Grandma's garden, Speedy. According to Grandma, Speedy either was injured by a car or something one day or it was a female having it's period. Not too long after seeing Speedy bleeding, Speedy stopped moving. We think Speedy Junior might just be a relative of Speedy the garden turtle, and therefore, Speedy lives on. Speedy Junior wasn't really all that speedy, I gave him/her an hour to move somewhere, and he/she only moved about half a foot. We also got chased by a heard of geese. These geese are way to used to be fed by people and think everyone wants to give them something. Here's a picture of Grandma chasing them back (she's so cute!)



After that, it was off to Hogwarts, I mean Duke University. My friend, Kim, played soccer with me up in Boston for a couple of years and then went back to school to study (magic) biology. And get her PhD. It was great seeing her again. She's a really neat person and shares my love of soccer. Aparently, one of the cool things in Durham, NC, is a popsicle shop called Locopops. You can get all sorts of weird popsicle flavors. I got a mojito, and Kim got a watermelon-cucumber popsicle.














And, then it was off to Kim's house... YES, I said KIM"S HOUSE, as in she owns it. She just bought it. You know you're in the south when students can afford to buy 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom houses on a student stipend.

Kim gave me a place to sleep, and I gave her a bag of Peanuts (from another farm with an interesting bathroom - no door, just a curtain somewhere. The farm was on US58 near the VA/NC boarder.

Kim and I had a great night, we barbecued some dinner, shared a bottle of CT Chardonnay, and ate the desert her parents provided us with, then gave me a couple of temporary tattoos, so I could show up at my parents place and freak them out. Then I was back off to VA, to wind down and get ready to wind up for the next part of my trip to Europe. So I'll sign out for now. I'll post more (approximately) when I get to England.