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Family Roadtrip: Down the DelMarVa

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We made a fairly late start to the trip on Friday. Though we got underway at 11 in the morning -- a full hour earlier than we expected -- but I had to stop at Citizen's Bank Park to exchange a season ticket. Lunch at Arner's and a couple of wrong turns probably put us behind schedule by two hours. At our current rate of travel, we'd hit Washington D.C. smack in the middle of rush hour. A back-up on I-95 in Delaware forced a decision to shoot down the peninsula instead. I calculated that given the traffic we'd otherwise hit going down 95, we'd probably fare just as well doing the scenic route. Having not traveled down these roads in over ten years, I welcomed the chance to at least peak at the progress of a few places along the way. We saw the construction of the new Smyrna Diner in Smyrna -- now looking more like a Cracker Barrel than a true diner, and the now closed Bridgeville Diner in Bridgeville. We also saw an alarming amount of development and now-former farmland, as well as all the rampant big box development that also follows. But fortunately, a few places remained relatively unchanged. [b]Exmore Diner[/b] I last visited the Exmore all the way back in 1997 during one of the thankfully few times I ever assisted a diner salvage operation for the Imaginary Diner Museum. Driving all the way down to Tasley, Virginia, we found the old Brill-built diner on the verge of collapse because someone dragged their feet retrieving the donation before the bulldozers moved in. Thanks to two visits to the Exmore at the time, the trip didn't go down as a total waste of time. The amazingly preserved Silk City diner offers up classic diner fare with a Southern twist. A few years ago, the diner celebrated its fiftieth anniversary of service in the same location, now bypassed by the newer Route 13 highway that shoots down to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. Downtown Exmore itself now advertises its downtown revitalization on lamppost banners, but it still looks a few years off from truly gathering any momentum. For its part, the busy little diner would make a fine anchor to that rebirth if it didn't sit so far outside the historic commercial district. Since we stayed overnight in Exmore, we took advantage of an opportunity to have both dinner and breakfast at the diner. The diner has no additional seating other than the 45 that came with it, so it fills up quickly. The Roadside family sat at the counter both times, but kids prefer the counter anyway, and our child was no exception. Dinner brought us drum fish for Mrs. Roadside and scallops for me, both fried and succulent. Our waitress displayed great patience with the child and our various manipulations designed to get her to eat her dinner, but as expected, having a front seat to all the behind-the-counter activity kept her reasonably entertained and focused. Family restaurants that don't have counter areas (or have removed them entirely such as Friendly's) do those families something of a disservice. Kids love the counter. Breakfast brought us eggs made into omelets, good coffee, and tasty home fries grilled with onions (as an option), and another fun visit in a hoppin' little diner, which continues to look like a real gem. We did have one major issue with the place: Smoking. Okay, so this is Virginia, and I'll assume that the tobacco lobby still holds sway keeping any anti-smoking ordinances at bay, the 15 foot by 45 foot diner divides itself in half for smokers and non-smokers. During breakfast, the two couples sitting at the booth behind us all lit up, spoiling an otherwise happy experience. Given the limited seating, their lingering to finish their cigarettes does little to put cash in the register. Next time: A long scenic stretch into North Carolina