Visionaries, superlatives on the Great Cape Sidewalk Loop
I pumped up the tires last Sunday morning and put new AAA batteries in my flashing taillight. Safety first. Then I headed outside aiming to stake my claim as the first human being ever to complete the Great Cape Sidewalk Loop.
It was a sunny, spring morning with the mockingbirds and bluejays competing for American Idol honors. Mockingbirds won. Who doesn’t love an impersonator?
So, the Great Cape Sidewalk Loop? It stretches from the beachside foot of Nassau Overpass all the way south along Route 1 to the sidewalks of Dewey Beach and back again on the other side. Contractors have been working on it all winter after DelDOT negotiated for a year or more to buy rights-of-way to make way for the sidewalk. The curb-protected walkway is the crown jewel of the recommendations made awhile back by the Route 1 safety committee. The loop works its way for a good 15 miles along the southbound and northbound lanes of Route 1, passing churches, schools, shops and stores in malls and centers, crossing the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal, offering a linear refuge along the highway for walkers and cyclists.
Rep. Pete Schwartzkopf has led efforts over the years to make Route 1 in the Cape Region function better, including creation of the safety committee.
He said the sidewalk is open to bicyclists and walkers as a safe alternative to the shoulder of the highway. “State law says that as long as there are no signs stating bicycles aren’t allowed on sidewalks, they’re open to cyclists.”
He said the sidewalk is important for cyclists for safety, and he will not recommend any signs limiting its use to walkers.
Starting at Nassau and pedaling south, it took me about an hour to get to Dewey Beach. That included lollygagging here and there to talk to people and take pictures.
The Great Cape Sidewalk Loop is no speedway and involves lots of stops and traffic crossovers. In some places there are mailboxes in the middle of the sidewalk; in others, utility poles. There are also lots of turnoffs from Route 1 crossing the sidewalk so you have to be constantly on the lookout for cars coming behind you that may be turning.
That’s why I keep the batteries in my flashing light fresh.
Encounter with a visionary
At the Route 1 and 24 intersection, I stopped at the ROYAL FARMS COMING SOON sign and wondered why it’s taking so long.
I photographed the sign and noticed another cyclist pedaling past. He turned around, came back to where I stood, and introduced himself:
“I’m Garrett King,” he said. “I’m riding home from Milton where I stayed last night. We met a few years ago. Sometime I need to get up with you and talk about an idea I have.”
“No time better than the present,” I said.
He pointed to one of the giant utility poles. “I’d like to start a campaign to get these out of here. Get the wires underground. Route 1 would look so much better without them and it would be cheaper and less dangerous to maintain them. I’m young, looking ahead, and I think Route 1 can be a lot more beautiful.”
“Go after it,” I said. “It just takes one or two people to get something big going.”
“And don’t get me started about an aquatic center,” he said. “I was on Cape’s first swimming team. We need a first-rate aquatic center with a few pools set up for national and international competition. We could have big meets here four or five times a year. They would draw from all over the East Coast. People filling the motels and restaurants. It could be huge, and particularly big for the off-season.”
“Works for me,” I said. “I wish voters had approved the pool referendum for Cape a few years ago.”
All that oxygen pumping through his veins and arteries from the Milton ride had Garrett cranked up.
“I have to go,” he said. “I’m riding the shoulder. That way I don’t have all the stops. I know it’s more dangerous. But is life worth living if you don’t take some risk?” By the time I had finished pondering what he said, he had disappeared. Visionary and magician.
Half an hour later I was sitting at the bar at the Starboard in Dewey, fueling up for the northward, and homeward, section of the loop. Megan hooked me up with a breakfast burrito and two ice-filled cups brimming with fresh-squeezed orange juice and grapefruit juice.
The oxygen had me wired too, after the first half of my history-making ride. But not much sharper in the brain. I asked Megan if she had any Tabasco, to fire up my burrito.
“Sure,” she said, reaching under the bar and producing a big bottle. That was kind of her. She didn’t even bring up the Sunday morning Bloody Mary bar I had walked past a few minutes before crowded with hundreds of bottles of hot sauce.
Chip Hearn started that Bloody Mary bar of liquid heat, first when he owned the Country Squire in Rehoboth and then, greatly expanded, when he owned the Starboard in Dewey. It’s part of the superlative history of the Great Cape Sidewalk Loop. In addition to the World’s Largest Collection of Hot Sauces, at Hearn’s Pepper’s, the loop also includes the World’s Greatest Liquor Store - Atlantic - and the World’s Greatest Rock and Roll Bar - the Bottle and Cork.
The loop is safe, filled with variety and commercial culture, and is just getting started. Let’s see what Garrett and his generation can do with it.
