Day 26 Thursday 4-28-16 At Chincoteague Island,VA

There are just three birding sites left to visit and camp, and about three weeks to do it. The month of May is just around the corner and we are now in Virginia , albeit for just 4 days. This is the Island of Chincoteague, the Island of the legendary “ponies of Chincoteague” or for those of you who may have had read “Misty of Chincoteague” with your children…the same place. It was ironic that as we were one mile from the campsite that the draw bridge to the Island started flashing the red light …”Stop” …and we were first to stop for the draw bridge to open for a boat to pass under.

But let’s go back to the stop at the strawberry market  where they were picking strawberries early this morning after a fresh rain last night. Fortunately that rain stopped about 4 AM and has not started again, but it looks like a rainy weekend here on the East Coast of Virginia

Gullifer's Market  with fresh Strawberries.

YUM. Strawberries fresh from the field.

The drive to this Island  brought us into Virginia Beach and just outside Norfolk where the long and beautiful Chesapeake Bay Bridge/tunnel is located. The road from North Carolina,  (615) is a very winding , two lane with NO shoulders at all, (sort of like those Kentucky coal mining area roads if you have ever travelled them) with many trucks hauling gravel from a huge gravel pit on that road. The speed limit is posted at 55 only a few times and at 35 and 45 the rest of the way. The curves (some) are posted at 25 mph and that is how they should be travelled. This continued all the way into Virginia Beach, about 30 miles that seems much longer. Ruth guessed that we had travelled 80 miles, I can see why. It was slow and “wine-dee”.

We stopped briefly to pick up some food goods, and continued to the bridge on General Booth Highway. Who was General Booth? Hmm I’ll have look that one up. HA. Easy one. General William Booth founder of the Salvation Army and great evangelist and preacher. Anyway, that road took us along the Navy’s Oceana Air Station, and their Amphibious Base on the shores at Virginia beach. In 2009 both Fort Story (Army) and the Amphib. Base were merged into one unit called Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek Fort Story. They combine operations and missions. When we were in Morehead city last week we visited Radio Island, and  we now know that it is a part of this joint operations.

A painting on the wall of a building (see the corner)  in Virginia Beach
which includes a very famous warship. Can you
name it or ID  it by it's number  #65 (CVN)?

Entry to tunnel number one on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

The road is now two lane and the road narrower.

The general look of the roadway on the bridge.

We did approach the Chesapeake  Bay bridge but ’twas amazing how wide it is.(Pulling a trailer has its trepidation) Two lanes that were actually about two to three feet wider than highway 615 was earlier in the day. It was not very good visibility as the fog and light mist limited that. The two tunnels , however, were two lanes with one lane going each way.  IT took a few seconds f adjustment to get the ”feel” after all that width. Each tunnel is one mile long , going down 1/2 mile and of course coming up 1/2 mile.

At the north end of the bridge is a small natural Island that has been reserved for wildlife and along the shore we could see the ubiquitous “Do not walk on beach” signs put there by the Fish and Wildlife Service, for the nesting bird protection. (Likely Snowy Plovers and others). The road on the north side of the bridge became a very smooth blacktop road with wide shoulders and although there were some traffic lights, we moved along nicely, usually, at 55 mph.

I talked Ruth into trying our first stop at a “Bojangles” fast food restaurant. We had seen them but never stopped in. Ruth said the chicken and biscuits were better than she had at KFC. I had the Cajun Club Chicken and it was very tasty and but not as ‘hot’ as I imagined.  We felt that we would come back again.We were looking for  “Chick Fila” but found none. 

So, that led us to the last turn at VA 175 as we headed for Wallops Island NASA Center and beyond that Chincoteague Island and the drawbridge. (Story on Wallops Island later the week) 

The drawbridge goes up! Note we did stop
when the light went red!

The boat goes under 

The bridge starts down.

Almost ready to go. The gates go up but the light is still red!

We set up camp, and as the temps began to plunge into the 50’s (It is 51F at this writing at 9:30 PM,) we turned on the heat for awhile. Supper was ‘subdued’ (less calories) as we had just eaten at 1:30, so I  had some of the chicken pot pie leftovers from “Pungo Bar and Grill”  the night before, and Ruth settled for even less. We both had one of the Sweet Potato pies that we were given at Bojangles. (Meal Deal).

As the rest of  the week is supposed to be rainy, we will probably restrict our birding to the truck by the side of the road. It is just  1/2 mile to Assateague island (just looking outside our trailer window .) 

  More  Blog tomorrow and I hope you are all well whereever you are reading from, in the world. Feel free to make a comment in the comment portion of the Blog.