Day 10

Up and at ‘em!  Well, maybe not so ambitious as that, but we left Kiptopeke State Park and headed up the coast to Lewes Point, Delaware.  There’s a ferry from there over to Cape May and we considered taking it but opted out.  On the way up, we took a side trip to Onancock Wharf Harbor.

While there, we saw Julie's bicycle.

We headed east until we hit Delaware Hwy 1 and followed it up the barrier islands toward Lewes Point.  We took a little break at the Indian River Inlet bridge.

Instead of taking the ferry, we left the east shore madness and headed inland.  We were running pretty late by then so it was just about dark when we pulled into Killens Pond State Park.  Inside the park campground, it was very dark.  We stumbled around a bit finding a spot and hooking up, but then we had some microwave pot roast and hit the sack.  I got up with Ditto about 4:30 am and while outside, I realized I had left one of the rear doors open when I had gotten out the power cord.  I shut the door and Ditto and I got back in and went to bed.  It seemed like it was about the time my head hit the pillow that it started to rain.  Sure glad Ditto woke me up to pee.

Day 9

Messed around this morning, was in no hurry.  Watched as a couple of White Hats made their way toward the geedunk.

After leaving the park we headed to NAS Oceana to see how things had changed.  They had.  The area outside what used to be the main gate was now the biggest Navy Exchange complex we’ve ever seen.  I went in to see if they had any GPS that I might be interested in.  Amazingly, they didn’t.  But, the building reminded me a lot of the Springfield Mall with shops of all kinds, a food court, etc.  This whole thing was sitting almost smack dab where our old Navy housing apartment was back in the 70’s.

We went on the base, through the zig-zag of concrete barriers and past the gate security.  It’s funny, but back in my day, the gate security was mainly concerned about whether or not you had auto insurance and wasn’t wearing blue jeans.  Today, all I needed was my ID card, but there was no way I was going to drive a truck loaded with fertilizer through that gate.  At least, not very rapidly.

My old squadron, VF-41, has since been decommissioned, but our hanger is still there.  It felt a little strange driving around the base seeing some familiar sights but many strange ones.  They have a real nice Navy aircraft park with about a dozen different planes on display.

We left NAS Oceana and headed over to Corvette Court where we lived for a few months.  It looked much the same.  A guy that was living there came out and talked with us for a while.  Looked like he had just mowed the lawn and it looked nice.  The little tree the boys were playing under when lightning struck next door was gone as was the chain link fence that ran down to the street between the houses.

We checked out Dodge Street where Bob and Judy Gee lived, but we weren’t positive which house.  One looked familiar, though.

From there, we drove up Shore Drive to the Oceanview area where we lived immediately after I returned from Vietnam in 1968.  We lived in a little duplex on Pleasant Ave.  That whole area is now big new tightly situated beach homes and apartments.  Movin’ on up!

After Oceanview, we drove over to the Norfolk Naval Station to see what carriers were in.  Sadly, only the USS George Washington was there in dry dock and it didn’t look too pretty.  So, we left there, stopped to eat and then headed for the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.   Crossing the bay, we decided to spend tonight in the Kiptopeke State Park just across the bridge/tunnel  on the Virginia Eastern Shore.  It’s been a full day.

Day 8

Nice slow day, only about 3 hours driving time to the Virginia Beach area.  I wanted to stay at Fort Story (Cape Hatteras) campground, but when I called, they said they were booked up.  So, here we are at Dam Neck Navy Base.  It is a nice, rather new, campground with just a smallish sand dune between us and the beach.  It was hot today, but a front has since moved in and the wind is blowing in off the ocean quite cool.  In fact, I’m going to have to close the door.  Ought to sleep cool tonight.

Joyce fixed some chicken breasts for sandwiches right after we arrived.  We were all three starving.  After dinner cleanup, we took a stroll through the park and planned on going out on the beach.  But, to get to the beach was actually quite a walk and neither Joyce nor I was up to it.  We’ll check it out tomorrow as we leave.  However, this cool front is just that, cool and the high tomorrow is predicted to be below 80 and cloudy.  So, no sunshiny beach here.

