Across Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel (10/03)

Today we are going to drive across the Chesapeake Bay.  This is bridge is twice as long as the one we went across the other day, it has two tunnels one of them is a mile long.  Just before the first tunnel they have a restaurant and souvenir shop.  We stop just to say we had been there.  I bought another can of Virginia peanuts, they are so good.  Now back to the tunnel.  I am not as nervous today knowing what to expect.  The big diffidence between this tunnel and the last one is it is only two lanes, yesterdays was four lanes.  This makes for very narrow lanes.

Once through this tunnel we drive a couple of miles and go into the next tunnel.  This one is short like yesterdays.  The reason for the tunnels is so they didn't have to build their bridges so high to accommodate ship traffic.  Yesterday we saw an aircraft carrier go though the space where the first tunnel was.  Finally through the tunnels and across the bridge into North Hampton.  We stop at the visitor center to get an idea of where to go now that we are here.  I wanted to go to Chincoteague but it is 70 miles away a little to far to go today as it is already 12:00. Chincoteague is where the wild horses are.  There is another herd in NC where we are going next.  We ended up going to Cape Charles.  This is a nice peaceful town and we enjoyed ourselves on the beach there.

 There were some really great houses right across from the beach.

 We had a really nice day, the drive was a little long but beautiful.  We are back home by 4 pm and ready for a beer!!!!!

Virginia Beach ocean front and boardwalk (10/02)

We are headed to the boardwalk in Virginia Beach.  We have maps showing us which way to go but the streets don't quite follow the maps and we spend most of the morning wandering around trying to find the right roads.  We finally find General Booth Blvd and make it to the ocean front.  Once parked we start looking for somewhere to eat, we both skipped breakfast this morning and are hungry.  The beach front is deserted, it seems the tourist season is over and a lot of things are closed.  We settled on a little Italian restaurant and both had very delicious Italian Sausage Grinders, that was a lot of food.  Now we head to the boardwalk.  The Atlantic is beautiful and not very cold.  I think I could actually get in the water if I had my swimming suit on.  The sand is very soft and fine and almost white a very light beige.

We walked along the beach enjoying the day.  We came to the fishing pier and had to pay $2 to walkon it.  It seems it is privately owned and the money goes to keep it in good shape and repair if a hurricane damages it.  The pier is packed with people fishing and the smell of fish is very strong.  For me not a very pleasant smell.  We watched two surfers for a little bit, not many big waves. There is just something about the ocean that really relaxes me, whether is is the Pacific or Atlantic.  It is time to head back to the park if we want to avoid rush hour traffic.  We manage to find our route easier going back than we did coming here.  Virginia Beach is big and very spread out!!!!

R and R day (9/30) plus Travel Day (10/01)

I am still pretty tired from yesterdays trip into Washington DC.  Don't think we are going to do much today.  We finally get going and have lunch at Poppeys.  Then it is time to do the grocery shopping, but first a side trip to REI.  I have been wanting a pair of binoculars and Joe has finally said I could by them.  It has been a joke of ours when we can't see something far away we want to see, Joe will say "We could see that if we just had binoculars".  I used to have a cheap pair long ago but we never used them so I gave them to Kiernan.

Back at the fifth wheel Joe gets started on laundry and I start the long process of defrosting the freezer and cleaning the fridge.  I also rearranged the cupboards.  I have things on the top shelves we haven't touched since we left in April.  No use in keeping them.  Now I have a little extra storage room.
Tomorrow we leave for Virginia Beach VA.  We are both really looking forward to going there.  I have never been to the Atlantic ocean.

Oct 1

We don't have that far to drive today so are in no hurry to get going.  On the road by 9:30 and it seems that we have managed to miss rush hour traffic.  We are heading back towards Richmond VA then across Chesapeake  Bay.  We have big bridge to go over to get across.  So it is under the water through the tunnel and across the bay we go.  You drive down to the tunnel and then you are under the water, this is not a very long tunnel, thank goodness.  I did not like the feeling of being under all that water.

 This is the light at the end of the tunnel and then we are out.






Now to find our way through all the little back roads to the North Landing RV Resort.  All the reviews said it had easy access to the city, well we have to disagree with them, it is at least 17 miles away from the city.  We didn't think we would never get there.  The roads are very narrow and only two lanes with no shoulder to speak of.  These are the times you realize how big our rig really is.  We finally made it and got checked in and just relaxed for the rest of the day.

Washington DC (09/29)

Woke up to cloudy skies this morning, hopefully it will not rain.  We are taking the metro into Washington DC today.  Joe's brother, Jim, works there and we will be meeting him for dinner.  The last time we were in DC was about 17 years ago.  Much has changed after 9/11. Security is tight everywhere you go.

