Saturday, May 20
We were getting near the end of the trip and we’d been strategizing how best to space out our journey up the Eastern seaboard so we could get back on Monday while minimizing ridiculous driving days. But we were too late to cancel our reservation in Virginia Beach (not that much farther North from Elizabeth City) that Saturday night, so that would be impossible. So we decided not to worry and to enjoy a leisurely Saturday before intense Northward driving, at least that was the plan.
It sure started out that way. The rain had stopped but it was still pretty overcast and cool. Another very good but not-perfect breakfast at a very good but not perfect hotel, and then we packed up and hit the road.
Our first stop was going to be the Dismal Swamp, but it was doubtful whether the Northern section of it in Virginia, which is a National Wildlife Refuge and so perhaps preferable, would have many trails. Instead we stopped in the Southern section of it, which is still in North Carolina and is a State Park. This was another hidden jewel!
We were the first tourists when we got there at 9 or so, and all two of the staff had just started to set up. The highway there (route 17) is a straight road running North-South on the East, next to it is the vertical strip of the Dismal Swamp Canal, and on the other side of that is a great VC and the massive swamp itself.
The Canal is part of the Intracoastal Waterway and so needs to be prepared for commerce. There was none that Saturday morning, but they were officious about us crossing the removable bridge into the Swamp in case a (very small) oil tanker or the President’s flotilla suddenly came steaming down from Norfolk. George Washington had surveyed the route of the canal after all.
The Ranger had hightailed it for the VC when we arrived and unlocked the doors, but he then disappeared and the whole place was wide open to us and to another couple who arrived next. It was kind of spooky and the others were especially perturbed. Were we allowed to be there? We walked quietly but spent less time than we might have looking at their interpretive exhibits about snakes and indigenous residents and trees. They also had rooms full of absolutely amazing taxidermy that we wandered through. We could have spent more time in that VC, but it eventually creeped us out that there was no one there, and we headed outside for the boardwalk trail.
There was less than no one on the boardwalk trail, and we reveled in the privacy. Just as at Congaree, the boardwalk was needed because the swamp looked like it flooded often. This isn’t a long trail and we thought about taking a longer one, but all of the trails in the State Park (and apparently in the NWR to the North) are straight, flat paths alongside canals dug through the swamp, so probably wouldn’t have been any more entertaining than what we had just seen. It was an overcast morning, as was the norm on our trip, and the twisting boardwalk trail was damp and dismal and exciting with its perfect specimens of trees and shrubs and lots of mud all around. Didn’t see much wildlife that morning, but we heard lots of birds and had time to bid a gentle farewell to Southeast US nature.
Back to the car before the morning got on too much, and we were bound for Colonial National Historical Park, but it was hard to get there. We took 17 up into Virginia, and then the megalopolis of Eastern VA started up. This consists of a debatable number of cities, all centering around the Hampton Roads at the South end of Chesapeake Bay, with the James and York Rivers leading off to the West with the Virginia Peninsula between them. The Google lady prevaricated, and we ended up taking the long way around the Norfolk Virginia (Tidewater 4-1009) beltway, but maybe it was the right way in the long run.
We followed the bridge-tunnel up over and under the Roads into Hampton, vastly entertained by spectacular Navy ships being repaired and impossibly huge container ships being loaded. You think CT drivers swoop and NJ drivers veer? You should see VA drivers on the highways of that port megalopolis on a Saturday morning. We suddenly passed by the famous Hampton Coliseum, scene of some legendary Grateful Dead concerts. The Google lady had taken over again and was leading us on the best(?) roads towards Jamestown, but navigating this traffic safely took as much concentration as NYC had.
We eventually made it to Jamestown Settlement on a steamy and bright late morning. The parking lot was rimmed by state flags and was milling with people, most of whom were paying the exorbitant visiting fees and then going on in past the gates. We used the bathrooms and then sidled up to one of the people taking the money. Were we in the right place? She very nicely told us that we weren’t, when we described what we were looking for. We wanted to see the original Jamestown “Island” rather than the overpriced “Settlement,” where they have lots of docents and reenactors in colonial garb, boring glass-blowing demonstrations, colonial cows, and hush puppies (as I remembered).
We were relieved to get out of that crowded place, on that suddenly hot and hazy morning. But when we got to the Island we found that this was a rip-off too. Definitely a more-our-scale kind of place, but when we got inside we realized they wanted $30 per person themselves … for what?? Actually, half of the entrance fee was a National Parks fee and so was covered by my card, but half of it was from Preservation Virginia and was not. We paid, it but after walking around we did not feel that this fee from Preservation Virginia was merited.
