We left about 10 AM in a light drizzle for the 74 mile drive to Kiptopeke State Park, at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. But check-in time wasn’t until 3 PM, so we had to stretch things out. Caravanning with Ed & Susan we busied ourselves with a trip to the market, a hardware store, other miscellaneous stores, and a round of “golf”—the card game we learned from the Warners. I wanted to visit a museum that in plantation days was a home for the destitute, but I couldn’t interest anyone.
Kiptopeke is sunny, low humidity, about 70 degrees, our most comfortable day yet. We understand this is closer to typical October weather, if it isn’t raining. Occasionally jets roar overhead from the Norfolk Navy base.
To my knowledge we are the only caravaners to hike the half-mile to the water. Prior to the bridges and tunnels, the trip from the Virginia barrier islands to Virginia Beach across Chesapeake Bay was via ferry. The seas can be quite rough, so to provide a safe harbor for loading and unloading, the ferry operators created a breakwater of nine WWII concrete ships, sunk end-to-end. This was in 1948, and the ships are very visible and deteriorating. (The Allies did the same thing off Normandy, sinking Liberty Ships in a line to provide a protective harbor for the landings on D-Day. Liberty Ships get no respect—the Germans sank them, we sank them.)
Dinner tonight was provided by the “social” committee—40 pounds of large shelled shrimp for the 48 caravaners. Very good.
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