Delaware

I visited Delaware a few times when I lived in Pennsylvania. There are a lot of scenic places there. I've been to Rehoboth beach; it is a beautiful place. The more I think about it, the more I'm looking forward to moving.

We are going to try to save enough money to move in early October. After that and we risk really, really cold weather. Moving in the bitter cold is not fun. And, after 6.5 yrs living in south Louisiana, I'm acclimated to the heat and humidity. The temperature here rarely dips much below freezing in the winter.

I'm not sure where we will live exactly, but it will be near the northern tip, in the Wilmington/Newark area. The trip will be about 1300 miles. We will drive through Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia (just a little), Tennessee, Virginia, and Maryland on the way. The road time will be about 26 hours.

Twenty Delaware facts (now with BONUS editorial comments!)*:

• Henry Hudson sailed his storied ship, the Half Moon, up Delaware Bay in 1609, becoming the first European known to have visited the area.


• Dutch leader Peter Minuit, employed by Sweden, brought settlers in two ships to what is now Wilmington in 1638.


• Swedish settlers here introduced the log cabin to American shores. (Shores, this is a log cabin. Log cabin, shores.)


• In 1655, New Amsterdam Governor Peter Stuyvesant brought a large fleet to the area, captured all of New Sweden for the Dutch, and ended Swedish rule in America.


• Delaware was the only colony to have been claimed by Sweden, Holland, and England.


• When a ship carrying peas wrecked on a sandbar, the peas grew and collected so much sand that a new island formed, now Pea Patch Island.


• Johan Prinz, capable governor of New Sweden from 1643 to 1653, was the "greatest" of all colonial governors. He weighed 400 pounds and was called the "Big Tub."


• Named for Lord De La Warr, early governor of Virginia; the name was first applied to the river, then to the Indian tribe (Lenni-Lenape) and to the state.


• When Shadrach Cannon of Seaford was bitten by a rabid dog, some of the town's best citizens were selected to smother him to death between two feather beds, in an early mercy killing. (Gruesome! Asphyxiation is a "mercy" killing?)


• In 1776, although he was seriously ill, Caesar Rodney, a member of the Continental Congress, made a famous ride from Wilmington, Delaware, to Philadelphia in order to cast the deciding vote for the Declaration of Independence.


• Delaware is known as the "First State" to ratify the US constitution.


• A 1978 order of the U.S. Supreme Court permitted the busing of children from Wilmington to the suburbs to promote racial integration. The decision was a landmark for the establishment of this practice.


• Today, Delaware is both a farming and an industrial region and leads the nation in the production of chemicals. (Yummy! Chemicals!)


• More corporations are headquartered in Delaware than in any other state as a result of its corporate laws. (Sociopathic corporate-type ladder-climber that I am, this will be like heaven!)


• Delaware is the second smallest state in the US. (Rhode Island is the smallest. I've lived there too, by the way.)


• total area: 2,397 sq. mi. (6208 sq. km.)


• land area: 1,955 sq. mi. (5063 sq. km.)


• Length: 100 mi.; width: 30 mi. (length: 161 km.; width 48 km.) (I did all these conversions from miles to kilometers myself. You see, I care about all the snaars fans, not just the De La Warrians. Delaware-ites. Delawarese?)


• Population (2000 proj.): 763,000


• The lotus plants found here have led some specialists to believe that the region may have been visited by early Egyptian explorers.

* Bonus comments added 6/22/05. Most of the comments were there already. Sorry to get you excited.