Eastern Virginia - near Williamsburg

After two days of successful Internet access, we have suddenly lost our signal in the campground. So we’ll have to wait until we move; or until Sprint fixes the cell-tower that was working fine until yesterday. So for the moment, I’ll summarize Tuesday / Wednesday. (Now, Thursday a.m. the signal is on again / off again, so I'll try to get this out while it's on again!)

An editorial note: in looking back at several of the blog postings, I realize that the “photo-of-the-day” is seldom from the title/heading/date. So it is somewhat misleading at first to see a photo taken in North Carolina with the heading – Day 3 in Virginia. I hope everyone understands that every day is not necessarily a good photo-op day and there are usually photos taken earlier that there wasn’t space for but I wanted to share.

As an example, today’ photo is from the junction of the Monocacy and Potomac Rivers in Maryland. The small boat in the photo is heading up the Monocacy River and was taken from the Chesapeake & Ohio barge canal aqueduct over the Monocacy River.

We haven’t had the time or opportunity to do much photography in our current location.

Tuesday.
Our day started fine with a short errand run that filled several needs. Around noon, we headed out for a fun-filled afternoon, starting with lunch at a local restaurant called the Wild Hog – A Southern Tradition. Thinking it was only a BBQ place, we were surprised to find the menu a cross between Virginia Traditional, Southern Coastal and Cajun. Margaret had a pulled pork sandwich and black eye peas; I had jambalaya and collard greens. Sweet tea, a Southern tradition; everything was excellent. This unimposing eatery was written up in the Richmond eating guide. We then headed for Norfolk and Virginia Beach. Not to be.

As we pulled out, a nice young man started yelling and running after us, waving. So we pulled off the road. Turned out we had a flat – a major flat. Before I could place a call to the Auto Club, he had the spare and the jack out, and was busy jacking up the car. During the process we learned our good Samaritan’s name was Dorsey and he was a retired Army Black Hawk helicopter pilot. Margaret and agreed that he didn’t look old enough to be retired; but that is our age showing. What a gracious young man.

Anyway, after he finished replacing the flat with the spare, we thanked him profusely and headed off to find a replacement. He had recommended Wal-Mart as the closest tire place of choice. Since I had just made a Wal-Mart-run, I thought that was a reasonable suggestion as I knew the way. Bad choice.

I won’t bore you with the sordid detail. Let’s just say that after 30 minutes of watching the Wal-Mart tire department people running around, not sure what to do; one fellow deciding to take his lunch break in the middle of writing up my order; the supervisor walking off; and the remaining employees were romantically involved -- we left. Off to Costco – another 20 miles on the do-nut spare.

I couldn’t believe the cost quoted by Wal-Mart (later confirmed by Costco) for one tire – a tire for a 3,000 pound Saturn. I mean, we’re not talking about a Lincoln Navigator for goodness sakes! After struggling with this information, I decided to replace all four tires. Now this wasn’t truly a spur-of-the-moment decision. During our travels last year, a Les Schwab tire fellow in Sequim, WA, had told me we would need new tires in another 5,000 miles. So I was ready to replace them – not just one, although I did not foresee the flat. So now we have four new Michelin shoes for the baby. Now for new brakes…..

We left Costco at closing (almost 6:00 p.m.) and headed to scope out the location of Margaret’s Thursday appointment (we both like to get the lay of the land before the time / date of any meeting). A sudden rain-storm slowed traffic on the local highways to a crawl – plus it was rush-hour. After successfully locating the site, we headed for dinner at a steak house we passed that boasted many awards. A beautiful rainbow even arched above it. We weren’t all that impressed.

Wednesday.

In the midst of everything else, I developed a recurrence of a respiratory “disease” I suffered two years ago in Idaho. In a nutshell, I couldn’t breathe comfortably when I went to bed. When this occurred two years ago, a local doctor diagnosed it as a sinus infection. Since this had gone on for 3 nights in a row (I didn’t get to bed until 3:00 a.m.), I decided it was time to search for local help. It took us most of the morning to find the local Urgent Care center, and then a local pharmacy. All’s well that ends well. The doctor made the same diagnosis as the doctor made two years ago (small variation – minor bronchitis rather than sinus infection); same prescription: antibiotics and an inhaler for the congestion.

The rest of Wednesday was spent in the RV while Margaret prepared for her meeting tomorrow.

As mentioned earlier, our campground is beside Lake Chickahominy / River (there’s a small dam / pumping station creating the lake). The campground is huge, i.e., there are hundreds of sites, plus many permanent and semi-permanent living abodes – a mix of RV’s and cottages. Plus the requisite boat ramp and marina. And there are permanent pavilions for concerts. There is a Scottish Cultural Festival this weekend. Sorry(?) we’ll have to miss that. They are expecting to fill the campground.

We have had rain in some amount every day since arriving. So much for the clear and sunny forecast. But the temperature has moderated as a result. Highs only in the low 70’s.

Tomorrow we head out for Margaret’s appointment. Keep your fingers crossed.