Notes: On the Train to Wilmington Delaware - Spring 1997

According to my notes, a workshop at the AWP in Washington, D.C., had been about challenging the students with harsh criticism, that shame has a strong impact.  How my Amtrak ride, which began in Tacoma, was sometimes a little dizzy with motion and dreams.

At the station just now the baggage check person told me I could catch this earlier train - so I am going an hour ahead of time - I asked the person who took my ticket about my ticket - and I guess it is ok.

I dreamed I was waking up in some man's arms & realized I was in love with some woman -

Not awake at all - I asked the ticket taker very anxiously about my ticket - this is not my train

Walked from the station - and then past a sculpture of granite house walls & uphill to Holiday Inn.

At the Kalmar Nyckel Shipyard, 1997

The Historic District in Wilmington, Delaware - Spring 1997

There was a wait before I checked in at the Holiday Inn. No breakfast - I went down around the corner downhill and very soon I was into a very old neighborhood and there was a sign for The Fort Christina -  small blue sign on a small street corner. - turned & the Christina - Old Swede's Church Center was there immediately. I brought my bag up the steps % there was a man there who opened the door up for me - inside someone in a dress & flattish shoes was with students -

she said I could go look at the cemetery but the church & the historic house were both only open MWF Sat - or so - I went around returned & knocked - a student-aged girl let me out into the churchyard by the back door. And I walked there just a bit & took some snapshots -

The trees beyond the Amtrak train are in the churchyard at Old Swede's Church

The Milles Monument in Wilmington, Delaware - Spring 1997

Beyond the Milles Monument was the railroad underpass and beyond that the walk along the waterfront. 

I went to see the Milles monument, which was down the street -

The cabin was saved from demolition - it is a Swedish Log Cabin

beyond the Railroad tracks, which go right by the cemetery - a little underpass - took some snapshots by the water there - back again - & one time I had instant breakfast at the center & the next started to walk farther then found a silver bracelet beside the monument - I love you written on it - not engraved, three times, past of the silver - so I came back & left it at the center - then I went on - and also there was a couple who came - a Norwegian couple - the lady with the dress was asking where the shuttle from the hotel had come from - she was going to let them see the cemetery & I showed them to flyer that they sent me when I wrote - she asked to copy it - so they had their own cemetery tour guide.

It was part of my travel plan to visit the Swedish historical places along the waterfront at Wilmington.  At the Milles Monument I tried to take lots of snapshots of it, it was so very nice.

The Kalmar Nyckel Project - Spring 1997

At the Kalmar Nyckel Shipyard in 1997, they were building the Kalmar Nyckel Replica.

The Tour of the Workshop At the Kalmar Nyckel Shipyard in Delaware - Spring 1997

At The Wilmington waterfront:  Came across the Kalmar Nyckle shipyard immediately around the next bend in the road - I had the tour -

  Blacksmith and Tour Guide at the Kalmar Nyckel Shipyard in Delaware - 1997

of the carving room - where there was a pelican with a fish in its beak, and a lion, and a cat's head - an old Swedish flag on the wall - it had been an old museum which they moved the carvers into - and piles of twisty rooty trees to be part of the bottom of the ship - around a corner - lead had been there - lead to make ballast -

there was coal in a bin - all this along the riverside - then there was a woman blacksmith - when she was at the forge she put up a black paper at the window for the photo - a bucket of water & lamp; a fire there -

later there were hooks that had been made at the forge -

there was a kind of saw where they were making pieces of wood flat -

there was a room of ropes - the ends twisted with twine and coated with tar - and extra twine around wherever they might rub and fray.

The tour was really wonderful, the rooms were great - there was a room of maps.

At The Site of Fort Christina, in Delaware - Spring 1997

(An image remained with me from my walk along the road to the Fort Replica part of the historic waterway at Wilmington, Delaware.  It was the sight of a large egg - I may find my poem later.  A large egg I think was brought far from the goose's nest and dropped along the road.) 

From my notes when I traveled to Wilmington Delaware after the AWP Meeting in Washington D.C. in 1997: ...there was an old Fort Christina Marina, & along the road where there was an asphalt dike there were men with a truck building a new fence -

beyond, peeped the silver strips of glittering river - farther there was the park - with some other markers of Swedish Settlers - there was just a tavern there -

the park seemed like mostly parking lot - there was a postal truck and I gave the driver the post cards I wrote last night.  (The logs in the photo are a recreation of the long-ago fort.)

It was too windy, when I tried to play my recorder I kept losing the tune into the wind. 

The wind blew my coat a lot.  It was sunny but the wind was a little cold.  (My coat was eleven years old but I was happy I had it along.)

Nice Weather Saturday On The Waterfront

Saturday at the Main Library I saw a front page article about the remodeling work done at the Maritime History Museum.  My plans included going that way, anyway, so I walked down past the Old City Hall to Schuster Parkway and to the Museum.  An unstable brick wall all along the front had been taken down and replaced with a beautiful glass window. 

At a small laptop with a large digital camera on a tripod, a photo booth feature was set up.  I chose a nice dark pea coat and a storm hat and they sent my photo to my email and included it on their Facebook Page.  This all reminds me of clocks and weather instruments - I think they had clear weather and stormy weather captains who came out little doors according to the moisture or the high or low pressure readings. 

The great displays included lots of really large format photos. 

I searched along the street when I had seen the museum to find the bus stop for the routes that go from the Dome Station to Downtown and on.  Waited on the esplanade where an egret flew along, beautiful.