Coffee Break?

I WISH!  Just got back from a trip down to the ‘fogotten mile’ around Rehoboth Beach.  It’s only April and the traffic horrendous.  Of course, I did forget that it is the Dog Walk in RB, today, which could explain the volume of traffice even on the back roads but couldn’t help thinking about the near or distant future…yet again.

Rt. 24 is a two lane road and, even with an uninformed eye, I can’t see how it could ever be made otherwise with so many communities built right to the highway.  Next Friday is the grand opening of a new supermarket.  Very soon afterwards, yet another will open about two blocks west.  Rumour has it that either an Olive Garden or Red Lobster (or both??) will be going in the same area.  New housing communities are going up left, right and center (or east, west and north).  Three large supermarkets in about a mile strip of road is a plethora of choices for much of this area as I see it.  Being between Milton and Rehoboth (and one of the markets being totally new to Delaware to begin with…aside from having opened one in Selbyville a few short months ago), those back roads are, themselves, going to be busy…never mind Rt. 24.  

We’ve lived in our community…south side of 24…for ten years.  Some few annual meetings ago several of our residents asked our HOA when, or even if, we would get a stop light in order to facilitate access to and from our homes.  We were told it was unlikely to ever happen.  A supermarket gets ready to open about as many yards from an intersection light and, voila…stop light is installed weeks ago.  Yet I don’t see it as being much help to communities such as ourselves.  Sure…as long as we want to go in an easterly direction it probably won’t be so difficult but to cross the highway and head westerly?  That’s been bad enough the last few years it can only get worse and I expect to see that beginning this summer.  Few residents of Sussex want to go near Rt.1 during the summer (and if you’ve ever had to, you know why!) so given that the popular supermarkets now have stores out this way…perfect.  They don’t have to attempt the Rt. 1 horrors…just create new ones on another road.  We felt when we chose to be about twelve miles from the beaches of Rehoboth, Lewes…and further from Dewey and Bethany…we were lucky.  Apparently we didn’t think far enough ahead.  We actually become prisoners during the summer…run to get everything and anything done during weekdays, if possible, because weekends are practically IMpossible between vying for parking, fighting traffic congestion, long lines everywhere one may wish to go.  Winter isn’t altogether too different…you have free access, no parking, no lines…but very little is open.  Such is life not necessarily in a resort…just even near one.

Yesterday we talked to a couple in the vet’s office.  They were in to get their cat’s shots updated, clean bill of health etc. in preparation for taking him ”back to Colorado”.  I’m of a mind to ask if I can go with…and I’ll happily get my shots, clean bill of health.