Thursday 17th August
Clear blue skies greet us this morning a gentle breeze blowing from the east cooling the air and dehumidifying it. The cicadas are in full swing, chirping away in a choral contest first in one part of the garden and then another. It’s going to be a warm day.
Today carpenters and painters arrive early at the house to replace the water damaged skirting in the basement and paint the kitchen. Jay the tiler also arrives to complete the last of the tile grouting, only a small section not finished yesterday. We have decided to return to New Hope today, this time to explore more of this side of the river.
I am downstairs having breakfast when Amanda brings me the sad news that her brother in law Dick as passed away early this morning. Dick was diagnosed with a brain tumour several months ago, after receiving emergency surgery, radiation and chemotherapy he has sadly succumbed to this terrible disease. Our day will be spent with heavy hearts as we grieve for the loss of Dick the family man who has spent so much of his retirement years caring for his mother Hazel (now passed) and his mother in law Shirley now 92 as well being a loving husband to Sue, Amanda’s sister and significantly influential father and grandfather figure to his family in North Vernon, Indiana and California.
After seeing Aubrey off to her best friends house where she is to spend the day swimming with her friends we drive through the green landscape dotted with corn fields to New Hope.
Not a cloud in the sky but not quite as hot as yesterday we park the car and walk away from the hustle and bustle of tourist part of town in the opposite direction. The homes along the riverside are substantial some almost miniature castles complete with curved towers and faux turrets.
We have learnt that the river floods regularly and did so again only recently leaving the town still in recovery mode. As a result reconstruction is going on up and down the river on both sides. We turn off the Main Street heading inland from the river towards a man made canal. First opened in 1832, the Delaware Canal still has most of its original locks, aqueducts, and overflows. Although the canal reached its peak shipping in 1855, after which coal transport down the river corridor was taken up increasingly by railroads, the canal stayed in operation until the Great Depression in the early 1930s and was longest-lived canal in the country. The canal stretches in total some 97 kilometres and was mainly used to transport coal from Pennsylvania coal mines to fuel the heavy industry of New Jersey. Incredibly the way they did this was to pull barges laden with 2 tonnes of coal along the canal by mule team. The mules would have their track alongside the canal, a feedbag on their muzzle, their driver walking alongside his team to keep them moving along at a slow but steady pace. People made their homes along the canal growing food that could be traded for coal along the way. We reach the canal and walk along what would have acted as the mules track all those years ago. As we walk along we can see the now tourist train and station that used to run along the canal eventually making it obsolete. Down on the canal the walking is easy, shady trees arch over us keeping the heat of the midday sun at bay. We walk for about two kilometres, admiring the view along the canal, a stretch of still water sometimes completely green with algae or duckweed.
Private properties and gardens lining our path as we proceed passing under several bridges that take traffic down to the Main Street. At one point the canal is contained in a bridge itself as it crosses another canal or creek below us surrounded by private apartments. Eventually we reach the lock house and one of the locks now in disrepair, the door to the lock house is open and contains a small museum of artefacts, pictures and stories surrounding life around the canal at its peak, very interesting. We take a look at the lock itself imagining how it would have looked and operated in earlier times.
We return to the street that runs through the centre of town, there are painted murals of life on the canal decorating building walls as we make our way down to street level.
At this end of town sits some beautiful old stone buildings one the home of an ironmonger the oldest stone home in New Hope built in 1743. Another built by a third generation Quaker Benjamin Parry a mill owner that operated on the river, was built in 1787.
We continue on looking for a restaurant for lunch today, one that we could see from the bridge as we crossed back to the Pennsylvania side yesterday, we could see a colourful row if umbrellas on a deck overlooking the river. We find place soon enough, the sign “The Landing River Terrace and Bar” directs us down a garden path, passed a bright red building with cream shutters to a little house where we are again directed around the house to a gate that opens up to a wide river and bridge vista. We are shown to our table by a shaven head young lady in a short flouncy skirt, the table is situated on the rail edge of the deck, amongst others full of diners, looking as if a reserved sign for us should be on it. Colourful umbrellas provide shade from the hot sun, the breeze off the river makes the air temperature pleasantly cooling. Lunch is a simple toasted sandwich of ham & brie with a loganberry sauce, again a melt with sweet potato fries, interestingly served with maple syrup as a dipping sauce. Ice tea and American lemonade (made from real lemons and devoid of carbonation) are our drinks of choice this lunch time.
Having stoked the fires for another few hours of energy we take our leave of the river view and “The Landing” to pick up the Mini from the carpark and head for home. Amanda has a hair appointment this afternoon and so this is our next destination. After dropping her off I drive back to Troy & Heathers where the trades are continuing with their schedule of repairs. Both Troy and Heather are chaffing at the bit to move onto putting the house back together in preparation for Saturday’s luau, the work though is proceeding at a snails pace and is causing frustration to set in. I suggest to Amanda by text that we could have a date night in Newtown, at a popular Italian restaurant we usually visit while here, Florentino’s. Troy makes us a booking and Heather drives me to my date, making us feel like a couple of teenagers out on the town. Amanda’s hair appointment has gone overtime and so she meets us at the restaurant, will I even recognise her? I ask myself. Of course I do, she us sitting patiently on a bench outside the restaurant, her hairdresser having driven her there a few minutes earlier, how is that for service! We do have a great meal together, forgetting that unusually they don’t have a wine cellar and are BYO only, we have to slip away to the local bottle shop first to by a coldie, and return paper bag in hand for our meal.
My meal’s main course is Blue Marlin, served with delicious porcini mushroom potato mash tasting better than its pale brown colour would suggest. Plus a sweet vegetable ratatouille. Amanda decided on the spinach ravioli, she loves pasta dishes and partakes whenever she can. We did share a blueberry, pear and arugula salad with goats cheese to start off with as well. Florentino’s have some great desserts that the waitress brings out on a tray to tempt us with but we have Zebra Striped Whale in mind for dessert. The Zebra Striped Whale ice creamery is just a few doors down the street a perfect dessert for the ice cream lovers that we are. The night is warm, perfect for ice cream as we sit and call Heather to pick us up, jokingly calling her Moms Taxi. Heather is soon with us, glad of the break from the disrupted house, she whisks us home and we are soon in our beds for another night of battery recharge to ready us for a big day ahead tomorrow.
