Virginia's Eastern Shore (9.28/2014)

As I mentioned in my previous post, we were on the eastern shore for a century bike ride.  We spent the night in Ocean City, which is kind of a tradition for us.  It was H2Oi weekend, which meant the town was full of souped up VWs and Audis that are water cooled.  Kind of cool, at first we were not sure what we saw, but it was fun.  Other times we were there it was hot-rod weekend etc etc. 

Three photos here this time.  We woke up Sunday, went for a sunrise walk on the beach and then drifted down the coast, for a large part avoiding the major highway.  The roads were decent and the scenery was spectacular at times (p.s., the back roads in MD are much better than VA; lawmakers please take note).  Great was a little hamlet call Public Landing, MD.  From there we took the road down to Wallops Island and Chincoteague.  Wallops Island is known for its NASA facility and our Virginia Space Port.  Chincoteague is known for the ponies, and let me tell you there is plenty of pony paraphernalia in town.  It is a touristy place, but fun to be and it was our lunch destination.  The second photo is my wife having lunch at a five star lunch place called “Right Up Your Alley”.  After some searching we figured out it was a food cart, and the food was absolutely great.  As one of the reviewers of yelp says: It “ brings a modern city feel to the historic, small town of Chincoteague.”  The fish tacos were wonderful, and actually so were the French fries (which we felt we desperately needed after a day of biking 60 miles).

Drifting further south we took a wrong turn and ended up at the gate of the Space Port and then going on we eventually we drove through Modest Town.  Wikipedia does not tell us much about that town, except that it was a stagecoach stop on the route from Wilmington DE to Eastville.  Truthfully, you can easily live a full life even without even seeing this town.  It is a shame, but this was probably the most run down, dilapidated place we came across during our drive.  Makes you wonder what the real-estate prices are in that town.  I am sure you can get some of the burned out buildings for cheap.  Come to think of it, I wonder if they were the results of that pyromaniac that was on the loose on the eastern shore.

After getting back on Route 13 our next big stop was the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.  It is a great place.  The facilities are now 50 years old and great.  It is 17.6 miles long and a great place for tourists, fishermen and fishing boats alike.  The last photo of course is from the visitor’s center on one of the islands, down the tunnel to the other side.  You can see all the boats in the water.  Actually there is a fishing pier as well, and someone pulled up a big flounder while we were standing there.  It was a great end to a wonderful weekend on the eastern shore.

Salisbury,MD (9/27/2014)

This weekend we traveled into Maryland to participate in the Seagull Century.  The Seagull, for short, is an annual bike ride on the eastern shore of Maryland.  You can choose between a 100 mile ride or a 100 kilometer (64 mile) ride.  We chickened out this year and did the 64 mile ride.

We were biking with more than 7000 of our new best friends.  It was beautiful weather this year.  It started cool and warmed up to around 80 degrees.
There is a rest stop every 20 or so miles where you are fed on bananas, oranges, baglels, fig newtons, and pickles.  There is water and Gatorade to fill up the bottles and even a bike maintenance guy.

We always say that the ride is like the marathon for cyclists, but judging from the looks of it many people participate and it is doable; although you need to train.  Still, you see that people are unprepared.  Near the end you have people standing next to their bikes, completely out of it.  This time a woman was standing next to her bike 3 miles before the finish and she told us she was out of water.  Sad to see she appeared to be unprepared.  During previous rides (as this is our 12th annual ride) we literally saw people fall over into the ditch from exhaustion; but that day it was 99 or so.

Anyway, it was a great ride this Saturday.  This picture is one of our bikes at the finish line.  We just got in and were ready for a beer.  The bike were tired too and it was easy to lean them against each other waiting for us to come back after drinking a cold one.  Everybody leaves their bikes unlocked and I've never heard of any stealing.  Cyclist are a great colorful bunch.

Cape Charles (9/26/2014)

Traveling to the eastern shore of Maryland, we stopped at Cape Charles for lunch.  Cape Charles is a nice little town, absolutely worth visiting by car or by boat.  I wanted to see what people in our yacht club meant when they said you could just walk across the tracks to go out and eat/party.

Driving into town we noticed two buildings with similar architecture and a roof with blue shingles.  Both were abandoned and for sale.  On further investigation they were abandoned gas's stations/garages.  The information on the buildings said that they dated from the 1920s.  It would be really nice to restore and use for a restaurant or even a residences.  However, being in environmental consulting, I know what a risk these two properties may pose.  Location tells me that the groundwater plume of potential contamination may be very different between the two buildings.  This is partially based on soils and geology.  And then to think about all the lead based paint!  Fun too think about and absolutely the reason why they are both abandoned.  Must be a steal if you want them (and then pay out of your nose to clean up the soi).  Regardless, I love the architecture of these two buildings or just the town.

Anyway, Cape Charles is a great place to visit and have lunch.  We definitively need to include it in one of our sailing adventures!

Tappahannock (9/25/2014)

Today I traveled to Tappahannock to teach a class on stormwater.  I had a good time, but being the only teacher, I am exhausted.  In essence I had a good response form my students.  Interestingly, I was teaching in a church that was taken over by the county and it was interesting "preaching" stormwater.

Went out to lunch with some colleagues at Lowery's; and after not eating there for a long time, I found them average, but kind of expensive.  But it was good.  After class I drove around town and took this picture.  Tappahannock is known for its seafood, being on the water.  I think it is also famous for being the home of Chris Brown, the rap singer.  I kind of feel ashamed mentioning him as one thing this town is known for, since he is also known for spousal abuse, a thing all too common lately, as reported about in the NFL.  I just can't fathom that, and find it despicable.  A review of various websites doesn't tell me much about that town, Captain John Smith appeared to have landed in the area but was driven off by the native indians, for the rest not much.  I know Tappahannock a a place with very cheap gas, and it did not disappoint me again.  Gas was cheapest there on this short trip.

Anyway I was debating intersection with or without school bus, so here is the one with.  It gives a better contrast on a rainy, gloomy day.

Chesapeake Bay (9/20/2014)

Not sure what pictures to post from Saturday.  We were committee boat for a sail race across the Bay, which meant for us being the start and the finish line and sitting in the area for 5 hours or more.  We entertained ourselves with bird watching, boat watching and just living through the bronco ride that the waves gave us.  It was actually more fun than what everyone predicted.  We left the line and went to hide in a more sheltered creek, We read, ate, drank and napped for 3 hours and then we went to sit back on the line.

The most fun was a pair of pelicans that were showing off near the boat, or all the small fish (fry) were around our boat, for they were diving and eating right around the boat.  It was a great spectacle.