Cape May-Lewes Ferry

In trying to determine what our next day trip from Mosquitoland would be, I looked at the map and could tell we were very close to Delaware, a state to which we had not been yet.  I was also trying to find places where we could ride our bikes.  Driving to Wilmington, Delaware, and back was one option, but it did not look very interesting.  The other option was to drive to Cape May at the tip end of New Jersey and take the Cape May-Lewes Ferry across to Lewes, Delaware.  Cape Henlopen State Park which had some bike trails was within just a couple of miles of the ferry.  We decided to take the ferry.

Because I was not exactly sure how long it would take us to get to Cape May, I waited to purchase the tickets online (there was a discount if the tickets were purchased online) on my smartphone about 30 minutes before we arrived.  We arrived just in time for a ferry departure and since there was room on the ferry, we drove right on board.  (That’s not us driving on board; it’s just a picture of someone else driving on to the ferry.)

The cars were parked on the first level of the ferry (that's our car with the bikes).

It was a beautiful day for a ferry ride. 

The ferry backed out from the docks…

…and we were on our way.

We sat up on the top deck for most of the way.

The cruise takes about an 1 ½ hours to cross 17 miles between Cape May, NJ, and Lewes, DE.  About halfway, you almost feel like you are in the middle of the ocean.

There was a restaurant and gift shop on the second level of the ferry.  I was craving a cup of coffee so I walked downstairs to get me some coffee, a bottle of tea for Chuck and some banana bread for us to split.  It was a perfect morning to just relax and drink a cup of coffee.

You could see big cargo ships out in the distance.  Do you see them?

How about now?

I walked back downstairs to throw our trash away.

As we approached Lewes, Delaware, you could see a big wind turbine off in the distance.

We started pulling into the Lewes harbor.

I walked on down to the car level...

...while Chuck rode a while longer at the top level of the ferry.

As the ferry was docking, they announced for everyone to return to their cars.

After the ferry was tied off, we took our turn driving off the ferry.

We drove to Cape Henlopen State Park and found a place where we could park the car while we road our bikes on the 3 mile paved bike trail around the park.  Fort Miles was used as a military base at Cape Henlopen at the onset of World War II as an observation point to watch for enemy ships and to defend Delaware Bay and River.

Bunkers were constructed to be camouflaged among the dunes. 

From the top of this large dune, there was a nice view of the coastline.

There were several people enjoying the nice day at the beach below.

The Fort Miles barracks are still standing.

Large guns ranging all the way up to 16 inch barrels were installed at Fort Miles.  This gun had an 8" barrel:

This was the big 16 inch barrel gun. 

This is the “bullet” for a 16 inch barrel gun.

Several observation towers were constructed in and near Fort Miles.  This tower was open to the public.

You could see the barracks…

…the big 16” barrel gun…

…and the beach from the top of the tower.

We rode by another bunker on the bike trail.  Reminded us of "LOST".

We rode our bikes back to the car and had our picnic lunch.

We had headed back to the ferry parking lot and waited for the next ferry departure.  We were the first car on the ferry on the way back.

We stayed in the restaurant lounge on the way back because it was so windy.  We were the first ones to drive off the ferry too. 

Of course, we had to wait until they removed the chocks and the deck was lowered to drive across.

On the way back home, we drove by this country club at Seaview Golf Resort where an LPGA golf tournament was occurring.

On Sunday, we went to church about 20 miles away and watched the Coca Cola 600 later that evening back at the motorhome.  We stayed at the camper on Memorial Day and were very ready to leave Mosquitoland Tuesday morning.