| The Great American Loop #61 |
 Dave Bernheisel  Click on the link above for more information. Basically, Dave says, they're boating up the coast to NY, then up the Hudson to Troy, across the Erie Canal, through the Great Lakes, by Chicago, down the Mississippi, around Florida and home. No small journey, eh?
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On the Great American Loop
Going There is nearing home
(04.23) We are in the Chesapeake. So, after more than 6000 miles, Going There and I are back in familiar waters.
The last dispatch left you in the fog in the Alligator River, North Carolina. The fog lifted a little (400 yard visibility) and we left on schedule. About ten of us went out in a parade for the trip up the Alligator River and across Albemarle Sound. The guys with radar and fancy chart plotters led the way and we just stayed in our place in line and dodged the crab traps.
For the folks back in the line (like us) it was actually very easy navigation. I've always said that I wouldn't want a radar but I admit that, for this run, it would have been helpful.
The fog did prompt a change in plans. We had intended to go to Elizabeth City and up the Dismal Swamp Canal, but the parade leaders were going through the Virginia Cut, an alternate canal farther east. Rather than striking out on our own across Albemarle Sound, we opted to follow the leader so the Dismal Swamp will have to be another experience.
The Virginia Cut brings you into the Elizabeth River, which runs through Norfolk. I spent some of my Navy time in Norfolk in the mid-50s -- it's a different town now.
There are no bars, pawn shops, or revival missions on East Main Street -- actually that has been cleaned up for years. The big difference in the harbor since I was here two years ago is security.
The Navy ships (most are gone) are cordoned off with patrol boats to ensure that you don't even get close. I can't imagine any worse duty than running back & forth in an open patrol boat in nasty weather, protecting against the terrorist attack that you know will not happen. I don't know how we should be addressing the security threat but there must be a better way. Anyway, we just stayed in the center of the channel, took no pictures, and kept going.
The Elizabeth comes in at the mouth of the James River. There we were, well over to the north side right off of Fort Monroe, built to guard the James and Norfolk in the 19th century. Fort Monroe is pretty, with all of the multi-starred generals living in big houses looking out on the river. Years ago, Mary & I spent a night in the Chamberlain Hotel next to the fort. After dinner we walked through the fort and ogled all of the fancy houses; I would assume that such walks are another casualty of security concerns.
Once past the fort, we were in the Chesapeake where we ran up the western shore. This took us close to Grandview Beach. My family had lived in a dinky little beach cottage there in the winter of 1945-6. Housing was tight right after the war and this was as good as we could get when my father was stationed at Langley AFB.
Then, in the spring, the owner wanted the beach cottage back so we squeezed into a smaller apartment. Today the dinky little beach cottages are gone, replaced by what you might expect on a desirable bay front beach -- we were there a few years too early.
If the weather is at all cooperative we will move on up the Bay tomorrow, but that is the next dispatch.
Dave & Wann |
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