Take me home, country road...

Downtown Philadelphia.

Good evening dear readers.  Today's journey started just outside Philadelphia, where cream cheese was invented in 1978.  I drove down I95 to around Wilmington and then headed south down the Eastern side of Chesapeake Bay on Route 13.  Bad luck for some, however just quite boring and full of bloody traffic lights for me.

The sign, just south of Philadelphia, half obscured by the lorry was inviting me to buy tickets to the Gun Show.

Breakfast courtesy of the Golden Arches in a place called Bear, near Glasgow, Delaware.

I stopped for something to eat an hour or so after I set off.  I'm not proud, but I ate something called Angus Supreme at McDonalds.  It tasted not bad for something that cost £3. Rather better than what £3 gets you in McDonalds in the UK anyway.

A long time ago, in a Galaxy far away, I used to frequent a branch of Games Workshop in Glasgow, Scotland.  I was surprised to see it such a long way away.

K-Mart, the legend lives, I went in just to see what was there.  Turns out not a lot apart from cheap stuff.  Tomorrow I think I will try to find a Wal-Mart.

Gas Station, Southern Delaware or maybe Eastern Maryland.

I had another self-service petrol pump incident today where I swiped my card but the pump asked me for my zip code but then wouldn't let me enter any letters.  I had to ask the cashier, who luckily was smoking a cigarette in the sunshine on the forecourt, to help me.  I successfully paid for the petrol in the hut using my card.  I've just calculated that I did nearly 400 miles on around 11US Gallons.  My scrambled brain maths equates this to about 42UK MPG, which if true, I am quite frankly amazed at.  I can afford a more expensive Motel tomorrow!

Route 13 is quite straight....

...and very long.

I stopped at a rest stop, just outside Princess Anne.

That's right, the Duke of Edinburgh has a Pacific island cargo cult and Princess Anne has a town in Maryland, USA.

At the end of Route 13 is what I endured the endless small town intersections, tractors, 35mph speed limits and  traffic lights:

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, or 'Lucius J. Kellam Jr. Bridge-Tunnel' to give it a more snappy title.  The arriving at sunset part was accidental, but made the experience even more totally awesome.

Basically, it's a bridge that turns into a causeway, then back into a bridge, then into a tunnel, then back into a bridge, then into a tunnel again then back into a bridge.  It bridges a gap in the Atlantic Ocean between Kiptopeke and Norfolk.

The bridge's website has a downloadable audio guide which I used.  You press play when you get to the Toll Booth and it takes you across and tells you all about it.
 

Camry's roof provides a steadfast and sturdy platform for photography.

The Bridge system is about 20 miles long and was originally built in 1964.  The audio guide compares it to building a bridge across the English Channel, which is probably not far off, it's massive.  I was looking forward to this, and I was not disappointed.

Causeway bit.

Bridge bit.

Tunnel bit.

Minimum speed on the bridge tunnel is 45mph - strictly enforced.  There are signs on the uphill stretches of the tunnels reminding you to gun it a bit to keep your speed up.

Towards the southern end is a rest stop on one of the artificial islands created for the tunnel entrances.  

This was where I discovered that I was not alone on this island in the middle of the sea...

"Ooh, a Whirlybird - has anyone got any bread?"

The US Navy is all over Virginia.  The US Navy's fleet command is in Norfolk at the south end of the bridge.  This means I got buzzed by a Helicopter while I was buying a souvenier T Shirt and considering whether or not to have something to eat, or whether to rent a rod and fish off the purposely designed fishing pier, in the bridge gift shoppe.

The noise of Camry's door shutting startled these 2 Hovercraft, so that by the time I had the camera ready they were in the distance.  Nice to see a breeding pair in the wild though.

This aircraft carrier was calmly pretending to be an oil tanker.

I had fun on the Lucius J. Kellam Jr. Bridge-Tunnel.  Well worth the $12 toll in my opinion. 

The next part of the journey saw me driving from Norfolk to Virginia Beach in the commuter traffic.  This is a fairly busy time it would seem.  

Seems like a manic dash with a mandatory minimum speed of 75mph (speed limit 65mph).  I'd have enjoyed it more if:
(a) Camry had a bit more poke
(b) I wasn't terrified of getting a speeding ticket
(c) I wasn't driving on the wrong side of the road and
(d) it wasn't getting dark.

This was the only stressful part of today's drive, and it was only for about 20 miles.

However at one point, a couple of Navy F-18s flew over me at about 300ft, which was kind of cool.

The first time it happened.

Seems there is at least 1 naval airbase nearby and outside all you can hear is the rumble of military gas turbines.  Every few minutes the rumble gets louder and some sort of military aircraft or other streaks by unseen in the dark.

There are also signs in the street asking you not to swear. Not sure if that's the sailor influence or not.

I'm tired enough not to care.

Camry's bed for the night - Hotel car park.

The hotel offered to let someone with a backwards baseball cap valet park the Camry.  The car park is about 25m from the hotel, and while parking Camry I noted another car being valet parked.  At high speed, by backwards baseball cap man.  I'm glad I didn't entrust this high-value automobile to them.

Ramada Hotel - Atlantic Avenue, Virginia Beach, VA.

 My bed for the night - 8th floor, with a small balcony.

Tonight's hotel is comfortable, but much like the one last night, I've filled it to the overflow and it genuinely doesn't come up to my ankles.  I guess they don't go for baths much here, perhaps it is an extended shower tray pretending to be a bath just to keep brits like me happy.

Balcony overlooking the beach.

I had dinner in the restraunt attached to the hotel - I sort of envisioned that it was a fast-food type place.  It was much better than my expectations.

Before coming to the US I was warned about portion sizes.  No matter - I decided to go for a nice light Bistro Salad for starters.  Turns out the Salad would probably have fed a whole Bistro.  It came in a sort of dinner plate and had goats cheese and chicken and pineapple and tomatoes and lettuce and onions and about a million walnuts.  I got a fright when it arrived as it looked so big but the waiter managed to somehow persuade me that I wanted a main course too.

For my main I ordered some Sushi.  Turns out that a small Sushi selection is a whole California roll (8pcs) and then 4 pieces of fish-topped balls of rice.  I munched the lot.

I loved the service in the restraunt, and just about everywhere I have been so far actually.

Now I am kicking back with a small bottle of Samuel Adams Coffee Stout, smuggled in the boot of the Camry, off to book tomorrow's accomodation and then hit my bed.  Night night!