A year with my sister, a lesson in survival, sanity and/or stupidity: We slowly move south

Had this kind of weather for many, many miles

Continuing south we made our way to Virginia Beach. Most of the 180 miles was in torrential rain. During one particular heavy downpour visibility dropped to pretty much the vehicle in front of you. Most vehicles around us sensibly drove to the conditions and we arrived at our destination damp but not stirred. Weather was fine

but cold the next day as we went scenic driving. Caught sight of this magnificent set of abs on the Virginia Beach boardwalk – shame it was just a statue.

Drove along, over and through the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. This amazing feat of engineering measures 17.6 miles from shore to shore with Chesapeake Bay on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other. There are 12 miles of trestled roadway, 2 mile-long tunnels, 2 bridges and 2 causeways. There are also 4 man-made islands, one of which you can stop at, enjoy the view, go fishing off the pier or dine at the restaurant with views of the shore in the distance and ocean-going vessels steaming past. We had a quick look at all the fresh seafood on the menu and decided to leave our picnic lunch for another day. We also walked on the pier but, true to form, us softies didn’t last too long out there in the cold weather.

Looking back to the first island, where we had lunch,
about 2 miles out in the bay

The first tunnel goes between these points

We chose down

It just goes and goes

The other place we stopped at that day was a town called Susan. Why did

I think the sign is trying
to tell Sue something

we stop there? You tell me. Sadly, it’s more of a “tih” than a town. No town centre, no businesses, no signposts with the name Susan on them … until we spotted this one. Personally I think it should be the capital for the country but they put that up the road at DC. Huh!

Next day we hit the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Stopped at Poplar Branch and met the Grave Digger. Sadly, and we’re gonna hear this a lot now, rides on the monster truck have finished for the season. That would have been so much fun. We got to walk around their yard though and check out some of the fun machines.

Jean about to get munched by
the angry monster truck

Like our new wheels?

Wright Brothers Memorial

The next stop was Kittyhawk where we visited the memorial to the Wright Brothers which also incorporated the actual site of their first flights and a reproduction of their hangar and living quarters. Up until now I’ve always been a typical parochial, one-eyed Kiwi who believed Richard Pearse was the first to fly. In actual fact, the Wright brothers weren’t the first, others were in the air at that time, including Pearse. What makes them so special is that their flight on 17 December 1903 (I’ve even memorised the date now) was controlled – the other pioneering aviators efforts were more like hops. Pearse himself didn’t believe he’d mastered flight until 1904 so yep, I’ve conceded that one to the Americans. It’s a bit like pavlova really. It doesn’t really matter who was first, what really matters is that is happened. Mmm, pavlova.

Jean & Sue at Kittyhawk

The granite marker on the left is the lift off point, the four markers
off to the right show the distances of the first four flights
(the furthest being 852')

Leaving this part of Virginia behind, we headed to the mountains. Not just any mountains but the Blue Ridge Mountains (oh come on, everyone knows the John Denver song). Scarily though, this meant we were heading in a north west direction, not just west. At a time when there is freezing weather coming down from the north. We may be softies but we are intrepid. We found a campsite at Waynesboro where we stayed for a couple of nights. Both nights the temperature got into the negatives and we had to disconnect our water hose.

It was a beautifully sunny, albeit cold, day the first morning. We were not daunted though as we were going to a Moonshine distillery (looking at the map, it would’ve been easier to visit this distillery when we first left DC but the darn place was closed the day we went past which is why we’ve made the special trip back here). On the way to the distillery at Culpeper we drove along the Skyline Drive at the top of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Even at this time of year it’s a beautiful drive but in summer, wow, it would be amazing (I think that’s my word for this trip). There are a number of scenic overlooks and the views are just stunning. Not so sure about all this ice we are starting to see though.

Ice ... already ... not too happy about that
(best we get a move on south)

Had a quick tour of the moonshine distillery before our favourite part, the tastings. Several $$’s later, our freezer is full and we are heading back to the campground.

This copper still was found abandoned in an old barn
and, yay, brought back to life

I'll try that one ... and that one ... and that one ...

We could have continued along the Skyline Drive the next day but with the RV on tow all that would have done is chew through the diesel so we contented ourselves with driving through the Shenandoah Valley and looking up to the mountains. We did one excursion up into the mountains, at Wytheville. At the summit of the Big Walker Mountain there is a lookout and a tower. We just had to climb it. Fantastic views from the top of the tower.

The lookout for regular folk

The lookout (and swing bridge) for people like Jean & Sue

Angled for a quick getaway

From Wytheville we dropped into North Carolina. Drove past these 3 churches all in a row. Every time the congregation outgrew the church they built a new one alongside. Wonder if they’ll get to a fourth?

Continued down to Asheville where we splashed out for a candle light visit to Biltmore Estate, the country home of George and Edith Vanderbilt. The estate is presently run by one of their grandsons and every year at Christmas they go out all out with the decorations. It takes a month to get all the decorations up and looks fantastic.