This beach has crabs

Day 257
Milford DE

It's going to be a scorcher today. The place we are at will see the thermometer in the high 80's with lots of sunshine. Why spend the day in RV with the A/C on? A quick search of the map shows the nearest beach is less than 30 minutes away. Beach day it is.

Delaware Bay gives us a glimpse into the beach life on the upper east coast. The muddy water laps against the shore where we see a dozen horseshoe crabs making their way around. Above you'll see two horseshoe crabs. The one buried in the sand is the female who is most likely laying her eggs. The male above her will fertilize them when she moves. Out of the few thousand eggs that get laid, the majority of them will be eaten by birds before they can hatch. Another weird fact is that these crabs are harvested for their blood. Fisheries will catch them and bleed 30% of their blood out to sell to the medical industry. They are then returned to the ocean alive with a mortality rate of about 10%. Their blue blood is used in the medical field to identify endotoxins in vaccines and lab equipment. Weird fact #2: The blood is worth $60,000 a gallon.

Look past the prehistoric crabs on the beach and the rest is pretty typical. This is what a real beach looks like. Seaweed, sand, and rocks with grassy dunes right behind us. Most of the beaches we have seen around the country look like this unless a city or county spends money to clean them. 

Eli comes with and soaks up the beach atmosphere with us. Three hours pass and we have had enough. Relentless sun is starting to turn our skin into fried chicken and the heat is inescapable. Time to pack up and head home to a wonderfully cool air conditioned RV. Life on the road. Could be worse.