Final Day – Friday, July 6, 2012. Beckley WV to Salem
We woke to a cool, foggy morning in the hills of West Virginia. We hit the road early, around 6:30 or so. We were crossing over the spine of the Appalachains here, and we would not come down out of them until we hit Charlottsville, in Virginia. Most densely wooded hills and valleys, it was entertaining. We crossed the famous New River and then drove past places like White Sulfur Springs. Around 10:30, we crossed over into Virginia.
West Virginia
Virginia
We stopped at the Welcome Center for some pictures and a leg-stretch. We noticed that there were places where lots of trees appeared blown down, and then we realized they were the aftermath of the big storm “derecho” that has come across here a week ago – we had gotten a call from home that a violent and destructive wind and rain storm blew across much of the mid-Atlantic, and we’d lost power at home for three days. The kids graciously offered to eat the lobster and filet mignon in the freezer so it wouldn’t go bad.
We came down out of the mountains for the last time at Charlottesville, and then ran across the state towards Richmond. We decided to stay on I-64 and take the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel north through the Delmarva back home, rather than mess with the traffic around Washington and Baltimore on a Friday in the Summer. It was deadly hot and humid, as usual, as we drove down the swampy lanes towards Williamsburg and Norfolk. We crossed the CBBT without incident though, and ran right up US 13 through Virginia, Maryland and Delaware as the sun started to drop into the western sky. Then, it was the Delaware Memorial Bridge and home, around 7 pm on Friday night, just as we’d planned.
We were on the road for two weeks and a day, touched down in 17 states, crossed 9 major rivers, and rode 8 different interstates. Our highest elevation was the 11,000 foot Eisenhower Tunnel in Colorado, and the lowest was sea level, crossing the Chesapeake Bay.
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