Delaware River Canal Road Trip

On Sunday, October 25th, 1998, I finally had the buggy to the point where I could take it on an extended Road Trip and decided to take a drive along the Delaware River near me.   It's only about 20 minutes from where I live, but after the road worthyness trouble I had the Sunday before, I considered this "extended".

The Delaware in that section also includes a canal, which has recently undergone refurbishing. There's a mule path that people use for biking, walking and jogging and they've redone some of the locks, which are actually pretty cool.  It's a popular place to take an afternoon cruise and there were quite a few people out.  Oddly enough though, throughout the course of my trip I didn't get the usual plethora of gawkers, pointers and wavers.

I did get a family at one point when I stopped to buy a snack, that was heavily into VW's, even the mother.  All of them came up to the car as I was leaving with huge smiles on their faces getting my attention with comments and compliments. They circled the car as I was belting up, asking questions about what some of the parts were.   At one point while chatting with the mother, I noticed the father (very seriously) counselling his two sons on what I had done here and what I had done there on the car.  It was GREAT!  I gave em a little show pulling out of the parking lot, taking full advantage of my low first and new baffled chrome exhaust.

The photo to the right is where I stopped to devour the snack after encountering the family.  A father and son were fishing.  They didn't seem to mind the intrusion, but I think the dad was a little "irked" that I was distracting his son from their father/son outing . . . you shoulda seen the kid's grin when I pulled in!

Driving through Frenchtown, one of the small villages along the Delaware, I grabbed the camera and snapped off a shot.  Guess that 's what you'd see if you were hunched over in the passenger seat!

While I drove on the Pennsylvania side, I'd come to a bridge and cross over to New Jersey and cruise the main street.  Since lots of these towns are really just tourist traps and it was a warm day, streets were pretty busy.

There were a few spots along the river that you could only get to by off-road vehicles.  The photo at right and below was one of those stops.   The bank and terrain is rougher and steeper than it appears in the pics.  It was the first time I had had the buggy off pavement in quite some time and it was GREAT to be back!

For late October it was a really nice day.  It was warm and sunny without much wind.  The water of the river can be really relaxing and there's only a little distant car noise from Route 31 on the Pennsy side and Route 29 on the Jersey side.  The two roads parallel the river on either side between the Allentown area and Philly.  You see a lot of New York plates on cars since it's a popular area to go "antiquing".  One of the hot spots for that is New Hope, a little farther south.  I might have gone down that way if I had gotten out earlier . . . but it got late in the day and I decided not to.  You can tell it's getting late on a Fall day when you're driving along and you hit a pocket of cold air.   Gushes through the car like stepping into a walk-in freezer!

Photo at right is me coming up from the river on a trail. It's starting to level out there, but just behind me is a steep, rocky embankment.  In the pic on the left, I was driving along Route 31 headed north and picked up the camera to do a timed exposure . . . something like 1/8th of a second.  Sorta gives you the feel of speed!

Wasn't easy hanging the thing on my shoulder to shoot while trying not to careen through the guard rail on the right into the canal!

More Next Time! . . .