Shortly after leaving Milton is when I realized I'd forgotten something very important. My water bottle holder was empty. I'd left my bottle behind in the refrigerator at the cabin, a most unwise mistake, especially on a hot day like today. I was briefly frustrated with myself, but decided that I was bound to forget something somewhere, and in the scheme of things, a bottle so can replace for $15 isn't the end of the world. I got a bottle of mountain dew at Rehoboth Beach and decided it will be my new water bottle for now.
Rehoboth seemed remarkably touristy to me as I got to and then walked along it's boardwalk. But it was nice enough. From there I was on a surprisingly bike friendly (Delaware!) stretch of highway on a strip of land between bay and ocean. It was beautiful, sand dunes sometimes visible between buildings on the ocean side and reeds and wetlands on the bay side. As I stopped at a beach on the bay side, a man came up to me to ask about my tour. I always appreciate when I attract a conversation rather than just odd looks.
I was astounded to find a community on the bay that had a series of canals running through it (making every street a disjointed dead end), ultimately connecting to the bay, every house having water access and their own personal boat. Definitely not the sort of thing a Nebraskan boy sees every day...
By the time I hit Maryland and the outskirts of Ocean City, things really got crazy. If I thought Rehoboth was touristy... Condos here. Hotels there. A differently themed mini golf course every other block. One stoplight after another slowing things to what seemed a crawl compared to the rest of the day. I had a bike/bus/turning only lane on a divided highway with four lanes on either side, which was generally good. But occasionally motorcycles and even a couple cars would use it to cut ahead, leaving me thinking, three damn lanes aren't enough for you that you have to use my one?
Set on seeing Assateague today, because tomorrow will be full, I made my way to the bridge to get out of the tourist trap...and realized it was going to not be fun to cross. It was 3pm, three more hours to kill before my host in Ocean City would be around, nominally enough time to get to the island and back. ...But would I have any actual time to appreciate it? Was it worth the 24ish extra miles and having to cross that bridge a total of three times, twice today, once tomorrow? It was a hard choice, but I decided it wasn't.
Instead, I spent the time walking the boardwalk, half marveling at, and half being staggered by the crazy commercialism of it. I spent some time thinking how different this coast is from the Pacific. Outside of San Francisco and LA (and San Diego, but I haven't been), it is largely rural, small towns, sometimes sparsely spaced. There are so many secluded spots to see the ocean with no one around. The shore has spectacular cliffs rather than endless sandy beaches (at least until you get down south). There's not Rehoboths and Ocean Cities all over (as I'm told I will see more of this as I go down). The Atlantic has been a great experience, just a night and day difference from the ocean to which I am more accustomed.
Around 6 my host got home and I headed over to meet him. He's a surfer dude, currently working here as a lifeguard, who has done a couple tours, from here down to Key West (so he was able to tell me and show me on his old paper maps some of what is coming up for me) and from Miami to San Diego. He took me out to dinner at the pub he frequents just down the block and we shared touring stories. Then he went out to meet some friends for a party and left me to get a little time to myself for the evening. After an eventful day, interestingly, it's these quiet moments right before bed that I often enjoy the most.
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