There is no direct way to get from Washington DC to Dover Delaware.
One had to take Maryland 50 across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge then hook into 301 North until finally peeling off onto Route 8 East.
Retrace as necessary.
That final leg, or first if one was heading back to NOVA, was a single lane road through the Maryland backwoods. In 1998 it was like driving through the Blair Witch Project. More often then not we did the trip back to DC at night.
We mention this because 20 years ago we drove that route a lot. We lived in Northern Virginia while our fiancee lived at home in Dover while she wrapped up her senior year of college.
This was also the time in our life when we had fully abandoned rock n roll and were really into classical.
Throughout this long, lonely drive Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony kept us company. Those interested may listen here:
Stick with it, it gets heavy
Heading back to NOVA as one approached the Chesapeake you got in range of Washington DC sports radio. Back then the talk was all about high expectations for Juwan Howard and the Washington Wizards, the Redskins new owner, would baseball ever recover from the strike and who would the Colts take as their number one pick, Ryan Leaf or Peyton Manning.
Twenty years ago we listened along dark roads lined with leafless winter trees, and we were heading into the worst year of our life, a sensation we recall even now.
