We checked out of the Red Roof Inn in Virginia Beach around 7 this morning, and started on the northward trek across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. It wasn't very hot, but the humidity made up for it. It was cloudy, and the ride across the bay was nice and easy. After getting the 360 degree view last year on the bikes, it was anticlimatic.
The ride was uneventful up the Eastern Shore of Virginia, and we made good time. We arrived at the Lewes Ferry port at 10:20, 5 minutes after the ferry left. Oh, well. We hit the gift shop and bought some new hats.
Funny thing is, the hats (with Cape May Ferry logos on them) were imported by a company in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. We had to travel 500 miles to get a hat from 70 miles away!
When we got to the hotel, we were able to check in right away, and we spent the afternoon with the family in the pool.
Anyway, we're safe in Wildwood for the week. I'll update this blog if there's something to report, or we get some good pictures. We're planning to do a carriage ride in Cape May, and it should be interesting.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Wildwood NJ -- August 6 - August 14, 2011
Dateline Virginia Beach, August 6th, 3PM
We watched the weather carefully for a week, trying to determine what the weather would bring for our trip. After two months of over-the-top heat (so many days over 100 degrees), and weather prognostications that showed the weekend to have between 30 and 60 percent chances of "Isolated Thunderstorms," we hoped for a break that would allow us to take the motorcycles like we did last year. Finally, this morning we decided that the chances of rain were just a little over our comfort zone, and we decided to take the car.
Don't get me wrong, we've ridden in the rain (see our Savaanah posts), and while it's not the best travel, if it's only brief storms, we would still ride. As it turned out, our decision proved to be the right one.
We left around 9 this morning, under cloudy skies. While the temperature wasn't too bad, the humidity was high, and I was sweating from loading the car. We got on I-95 and moved north, running about 78 mph and making good time.
Not far after Fayetteville, we started noticing the oncoming vehicles were using their wipers, so we knew we were going to hit some rain. Did we ever! Between the hard rain and the vehicle splash, visibility was somewhere around 40 feet, and we were slowed to between 40 and 50 mph for most of 100 miles or so. It was tense driving, lots of brake lights and amazingly, no wrecks.
As we crossed the state line into Virginia, the rain slackened, and when we stopped for lunch in Emporia (10 miles from the border), the rain was gone. In fact, as we turned east on Highway 58 towards Norfolk, I noticed the road was dry!
We did hit a shower or two in the 90 mile run from Emporia to Norfolk, but nothing like in North Carolina.
We pulled in to the Red Roof Inn on Northampton Blvd in Virginia Beach around 2:45, and checked in. You may recall that we stayed here on the way up last year, and I dropped my keyring on the floor and left it behind. The Desk Clerk (Linda) found it, and kept it at the front desk for me, and we picked it up on the way back.
Well, Miss Linda was here today, and, in front of her boss, I told her that, because of her kindness last year, we made reservations for this year, both going and returning. I hope that the compliments did not go unnoticed by her boss, and I know she was grateful. She did remember us from last year, and that we rode in on the motorcycles.
Tonight, we'll probably head across the street to the sports bar for dinner. Then in the morning we'll head across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. I'm hoping we'll get some video of the ride, and I'll tell you about it when we reach New Jersey. Can't wait to get my "toes in the water, ass in the sand!"
Life is good today.
We watched the weather carefully for a week, trying to determine what the weather would bring for our trip. After two months of over-the-top heat (so many days over 100 degrees), and weather prognostications that showed the weekend to have between 30 and 60 percent chances of "Isolated Thunderstorms," we hoped for a break that would allow us to take the motorcycles like we did last year. Finally, this morning we decided that the chances of rain were just a little over our comfort zone, and we decided to take the car.
Don't get me wrong, we've ridden in the rain (see our Savaanah posts), and while it's not the best travel, if it's only brief storms, we would still ride. As it turned out, our decision proved to be the right one.
We left around 9 this morning, under cloudy skies. While the temperature wasn't too bad, the humidity was high, and I was sweating from loading the car. We got on I-95 and moved north, running about 78 mph and making good time.
Not far after Fayetteville, we started noticing the oncoming vehicles were using their wipers, so we knew we were going to hit some rain. Did we ever! Between the hard rain and the vehicle splash, visibility was somewhere around 40 feet, and we were slowed to between 40 and 50 mph for most of 100 miles or so. It was tense driving, lots of brake lights and amazingly, no wrecks.
As we crossed the state line into Virginia, the rain slackened, and when we stopped for lunch in Emporia (10 miles from the border), the rain was gone. In fact, as we turned east on Highway 58 towards Norfolk, I noticed the road was dry!
We did hit a shower or two in the 90 mile run from Emporia to Norfolk, but nothing like in North Carolina.
We pulled in to the Red Roof Inn on Northampton Blvd in Virginia Beach around 2:45, and checked in. You may recall that we stayed here on the way up last year, and I dropped my keyring on the floor and left it behind. The Desk Clerk (Linda) found it, and kept it at the front desk for me, and we picked it up on the way back.
Well, Miss Linda was here today, and, in front of her boss, I told her that, because of her kindness last year, we made reservations for this year, both going and returning. I hope that the compliments did not go unnoticed by her boss, and I know she was grateful. She did remember us from last year, and that we rode in on the motorcycles.
Tonight, we'll probably head across the street to the sports bar for dinner. Then in the morning we'll head across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. I'm hoping we'll get some video of the ride, and I'll tell you about it when we reach New Jersey. Can't wait to get my "toes in the water, ass in the sand!"
Life is good today.
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