Delawhere?

In a brilliant and out-of-character feat of forward thinking, we decided to allow ourselves just over a week at the end of the trip to sell our vehicle on the outskirts of New York, hopefully giving us a final week in the Big Apple.This left us a couple of days to get to our van selling location, time that Tom had already earmarked for a visit to one of his graphic design idols (for a change). The internationally renowned font designers, 'House Industries' reside in the nationally ridiculed state of Delaware, located perfectly on our path between Washington and NYC. In previous email conversations, even the company's founding member, Rich, advised us that there are a lot of better areas to visit in the States...undeterred we punched in Yorklyn, DW into the sat-nav and headed out of Washington.

Just look at it!

Another underrated state

We steadily made our way north east, watching as the landscape and towns began to morph into sights we recognised from back home. Passing through the hardened city of Baltimore, we found ourselves flanked by rows of red brick terraced houses, it could have been Manchester! Even place names flashing by on road signs started to sound familiar: Glasgow, Chester, Camden, North Wales, Reading, Lancaster, York...you name it they've got it!

Our vague plan was to get ourselves within striking distance of Yorklyn, home of House, for a high noon meeting with Rich, but as we approached our destination in the dead of night we realised that these twisting country lanes would not yield a bountiful supply of hotels. Sensing Mike was getting nervous after a few too many consecutive sleeps in Spot, Tom tested the water with an high pitched, soulful rendition of his now customary 'Van Night' song. Mike rose to the bait, slammed Spot to a standstill and started maniacally trying to find a hotel by repeatedly punching the sat-nav. As the trip neared the end, emotional outbursts like this would become more and more frequent.

Having regained some sense of control, we methodically visited every hotel in the area, which were all mysteriously either closed or fully booked. With Mike now physically shaking at the prospect of climbing into his cheap nylon sleeping bag again, we headed towards our last chance saloon. First signs weren't good as we approached the Mindenhall - apart from looking a few leagues above our budget, all the lights were out. With a sinking feeling growing in Mike's (already temperamental) stomach, we tentatively entered the eerily dark lobby, looking for signs of life. A stressed out receptionist revealed there had been a power-cut and although they had rooms available, he could not check us in until power had been restored. He gave us the name of a bar down the road where we could get some food and suggested we return in an hour to see if the situation had changed.

Now numb to the bizarre series of events, we went to the bar. It turned out to be a quintessential English country pub, complete with real ales and paintings of fox hunts adorning the walls. We tucked into delicious home made soup (now a staple of the trip) and drained a few tankards of fine ale, all accompanied by some friendly characters at the bar. The night was capped off perfectly when we returned to the hotel to find a now significantly less stressed receptionist proudly standing next to a brilliantly lit christmas tree, ready to take our money in exchange for a couple of beds. He turned out to be a part time stand up comic, so after some strong banter, we checked into what ranks as one of the nicest hotels of the trip.

We awoke to another blustery winters morning, and after a custom made omelette and coffee, headed out to meet Rich at House. During the night, we had seemingly been tele-ported directly into the heart of the English countryside. As we swooped down tight country lanes, over rolling hills and between high banked Cornish hedges we really could have been back home. It was easily one of the most beautiful areas we'd encountered, and it had taken us over 10,000 miles to find it! 

We eventually located the House Industries studio: an anonymously placed house right in the middle of this natural beauty. Rich arrived as we did and we were soon well into the 30 second studio tour. The modest studio (a single room with a couple of desks) belied the prolific output and reputation House have outputted over the past decade. Rich enthusiastically showed us all their latest projects which littered the studio, then apologised profusely as he had to catch a business flight to the west coast, but ensured us that if we stuck around we'd be in for a treat. That treat came in the form of Angelo Cruz, a legendary hot-rod pin-striper (and dad of House's other founding mamber, Andy) who happened to be stopping by to apply some custom pin-striping to a secret project. Our timing couldn't have been better as Angelo treated us to a live show of some of the most accurate and disciplined painting we'll ever see.

Meanwhile, Mike got into some great discussions with Adam; Angelo's classically trained fine artist son. Adam was responsible for turning out some of House's most disciplined and well executed illustrations, and offered Mike a wealth of knowledge for future use.

Suitably blown away by the whole experience, we decided to leave the master to it, not before accepting signed artwork, tshirts and books from the unbelievably friendly House guys, and snapping a Cruz family portrait in front of Spot. We hit the road again in the vague direction of New York, enjoying the scenic countryside in perfect wintry sunshine. Just as we were discussing how we'd stumbled across some of the most genuinely warm people on the trip and how brilliantly the day had gone, a routine food stop was about to take it to the next level. We turned into a restaurant just off the highway!

The visually unremarkable diner, was run by George and Joe, an uncle/nephew team of Pennsylvania natives. Our story really caught their imagination and we were soon engaged in a lengthy and energetic chat, before they insisted that we ate and drank for free - slamming down an enormous stromboli (cheese steak filled Italian dough, ladled with tomato sauce) for us to share. They joined us to eat, bringing a laptop to look at our blog. We talked the dudes through our adventures on the west coast while they explained the rules of Cash Cab, a game show set in Manhattan.

We mentioned Will's board, which was collecting dust in Spot. Joe showed interest in the board, and on seeing it, his eyes lit up. Tom casually mentioned we were trying to get rid of it and before we knew it, we were out at the van handing over the board for cash! 

We bid a fond farewell to two of the most genuine and warm characters we'd met and continued North into the night.

George and Joe!