On my walk in Cape Charles I found this Praying Mantis saying a little prayer that this big monster won’t hurt it. Of course, I don’t. I have seen dead specimens in museums, but I don’t think I have ever seen one alive, and certainly not one just cruising down a sidewalk without a care in the world.

Today, we took the expensive but cool Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel to explore the Eastern Shore, a long narrow peninsula that hangs down from Maryland. The toll was $14 each way. The 17.6 mile bridge-tunnel crosses the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Most of the structure is bridge, however, there are two tunnels that dive some 50’ underwater where shipping channels are located. The first tunnel dives under the Thimble Shoal Channel. The second tunnel travels under the Chesapeake Channel.

Currently, the two ribbons of bridge, two lanes on each side, converge into one two-lane road at each tunnel. They are building a second tunnel at the Thimble Shoals Channel. I suspect that the plan will be to add a second tunnel at both tunnel sites. When completed, each of the two parallel bridges will have its own tunnel.

The mammoth Tunnel Boring Machine, nicknamed Chessie, is digging the Thimble Shoal Channel tunnel. It burrows its shaft at 50’ per day. At that rate it will take 1 year to dig out 1 mile of tunnel. Chessie is 42’ in diameter, 308’ long, and it takes a crew of 25 people to operate. I would love to see it in operation.

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel as it approaches the Eastern Shore.

Originally, my plan was to take the passenger ferry from Onancock to Tangier Island. Tangier Island is a small isolated island in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay. The few inhabitants speak their own dialect. Unfortunately, the ferry is seasonal and the season ended on October 4.

Instead, we checked out some QTs and a state park. Our first stop was Kiptopeke State Park to knock out some miles before we spend much of the day driving. The park is on the Chesapeake Bay side of the Peninsula. Its location makes it a migratory song bird sanctuary and we did hear some wonderful songs. There is a little beach and harbor at the park. Harbor breakwaters are usually made from huge boulders formed into long spits. Kiptopeke’s breakwater was a line of old ships sunk in a line. I guess that’s using the materials at hand.

The trail that we took featured a long boardwalk that ended up at the Chesapeake Bay waterfront.

We had a steep set of stairs to negotiate before reaching the boardwalk.

The Chesapeake Bay as seen from the Eastern Shore.

We found a wild persimmon tree. The fruit was tasty.

If you look carefully, you can see the sunken ships used as a break for the park’s harbor and beach.

Our First QT was Cape Charles. This small town of about 1200, has a large concentration of turn-of-the-century homes. The downtown shops and galleries are charming. Many of the mansions have been turned into BnBs and Inns. The beach is sugar-white lined with delicate dunes.

The only thing that spoils this idyllic scene is an out-of-place concrete plant that dominates the view. Yikes, across a small stream, in front of a line of gorgeous BnBs, the plant greets the guests with its grey buildings, cranes, and piles of limestone. I did not take a photo of the concrete plant. I concentrated on the pleasant side of Cape Charles.

This is the whitest sand we have seen so far on our trip to Virginia.

Yikes, spiders! I like almost all creatures. I even like snakes, at least the non-venomous variety. Spiders, on the other hand, are not my cup of tea. We have seen some amazing Halloween decorations so far. This one is one of the best, and for me, one of the scariest.

Our next QT was Onancock (say that three times real fast). It is on a channel that feeds into the Chesapeake Bay. Founded in 1680, due to its calm access to the Bay, Onancock has survived the coming of trains and then cars. Fishing, supposedly, is still big in the area. We saw some amazing boat rigs, but nothing that looked like commercial fishing rigs.

So here’s the thing, we have noticed that seafood shops are few and far between in the entire Chesapeake Bay region. The few that we’ve seen only advertise shell fish, mainly clams and oysters. The towns along the shores of the Great Lakes in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota are peppered with seafood shops and markets selling fresh and smoked trout, salmon, and whitefish. Nothing like that in this region, at least not so far.

An info plaque.

Downtown Onancock.

Above and below: A couple of paintings in the gallery.

Now, that’s some serious horsepower.

Above and below: Two murals in town.

On our return, we drove through a couple of tiny villages on the Atlantic side of the peninsula. None were right on the ocean. They were nestled along the backwater channels that crisscross the flat low land. All-in-all, the Eastern Shore is laid-back and lazy. What’s not to like about that?

Glossary of terms used for newcomers: 1) V-Jer. The name of our camper. 2) Saturn. The name of our Van. 3) Duende. Our mischievous gremlin that breaks things. 4) Tata. The good gremlin that helps us fix Duende’s dirty work. 5) The Black Hole. This is what we call Walmart because every time we go in for just a couple of items, we come out spending way more than we figured. 6) QT. Quaint Town. 7) Little Buddy. This is what we call our Dyson cordless stick vacuum.

Dave and Wanda

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