Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnels into Delmarva

 After our soggy 24-hour stay in Virginia Beach, we are heading off the mainland of Virginia across one of the "seven engineering wonders of the modern world." Today's drive will take us across the 17.6-mile expanse of the waters of Chesapeake Bay. Several days ago we purchased an EZ pass, because that will save us a few dollars on the toll today. Because the motor home with the pickup attached is a 4-axel, 10-wheel vehicle, our ride will cost $34. Actually, because it will also use a couple gallons of the $5.99 diesel we just filled up with in Virginia, it will be even more expensive.

We had wished for blue skies for this drive out to sea, but instead we got continued rain showers. We're just glad that we don't have wind, because they will close down the bridge to tall vehicles like ours on windy days. This section of the bridge is four-lanes, so the vehicles going the opposite direction have their own bridge that runs parallel with ours. It is raining, we are driving over the deep water of the Chesapeake Bay--and now the sign tells us that there is road work ahead?!?

Sure enough, there are cranes and orange cones, as we are narrowed to two lanes, with on-coming traffic--in the rain.

That construction is working on another parallel tunnel. This 17-mile trip isn't just on a bridge, it also includes two tunnels. Presently, the tunnels have two-way traffic. With the completion of another tunnel, drivers won't have to meet cars coming towards them inside the long tunnels. The good news is that we are out of the rain while we are inside the tunnel under the water of Chesapeake Bay. Because we are driving under the water, the ships going up the bay above us have an uninterrupted shipping channel.

We are about half-way across this ride now, with another section of four-lane bridge going over the deepest part of Chesapeake Bay.

The narrowest section of this experience is when the four lanes come down to two, and the tall walls lead you down-hill into a second tunnel with vehicles coming toward you. There isn't much room for error when you are a wide motor home.

Some of those oncoming vehicles can be quite large. You just try not to think about the fact that you are under a very large body of water going 50 miles per hour in close confines with lots of other cars. If anyone makes a mistake in this 17-mile journey, it's not going to be pretty for any of us.

We both gave a little sigh of relief when we finished our bridge/tunnel crossing and found ourselves back on solid ground. That solid ground where we just arrived is actually a peninsula that is called "Delmarva." That's because it is made up of the entire state of "DEL"aware, the eastern shores of "MAR"yland, and the little point of "VA" (Virginia). We didn't even know that this little point of Virginia across the bay existed. So we didn't cross a state line on that long bridge/tunnel crossing, because we are still in Virginia. Our destination for the day will take us up Route 13, to our first Boondockers Welcome camp site. We were glad that our host, Hal, saw us coming. He led us down the very narrow roads to the slice of his farm land that he shares with boondockers like us.

This is our first stay using our Boondocker's Welcome membership. By joining for $67 we were given access to a map of people like Hal that open up their property to RVers with self-contained vehicles. Hal and his family have often camped here overlooking the Machipongo River, so he added 50-amp hook-ups. He decided he should share it with the rest of the world, and we are glad he did. For $15 per night, we have 50-amp electricity and this view of the wetlands. We took this picture from our camp site when we first arrived. We are close enough to the ocean that the height of the river is determined by the tidal flow. We are at low tide now, so the water is quite far from us, and we can see islands covered with marsh grass.

We tried taking pictures from the same place to illustrate the changing tides. Now as the tide gets higher, we see fewer pronounced islands, and the area closer to us has some shallow water in it.

At high tide we have water all the way up to the berm that protects the camping spots, and all of the islands are covered. It was fun to see another of God's wonders as we witnessed the affects of the ocean on this inland river.

It was also fun to do some bird-watching from the passenger seat inside the motor home. 

The shore birds were using the fence posts to roost, as they were lined up in front of us.

Besides getting a nice local camp site, it's also fun to get to visit with the local owner. Ken is a wheat farmer, forced to take the day off from harvest because of the rain. He is getting 80 bushels to the acre in his wheat harvest this summer, and the price of wheat is the highest he has ever seen. He retired from his real job, and returned home to take over his parents' farm several years ago, even though he never planned to be a farmer.

We also had a nice patch of corn near our camping spot, so Ken's farm is diversified.

Since Ken is a local farmer, we were hoping that he could tell us what was going on in the fields that we had seen in our drive today. We couldn't see anything growing, and it looked like the entire field was covered with aluminum foil.

Ken explained that these are tomato fields. In preparation for setting the tomato plants, the farmer makes deep furrows that create perfect up-raised rows of dirt. Each row of soil is treated with a special insecticide and then the silver covering is placed over it. A bus-load of farm workers will then arrive to plant tomato plants through the foil. It will take another bus-load of helpers to start harvesting those tomatoes later in the summer.

We visited with the two other RVers that were also camping at Ken's. We would have been perfectly happy to stay there watching the tides and the birds. But we decided to drive a little and see some more of this little bit of Virginia. We found that the first 70 miles of this Delmarva peninsula is called the Eastern Shores of Virginia. As we wandered the back roads, we found a bridge that took us over the Machipongo River.

Crossing that bridge put us on the ocean-side of this Virginia peninsula. We drove to the marina in the little town of Quinby. The tide was so high that it was only an inch below the pier going out into the bay.

This little-town marina doesn't host big yachts and pleasure boats. These are working boats owned by working fishermen.

We are coming to understand that crabs are the preferred catch of the day. We found tall stacks of crab cages beside the water at the marina.

Denisa was also excited to find garden markets beside the road while we were wandering. Locals with too many fruits or vegetables will display them on a table beside the road. Anyone is welcome to stop and buy at this self-serve stand. Cash payments are deposited through a little slot on a lock box that is usually bolted to the table. 

We stopped at two different vegetable stands, and Denisa had a nice collection of fresh fruit and vegetables. It's been a good day!

Since we are facing east, Denisa was up early the next morning to get a sunrise picture over the water in front of the motor home. From driving across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel to getting our first taste of the produce--it's been a good and eventful first day in Delmarva!