......

THE SUNSHINE!! THE WEDDING!! THE DOGS!
THE CRAB CAKES! THE TUMBLE-DOWN HOUSES! THE BRIDGE-TUNNEL!

First, the sunshine, I suppose, because when I pulled back the drapes of Room 231 of the Hampton Inn of Salisbury, Maryland, this morning--Hallelujah! was the word that came to mind. How fantastic to know that as we celebrate the wedding, we will have beautiful weather.

The Royal Wedding had already taken place by the time I unveiled the sunny outdoor scene, of course, as my yard man had only suggested setting the alarm for 3:30 a.m. so as to watch the wedding as it was actually taking place (he followed through by laughing at his own great joke!) Didn't matter. It wasn't that wedding we are celebrating, anyway.














And then the dogs--
they seemed to be ubiquitous at the Hampton Inn. Yesterday, when we walked into the lobby, we couldn't help but notice-- anyone not holding a poodle on the end of a leash was talking about one. Poodles were trotting into the elevator, clearly heading for rooms.

"Are dogs allowed here?" I asked at the hotel desk.






"Ordinarily not," said the clerk. "But we make an exception once a year for the Poodles Only International Dog Show."

I regret, Dear Reader, I didn't get a shot of the most impressive ones-- the royal-looking dogs, groomed to perfection
(award-winners, to be sure).


Trekking onward, we relished the homemade crab cakes and breaded oysters we happened upon at Metompkin, Virginia. They caused my yard man to rave for many miles after.

(I myself was pleased by the name Metompkin and the oyster-shelled parking lot.)









So then.



In this section of the country lonely old houses, aging and decrepit, are more ubiquitous, in fact, than dogs in a hotel lobby at the time of an international dog show.






I stifled the urge to expand this portfolio of pictures beyond the point of reasonableness. (It helped that my yard man was chauffeuring me along at a very good clip, and straining to see the value of photos of shabby dwellings.)










But we did, Dear Reader, whiz past hundreds of opportunities--including derelict places of business--










a mystifying abundance of desolate buildings.




I even spotted one holey church!














Alas, Dear Reader, I shouldn't be showing you Delmarva's* dowdy accessories;
she's truly a Southern Belle!







With miles of beauty!


Right down to her very tip--
which ends, I guess, somewhere on
that long extension she had added back in 1964.**

**That would be the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel***

***Designated One of Seven Engineering Wonders of the Modern World in 1965.


(I can't simply drop you off in the middle of the
bridge, Reader Dear! I'll take you the rest
of the way another day...)


......
*Del-Mar-Va
.a.k.a. DE, MD, VA
(got that all figured out, Dear Reader?
You can always call it the Eastern Shore,
but where's the charm in that?)