Mike’s Photo Blog

Monday I left early, very early to drive down to Bombay Hook in Delaware. It didn't work out exactly as I planned/imagined. https://mike17042.blogspot.com/2025/06/plan-b-worked-out-pretty-good.html

In a nutshell as they say, on Monday I went South to Delaware then SE in Delaware then North across Delaware Bay on the ferry to Cape May, from there North to Brigantine (Edwin B Forsythe NWR) then NW to Philly, then West to Home along the PA Turnpike.Brigantine even though the lighting was not ideal was pretty damn good and I wanted more.

Yesterday (Thursday) I again left super early at 3AM to arrive at Brigantine for sunrise. To get to Brig you really have no better route than to go through downtown Philly. This wasn't bad at all on Monday, but yesterday, Southbound on the Surekill Expressway was rather hectic even at that early hour, the loonies were out in force. Not only Kamikaze Philly commuters, poorly signed roadworks and 3 lanes into 1 made me super grateful I wasn't a later Philly commuter as the Surekill is mayhem in the morning at the best of times. I had Siri to guide me in the reverse of the route on Monday. This was the start of Siri's brain fart meltdown. Philly is on the Delaware River and to get to New Jersey you usually go over the Walt Whitman Bridge or the Ben Franklin Bridge. Siri seemed determined to screw me up and took me over a bridge I never knew existed, the Betsy Ross Bridge. This route went for twenty miles or so of stop go traffic lights before eventually joining up with the Atlantic City Parkway. Needless to say I never made it for the sunrise, thank you Siri.

It wasn't bad at all driving round the Brigantine 8 mile Wildlife Loop twice. The light was nice in the golden hour and although not quite as many species as Monday I was satisfied and got lots of shots Then I had a brain wave, I wasn't looking forward to going back home through Philly so I decided I was going to do the reverse of Monday. While I know the simple route down to the Ferry Terminal in Cape May I wasn't sure of how long it was going to take. I nicely asked Siri to plan a route to the Cape May Ferry Terminal. This is where Siri and I had a major fall out. Normally the command to wake Siri up is "Hey Siri" then the command, "Play such and such a track or artist or in this case get directions to the Cape May Ferry Terminal". My iPhone is plugged into the Outback and running Apple Car Play. For some unknown reason she was having a particularly bad day for no matter how I phrased the command to take me to the Cape May Ferry Terminal she always gave me a route to the Ferry Terminal in Lewes Delaware. Now obviously to get to the ferry terminal in Lewes Delaware you either have to drive a hell of a long way around the entire Delaware Bay or you take the ferry from, wait for it, yes you got it, the Cape May Ferry Terminal. After several minutes I gave up and told her as I have on a couple of other occasions to go and do something extremely unnatural with the rough end of a pineapple.

I booked online a one way sailing for the 9:30 ferry and got there in plenty of time. I have to mention it was getting exceedingly warm by this time which was part of my reasoning as I knew the 80 minute crossing over the bay would be nice and cooling. The 9:30 ferry had an issue of some sort and sitting in the car waiting to board was not fun. I'm pretty sure they don't rely on Siri for navigation or anything. The incoming ferry from Lewes for the return 10:30 sailing docked before we were allowed to board the delayed 9:30 sailing. They did a good job getting all the vehicles onboard and off we went. About halfway across the bay the 10:30 ferry overtook our boat and docked about 10 minutes before we did! Once off the ferry I headed NW to Bombay Hook in the 94F (34.4C) temperatures. Bombay Hook was hot, buggy and being high tide pretty devoid of anything to photograph not to mention the harsh early afternoon sunlight. The only photo I took was of a young Raccoon.

After a very early start in the mornings I like to rely on Siri to get me home so I don't have to think. To get home from Bombay Hook is pretty straight forward except that Siri always wants me to take a route that I don't like. I always ask her to plan a route to Gap in Pennsylvania. This my preferred route both coming and going. Normally it works out just fine. I did mention that Siri and I had falling out didn't I. Siri's revenge was to take me through the backroads of what I suppose was Delaware County then into the deepest darkest Amish country of Lancaster County. I have no idea of how many stop signs along these twisty, windy lanes there were but the convoys of Amish Horse and Buggies were even worse. Trying to safely overtake a horse and buggy on the said twisty winding backroads was difficult and time consuming to say the least. Siri can be difficult at times.

Here's some photographs.