From Waves we headed back north along 12 to Kitty Hawk. It was near here the Wright brothers made the first controlled, sustained flight of a powered, heavier-than-air aircraft on December 17, 1903. Turning on Route 158 we crossed over into Norfolk, Virginia, looking for the "
Follow the Gulls" signs for the Chesapeake Bridge - Tunnel to Maryland. After a rather convoluted zig zagging through Norfolk we finally saw the familiar blue signs pointing the way to the Bridge. It was drizzling and much cooler as we crossed the 17-mile link between the Virginia Beach/Norfolk and the eastern shore, one of the "Seven Engineering Wonders of the Modern World" and the largest bridge-tunnel complex in the world. We followed Route 13 and 113 through Maryland to the 50 east which went back to the coast at Ocean City where we caught Route 1 to Delaware. It seemed to take forever to drive through Ocean City, one of the east coasts most popular tourist destinations in the summer. Thankfully the 8 million annual visitors hadn't started arriving yet but we still took almost an hour to crawl through this seaside resort.
Delaware was cool and cloudy when we decided to stop and camp one last time on the beach at Delaware Shores State Park. Bordering the Atlantic Ocean and Rehoboth and Indian River Bays the park has six miles of shoreline but few people were exploring when we set out for our usual walk with Ben. The sand was course with an occasional horseshoe crab shell and the water was uncomfortably cold. Yes we were back north. Again we had a choice of sites because of the dirth of campers and the few fishermen along the river side were bundled up like Eskimos. But the sun came out as it lowered in the sky and it felt surprisingly warm.
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| Indian River Inlet Bridge, straddling the State Park |
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| Delaware Seashore State Park, Rehoboth Beach, Delaware |
The next morning we continued on Route 1 through Delaware till we hit the I-95, then followed the I-295 to the I-287, skirting Philadelphia and New York City. The I-87 would eventually take us straight north into Quebec and Montreal. But we had one more stop overnight before getting home, in the small village of Florida, New York. Florida is in a farming area known for the vast onion fields (it calls itself the Onion Capital of the World) in the nearby Black Dirt Region. It was a fitting end and place to stay to our Florida trip and one of the nicest camping sites we had stayed in - the Black Bear Campground. It was quite hot again, now that we were away from the coast, and we enjoyed the beautiful setting of the campground on a sloping hill full of maple and birch trees well in leaf. The next morning we were up early and back on the road, the New York scenery through the Adirondacks spectacular and the traffic almost non-existent, especially the closer we got to the Canadian border. In Plattsburgh we did some last minute shopping, crossed the border in Champlain, and were in Montreal for supper with the kids. Our three plus week trip was over, and we hoped winter as well. Lets do it again next April!
gws
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| Black Bear Campground, Florida, New York |
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| last stop in the Adirondacks, High Peaks North, North Hudson, NY |
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Quebec border, now on Highway 15, 12th May, 2016
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| welcome back! |