We left the metro at L'Enfant Plaza and headed to the National Mall.  This is where all the Smithsonian buildings are and the Capital building also the Washington Monument and the reflecting pool can be seen at a distance.  We only have about 3 hours to see things before meeting Jim at 20th and Pennsylvania Ave.

First we went to the Smithsonian Castle.  This houses mostly office but it does have a few nice exhibits.

They have a very nice cafe in there that we ate lunch at.


After leaving there we headed towards the National Archives.  Stopping to look at the view of the Capitol building and the Washington Monument.

One of the security changes was going into the National Archives.  Seventeen years ago you walked up the big front steps into the building with all the exhibits right in front of you, now you go in a side entrance and you feel like you are getting ready to go through an airport terminal.  You have to put all the stuff from your pockets, any electronics and purses in a tube to go through a scanner and then you walk through a scanner yourself.  There are guards everywhere you look.  But needless to say this did not take away from the impressiveness of these documents.  I think I will always be impressed by viewing the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the US.  It is hard to imagine them writing these documents with a quill from a turkey, the hand writhing is so neat and perfect.  You also see some of the original documents as they were being developed, you see words or sentences crossed out and you phrases put in.  From there we went to another room that displayed the Magna Carta.  We did not see this displayed 17 years ago.  it was pretty cool to see something that was written in 1215.  Along with this exhibit they also had the history of women's rights.  I learned a few things, like if you were a woman and a US citizen and married someone that was from another country you automatically became a citizen of his country and no longer one of the US.  The only way a women could get her US citizenship back was either through the death of her husband or by divorcing him.  This changed around 1922.  I am sure glad I didn't live in those times.

We had to cut our time at this exhibit short as we had to walk 2.5 miles to 20th and Pennsylvania Ave to meet Jim at the Founding Farmers restaurant.  We managed to get lost several times on our way there.  We tried to follow Pennsylvania Ave but kept losing it.  Part of the reason is because the White House is right in the middle and really messes up the streets.  I was so tired by the time we finally arrived at the restaurant about 10 minutes late.

A look back at the National Mall area with the Capitol in the background

It was really good to see Jim again, the last time we saw him was about 12 or 13 years ago and their fathers funeral.  The restaurant was really nice and only serve locally grown natural food and it was delicious. I had the slow roasted pork chop and it was about 3 inches thick, needless to say half of it came home with me along with some of the mashed potatoes.  Joe had their pot roast and Jim the BBQ Ribs.  All was very good.  Jim and I shared a slice of carrot cake.  This had three layers with cream cheese between each layer and came with vanilla ice cream. Jim and I could not eat all of it and Joe didn't want any.
Now it is time to say goodbye we really enjoyed visiting and catching up with Jim. It is already 6:30 and we need to get over to the metro for our 30 min trip back to College Park Station.    From the metro stop we get on a bus that takes us back to Cherry Hill RV Park.  It was so nice not to have to drive and worry about traffic.

Dover Speedway, It is NASCAR time (9/28)

This morning we are headed to Dover Delaware for the NASCAR race.  It is about a 2 hour drive from where we are staying.  We planned to leave this morning at 9 am but Joe decided to do a little more waxing on the fifth wheel so we didn't get on the road until 9:30.  Again we have to drive south around Washington DC, the traffic is pretty light compared to yesterday.  All goes well.  We have to take the Bay Bridge across Chesapeake Bay.  This is a really high bridge and I am sweating.  I don't like bridges across big bodies of water.  I was really glad when we were off of it.  This is also a tole bridge the cost per vehicle is $6.

Once across we head for Delaware.  We see other cars with race car driver stickers on them so decided to follow them, hoping they were going to the race.  You have to take all these back roads to get to Dover. We made it to Dover about 11:30 and stopped for lunch before heading to the track.  Now is when the frustration comes in.  After lunch we head for the track just to find all the roads are grid locked.  Long red lights and short green ones.  You would think as many times as NASCAR races here they would have a system set up to get everyone into the track smoothly.  It takes us until 1:30 to finally get a place to park.  There is no signs to direct you where you should park for you what section you seats are in.  We finally parked in a flooring store parking lot for $10 and walked to the track.  We discovered we were about as far away from our seats as we could possibly be.  We are about 1 to 1 1/2 mile from our car by turn one, we are sitting in turn 4. Needless to say we got to our seats in time for the National Anthem.  We thought we would be plenty high up with row 10, but what the seating chart doesn't tell you is the rows start at row 8, so we are not in very good seats.  We can see the cars coming out of turn 3 and going into turn 4, then the cars disappear and you don't see them again until they hit turn 1 and loose them again until turn 3.  I was still very frustrated over the parking and not a very happy camper with our seats.  But once I had a beer and settled into the race all was better.  The only other annoying thing was all the young drunks around us that thought they were the only ones at the races.  The race was pretty good not a lot of passing and not a lot of yellows.  Dale Jr finished 17th, Tony Stewart finished 14th and Kyle Larson finished 6th.  These are the ones I cheer for.  Jeff Gordon won the race.  I like him too so was happy with the finish.

