July, 2013 – For her birthday, Kamryn wanted to go camping in the RV, so we planned a three-day weekend down the eastern shore of Delmarva and then over to Richmond, VA. Melissa was picking up a potter’s wheel that she’d bought on Ebay, so we decided to make a trip. We left for the lower end of the Delmarva on a Saturday around noon, there was some little bit of traffic, as usual, headed down DE Route 1 towards Dover and the beaches. South of Dover, we branched over to US 113, which was a slightly longer, but less congested, southern route than the standard US 13 highway. Millsboro, Dagsboro, and Selbyville disappeared in our mirrors. Sooner or later, anyway.
South through the Delmarva
113 joined up with 13 again near the fun ‘burb of Pokomoke City, MD, where we stopped at a Food Lion to supply-up, and then the road headed south towards Cape Charles, the tip of of the Delmarva Peninsula. Flat, mostly straight, and quaint in the manner of the little towns that you run through here, in an almost forgotten part of the east coast. All the little places that are not much more than wide spots in the road, like Accomac and Melfa and Painter. Kiptopeke State Park is just north of the Cape, and is a nice place with a large camp area for RVs, a beach, and it looked like a fun place to spend a couple of days. We got there around 5PM and explored around before shutting down for the day.
To Cape Charles and Kiptopeke
Saturday at the Beach
We decided to drive the RV to the beach, since it was about a half mile walk, with the chairs and the food and the towels and all the other assorted stuff. Plus, we could retreat back to the RV to cool off at lunch with the AC. There was a large rusted old concrete jetty a bit out to sea, and legend has it that they’re the broken hulks of several concrete ships that were scuttled out there as a breakwater. We stayed at the beach until around 3 pm, and then drove back up to the campsite area.
The evening sun sets along the Chesapeake Bay
After relaxing and having a nice dinner, we took a walk around the campground area, and followed a trail off to some low bluffs over the beach. The setting sun provided some interesting pictures. It was hot and humid, and the girls complained of too many bugs, so we didn’t stay out too late.
Sunday we explored another part of the park. We found an interesting old relic of a long-gone traveller’s inn. I did some research after we got home, and found out that there were four or five of these Motor Courts scattered around the mid-South, and the one here at Cape Charles had gone under in the late 1950s.
After exploring, we headed out across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, and stopped at the island for lunch and a tour of the famous Chesapeake Bay Bridge winery.
Once back on dry land, we drove through the Virginia Beach area, and then out towards Virginia Route 460, which we’d take up towards eastern Richmond, where we were to meet the seller of Melissa’s potters wheel. Route 460 is an interesting road, just two lanes most of the way out, with almost no shoulder to speak of along parts of it. I remember thinking that it would be a hellacious ride in any kind of stormy or bad weather, and I’ll be there are lots of head-on crashes on that road at 3 am on a foggy morning…
We joined up with the bypass of I-95 that runs around Richmond on the east side of town, and found our Pottery Wheel seller. A quick stop for the transaction, and we were back on the road. It was getting towards mid afternoon by now. I decided to take the scenic route back home, so I branched off I-95 onto US Route 301, which would take us up along the western shore, through Virginia and Maryland, and then over the Chesapeake up near Annapolis, to continue up through the Delmarva Peninsula and home. We stopped somewhere in Maryland for some dinner, and then it got dark a little farther on, so no more pictures. I like US 301 as an alternative to I-95 when you’re traveling between DC and the Delaware Valley, much less commotion, much less stress, and it’s a divided highway for much of the route. We got home late in the evening, all was well.
