As usual, it
rained this morning. Starting at about 3:00AM and ending just before dawn, the
rains came pouring down. This time, however, the morning was hot and very muggy
after the storm. We broke camp and set a course for Toana, VA, where Karen made
reservations at a Good Sam campground for the next two nights. We need a place
with electricity and showers. Toana is near historic Williamsburg, VA and we’re
looking forward to seeing it and Jamestown.
About four
miles down the only road leading off Assateague Island, we came upon a long
line of stopped traffic. It turns out there had been a serious traffic accident
just before we got there and the road was closed in both directions. All us
tourists were out of our cars and talking among ourselves and we soon learned
that a tent trailer (yikes!) had lost a wheel, lost control, and struck another
car coming the opposite direction. We don’t know what types of injuries were
sustained, but we heard that two ambulances took the injured away. About an
hour later, one lane opened up and convoys of cars were finally led through the
accident scene.
This made for
a long day of driving. We’d decided to take the southern route down to the
Chesapeake Bay and cross the bridge/tunnel over to Virginia Beach, and then
head northwest up toward Williamsburg. Highway 113/13 is a very scenic route
through the cornfields and small towns of the eastern shore of Maryland and
Virginia. It’s also a bit of a slow drive due to the ever-changing speed limits
as you pass through all the small towns.
The
Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel is quite the engineering marvel. It stretches for
more than 17 miles across the bay and is partly a bridge and partly a tunnel.
It was worth the $18 toll we paid to use it.
Once we got
into Virginia Beach, we connected with Interstate 64, which skirts the Norfolk,
VA area. This is a very congested traffic area and we crawled through here,
especially at the Hampton Richmond Byway Tunnel that crosses more water and
leads into Hampton. This time, I had to stop at the entrance of the bridge/tunnel
to show the law enforcement officer that I was not running my propane tanks
while driving. When we got across, we were finally into lighter traffic. Still,
it took us about six hours to drive what is normally a 3.5 hour drive.
We set up
camp, including our bug house (those mosquitoes seem to be following us
everywhere), and drove over to the ‘Two Drummers Smoke House’ for some
authentic local BBQ. The owners are two brothers who grew up in the area and
played in the Williamsburg fife and drum corps when they were young. After
playing in rock bands as adults, they opened the restaurant and now serve up
some of the best BBQ I’ve had. Karen had some local hard cider, I had a local
imperial stout, and we called it a good end to a long day.
Next:
Colonial Williamsburg
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