Atlantic Coast Tour
May 4th - Little Bay Campground to Milburn Landing State Park,MD

Hooray for rest days! Because we are too early for ferry travel across the Chesapeake Bay we will have the pleasure of driving our custom made 2007 Ford E-450 EL across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel. A brochure we picked up at a visitors center says the span is one of the seven engineering wonders of the world. Louie says our Santana S&S Coupled Tandem is probably the sixth engineering wonder. Becky gets excited when we cross the Hampton Roads Bridge and Tunnel because she thinks it is the big one. Well, it is impressive but it is definitely not to the scale of Pyramids or Hoover Dam.

Driving on roads that lead us back to where we have just rode from seems strange to us. Louie comments, "Becky I think we are going backwards". "That is correct" Becky replies. Apparently we made a decision six months ago to ride through Jamestown, Williamsburg and the Colonial Parkway so we could get the full effect of the historical area. We definitely got it.

Our anticipation grows as we approach the wondrous man made structure. Becky reads from a brochure as the travel on. The span across Chesapeake Bay is 17.6 miles long from shore to shore and consists of more than twelve miles of trestled roadway, two mile long tunnels, two bridges, four man made islands, almost two miles of causeway, and five and one half miles of approaching roads, totaling 23 miles. Louie is astounded and thinks it is big enough to be seen from space. The best part is that there is a Pier, Restaurant, and Gift Shop at the beginning of the south end making it the tourist destination of our dreams.

After a brief panic attack Louie figures out how to use the turn signals on our custom made Ford E-450 EL and promptly turns into the parking area for the Pier/Gift Shop. He takes up three parking spaces so we don't have to back out into traffic. We roll down the windows and put some country music on the radio and enjoy a homemade lunch before cruising the Pier and Gift Shop.

The weather is absolutely perfect on this Sunday and the Pier is packed with people fishing. Becky asks one man if they have to pay the toll to come here to fish. He says, "Yes". It cost us $17 to drive our custom made Ford E-450 EL out here; it would have only been $12 if we had a car. Louie enlists the help of another couple who look like tourists to take our picture. We return the favor and do the same for them. This place is quite the attraction. We notice folks here from Germany and Japan milling about snapping pictures, possibly some sort of industrial espionage.

Inside the gift shop Louie gets noticed as he tries to take clandestine digital photos of aerial photography they had for sale there. The woman offers to hold up the poster for him. She does and it works great! Becky gets the shopping bug bad at the Gift Shop. She buys post cards, shot glasses, T-Shirts, a crushed penny, and a wide variety of fridge magnets. "There goes our budget!" Louie says.

Finally, we are ready to take the plunge under the bay, just as soon as Louie figures out how to release the parking break and turn on the lights of our 2007 custom made Ford E-450 EL. A right turn out of the parking lot and we are heading under the bay. We giggle with excitement as we whoosh through the tunnel. We see the light at the end of the tunnel. Becky says, "This is a very goods thing". Now we are back on top of the water but not for long. Louie makes drowning noises as we plunge back into the depths of the Chesapeake Bay. Beads of sweat roll off our brows after we have to squeeze past another Ford E-450 EL coming towards us from the opposite direction in the narrow two-lane tunnel. We give each other the thumbs up before knocking our driver side mirrors together like two trucks giving each other a high five.

Louie pulls off after the last bridge to assess the damage. Nothing is permanently broken we think. He snaps one more picture of the bridge and the beautiful coastline before we make our way to Milburn Landing State Park in Maryland. Somehow we enter the park on a maintenance road. Because we are not sure this road is going to the campground, we flag down a park employee who is also driving an extremely large Ford truck. We roll down our window to talk and he starts the conversation by saying, "Nice truck. You folks here to camp?" Then he tells us that we were supposed to register at the office ten miles up the road because this is the maintenance road. It must be the brotherhood of Ford truck drivers that made him call the office for us, take our $20, and personally escorts us to our campsite, helps us back in our rig, and uses his gasoline powered air blower to clean off our tent pad. Wow! Talk about service! Louie shakes his hand and whacks his side view mirror before he leaves.

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