Houston, Delaware & lots of chickens

We get to add another state to our map. It's NASCAR race weekend at Dover about 20 miles north so the CGs in this area are busy. We chose not to park in the busy part of the CG in the woods & elected to stay, all by ourselves, in "the field". There must be 40 or 50 sites in a large open grass field and we are the only ones in it. When we checked in we were told that 5 or 6 years ago the field would have been full. We went for a ride to the Delaware shore Saturday and stopped for a seafood dinner which was only so so but the clam chowder was good & Judy likes the clam cake. Alabama shrimp & fish were much better. We are surprised by all the open farmland around us. We noticed while on the Virgina eastern shore (a narrow strip of land between the Chesapeake Bay & Atlantic, and also here in Delaware that there are lots of chickens. We have seen several trucks loaded with chickens (and one unique bus loaded with chicken cages you could see throught the windows). We passed 4 or 5 large Purdue and Tyson chicken processing plants. Maybe folks around here eat more chicken than seafood?

Quinby, VA via the Chesapeake Bay Bridge & Tunnel

This morning we left Williamsburg for the eastern shore of VA. The first challenge was a tunnel in Hampton on I64 which has a clearance of 13' 6" and we are 13' 4". It was spooky going into the tunnel after having to stop for our first ever "inspection". All RVs had to stop to ensure their LP was off prior to the tunnel. Well, we now know we are less than 13' 6" because the front rooftop air conditioner is still up there. About 10 miles further into Norfolk we crossed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge & Tunnel which is about 20 miles long across the bay. This was the most expensive toll ($28) in our 4 years on the road but it was worth it. There are two one mile tunnels, also 13' 6" clearance, allowing ships to pass through the bay. We saw 5 or 6 freighters waiting outside while one large US Navy ship was zipping past them out to sea. Once on the eastern shore it was about 50 miles to Quinby and the CG we were headed for. The CG was at the end of a narrow road out on Hog Island Bay. It was definitely not crowded and very peaceful......read remote. We are parked with the bay about 200 feet behind us and the read window facing so we can see lots of water but very few boats. Thursday was a nice, mid 60s & sunny & with a calm wind blowing so we washed the HitchHiker.

Boat tour of Norfolk

Today we drove into Norfolk to a 2 hour boat tour of Norfolk port and the naval base, it was a great 2 hours. One goof we made was not discovering that several museums we wanted to visit are closed on Monday and some on Tuesday also. Win some, lose some.

The above 4 pictures are of the USS George W Bush, CVN77, the final super carrier of the Nimitz class. We were fortunate to see 5 helicopters land while we were passing by.

Above is the USS Mahan, DDG 72 another guided missile destroyer. Below that is the stern of the USS New York, LPD 21, an amphibious transport dock made with almost 8 tone of steel from the World Trade Center.




USS Anzio, CG68, guided missile cruiser.

To the right is the USS Arleigh Burke DDG51, lead ship of it's class of guided missile destroyers.



An AWAC landing at the Navy base.

A NOAA ship heading out.

An Israeli container ship.

The USS Wisconsin, last of the BIG battleships capable of shooting a 16" shell weight 2300 pounds (the weight of a VW) 23 miles.

A small cruise ship that put into Norfolk for repairs on her way out to sea.

Yorktown 1780; Washington (1) vs Cornwallis (0)

Here's the Yorktown Victory Monument approved by the Continental Congress in 1781 following the victory but not erected until 1884. How about the pic of Judy and George? They have the roof of Georges tent he used during the Revolutionary War set up in the Yorktown Victory Center.

The above British cannon shows the result of a direct hit which would have disabled the cannon.

When the British surrendered they also gave up well over 200 light artillery pieces. One of the reason the American & French won was the mortars (fixed location piece on the left) and howitzers (mobile piece on the right) shown in the above left photo used to destroy the British siege lines.

This is a view from the top of the British siege line looking toward the American & French troops lines way over at the tree line across the field. Washington & his ally, French Rochambeau, had skillfully pinned British General Cornwallis between the York River to the rear, swamps and large creeks on both sides and the American & French army. Not that it was Cornwallis' fault, he was ordered to take a defensive position but American trickery, the lack of British reinforcements & supplies, inferior artillery, a smaller army & the weather forced his surrender after a 3 week siege. The Revolution didn't end at Yorktown, the last major Revolutionary battle, in 1780 but it lead to the 1783 Treaty of Paris ending the war and the colonies were now an independent country.