It has finally gotten here. Today we leave for the Eastern Shore and 6 days of bike touring. I have been planning the trip for almost a year and I can hardly wait to get started. I took off from work at 12:00 to get all the last minute chores done and to load the truck. All the bags were packed, those battles having already been fought and won by the opposing combatants and there are no more blows to be thrown over what goes and what stays. For the record I lost most of the arguments, but they must be fought if only for traditions sake. For better or worse the bags are packed and stored. The bike and BOB bike trailer are bungeed to the truck. The little cooler is full of cokes. The truck is gassed and now I wait for Susan.
Susan gets off at four, so that means she will hang around and leave the office by 4:15 maybe. She will then come home and start cleaning out the refrigerator, washing last minute dishes, folding this, putting up that, yadaa, yadaa, while I do a slow burn. But this time I�m way a head. I have done it all; washed the dishes, cleaned the coffee maker, emptied the frig, washed the windows, mopped the floor, painted the house, everything! As soon as she steps out of her car I will sit her in the truck and we are off.
Five hours later we decide to stop in the town of Roanoke Rapids, NC for the night. As we are getting ready for bed Susan discovered she did not bring any underwear for herself. My side just won a major battle in the suitcase wars, if not the war itself. So with a slight smile on my face, I drift off to sleep. Tomorrow we have a couple hundred miles to go to Onancock, Va. and our first night on the Eastern Shore.
We both woke that morning with minor frost bite in a room so cold you could see your breath. It seems Susan had turned the AC temp a little warmer before going to sleep, and I had gotten up during the night and countered that move by cranking it down as low as it would go. Who knew the low setting was glacial. We quickly got dressed and checked out. As we warmed up we check the map and figured we had only one more battle to go before crossing the Chesapeake Bay Tunnel Bridge. We had to get from Suffolk and through Norfolk to the Bay Tunnel Bridge. This was going to take some map reading skills and navigating and this not something we do well together, but ready or not we hit the 8 lanes of express traffic in high spirits and white knuckles. With only a few hard words we finally headed across the Chesapeake Bay and to the Colonial Inn, but not without a stop for some women�s underwear.
We arrived before check-in at the Colonial Inn, the oldest operating Inn on Virginia�s Eastern Shore, circa 1882. Our Inn keepers, Tom and Shawn, let us check in early, so we quickly unloaded the truck and got the tandem assembled. We then spent the next few hours exploring the fishing village of Onancock (pronounced O-Nan-Cock, just liked its spelled). We rode the streets by the old homes along the water, and stopped and admired the weathered, clap board churches. We took a break to drink a coke and watch the folks working at the wharf, and of course we stopped in every shop along the way. That night we ate at the Charlotte Hotel. It was outstanding, and as we walked back to our room we could only hope the rest of the trip would be as nice as this day had been.
Me at at the General Store on the wharf.
