Day’s distance: 294 miles
Total trip distance so far: 5,455 miles
Temperatures ranged from the high 60’s to the high 70’s. The morning started off cloudy and I rode through some light showers. After lunch, as I continued towards Virginia Beach the rain started. It rained pretty steady until reaching my destination, a result of a the tropical storm / depression Julia.
Back on the road after one day off to visit my sister, I was heading south into Delaware and then continuing along south into Maryland and across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.
I chose to take Hwy 9 along the Delaware shore line. This is a two lane road that travels through the estuaries, channels, nature preserves, farms and the occasional small track of suburban homes.
I stopped at the first opportunity to take a picture of the shore, Augustine Beach.
As I rode south, I was looking foward to having lunch at a restaurant recommended in the amenities listed for the motorcycleroads.com route I used for inspiration. Sambo’s Tavern was the place to be and I happened to arrive just minutes after they opened at 11am.
I wanted to try a soft shelled crab sandwich as my food experiment of the day. It was delicious! I also had a bowl of crab chowder, which together filled me up. Definitely recommend the sandwich.
Continuing south, I crossed into Maryland. It was showering and Hwy 113 was less picturesque, so I didn’t take photos along this section.
I was surprised when I crossed into Virginia before the bridge. I knew Maryland occupied some of this peninsula but Virginia does as well!
Here I am at a rest area for a quick landmark photo (with my motorcycle). 🙂
I was looking forward to taking the bridge and tunnel into Virginia Beach. I’m not sure why but I was expecting more tunnel than bridge, but there were actually only two short tunnel sections between long two-lane (each way) bridge spans.
The bridge sections, as mentioned, had two lanes in each direction and each direction was a separate bridge, so you never interacted with oncoming traffic. The tunnel sections, however, were one-lane each direction and both lanes were joined in an undivided narrow tunnel. It was quite intimidating entering the first tunnel! No wonder they have signs inside the tunnel saying maintain your speed.
Exiting the bridge on the mainland side, I quickly realized it was rush hour in Virginia Beach. So I added to the congestion and hopped on another freeway for the 10-mile run to my oceanside hotel.
It was raining pretty hard and I kept a close eye out for standing water on the roadway, but I arrived without incident.
Here’s the view from my hotel balcony.
As the weather predicted heavy rain and high winds on Wednesday as well, I decided to camp out here and wait it out. So, tomorrow is going to be an unscheduled day off the bike.
I will use the day to work on my route across the remaining states and to Sioux City where I will celebrate achieving 49 states of my 50 state goal.