From Virginia Beach to Smithfield NC 31st May

Already hot at 0700 and a beautiful sky. Listening to Tony Blackburn live on Radio 2 and a countdown of the best selling records of the 1960's while packing up ready to move on down the coast and then inland from the ocean along US17 south. We had a really good journey most of it very pretty rural farmland and 2 lane highway with light traffic.
Welcome back to North Carolina

Arrived at Smithfield NC and our last camp site. Very hot and their swimming pool is open so a welcome swim. It feels really strange that this will be our last night in our temporary home and although we have had a fabulous time we are really looking forward to getting back to John and Pat's tomorrow.

We finished listening to the 60's countdown while cooking the BBQ chicken, just in time as it happens as we get a heavy rain shower but still very warm.

Sunday 30th and a day at the beach

Hey I've cheated and took these pics 2 days ago. We have just had a lazy day at the beach, we even took the shuttle bus rather than cycle !!! It was really hot hot hot and sunny. Needless to say as it's a holiday weekend the beacj was not this empty but it's a big big beach and there was plenty of room. Water was lovely, it's not really a swiming beach as the surf is too strong and high but great for playing and cooling off and the surfers and body boarders love it.

We now have a storm but hopefully it will clear again for folks for holiday Monday.

We are off tomorrow to Smithfield North Carolina en route to John and Pat's. Really looking forward to seeing them again.

We seem to be having a problem with our emails. We can't pick up any incoming on either address this evening, so apologies if we have not replied.

Dolphin watching

Rain in the wee small hours but brighter by 0800. Got an all day pass on the excellent shuttle service (electric bus) from campsite to the beach area Still very cloudy but warm when we embark the boat. Considering it's the holiday weekend the boat was only about half full. ! One and a half hour trip along the front of the beach/coast. We got to see lots of dolphins, even with my telephoto though I only managed to get mainly tails and one snout ! No one has told them to stay out of the water for the photo call. (Flipper alaway did that !!! ummm ) Anyway it was great to see them, we were quite amazed that they were so close to the coast line.
Perhaps the look is "yesterday I saw how much this boat rocked on the water while I was sitting quietly on the beach" !!!

No folks we have not jetted back to Blighty. It was also very warm even though looking grey !

Considering all of the effort put into the boardwalk area this is a very rickety looking pier !!

Pelicans in flight

Ah ha there is Flipper, did manage to get one of his nose !

Back to campsite for a spot of lunch and right on cue as Michael says shall we head back down to the beach it's starts to rain !! However just a short shower so off we go. It remainded cloudy and we had a few spit spots but still very warm so we were able to read our books and people watch.

T & M we hope you had an uneventful flight home to Manchester, looking foward to catching up with you later in June.

A day out at the beach

Second to last camp site !
Rain early morning (you really know when it rains in a motorhome !) but all over by 7 ish and then sunny and hot all day. Staff here working frantically to get the site ready for the holiday weekend, we think they have left it a bit late, the pools are certainly not looking well ! They were re-grading the drive at 07.30 and they still haven't spread the bark mulch, I would so love a rake and get stuck in !! Perhaps we could get a free night here if I volunteered ! Enough thinking about work and off to the beach on our bikes. Well the 2 miles was actually 3 and what with the 3 miles of broadwalk that we traversed several times we did about 15 miles by the time we got back home.....very saddle sore !!!!
Harbour area at Virginia Beach

Virginia Beach to the left

Virginia Beach to the right

Beach very similar to Mytle Beach

Commerative area to the history of aircraft carriers

ummmm !

I did venture into the sea and it was surprisingly not that cold.

We had to laugh when one chap we spoke to thought that Michael sounded like Jeremy Clarkson, he didn't know wether to be flattered or insulted !

I do have to mention the jets! The largest naval base in the world is minutes away in Norfolk, along with Naval Air Station Oceana and Langley Air Force Base in Hampton so never a dull moment. Our waitress in the restaurant at lunch time said "you're not from around these parts are you" when we looked for the planes flying over ! I guess it could get tedious but we have fun watching the air display.

We have booked onto a dolphin watching cruise tomorrow

On the road again to Virginia Beach

Alarm at 06.30 to be off back to Virginia. Another long day in the saddle travelling along the I-64 (it's I-64 all the way to the ocean) back over the Appelachians but a beautiful morning and temps up into the 90's by midday. Our first song of the day was Harper Valley PTA as we have just passed Harper Valley Road. This changed to The Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia as we headed farther east. A good 2 lane interstate most of the way with mainly good road surfaces just the usual potholes around the cities !!
Put this in as it was a fantastic sky

We went up and down and up and down the mountains etc etc but a very pretty scenic drive

We did get plenty of heavy traffic when we got near to Virginia Beach in fact the most traffic we have encountered on our travels with delays for 4 miles or so. This was to be expected as very much a high density area

Welcome back to Virginia. We have noticed that the Harley-Davidson riders are mainly silver haired and 60+

Our first glimpse of the ocean

The tunnel from Hampton/Newport News to Norfolk and Virginia Beach. We have travelled approx 1,200 miles since leaving Sandy and Jack's in Wisconsin but worth it. KOA campsite large as expected but not exactly ready for the holiday weekend, well the swimming pools look rather unhappy !! And I itch to get a rake to the piles of bark mulch !!! Feeling quite tired but looking forward to taking the bikes to the beach tomorrow, they say there is a 2 mile easy ride !

New River Gorge and a rest

A visit 2 miles down the road to New River Gorge Bridge.

Walked down 60 steps for the better view point. Sadly to really get down in amongst it we would need a car so a quick top up of vitals at Wal-Mart and refuel the rig and back to the campsite for an afternoon rest !! It's hot 90 degrees.

The bridge is the longest single span bridge in the world

The New River is actually one of the oldest in North America