Dover to Buffalo, NY

Before leaving the brewery we wanted to visit the beach at Delaware in the heatwave so we drove to Pickering Beach in the evening. It is a beautiful sandy beach and we learnt about the Atlantic Horseshoe Crabs after noticing the huge shells in the sand. First I took a photo of it with the Iseek app which helps to recognise plants and animals unknown to us. Then we look up the wikipedia or other google hits about the unknown plant or animal and read about it to the kids. This time there was a very informative board at the beach entrance which I have read before leaving (did not notice it getting to the beach.) Atlantic horseshoe crabs look like an alien, but their history is pretty impressive. They’ve been around for 450 million years, predating the dinosaurs by more than 200 million years.

We arranged the plates for the car and then the trailer received a new temporary tag which is valid for another two months. To get that we went back to basics and visited Hitch RV again, where I have picked up the travel trailer in May. The process was done quickly and I also bought two parts (a new motor to the kitchen air went and a new latch for the door which was broken). The guys even helped to fill our water tank and around 12:00 we left Milford to the North.

For the first day we planned a relatively shorter drive, about 165 miles to a riverside private property in Pennsylvania. The ranch was amazing, huge space with level grass and lots of nice trees, the riverbank just next to the building.

The next day was a longer drive (about 255 miles or 406 kms). As we are doing about 50 miles an hour and we stop every 1,5-2 hours for a longer break with the kids this means a full day of driving. We planmed to arrive at around 6pm to out last US stop on this segment, which was at a church. When we stopped for our first rest and refuelling Abel, my son said that he heard one of oir tire hissing. First I hoped that he was not right but after checking the tire of the trailer I also heard it losing air. I even found a small white piece of bone just on the edge of the running thread and the side of the tire. I assume we picked it up when turning into the fuel station.

As this was our first flat tire situation I had to think about how to change the tire. I quickly assembled the cars jack and combining it with the stabilizers of the trailer managed to lift it enough to remove the punctured wheel. We lost about an hour and it was the most easy way to practice. We were standing on a level concrete plot and we had air to check the spare tire (which was obviously not at the rigth pressure).

At our next stop we skipped cooking lunch and quickly refilled our stomach at a Wendy's, and across the road there was a tire shop so we bought a new spare tire as well. The best scenario to have a flat tire for sure.l, I imagine the same on a remote Alaska highway and that could be much worse.
So our planned arrival was delayed a lot, at sunset at about 8:00pm we pulled into the parking lot of the Armor Bible Church. The place was ideal for us, we got electricity and there was a great playground for the kids to lose some energy of the long day, sitting in the car.

The next day we head on to Niagara Falls! Exciting to get back to Canada after this long and beautiful administrative detour.