Virginia

We're using Google maps on my iPhone for our GPS. We have a bracket on the dash to hold the phone and when we use Susan's + phone the screen is much bigger than the old Garmin that I previously used and on either phone the voice is better and the directions are much more direct. We followed the GPS to the Holiday Travel Park which is the largest campground that I've ever been in. Since this is not in the 'season' they  are not too busy and we had our choice of sites. We picked one in the back and near the dog park. As it turned out the dog park was also very large and we found out that most of the campers near us had at least one dog and some had two or three. Shadow ran with the big dogs, for sure, mostly some type of labrador.

We got some laundry done but mostly just goofed around for two days. It felt good just to sit in one place for a while. The second night I cooked some pork chops on the grill and I enjoyed a rum and tonic while Susan polished off her last bottle of alcohol free wine, as decreed by her,  used to be, favorite doctor.

When we left the park we headed to the Virginia Beach resort strip by the beach that is appropriately named Atlantic Ave. Mostly hotels on the ocean side and everything else on the other side and there was a lot of everything else. The street parallels the ocean and then turns west when the ocean meets the bay at Cape Henry.

At the cape is Fort Story, a military base named the Joint Expeditionary Base East meaning that it is shared by both the Army and the Navy. I'm not sure just what 'it' is but they had armed guards at the security gate inspecting the cars in front of us. We had to show our driver's license and registration but we caught a break, and because we lived in our vehicle, they just asked a few questions and let us in. The reason we drove to the fort was to see the Cape Henry Lighthouse.

This is the first lighthouse authorized by the U.S. government and also the first federal construction project under the new Constitution. Construction was completed in 1792 and the original contract was for $15,200. The construction was an octagonal shape exterior, circular interior originally with wooden steps inside. Originally built 550 feet from the ocean the beach has eroded over the years, sort of like my hairline, and is now the lighthouse is only 250 feet from the water. The winds have also blown enough sand away that about 10 feet of the limestone foundation is showing. I forgot to ask the depth of the foundation but I did count 192 steps.

This is a beautiful 8 sided building with it's large brown shaded brick exterior. At the top, under the glass dome, the lens has been removed and there is a platform to stand on.

This is the new lighthouse which was built 150 yards away from the old lighthouse. This one has a first order lens and is not open to the public. Note the interesting paint job.














After the leaving the fort we wound around to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel which is a modern day construction wonder that was completed in 1964. It has two, mile long tunnels under shipping channels and a high level bridge for smaller boats plus a half mile long fishing pier along with a restaurant/gift shop just before the southern tunnel. They say it is 20 miles long but to us it seemed to go on forever. We drove past Kiptopeke State Park and out to Cape Charles, a former railroad town on the Chesapeake. Drove past some century old houses, B & B's and some shops in the downtown are. We had previously stopped at the Bridge Tunnel administrative offices and purchased our Easy Pass, for the toll rolls ahead, which in Florida is called SunPass. Someone suggested we stop at a restaurant called Shanty. It was right next a beautiful marina with first class floating docks - what a surprise. Susan had a cup of chowder which was wonderful and I had a dozen raw oysters that were small but very tasty. This area is known for its farming oysters in the Bay.

Driving into Cape Charles we saw this really neat looking
lighthouse. It wasn't on any of our maps and we didn't have
any idea that Cape Charles had a lighthouse but, what the heck, the town is on the Bay so why not have a lighthouse.
Leaving the town we stopped and took a better look - to our surprise, it's not a lighthouse, it's the water tower for the town that is dressed up to look like a lighthouse. Big surprise!