In which Sid and Doris do some more low-level driving and are persuaded to forego a ferry.
We wake up to a lovely day in the Outer Banks, as this chain of long low Atlantic-facing islands is called.
Having reached the Atlantic the final leg of the journey is to go visit Matt and Linda in New Jersey to leave the car with them. After all they do legally own it (it is almost impossible for foreigners to get insurance for US-based cars, as Tim Moore found out).
Doris plots a route up to the Lewes – Cape May ferry to take us into the south eastern corner of New Jersey and against the tidal flow of Labor Day weekend traffic trying to get to Atlantic Beach. Sid and Doris dearly love a ferry. See the Ram ferry in Hungary for example, or the Rhine ferry on the European Tour.
The shoreline is mainly dunes with vacation houses, irritatingly thwarting the iconic JGG-against-the-Atlantic shot that Doris is after, but pretty nonetheless.
The first stop is the Kittyhawk museum on the site where Wilbur and Orville made their first flights. The museum is run by the National Parks Service which responded to growing car tourism, by people with 1959 Ford Country Squires and the like, with their ‘Mission 66’ project to celebrate the Service’s 50th anniversary with a range of new visitor centres. This elegant building opened in 1960 so we took the opportunity to recreate a scene from the period.
The Centre is excellent, telling the story as the Wrights tackled lift, drag, power and direction first with gliders and in 1903 powered flight. We see the wind tunnel they made to assess what wing shapes gave the best lift for drag. They used similar thinking to design their propellers. Then the docent (as we now call these well informed and informative guides) shows how the controls work and how they change the shape of the wings. She is great. The museum is great. Sid and Doris emerge better educated (if only temporarily) and inspired by the story. This is not a story of a single lucky flight, but of many years of careful thinking.
Another causeway and the opportunity to see how to transport fishing rods on your large pickup truck.
Also to photograph some of those low brick houses that we’d observed for the first time yesterday, and to wonder who, exactly, Virginia is for.
Then we are out onto the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel which links Virginia Beach with the Delmarva Peninsula. This is an 18 mile combination of bridges and tunnels carrying two two lane roads, and all for a toll of $14 which compares very well with the prices on the Chunnel. It was the US Navy that insisted on the two tunnels (and the four islands the tunnels go down or come up into) because if by weather or sabotage bridges over deep water channels were brought down the Navy would be confined to its huge base in Norfolk, Virginia. These are big, well-built structures but they are difficult to photograph so we’ve just put some thumbnails in – as always you can click on the pictures to see them in more detail.
Doris even had a final attempt to capture the edifice from the Official Viewpoint but to be honest anything 17 miles long and (mostly) 14′ high is not going to jump off the page at you. However the final picture in that collection is of someone’s personal sticker. It seems to be a convention if you are doing a road trip to put your group sticker on the border post/information board/pass height signpost etc. But this is a slightly unusual one that we thought Jenny Hands and her daughter Clare might like. Anything is possible if you are determined, as Jenny and Clare are.
As we have gone along Doris has been in touch with Joe in Oxford who can see our planned route passes just 60 miles from their door. On being asked over twice (the English rule is that if someone only invites you once they are probably just being polite, “Do drop past if you are ever over this way”) we cheerily reset the route as the bridge-and-tunnel combo has been every bit as good as a ferry.
This has given us a slightly longer day than planned; in fact we have made three short days into two long ones with a bonus rest day tomorrow in Oxford. Sid went for a run along the Nag’s Head this morning and is beginning to feel a little hangry. We were sorry the Exmore Diner was doing take-away only. Our subsequent experience of Wendy’s (one of the big chains) was dismal but Miftah Bat cheered us up with Boggs Water and Sewage. It is all about bottoms.
We have crossed the country and barely seen a 2020 poster for Biden/Harris, for their supporters the election is done. But a lot of Trump/Pence posters, painted vans, barns are still out there with some looking forward to 2024.
Just before we leave Virginia for Maryland we can see there is a tobacco tax arbitrage to be had at the border. And because some of our reader(s) are as mad as we are, and who knows, you may have an hour or two to fill up, we have found for you this map of cigarette prices across the US. If you click on it, it will take you to Tony’s web site where he makes maps of all sorts of things. Don’t say you aren’t tempted.
All this has helped time to pass and progress is being made. Hurricane Ida is sending in some rain and buffeting winds but really we are getting away very lightly. Near Oxford earlier in the day a small tornado had gone about ripping roofs off houses, which is most uncouth. Our wipers are vacuum powered and though the area cleaned is small they are pretty effective. Not much water comes in around the screen thanks to Alan’s Auto Glass and Sid’s feet are still dry. However, we do know that the radiator is still leaking but we are not losing much coolant.
Soon we are heading in a swirl of English town names past Cambridge around Salisbury towards Oxford where the JGG can rest with his younger brother. And Sid and Doris can have dinner with Joe and Betka, last seen in Monterey. Home cooking and the first Campari for about a month. Cheers.
PS First day of September and we see the first pumpkins of the year. Autumn is in the air.