Maryland is for crabs

May 15, 2022

Franklin, VA to farm outside of Madison, MD

We woke up to dense fog this morning so we took our time fixing breakfast and getting ready to leave. The sun was starting to peek out by 8:30 when we finally got on the road, after a quick stop at Walmart and a gas station.

Today we were going to be taking the Cheasapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. This engineering marvel goes from Virginia Beach across the bay to the Delmarva Peninsula. Ever since our east coast bike tour in 2011, we had wanted to revisit and bike more of this beautiful area. So we were happy that we had been able to work this into this year's trip.

We made our way through Virginia Beach to the toll gate for the bridge/tunnel and began the 23 mile journey to the other side of the Chesapeake Bay. Unfortunately it was very foggy out on the water so we really couldn't see much.

The bridge/tunnel was completed in 1964 and is considered one of the 7 structural engineering wonders of America. It has 2 tunnels, 4 man-made islands, more than 12 miles of trestle roadway, 2 bridges and several other miles of approach roads. It's quite an interesting thing to see and drive. Or bike. When we did our tour they took us across in the back of a pickup.

It didn't take long to reach the other side where we stopped at the visitor center. One of the Airstreams that had parked with us at the peanut store was also there so we got to chat a bit. They lived near Philly and had been vacationing down in Florida.

We continued north through the rest of Virginia and crossed into Maryland where we stopped again at their visitor center. And guess who was also there taking a break? Yep, the same Airstream! We seemed to be leap frogging each other.

The rest of the day was spent getting to our destination which was a farm located near Madison, Maryland on the west side of Chesapeake Bay. The owner is a designated Airstream host that lets other traveling Airstreamers park on his farm for free.

It's a beautiful location out in the country and very quiet by fields of corn. He even had an electric hookup on his barn that we could use which means we can run our air conditioner and microwave.

Once we got situated, Don put out our chairs in the shade as it was pretty hot and we enjoyed a glass of our scuppernong wine before dinner. He was also able to do a hotspot as we have a good phone signal here. It was nice to be able to catch up on the journal and our e-mails.

Tomorrow we're going to take off on a little adventure for a few days. Lets say it involves a bike, some panniers and something we haven't done for 3 years! So look for an update later.

Toll gate to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. It cost us $24.00 to cross one-way.

At first you travel on these long bridges.

It was very foggy out on the water and we could barely see anything.

Then down you go into 2 tunnels that travel underneath the shipping channels in the bay.

The tunnels aren't long but very narrow. We had to make sure our propane tanks were turned off before entering.

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