Delaware is another rural area with plenty of farmland, woodland, and small villages. We're heading north west across the state towards the bridge that will take us to Maryland. After another cold day we seek shelter in woods to camp, hoping the trees will help keep the frost off the tent. Our plan at the bridge is to try and thumb a ride. Bicyles are not allowed. A bike path gets us to the bridge approach and a McDonald's is a warm refuge for lunch. The only problem is the highway here has no pull-ins. So we resort to hanging on the edge of a side road and try to thumb a ride from pickups pulling onto the highway. We get nowhere fast. We move over to a petrol station. Nada. Back to the McDonald's car park. A man asks us where we're heading. Unconciously we track him back to his vehicle, a pickup. We hurry over and Gayle pops the question. But no, he's just come over the bridge on his way home. Dejected we head back to our original point only for the man to wave us back over. Yes, he'll take us. No, he'll not accept any money. Fantastic. The bridge is a narrow fast double carriageway. He drops us at the first exit. Thank you kindly.
In Annapolis we're hosted by the lovely Cindy. She has a couple of gigantic dogs. Like many of the Warm Showers hosts we've stayed with in the States, one of the dogs has been rescued. This one growls at me and Cindy explains that it is frightened by tall men. When I sit on the floor the dog relaxes. I don't. We have a good natter over a filling meal and sleep snugly. Cindy suggests we might want to use the train to get across the city the next day. We are heading to our friends out near Reston, on the other side of Washington D.C. The train obviates the need for navigating a route avoiding all the big highways and turns out to be perfect. After an hour's ride we reach the most easterly station on the network and the train we take crosses through the city and out the other side. Bingo. From Reston it's an uphill ride through a shopping area and out into woodland where the houses become sparser. And here is Kamran and Emma's house.
Only Kamran and Emma are on holiday with their daughters Hannah and Olivia. We have easy instructions how to get into the house and the neighbours have been warned about our arrival. While our hosts are having a belated family holiday which they missed out on in the summer, we settle in to their home with helpful instructions from Emma and the offer to use either of the cars in the garage. We take a look at the Merc and the BMW and decide to stick to the bikes. Now, how do we get the cover off the hot tub?
