Fantastic trip north today…  oh, that’s right, I didn’t mention I was heading north, did I?  Well, I decided to get ahead of the weather,  to have a safe journey north.  You see, tomorrow all along the mid-Atlantic coast is rain with increasing winds. That in and of itself would not have normally stopped me, but why not go when one has good weather.  Oh, but originally, I wasn’t going to leave until Thursday.  Thursday is scheduled to be back in the cold with gale force winds and there is no way I would want to transverse all those bridges going north after a day of rain, with high winds on potentially icy bridges. No thank you.

So on this brilliant sunny warm day (78ºF) – I trekked north on Highway 17.  Just a delightful trip going thru farming communities, fishing communities, by or over beautiful BIG rivers,  small towns with narrow streets of old.  Loving the architecture of the old farm houses, to old churches. All the fields of crops were quite green, but only the cotton fields did I recognize what the crop was. Met some charming folks at a gas station who were real interested in me and my rig. You know, Alaska is a foreign land… laughing here.

Traveled thru a few swamps too, and then drove by Dismal Swamp in Virginia.  I used to go canoeing in that swamp… gosh that was years ago, but the memories flowed back as if it was yesterday.  The two friends who went with me one particular day… we went to explore the different branches of the main waterway.  Jeff was navigating and took us right smack into a bush loaded with big black spiders that almost filled the canoe. He still laughs about the reaction of us girls and I still remember screaming… but revenge can be bitter sweet… once we got the spiders out of the canoe. A snake decided to climb in right by Jeff… it was a cottonmouth.  The 3 of us screamed and Kathy had the wherewithal to toss it back it the water, as she was right next to it. After that, it was a rather dull day.  Laughing here…

As I drove into Chesapeake I was floored by the incredible growth. Of course, its been over 32 years since I was in this area, but still… As I continued on, hopped on I-64, then onto I-264 to head out to Virginia Beach. I just couldn’t quit saying WOW!!!  Nothing was familiar, nothing whatsoever. Turned off onto London Bridge Road, it vaguely sounded familiar but I did not recognize it. Onto Great Neck Road… way over populated…sardine packed homes, etc.  Well heck, the former small town city I remembered has grown into a metropolis and that’s all there is to it.  I made it to First Landing State Park.

First Landing SP

The picture above is a view from my rig, very typical view within this state park. Immediately to the left is a sand dune then the Chesapeake Bay. They only have one section open and this section is pretty much tent campers, I’m the only RV so far.  In this section, there are only five 30 amp slots and 3 are taken up by tent campers and one is way too soft sand to drive on.  Not much one can do about it, as the ranger said park wherever you want. So the sites with 20 amp (normally for tenters, sat empty.   Also, my chosen site is level, but is soft sand. As I said, I do have 30 amp, and water. Back near the entrance is a dump station.  Have a picnic table and a fire ring. This is for $32/night. No weekly rate.  I haven’t been to the showers, or found the dumpster yet – will seek these out soon.  I might see who is left and change spots tomorrow when its raining.