One of the fun things is Kyle Larson, Dale Jr. and Jeff Gordon were pitted right in front of us.  It was fun to watch the pit crews get to work on the cars when they pitted.  It is amazing to watch them change 4 tires so quickly.










Once the race is over we stay seated to let the crowd clear out, Joe went up to the higher seats to see what the view of the track is from there.  It isn't much better, as the sun is in your eyes and glares off the cars and make it hard to see who is who.  It looks like turn two would be the better seats if we come back here.  I have discovered I am not a fan of the monster mile tracks, I like the smaller tracks.

Once out we walk around the vendors for a bit and then go to the statute of the rock monster that represents the monster mile.

Now for the long trek back to the truck.  At least the traffic has thinned out some by the time we get to the truck.  We see a Bob Evans restaurant just down the road so went there to eat dinner and wait for the traffic to clear out some more.  We both had their Chicken Pot Pie, delicious!!!
The race was done by 5:30 and we were back at Cherry Hill Park by 9:30.  All in all not a bad day!!!!

Cherry Hill, College Park MD (9/27)

We don't have a long drive today so didn't have to have such an early start.  We were on the road by 9:30.  Anywhere you drive in this part of the country is beautiful.  This was no exception.  A lot of rolling hills and little and big farms dot the scenery.











We are a little worried about getting through Washington DC, even though we are just going around the out skirts.  We are surprised at the amount of traffic for a Saturday morning, it looks like rush hour traffic anywhere else.  We had one about 20 minute delay due to a accident evolving 3 cars.  Once through that it wasn't to bad.  We managed to find all our hwy changes and made it to the Cherry Hill RV Resort by 1 pm, not bad.  Once set up we head over to their Cafe for a delicious lunch.  It was so nice not to have to go find a place to eat, we were tried from the stress of heavy traffic

After lunch we both laid down for a nap, I was sleeping really good when Joe woke me to say they have someone washing RV's did I want ours washed.  That was a dumb question, it is so dirty I am surprised you can still see the design on it.  The problem was the cost, a lot more than we pay in Yuma.  But we did it anyway.  They earned every penny of it too.  They not only washed it but scrubbed it.  It looks so good.  Every where we have been they didn't allow you to wash your RV's.  To keep it in good condition while traveling you should wash it at least once a month, it has been 6 months since ours was last washed.  Once they were done Joe started waxing it.  By the time he called it a night his arms were really sore.  But we now have a nice shiny fifth wheel and one very dirty truck.

Charlottesville (9/25-26)

Today is again cloudy but not to cold.  We are going to drive over to Charlottesville to see what it is like.  We debated on staying there verses Waynesboro.  The drive is beautiful and about 30 minutes.
Again the color of the trees and the smell of fall in the air is wonderful.

We arrive and find a place to park and go to walk around town.  They have this great town down walk wit all kind of stores, a movie theater and restaurants.  We had pizza at a place called Christian's, I had a slice of taco pizza and Joe had a slice of artichoke pizza, really  delicious

 After lunch we walked around some more and diffidently want to come back and spend more time here.  We then went to a movie and had a private showing of Magic in the Moonlight.  It was starring Colin Firth and Emma Stone.  A very English movie a little slow but still enjoyable.  After the movie we walked around again to loosen up our stiff knees. (It is the pits getting old) Then back to Waynesboro.

Friday is a little cloudy at first but ends with plenty of sunshine. We are hoping it stays nice for the races tonight.  Joe went hiking and I vegged.  He did a 12 mile hike  going south on the Appalachian trail, we did the north end the other day.  Here are a few of his pics for this hike.

The structure is a hiking hut you can sleep in, they have them all along the Appalachian trail. He had a great time but really had to hustle to make it back in time for the races.

It is time to head to Eastside Speedway.  It is just down the road from the park we are in.  They are racing late models, sportsman's, street stocks, mini modified's, and U-cars. It was a very different track as the track itself is behind the drag strip.  It took a little getting used to not having them so close to us, at least it kept the mud and dirt away.  The racing it self was pretty good especially the street stocks they really raced hard.  The rest ended being a lot of single file racing with little passing.  The sportsman's got really aggressive towards the end and had a great finish.  They do not do heat races here they just do feature races which really cut down on how late the races get finished.  They have a curfew here and have to be done by that time, never heard what the time was.  We were out of there and home before 10:30.

Tomorrow we head for Cherry Hill in College Park MD, outside of Washington DC.