When summer traffic crawls, the Civil Air Patrol soars

By Bill Newcott
Photograph by Bill Newcott
From the August 2022 issue

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The good news is there’s surprisingly little traffic on Route 1 heading down from Dover this afternoon, especially considering this is Friday before a long holiday weekend. From my back seat in this Cessna 182T, I can see that even the gauntlet of traffic lights in Dewey Beach — I call it the Bottle & Cork Bottleneck — is flowing freely. 

The less good news is this givesmy flying companions very little to report to the Delaware Department of Transportation. Ostensibly, the reason we’re up here, making a lazy, 30-mile-long loop up and down the Delaware coast, is to help DelDOT keep track of the expected holiday backups. 

But pilot Bill Trussell doesn’t seem to mind the absence of snarls down there, and neither does his co-pilot, Phil Schlosser. The most important thing to them, it’s easy to see, is that they are up here, taking in the vista of green land, sinuous waterways and blue sea.


The Freeman Arts Pavilion is marking its 15th year with big sounds — and bigger plans

By Bill Newcott
Photograph by Butch Comegys
From the August 2022 issue

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Asked to recall the earliest days of the Freeman Arts Pavilion in Selbyville, orchestral percussionist Dane Krich hears crickets. No, not the “I can’t think of anything to say” kind  of crickets. He’s thinking real, chirping crickets.

“This was when the Freeman Stage was just a wooden platform, over by that pond,” Krich says, indicating the squared-off body of water that lies between the Freeman and a bank of four-story condominiums.

“We were playing, and all of a sudden there was this enormous chorus of crickets coming from the pond. It was crazy. You could hear them over the orchestra. Finally, the maestro, Julien Benichou, leaned over in that direction and yelled, ‘You’re chirping out of tune!’” 


 

Fun and fitness combine to make pickleball increasingly popular in coastal Delaware

By Chris Beakey
Photograph by Scott Nathan
From the July 2022 issue

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Over the past several years, Ginny Rickards and her teenage grandson, Jason, have learned to surf together, spent long days on the Rehoboth boardwalk together, and shared too many wonderful family meals to count. But then, just when she thought life couldn’t get any better, they both discovered pickleball, one of the nation’s fastest growing sports and now her family’s favorite way to stay in shape.

“Jason started first, in May of last year,” she recalls. “I watched him play with my daughter, Katie, over at the courts at Redden Ridge near Rehoboth. I was somewhat reluctant to try it because 

I was never a real tennis player — I’d hit the ball around just to have something to do. But I was surprised at how different pickleball is — the ball is lightweight but moves fast, and once you start playing you realize how much better you get with practice.”