Road Warrior Momma: Racing the Monster Mile!

Day 10 – June 5, 2014

Rehoboth Beach/Dover, DE/Philadelphia, PA

50 miles/50 minutes-92 miles/2 ½ hours

We slowly bid farewell to Rehoboth Beach this morning. Oh, our visit was way too short. On the way to breakfast, the kids and I strolled along the avenue, widow shopping. By the time we were done eating, some of the shops had opened and we indulged, a little. We also made a final visit to the bookstore, until I realized we were fast approaching the checkout hour. It was a good thing, too, as the skies got very dark with a storm was moving in.

We drove north to Dover, to see the state capitol building. The historic district of Dover is very quaint, and we easily found the state house. After four road trips and thirty capitols, we stumbled upon our first real live state congress - and believe me, we made quite an impression. They were in recess when we arrived, and offering up free ice-cream for everyone. That’s all the kids needed to hear. I assured them we’d get the ice cream, but suggested we check out the Senate Chamber before we went upstairs. While we were looking, a lobbyist approached us (or course!) and started to explain some of Delaware’s significance in American History. We learned all about Caesar Rodney - Google him.

As Audrey and I desperately tried to extricate ourselves form the Caesar fan, Hunter ran in to announce that Camden had fallen on the stairs leading up to the Gallery. I ran to Cammy (the state house is NOT big) and sure enough, he was being tended to by some Delaware state senators/representatives. Yep - Road Warrior Momma of the year. They sent me to the cafeteria for ice, while the older three indulged their sweet cravings. We left soon after, with our tails between our legs.

Next stop was the Dover International Speedway. We scored a private tour with Mr. George, who is even more of a race fanatic than Hunter! He’s the track’s Historian (I didn’t even know there was such a thing). He’s worked at the Monster Mile for 46 years! George drove us around in the official pace car from Sunday’s race. At one point, he even raced us around the track at 80-90 miles an hour – oh boy! I was not prepared for that, but the kids were in heaven. We did have a brother-sister incident, that left me momentarily embarrassed, but Mr. George took it all in stride.

Then we had a long and congested drive to Philly, followed by a mediocre dinner at the Miller Ale House and swimming in the pool. We all passed out about 10a.m. I’m dragging………..

We’ve been so busy and I’m terribly behind on all things writing/blogging/book review related. Slightly panicked, actually! I’m going to throw this up, so I don’t get too far behind on the trip logs. Please forgive any typos or grammatical errors. I have 150 pages to read by Sunday – and miles to go, literally & figuratively, before I sleep.