Day 7

I checked the Internet and found I had not used the recommended amount of bleach for the amount of onboard water.  I should have used ½ cup instead.  Oh well, an extra day of treatment won’t hurt.  So, I added more bleach and filled some more empty water bottles at the spigot.  Phew!  The water really smells of bleach now.  If any bugs survive that, they’ll kill us for sure.

I was hoping to make it to Virginia Beach tomorrow, but it’s just too far for us.  So, we’ve opted to stop at the next Corp park along our route.  Appropriately, it is Kerr Lake, or rather, John H. Kerr Reservoir.  It was a short 3-hour drive so we took advantage of the free time this afternoon and took sorely needed showers.

Now, we’re just sitting quietly in a crowded but also quiet campground just doing nothing.  Well, I am writing this and Joyce is poking around on the Internet…and the water is still swimming pool water.  I’ll drain and refill the water tank tomorrow.

Day 6

We left out about 11 am, our standard departure time.   We dropped down on Hwy 23 to US Hwy 58 and headed east.  I remember taking this route once heading west coming from Virginia Beach.  But, that was about 40-45 years ago.  Funny, it didn’t look the same.

It was a fairly relaxing drive today.  We didn’t get lost and the GPS remained civil.  Joyce did complain of the fresh water smelling.  I smelled it and, sure enough, it had that familiar rotten egg smell.  Time to freshen up.  So, we stopped at a grocery and I bought some chlorine bleach.  A little dab will do ya.  I drained the water tank and hot water tank while back on the road.

We stopped for the night at  Goose Point Park on Phillpot Lake.  It’s a nice Corp of Engineers park that had been recently redone.   

I added about ¼ cup of bleach and refilled the fresh water.  I’ll let it sit overnight then drain again and refill.  In the meantime, drinking, cooking and teeth brushing water will come from a bottle or directly from the faucet outside. Otherwise, it’s like drinking from a swimming pool.

Day 5

Well, that didn't work.  Oh, the GPS worked fine after the overhaul, but our route plan didn't.  My goal was Salt Fork Creek near Wytheville, Va.  However, along the way, we were looking for a place to stop for lunch and a rest when we spotted a sign for Kingdom Come State Park and since we'd always heard of Kingdom Come, but never been there, we decided to stop.  Of course, it was a lot further off our route than we planned, but it was worth it.  Now we can say we've been there.

There was one small problem.  After leaving Kingdom Come my will was not done, but maybe His was.  We got lost.  Here we were in the middle of Kentucky coal country - where many mines have closed and left a lot of folks in dire straits.  Folks who some reminded us a little of Deliverance, although we saw no banjo players.  The GPS did not break down on me.  It just plain ol' lied.  We were tooling along up a narrow valley.  It was beautiful but kept getting narrower with steeper sides.  Finally, the GPS gave up.  It didn't crap out, it just didn't know where it was.  The road finally came to an end at a played out coal mine loading conveyor.  So, we turned around and headed back out.  Gypsy finally got her bearings and led us out.  We made it out to civilization but had lost too much time to make it to Salt Fork as planned.  So, we're at a private campground in Big Stone Gap just past Appalachia, Virginia.  What a day.  I'm bushed.  Oh, yes.  For anyone keeping score, it’s Jessie Lea RV Park.  Nice park.

Day 4

Well, there goes the quiet.  A tree trimming crew pulled in around 9 am and set up shop right behind us.  They’re trimming trees now and another truck just rolled in with a big wood chipped.  Things should be getting real noisy shortly.  Get we’d better get breakfast and morning chores done and get out of here.

We were headed for a campground just over the line into Virginia, but I started having trouble with my GPS and realized the campground was too far for one day.  So, after dinking around with “Gypsy” for a while, I gave up and we settled on the Levi Jackson State Park near London, Ky.  It’s another nice, well run campground and busy, too, like the one at Ft. Knox.  So, what going on?  There are even a lot of kids camping here…on a school day.

After we got set up I found a way to reset my GPS back to factory settings.  So far, so good.  If it still has trouble, I’ll have to find me a new one.  I’ve gotten to where I really depend on it for locating campgrounds so I’d hate to have to make this trip without one.  Ain’t technology wonderful?

Tomorrow I plan to camp at Stony Fork Creek Campground near Wytheville, Virginia.  I had to load GPS coordinates for it since none of my campground data had it listed.  So, tomorrow should be a good test of old Gypsy.