An Over and Under Day

It was a day of white-knuckle driving yesterday. Mike confessed last night that he has never been so terrified driving before...not even when he want to the racing school last spring. I guess that means there's no chance we'll go back the way we came...not that we'd want to. Here's what happened.

We left our "lakeside" campsite early. The rain and howling wind had stopped, but the wind was expected to return within a few hours. We generally don't like to go down the road in high winds with our tall fifth wheel.

It was a nice drive south through Maryland, and within about 45 minutes, we crossed the border into Virginia.

Within another 45 minutes or so, we were approaching the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. Now this mystified us. Was it a bridge or a tunnel? Huh? Which one? Make up your minds! Of course, there was an admission fee.

For our viewing pleasure, we paid the tidy sum of $22. This had better be good.

And it was! What an engineering marvel!

Here's what Wikipedia has to say about it:

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge–Tunnel (CBBT) is a 23-mile (37 km) fixed link crossing at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in the U.S. state of Virginia. . . . It replaced vehicle ferry services that operated from South Hampton Roads and from the Virginia Peninsula from the 1930s. Financed by toll revenue bonds, the bridge–tunnel was opened on April 15, 1964, and remains one of only ten bridge–tunnel systems in the world, three of which are located in Hampton Roads, Virginia.

Makes you want to treat it with some respect, doesn't it? You can click right here to read some additional facts about the bridge-tunnel.

The crossing was officially named the Lucius J. Kellam Jr. Bridge–Tunnel in August 1987 after one of the civic leaders who had long worked for its development and operation; however, it continues to be best known as the Chesapeake Bay Bridge–Tunnel.

And here we go...up and over...

On Mike's side of the truck was the Atlantic Ocean.

On my side, the mighty Chesapeake Bay.

Here's where it's located on the map.

We traveled over the bridge for some time.

Eventually, we came to the first of two tunnels. Even the tunnels have their own names.

And yikes! Here's where our knuckles turned white...at least Mike's did. I just closed my eyes and let the camera take over. Traffic traveled in both directions in this narrow passage, including big trucks! Minimum speed was 45 mph, and there were signs instructing drivers to maintain their speed. Mike said he desperately wanted to go much, much slower.

And phew! We survived that.

Sorry for the blur in this next image. I wanted to show you the black-backed seagulls. On the west coast, our seagulls are mainly white or gray. These guys are pretty flashy in their tuxedo feathers.

But wait...we weren't finished with the tunnels yet.

As promised...here we go again...

When we saw the light at the end of this tunnel, we checked ourselves for any broken bones. Geez. There's obviously nowhere to go in the event someone crosses over the line, and this was very scary driving/riding.

Hooray! Cheated death once again.

Oh, but wait. We weren't finished with the tunnels because we still had another bridge-tunnel system to cover where the James River flows into the Chesapeake Bay.

Since our New York experience, we breathe a sigh of relief when we see the height limits exceeding our own height. We are at 13 feet, and so this would be no problem.

And, please, don't run out of gas in the tunnel, if you know what's good for you.

Just before crossing the bridge, we passed by some nice homes lining a marina.

And here we go again. Notice how low to the water these bridges are?

At least this tunnel had the good sense to have lanes of travel going in the same direction...oh yes, and no toll.

When we saw the light at the end of this tunnel, our tunnel-driving had come to an end...and not a minute too soon.

It was great to finally arrive at our campground. We have a very nice spot. There are RV's all around us, but they belong to seasonal campers, and so we have the place pretty much to ourselves.

When we checked in, we picked up a box I'd had shipped here that contained my new magnetic bulletin board. Recall that I'd used almost all the space on our range hood with refrigerator magnets collected on this trip. There isn't much room left on the bulletin board now, but the range hood is still open!

Also, we needed to check on the state of the states.

Now we've added the great states of Virginia and Delaware to the map.

This is Chickahominy Lake. I love that name. Toward sunset it took on the most beautiful golden glow.

Having survived our white-knuckle day, our shadow selves were pretty happy to be there.

Behind them is a long dirt road. Looks like a nice place for walking, doesn't it? We'll test that out later today.

It appears as if this might be a mosquito haven, but none bothered us last night, even though there was no wind.

Day is done.

We're here to visit the Colonial National Historical Park, which is operated by our National Park Service. It consists of a triangle of sites that includes Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown. The first English settlers reached these shores in 1607, fully 13 years before the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock. They were ill-prepared for what awaited them, and disease and a severe drought took a heavy toll. Jamestown survived thanks to the efforts of such familiar names as Pocahontas, John Smith, and John Rolfe. The seeds of a nation were sown here.

In 1699, the Colonial capital was moved farther inland to Williamsburg. This defines the years when that city was the political, social, and cultural center of Virginia. There, our country's future was being debated and decided. Should the Colonies remain part of Great Britain, or should independence be considered?

Of course, we all know separation from Great Britain was inevitable and the story concludes with the Revolutionary War. It essentially ended in Yorktown in 1781 when General Cornwallis' troops surrendered to troops led by Generals George Washington and Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur.

The three sites are linked by a 23-mile-long Colonial Parkway. We have three days to visit, and we'll take in the sites one per day. We decided to start at the beginning with a visit to Jamestown today. I'll tell you about it in tomorrow's post.