It was a long but uneventful drive from Laurel, Delaware to the KOA Campground near Richmond, Virginia. John had worked a half day so we didn’t get underway until afternoon on Friday but we arrived at the KOA on Friday evening and were able to setup quickly. I had been worried about the cats riding in the house since it was so hot outside (high 80’s) but they came through just fine (we did stop about half way to check on them and I felt a bit better after that). Since we were only staying the night, we left the house hooked up to the truck and just leveled things the best we could and only unpacked the necessities. We went out for dinner at a Peruvian chicken place and then had breakfast on Saturday morning at Cracker Barrel before hitting the road so we didn’t even have any dishes that needed done.
The drive on Saturday from the KOA to the Holiday Trav-L-Park in Virginia Beach also went pretty well. The staff that greeted us and checked us in were pretty friendly and the park was HUGE! It wasn’t the nicest park we had seen in terms of upkeep and overall friendliness but they did have multiple shower houses, four pools (two of which were closed due to being after Labor Day but the two remaining were really nice), a store, shaded lots, and the nicest laundry room I have ever seen.
We started our visit with dinner and drinks at Yard House and then took a quick drive around town.
I had been a little disappointed that were weren’t able to take the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel into Virginia Beach so on Sunday we decided to drive it anyway in the car. It was such a cool experience! The bridge is over 17 miles and actually consists of three bridge sections and two tunnels and it passes through the Fisherman’s Island Wildlife Area.
While we were across the bay, we visited Kiptopeke State Park. This is a lovely park with wildlife habitats, a fishing pier, and swimming beaches but the most unique feature sits in the water just beyond the fishing pier. This park is home to 9 concrete ships that were built as a result of the steel shortages during WWII. The ships were intentionally sunk here in 1948 to act as a weather barrier for the Chesapeake Bag Ferry terminal. The ferry was closed in 1964 when the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel opened but the ships still protect the pier and provide homes to various wildlife species. The ships are (in order from North to South): S.S. Arthur Newell Talbot, S.S. Edwin Thatcher, S.S. Robert Whitman Lesley, S.S. Willis A Slater, S.S. Leonard Chase Watson, S.S. Richard Kidder Meade, S.S. John Grant, S.S. William Foster Cowham, and the S.S. Willard A Pollard.
On the way back, we also took a drive to see a special attraction – the house that John lived in when he was a child! When John’s was little, they actually lived in Virginia Beach for a few years so, in addition to visiting this fun city, we were also hoping to experience a few things from his childhood, too.
On Wednesday, Pandora had another vet appointment. I had made an appointment at Hilltop Veterinary Clinic in Virginia Beach to have bloodwork done to recheck her thyroid levels and her kidney function. The staff was amazing! They listened to all of our history and my concerns, did a great job with a head to tail exam and drew blood without any of the staff getting clawed or bitten. They gave us a call a few days later with the good news – her levels looked great! The current dosage of her medication seems to be working well and they were able to refill another 4 months worth of pills for us. We had also been concerned about her weight. A few years ago, she weighed 12.8 pounds. At her vet visit in Maine in August she was down to 7.7 pounds. We had started feeding her canned food twice per day in addition to her constant access to dry food to try to fatten her up a little bit and it is working! She is back up to 9.1 pounds! It was great news and now we can wait another 4-6 months to have a recheck.
On Friday evening we drove over to the main part of town for a walk on the beach. It can be expensive to park over there but the Holiday Trav-L-Park actually had a parking lot a block off the beach where we could park for free by showing our parking pass for the campground. This was an unexpected but great amenity! The waves were really high due to the recent storms and it was super windy but we had a nice walk and enjoyed playing in the water.
On Saturday, we drove over to a weird little attraction called Jerrassic Park which consisted of several incredible metal sculptures of dinosaurs. We took lots of pictures and admired the remarkable structures.
We swung back by the house to pick up Harley and then headed over to Mount Trashmore. This park opened in 1974 and was built on top of an abandoned landfill. There is now a playground, walking trails, a skatepark, a lake, corn hole games, shelter houses, a stage, and more. John’s mom used to bring him here to play as a kid when they lived here, too. It was a beautiful day to enjoy a walk and Harley loved rolling in the grass. We could even see a few planes from the nearby air show!
On the way home, we picked up chicken from Jollibee. For $20 they had a 6 piece chicken dinner with two sides and two drinks. We paid a little extra to upgrade our drinks from standard soft drinks to the pineapple coolers and I am so glad we did. They were cold and refreshing! The food was really good and it was a really good deal for the money.
