Leaving The South

 It is only an hour and a few minutes or 74 miles from Columbia to Florence. And Florence marks the end of the I-20. We finally found ourselves back on the trusty old I-95 and heading in northerly direction towards more homely fields.

The I-95 is obviously under major construction and widening, and I'd say it is needed for sure.

At Emporia, North Carolina we left the I-95 again and continued in North-easterly direction on HWY 58 towards Norfolk, VA.

Now, Norfolk, Suffolk and Virginia Beach are three very chaotic cities. Chaotic in traffic. Two major inroads were just clogged solidly. My mastermind of a street finder, Bea, though found another alternative road to avoid all the traffic jam. She finds good help in using Mr. Google's maps which also gives traffic updates.

So we made it onto the Chesapeake Bay-Bridge-Tunnel.

This route is always quite the highlight on our journey home. The construction is truly outstanding in the U.S. Currently work is underway to widen the tunnel through-ways.

Arriving at Cape Charles on the other side, we pulled in at the Welcome Center.

A huge parking lot allows for 48hrs parking allows for 48hrs parking. Very unfortunately, the truckers have long since kidnapped the area, and are making a peaceful overnight stay for an RVer almost impossible. It is 66F outside but some let their noisy engines run, nevertheless. After we had set up camp they came left and right and even though lots of space was available elsewhere they joined us wall to wall. Are they doing this on purpose?

Well, we packed up and moved to a more peaceful edge of the parking lot.

The nice side of the Welcome Center is the adjoining wildlife refuge trail, which is worth exploring.

We hadn't booked our ferry from Lewes to Cape May yet, and when I tried doing that I got a bad surprise. The only 2 departures left were at 8:45 and 7:45pm. We booked at 8:45am, which means that we have to get up darn early tomorrow.