Alley Oop’s green Cadillac limo lives on in Google Street View

I don’t have a great way to explain why I came across Alley Oop Skim Camp’s old green Cadillac limo on Google Street View, but I did. Best I can say is that I sometimes spend my time using the online tool to see what structures look like that are in the news. That area of Dewey Beach, specifically New Orleans Street, was recently featured in a story by my colleague Ellen Driscoll who wrote about a Cooper’s hawk that was left dazed and confused after flying into the Surfrider Condominium building. 

Anyway, I came across the limo and tucked it away in my brain, ready to ask Alley Oop’s Jason Wilson about it next time I saw him. As luck would have it, that opportunity presented itself in the parking lot of the Cape Gazette. Jason is a Realtor and his company has an office in the same development. I asked him about the limo. He started laughing. Clearly, he hadn’t thought about it in a while.

The plan was to buy a small bus to carry campers from Dewey to the state park where the lessons were held, he said. He and his dad went to an auction. Instead of a bus, he said, they came across the old limo  – specifically, a 1987 Cadillac Brougham Limo that became available after Seaport Taxi went out of business – and purchased it for $600.

“It cracks me up thinking about it. We went there looking for a bus and left with a $600 Cadillac limo because barely anyone was at the auction. Another thousand or so dollars in paint, tint, lettering, a CD player, and the boys were cruising in style,” said Wilson.

The limo was used to haul campers sparingly. Instead, said Wilson, he and then business partner and founder of Alley Oop Skim Corey Mahoney used the limo and its image for marketing.

Eventually, the limo developed a leak in the roof and mold got everywhere, said Wilson.

The limo became a bit of a hassle to deal with. For nine months a year, it needed to be stored somewhere, said Wilson. It would be left in various locations in and around Dewey, until the person who owned the house it was parked in front of called the Alley Oop phone number and asked for it to be moved.

After about seven years, the limo went back to the same auction from which it was purchased and it was sold again for about the same amount of money. That money was spent at the club in Cabo San Lucas during Wilson’s bachelor party.

“Pretty legendary!” he said.

Ocean temperature

The other day, I interviewed Rehoboth Beach Patrol lifeguards Dionn Stevenson and Tori Blakenship regarding the two of them both being named as the patrol’s co-Lifeguard of the Year.

I met up with the two veteran guards at the patrol’s makeshift station just north of One Virginia. Stevenson was already there. While we waited for Blakenship, Stevenson read the day’s weather and tides over the walkie-talkies to her fellow guards out on the stands.

It was a bit of a cloudy day with a good breeze blowing and a marine layer that wouldn’t burn off. The part that caught my attention was the temperature of the water – 68 degrees.

I asked her if that was the normal temperature for late August, because it felt like the ocean had been abnormally cool this summer. In my experience this summer, the waking-you-up bite that happens as you jump into the water around Memorial Day never really went away.

Blakenship, who’s been a lifeguard in Rehoboth for four years, confirmed that was the case. Usually, she said, by mid-July the ocean waters are in the mid-70s. This year, she said, it never got above the high 60s.

Joke of the Week:

Delaware’s primary elections are Tuesday, Sept. 10. Voting is no joking matter, but it doesn’t mean it’s got to be all serious. I even found a Delaware-themed joke to put here. As always, send jokes to cflood@capegazette.com.

Q: On Election Day, what did Delaware?

A: Her New Jersey.