8 June Virginia to Maryland – another beautiful day in Paradise!

Our plan is to work our way up between Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic into Maryland.  Our route will take us on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel which is the largest bridge-tunnel in the world and apparently one of the seven engineering wonders of the modern world.  It measures 17.6 miles from shore to shore and comprises or more than 12 miles of trestle roadway, two mile-long under water tunnels (skinny - one lane each way), two bridges, four man made islands and almost two miles of causeway.  The trestles needed 100 miles of piles, in waters up to 45 feet deep.  Mind boggling isn’t it?  Of course I got all this from the leaflet, just in case you were wondering if my next job was going to be in engineering, but it was amazing to see!  The toll was $19 (I was getting the quarters ready to pay the toll, like we usually do – silly me, I guess they need to recoup the $450 million it cost).  But it does cut 90 miles off the alternative route and was very scenic. 

Stopped at Cape Charles, a little village on the bay side but we were too early for the famous artisan icecream shop which was opening at noon!  Tomorrow we need to avail ourselves of some the local oysters and the famous Maryland blue crab – yum!!

Our camp site at Fort Whaley is surrounded with really mature Ash trees – there is a potential risk in Maryland for these lovely trees to get emerald ash bora so the campgrounds and the Forest Service ban the transportation of any firewood from camp to camp.  Firewood seems to be how this devastating  pest gets spread  Hope they success, the trees are beautiful and the shade they provide is very welcome in the heat.   

9 June Maryland to Delaware and across to Maryland again

Drove on US 1 up the coast from Ocean City which was a beautiful seaside city, lots of old hotel and apartment blocks amongst some modern ones, right on the beach with the Cheseapeake Bay on the other side of the very narrow causeway.  Also just out of the built up town area there were lovely big old homes, three levels including the ground level which is on stilts and very upmarket gated communities. The sun was shining, so it was a lovely drive.

We crossed over to Delaware and drove out of it about an hour later.  Lots of agriculture in this area, see fields and fields of corn, wheat, other grains and asparagus.  Arrived at our camp around 2.30pm so had a couple of hours by and in the pool - we were the only ones there, just like having one in your backyard, but you don’t need to clean it.  It was quite a trek from our campsite though, we had to take our bikes but we did the nature trail on the way there!

10 June Washington DC – can’t believe we are actually here!

Nice easy drive here!  Cherry Hill Park is well geared up for sightseeing tourists, which is why most people come here I guess.  Tours can be booked on site and public transport comes right to the camp.  They run an hour long induction course to help you make your plans and find your way around the city and the points of interest.  We picked up a rental car for a day or two, so drove down the road for dinner.  Nice treat to eat out.  Sightseeing starts tomorrow!!