Day 6-On to Virginia

Thursday-May 8

Yesterday we drove 14 miles, today we drove 249.  

We left our campground around 8:30 AM, and stopped for coffee and pastry before heading out of town.  Our first big excitement was crossing the Bay Bridge Tunnel.  I still don't like tall bridges and this is a tall one, but I've done it before and I'll probably do it again.

Our first stop was Fort Monroe, which was declared a National Monument by President Obama in 2011.  Fort Monroe is a former military installation in Hampton, Virginia, at Old Point Comfort on the southern tip of the Virginia Peninsula.  

Fort Monroe's fascinating story began when the Kecoughtan Indians occupied Old Point Comfort before the arrival of English colonists in 1607. The first enslaved Africans arrived in 1619, and during the Civil War escaped slaves found refuge there.

During the War of 1812, British soldiers burned Hampton and occupied the Old Point Comfort Lighthouse. The British Navy sailed unopposed all the way up the Chesapeake Bay to Fort McHenry in Baltimore, burning Washington, DC, along the way. 

After the war, President James Madison hired a French engineer-Brevet Brigadier General Simon Bernard-to design a network of coastal defenses to protect the nation from future attacks. Construction of the present fort began in 1819 and wasn't completed until 1834.  Robert E. Lee, who majored in engineering at West Point was stationed there from 1831-1834 and supervised the final phases of its construction.

Before taking the tour of the fort we picnicked in our van as we overlooked Chesapeake and the Hampton Roads harbor.  The naval shipyard in Norfolk is visible in the distance and you can clearly see several naval vessels, destroyers and aircraft carriers as well as the cranes that are used to repair them.

Leaving Hampton we crossed the James River and headed northwest toward our campground for the next two nights, Chippokes State Park.  Traffic was heavy and by the time we were getting close to Chippokes we decided to go to stop for dinner at the Surry Seafood Company which was located right along the river.  

I was getting a little nervous as we approached the area; it reminded me of Michigan's Upper Penninsula, but my worries were in vain.  

The restaurant was charming, right on the water, and we had a delicious dinner.  Joni had a Philly cheese steak, and I had raw local oysters,  fried shrimp and ribs basket with green beans and hush puppies.

It was 7 pm by the time we left the restaurant and our drive to our campground was a short one.  We had plenty of time to set up the van for the night before dark.  

No campfires tonight, and no Celtics to frustrate us either.