Although it was completely by accident, we had managed to time our visit with the NAS Oceana Air Show (the largest air show in North America!) so we bought tickets for Sunday. We had heard that parking and traffic getting in and out was a nightmare but the base was only about a 20 minute bike ride away so we took our e-bikes over and were able to get in and out easily.
There were several plans and helicopters out front that we could see up close and all of the base staff that we interacted with were so friendly and welcoming. There were tents for shopping and a ton of food stands as well. The announcer kept reminding everyone to stay hydrated and reminded the audience the medics were on site for anyone who started feeling ill. It felt really well organized and safe.
The airshow was amazing. We saw some amazing demonstrations- a truck that can do 350mph raced a plane, we saw and felt jets screeching overhead, saw a helicopter that could flip UPSIDE DOWN, watched a plane land on and take off from a pickup truck, saw people jump from perfectly good planes to land on super small targets in front of us, and marveled at a glider with a jet engine attached. The final thrill was watching the Blue Angels fly! It was an incredible day and I am so glad we got to experience it.
On Thursday September 21, John took another half day so that we could visit the Military Aviation Museum. We went in three large hangars and saw so many different vehicles and planes. They had an amphibious car and an enigma machine too! It was only $15 per person for admission and there was SO MUCH to see. The coolest part is that most of these are still operational and are sometimes flown to other locations.
We were having a great time at the museum but ended up having to cut our visit short when we started getting Tropical Storm Warnings and Hurricane Statements on our phones.
We had been keeping an eye on the weather all week and had planned to extend our stay for one night as it was supposed to storm on Saturday when we would be moving. By staying one extra night, we had hoped to wait out the storm and leave on Sunday once things had settled down. The new weather updates convinced us to re-evaluate, however. With the new warnings it looked like we were expecting some possible flooding in addition to the high winds and heavy rain.
After making a few calls, we decided to go ahead and leave town that evening. The next park we had booked wasn’t able to take us yet so we found a place called Kamper’s Lodge in Wilson, North Carolina that was on the way to our next park and was farther away from the coastline. We booked for Thursday and Friday nights and packed up in a hurry. We pulled out of Virginia Beach around 3pm on Thursday evening.
Thanks to traffic backups and a bathroom break, we ended up arriving in Wilson, North Caroline a little after 7pm. We were totally exhausted and a little stressed so we quickly fed the cats then rushed out to find some food for ourselves. We picked up sandwiches at a place called Carolina Cheese then finished the evening eating on the couch while watching a few episodes of “The Expanse”.
The park was really nice and I actually wish we could have enjoyed more of it before the storms started. They had a nice looking pool, a small store, a fishing pond with a ton of ducks, and a large pen with donkeys! We got to walk Harley around a few times before the rain started on Friday and were really impressed.
Friday afternoon we drove back into Wilson to visit Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park. The staff at Caroline Cheese had told us about this park during our visit the night before and we decided to brave the rain to see it. The park was full of sculptures made from repurposed metal. They were a combination of windmills and weather vanes but were 100% art. The photos here really can’t do them justice – you have to see them in motion to truly get the full experience. Almost every part of them moved! The horses and cows looked like they were walking and on one piece, two men moved a saw back and forth across a log. It was unbelievable.
Friday night, the storm started picking up. Just as we were drifting off to sleep around midnight a huge gust of wind shook the entire house. I got really freaked out and just never managed to go to sleep for the rest of the night. John slept off and on for a while but then around 6am we saw that Tropical Storm Ophelia had made landfall. We were a good distance away but were expecting heavy rain and strong winds all morning with the worst of the storm hitting us between 11am and 1pm- right when we were supposed to be moving to the next park. We booked our current spot for another night and called the next park to let them know we would be arriving a day later than expected due to the storm.
I managed to fall asleep for about 2 hours around 8am. It was a little scary but we came through with no damage. Once the worst was over around 1:30, John took a nap for a few hours. I stayed up because I didn’t want to mess up my sleep cycle any more than it already was. Finally, around 7pm, I ate dinner, drank and entire bottle of wine, then slept for 12 hours. On Sunday morning we woke up to blue skies and sunshine like nothing had ever happened. We grabbed breakfast from McDonald’s and ate while we packed up. Next stop- Seven Springs, North Carolina!
