On the Road – for crabs and family history!

June 20-21 Kingsport to DELMARVA

Thursday - We left Kingsport at 3:45. Ben had to conduct an inspection in Morristown so Jane packed everything in the Sprinter and was ready to leave when he got home. We had reservations for the weekend in DELMARVA so wanted to get part of the trip behind us.

The traffic on I 81 was very heavy…the semi’s were out in force.

I 81 Traffic

We ate some crackers along the way, listened to a Vince Flynn thriller on a CD and drove into the Quality Inn in Roanoke at about 6:30. Searching for a nearby good quick supper we selected a Golden Corral and it was good. Ben always likes their buffet and Jane had to admit most everything she selected was very good. Just had to be sure not to select too much!

One interesting point of interest was we drove through a tunnel under the runway of the Roanoke Airport to reach the Golden Corral.

Since this was a “free for points” hotel room I always hate to complain but the alarm went off at midnight not a good thing. But the bed was good, the bathroom clean, and the breakfast excellent.  All in all a good start for our trip.

Friday - We were on the road by 9AM expecting a long day of interstate driving…and we were not disappointed! The trip up I 81 and I 66 into DC was fairly uneventful. We continued our CD and stopped for a great picnic lunch at a Rest Area near Winchester. Traffic was not as heavy as yesterday and we made good time. We stopped near Manassas VA for diesel before we had to spend extra for taxes in MD. We got on the DC Beltway to skirt around DC and 45 minutes later in heavy but not horrible traffic we exited on US 50 towards Annapolis and the Bay Bridge to the Eastern Shore. Here the traffic was very heavy and we never were able to determine a reason – except it was about 3 PM on a Friday and maybe the city was escaping for the Eastern Shore!

The lines were not too bad at the toll gates for the bridge – 3 of the 5 lanes were going east. After going through the toll gate we entered what I can only call a SUPER MERGE, 12 toll gates merging into 3 lanes of traffic to cross the bay. Glad Ben was driving – he enjoys it – particularly in the Sprinter.

Super Merge onto Bay Bridge

After crossing the bridge it was about 25 miles to our State Park campsite. There are quite a few small to medium towns and lots of farmland. We have been here before primarily on the southern part of the DELMARVA - Tuckahoe State Park is near Ridgely in the northern part. It is a very nice campground and park. The roads to get here are through beautiful farmland. Sure was good we had the GPS ! It is probably 5-8 miles each way to a small town. Quiet, a lake, trails, an arboretum, equestrian center, and campsites and cabins. Strange in searching for campsites on DELMARVA – at least in the MD portion – the only private campground was about 25 miles further north on the bay.

We found our campsite as reserved, got all setup, rested a couple hours and headed back towards the bay for our first crab dinner! We selected Fisherman’s Inn at Kent Narrows which was about 12 miles from camp. We had a deal where you had a crab cake and another seafood entree for a set price….Jane had crab cake and scallops and Ben had crab cake and soft shelled crab- both were very good. The restaurant had a huge collection of antique oyster plates – not something you see everyday!

Crab Cake and Scallops

We drove back to camp, watched a Jesse Stone movie and with the new air conditioner in the sprinter slept great – did not wake up until 8:30! Catching up for being awakened by that alarm clock last night.