winter weekend with wife's wotus

[tedtaylor]

Hope this inspires!
Wife and I headed out early Saturday morning for a wedding anniversary getaway. I had the night before got the car out of the garage and loaded up readied for the trip. Of course, it flurried snow during the night, so i was greeted early morning with a wet car. Oh well, fully expect it to get dirty this weekend anyway.
Drove south, jumped over the DelMem bridge and followed Rt. 1 all the way to Lewes, DE. Watched a MLK parade at 11AM and froze to death walking around town, checking out museums, shops, and the scenic parks.

We explored a WW2 siteing tower (one of about a dozen up and down the coast mostly on DE side, but a couple in Jersey too) they are used to triangulate enemy ship positions in the ocean/bay and communicated the coordinates to artillery batteries for targeting and sinking the ships (never happened).
this is the view from the top. You can go up in one in Cape May too.

We parked at the tip of Cape Henlopen (tip of Delaware at the bay) and one of a couple light houses there. I noticed the dry road salt spray on the sides of my car??? who the heck laid down road salt just for flurries ?!?!?!
Well we spent the day in Lewes and walked the highest natural sand dune on the east coast, explored the area and sites. Surprisingly enough, due to holiday weekend, there were many folks doing the same. We had lunch and eventually headed for the ferry trip to Cape May. We watched a beautiful sunset over the bay while crossing. The winds were howling and the waves were rocking the ship around getting my better half a little queezy. We headed for Congress Hall, built in the 1800's and fully renovated 12 years ago, it is one of the remaining great Victorian age beachfront hotels of yesteryear. Went to dinner and walked some shops. Eventually crashed.
Up next morning, breakfast in the lobby "Blue Pig" restaurant, we overheard a gentleman next to us talking about shipping parts to England for his classic cars. Well we struck up a conversation. What a guy! He collects/restores "higher end" British cars and motorcycles. He is located at the Cape May Airport. We chatted briefly and my wife and I decided to try and find him at the airport later that morning. sure enough, we caught him coming out of his hanger with a 3-wheeled Morgan taking it for a spin!
The airport hanger is HIS. He retrofits turbo-prop aircraft engines for Caribou cargo aircraft for the Pen Turbo company. He gave us a very brief tour of the hanger filled with his prized toys. He showed us a Morgan "pickup" he's restoring, and restored Nortons, BSAs, his XKE and many other unique vehicles. All the while, towering over us, were these hugh cargo planes in the hanger being retrofitted. It was truly amazing and fantastic. He was quite an eccentric type guy (aren't we all a bit?) probably in his 60's and flying high, on the go, and hyper energized. I was awe-struck!
We left there, toured the Cape May zoo (rivals the Philadelphia Zoo easily AND best of all-----it's FREE), visited relatives in Wildwood and headed back down to Cape May for dinner out and then back to Congress Hall for a Beatles tribute band playing in the "Boiler Room" downstairs bar/lounge for great music. All in all, a very action packed, very full agenda weekend.
Of course I saved the best for last.....the ride home in my Elan. I made the trip in only an hour and a half, cruising 90 MPH all the way up Rt. 55 and back home before midnight!
I love weekend getaways and all the more fun doing it in a Lotus. I must add my 2-cent commercial praising the M100 Elan. Having driven just about every Lotus, this by far is the best, most comfortable, most civilized ride a Lotus can offer. My wife absolutely refused to go in the Elise (and in retrospect, I can't blame her). The Elan was the best choice, offered creature comforts like a trunk for luggage, heat, music, smooth ride, and good speed, drive-ability. If you haven't owned or driven one, you are missing out. They are much rarer than most other Lotus models, just about indestructible, reliable, stylish, but all the while, providing creature comforts unlike any other Lotus. They are very affordable and in my opinion, extremely undervalued. Get one now before all the good ones are gone forever!

[HJ2]

Thanks for sharing, good reading!

[RayD]

Excellent!

Ray

[niall]

Thanks for your fascinating account Ted. Glad you were able to get out in your M100 even in January.

[steve matthews]

Ted, Lewis De. one of our favorite places. We stay at the Rodney hotel on the corner. Rose and crown is in the
lobby. Rehoboth beach with Dogfish brew pub and Thrashers French Fries.
Cape May Ferry a must for anyone not having done it. While in Cape May stop in at Sid's Tavern for a brew
and a Taylor Pork Roll.

Excellent trip

Steve

[DeanG]

Lewis DE has a pretty nice British car show every year. There are usually a few Lotus folks in attendance. We only made in once some years ago.

[lotos]

Thanks for posting that! Were there pictures attached that I'm not seeing?

[tedtaylor]

Thanks for posting that! Were there pictures attached that I'm not seeing?

yes, unfortunately file size on my pix are too large to post on LEC