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Published: November 15th 2008
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Today is a travel day. We walked Daisy before we left and in the campground we saw the first Confederate flag of this journey. As we left the camp, we saw what looked like yachts floating down the road! What? Actually, the road closely parallels a canal. You won't believe its name. The Dismal Swamp Canal. The Great Dismal Swamp is south of here. The canal is actually quite picturesque. Seeing the canal, reminded us to mention that all the bodies of water in the East seem to be right up to their banks - a foot higher and there would be a flood. Maybe we're too used to reservoirs and low water in the rivers to see these high levels as normal. Houses are RIGHT at the edge of the water. It seems like after a good rain, everything for miles would be underwater! We left the campground and set off to find diesel on the Interstate. We took the first likely offramp, found diesel and discovered there was no onramp there! We went straight and followed some back roads, assuming there would be a way back. Eventually, we went in a complete circle and ended up right back at
the campground! Well, we knew how to get on the Interstate from there! We came to the third bridge-tunnel in the area - the Monitor and Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel (say THAT fast three times!). We had to turn off all propane tanks before entering any of these bridge-tunnels. There was a cute little red lighthouse out in the James River. It's a fifty-five foot tower called the Thimble Shoal Lighthouse. It's still in use and needed in the river. The first lighthouse in the location was built in 1872. It burned. The second one was hit by a steamer, then a coal barge, and finally a tugboat in separate storms. The tugboat's collision caused the stove inside to topple over, resulting in a fire that burned it down in 1909. The present one was built in 1914. The first three stories are the keeper's quarters. It is now privately owned, but the Coast Guard maintains the light! At the port of Newport News on the other side of the bridge-tunnel, there was a huge coal operation - piles of coal and conveyor belts going everywhere. The "spaghetti bowls" at the freeway interchanges were beautiful engineering marvels. Speaking of Newport News,
did you ever wonder at its name? We did, too. Apparently, when the Jamestown Colony settlers were about to give up, they met Captain Newport who was bringing them supplies from England. So, it was Newport's good news." The captain made five voyages to supply the colony. We were surprised to see a "transceiver base station" on top of a metal high tension transmission tower! We're starting to see fast food places called Hardee's which is the Eastern version of Carl's Junior. Virginia's rest areas are really beautiful - the buildings and the grounds. We have been seeing the signature "red dirt" of the Southeast in the plowed fields. It's really orange, but it's called "red". We had to by-pass Jamestown and Williamsburg because we were worried about our @$#$%&*^$@##$%^$$%@#$%$^$#@#$%^&*^%$# truck that was having troubles getting out of the tunnels. Drat. By midafternoon, we were in the Appalachians. T here were farms with horses tucked into the hills.There were hay rounds again, unpainted barns, old Colonial homes with lots of chimneys, and interesting shaped barns. We saw many kinds of cattle today - curly white Charolais, black and red Angus, Holsteins on dairy farms, Herefords, and Guernseys or Brown Swiss
Thimble Shoal Lighthouse
You can see part of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel in the distance. all in grassy pastures. There was even a herd of alpacas. There were many more chicken sheds and the farms had silos again. You might be amazed to know that they have corn stubble and CORN here, but there were also some cabbages for variety. Of course our truck was not happy on the hills. We got to the beautiful Shenandoah Valley and decided that after we parked for the night we'd find a repair shop. We passed one car lot that only sold street legal golf carts! The fields are getting rocky and there are junipers and cedars growing in the fallow fields. There is mistletoe in some of the oak trees. Nancy even saw another Osage orange!
When we went out to dinner, there was the first smoking section we'd seen on the whole trip. After dinner, we went to an Urgent Care or Walk-in Clinic or Docs in a Box for Rich. He has bronchitis, not bad. He got a prescription for the antibiotic he usually takes, and he got another prescription for an anti-inflammatory for his leg. Driving back to our camper, we saw rounds of hay wrapped in white plastic, but they were all hooked together so instead of looking like marshmallows, they looked like long, bumpy, white caterpillars. The Shenandoah Valley is way up at 1,100 feet. OOOH! Shenandoah means "Daughter of the Stars". Isn't that neat?
We slept under the oaks dreaming of trucks that run right.
Before I forget again, now that we're in "mountains" again, I must remember to mention the Von Trapp Family Singers back in Vermont! The Von Trapps of "The Sound of Music" moved to Stowe, Vermont in the 1940's. Family members still operate an alpine lodge featuring classical concerts and sing-alongs!
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