A Winter Day in Delaware

Over Presidents Day weekend I had a book signing in Newark, Delaware. My oldest brother and his family live there, so I stayed with them. This picture is from the Hagley Museum Website.

Early Friday afternoon my sister-in-law collects me from the airport and drops me at Hagley Museum while she runs errands. Hagley is the site of the DuPont gunpowder works. The DuPonts amassed their fortune on the foundation of gunpowder manufacture, and this is where it all started in the early 1800s. The 235-acre park includes restored mills, a workers' community and the DuPont family home and gardens.

The museum is two floors of exibits, and I am the only visitor. I see what the downstairs has to offer before stepping out the back exit—a step back in time.

My first sight is the icy Brandywine River lined with 10 or so three-sided buildings that in the early 1800s were used for separate steps in the process of making gunpowder. The irregular rooms, open to the river, are small, 12-15 feet across, and the walls of gray stone are about eight inches thick, to contain an explosion should one have occurred.
I cross from the museum straight to the lookout over the bend in the river and realize that Delaware’s weather is just as Ohio’s this mid February, with snow fall covered with thick ice. I don’t fall, but I walk gingerly.

I shuffle along among the bare trees behind the stone shacks leaving no footprints on the ice to mar the tranquility of the scene. The river’s surface is frozen thinly near the bank, and though I’d like to take a closer look, I dare not as I’m alone this afternoon. One slip, and I might be MIA for hours as no one knows exactly where in the park I am.
My time in the frigid weather reminds me of a time 10 years ago or more when I hiked some snowy trails at Caesar’s Creek, along State Route 73 near Waynesville, and found it so peaceful then. I’d forgotten how nice hiking—or simply visiting a park— in the winter is.

After I pass the last stone building on the river, I take the icy bridge to the road, cross and climb into a wooded area following deer tracks that must have been left before the icefall. I’m hoping they will lead back to the museum, where my brother will meet me when he gets off work.
About a quarter mile into the wood, it hits me that a deer would likely not have an aim for the museum. So I turn back to the road.

Walking on the paved surface for just a couple steps, I realize that walking on ice-covered snow is lots more fun. I cross to the river side and meander back to the museum in time to meet my brother, and I tell him how much I enjoyed being the sole visitor to Hagley that afternoon.

While Hagley Museum was interesting, focusing on early American industry, and the grounds were pleasant and refreshing, the point I want to make with this story is that we are lucky enough here in Southwest Ohio to experience the four seasons and also lucky enough to have parks close to where we live, and just because there’s snow on the ground should not keep you from enjoying them. You’ll awaken new senses visiting a park in the winter. You’ll see new things with the leaves off the trees. You’ll feel that instant of refreshing coolness deep inside when you breath the brisk air. You’ll experience solitude as perhaps the only visitor to the park.
Oh, wait; I’ll be there. See you after the next snow.