Ignoring what looked like another boring museum, we went out the back door and took their boardwalk over the wetlands to the island that early English settlers had tried to defend and form a life on. At least we were out in the fresh air again, and it had turned into a lovely, soft day as we strolled along the banks of the James River. Jamestown Island as a historic site had been largely ignored for many years, but the realization that there was profit in tourism and technical advancements in archaeology had combined in the last century. And the place is really an interesting and scenic spot, a living museum on the River. It’s fascinating to wonder what had made these people journey across the ocean in 1607 for a new life and to realize the challenges they had to deal with when they got there, including starvation and hostile inhabitants.
But Sarah and I had our own agenda and were looking for a nice place to hike that day. We wandered far away from the reconstructed chapel, etc., around the dubiously re-created parts of the island, where they’d placed brick walls where they thought the original settlers’ walls may have been.
That was nice, and there were some lovely river vistas and some old trees and squirrels. But we were done with that and what we really wanted was the road around the island and the promised trails at the deserted(?) end of it. But when we got there the road was closed for “turtle season!” Yeah, we’d seen a good variety of turtles in the wetlands leading out to the island, but I don’t think they would have been very threatened by the small number of cars trying to get out to the point.
Well ok! It was a beautiful day nonetheless and it was lunch time and the picnic tables were deserted, so we set up our lunch stuff and had a great, mellow time, talking to the squirrels about history.
Colonial National Historical Park consists of three sites arrayed around the Virgina Peninsula: Jamestown Island, Colonial Parkway, and Yorktown Battlefield. The island is farthest to the West, and we were dreading the task of now fighting the traffic back to Yorktown and then back to Hampton, but the Parkway is another hidden gem. We got on it, the crowds disappeared, and it was 23 miles of slow, winding curves past marshlands and under well-landscaped overpasses (under a tunnel through “Colonial Williamsburg,” thank Dog) Northeast across the Peninsula towards the banks of the York River.
As I say, Sarah and I are not military buffs, but being an employee at the Minute Man National Historical Park, where the Revolutionary War started, I felt that I *had* to visit Yorktown, where the last battle of the war took place. And I’m glad I did, though we didn’t spend much time there.
The parking lot in the VC was only a quarter filled for once, and we had time for a short talk with a Ranger before their introductory film. Unfortunately, the film was embarrassingly poorly produced. The actors playing the “British” had bad accents, bad wigs, and fell over immediately when “shot.” This was like a cheap soap opera or an episode of Benny Hill. They tried to talk up American bravery, but this was not the main plot. The real story of this climactic battle was that the French fleet kept the British fleet (which had been dispatched from Manhattan to save English bacon) away from the York River and the English were surrounded and had to surrender. This was the last major battle of the Revolutionary War, though the Treaty Of Paris that officially ended it was still two years in the future.
After the film, the gift shop, and a few exhibits, we went back outside. The big feature in that section of the Park is a self-guided auto tour around to the key sites. But after a few admittedly lovely spots with low earthen walls (that were actually reproductions), we bagged and headed back towards the traffic maelstrom.
The afternoon was really getting on by that point, and we had no idea how long it would take us to get back Southeast to the hotel we’d reserved in Virginia Beach, especially seeing how long it had taken us to get to where we were. We picked up 17 back towards Hampton and then Interstate 64 across the entrance to Chesapeake Bay to Norfolk. We were delighted that the bridge-tunnel across the Roads was not that bad, and then we were dumped onto route 60 through Norfolk and into Virginia Beach, eventually landing at the Quality Inn Little Creek, which was a very nice cheap and shopworn hotel. We were there in front of the crowds but then it filled up quickly.
Phew, that had been a long Saturday, unexpectedly filled with traffic and crowds. We had set ourselves up for an outrageous road day on Sunday, and we were hoping to get to bed early. Luckily, one of the best dinner options Sarah had found on the web was just a few hundred yards away, and we took a stroll in the searingly sunny late afternoon down to Ole! Restaurante, where we were the first dinner guests.
I had an absolutely delicious tuna and mango dish with delicate rice and beans, and we both had the usual Mexican restaurant drinks. Back to the room and we had a little energy left, so we got out the cribbage board we had brought all that way, and had a fine game I’m sure, though it was getting on and we had sleep on our minds.
Soon to bed, having traveled 172.7, really challenging miles that day.
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