Three Weeks in Wilmington, DE
Driving from Bloomington, IL to Wilmington, DE | Spending Three Weeks in Wilmington | September – October 2025
Once our time in Bloomington was up, we moved out of the hotel room, packed the rental car, and started heading back East — back to where we had just been less than 3 weeks prior. On the first day of our drive, we made it across Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, and got a hotel just across the border in West Virginia. The only new counties we got were in Ohio, but we now only have 5 left in the state, which could potentially be done in one more trip! After a long day on the road, we got dinner at Cracker Barrel and relaxed for the night.
The next day was not quite as easy of a drive, with heavy rain coming down throughout our entire journey across West Virginia. After getting a few more counties in WV, we crossed into Maryland and stopped at a scenic rest area to stretch our legs. The rain eased up by this point, but we continued to have overcast skies throughout the drive which just made us want to power through and make it to Delaware.
However, we did go a little out of our way to get a new county for Curtis, and when driving through Baltimore we officially crossed into our last county together, making Maryland our 14th state completion! Our first visit to Maryland together was in the spring of 2017, when we visited Antietam Battlefield and several other historic sites. Our second visit was in 2019, when we were visiting DC and then driving East, and we hiked to the highest point. And now thanks to Curtis’ job taking us out East so much, we’ve managed to see the rest of the state, including all of the Chesapeake and coastal areas this year. For being such a small state, it really has a little bit of everything — mountains, city, beach, and a lot of history packed in. Personally, a lot of my favorite memories of visiting Maryland come from my childhood, as most of my dad’s side of the family is from the greater Baltimore area. When I think of Maryland, I’ll always think of Popa John’s Farm and my Granny’s house, of family reunions, visiting the family condo in Ocean City, and road trips with my family where we visited many of the historic sites. We would’ve loved to stop at Fort McHenry today, but the weather was still cold and dreary and made us want to push on. Maybe we’ll be back someday, Baltimore!
We finally arrived at our final destination in the late afternoon: Wilmington, Delaware. To be honest, while we enjoyed our last week spent here, I was dreading this stay a bit more because Curtis would be working so much and the area where we had stayed was not a great spot to be in, especially since I didn’t have a car. But at the last minute, we did a little research and found a hotel that was just a little further of a drive for Curtis that would be much more ideal for our time here. It was just South of the downtown area, right on the riverwalk, with a great view of the Christina River, downtown, and the bridge into New Jersey which Curtis would be crossing every day. We got all moved in, then went for a walk to grab some groceries and dinner. For our first meal here, we went for a seafood boil, which felt like an appropriate way to celebrate finishing Maryland and returning to the East coast.
The next day, Curtis began his assignment, which would end up being over 3 weeks of working 12 hour days, plus a long commute on either end. We can’t say it was the most fun, but we knew it was just something we had to get through. The days were long, but the weeks were short, and once this was done we would have an extended time to be wherever we wanted.
The highlights of our time here for me were my daily walks on the riverwalk (and sometimes nightly if Curtis felt like it), getting to watch the sunrise from our room, and seeing the Kalmar Nyckel (a replica of a historic merchant ship) sail by every day, and then turn around and make its way back to its port downtown. We learned a little about Wilmington’s history, how it used to be a big ship building city, but now all that remains are giant cranes left to ‘decorate’ the riverwalk. Just South of where we were staying was an environmental center with trails, including a bike trail that we could’ve taken all the way to New Castle if we wanted.
Throughout our time here, our favorite restaurants included The Riverfront Asian Cuisine, Taco Grande, and Crafty Crab on the Delaware side, and Pennsville Pizza, ZZ Sushi, and Italian Kitchen on the New Jersey side.
Curtis ended up being extended several times, as we sort of expected would happen, but the end finally came and we were more than ready to be done with the East coast for the year. After over 3 weeks here, we finally packed up and said our goodbyes to Delaware, and began our annual Western Migration!
