We just made breakfast this morning and since we did not have to be anywhere in a hurry, we lingered a bit so did not leave the hotel until 10:30. These past few days have been ‘spares’. When we were driving around we did not know how long it would take us to go from place to place when considering distance, sightseeing and geocaching so we kept a few days in reserve in case we took longer or chose to stay longer somewhere.

We finished the majority of the big loop that will bring us back to North Carolina tomorrow with a few short driving days. So we have meandered some back roads and been more diligent in finding geocaches than we were near the beginning of the journey. It has been nicer for John to not have to ‘be somewhere’.

Delmar is only about 150 miles (240 km) from Chesapeake, Virginia where we were to spend the night, and an intersate highway goes straight down from one place to the other. There are quiet roads that diverge, of course, so we drove one of those after leaving the Salisbury, Maryland area. There was an historic site called Nassawango Furnace and Historic Town. that we decided to check out, but when we got there we discovered it is only open on weekends. We just took a few photos of the buildings we could see. No sign of the furnace though. It must be back in the woods.

About 300 families lived in the company town when the furnace was smelting bog iron. No trace of any of the original houses remains. They believe they were located where the parking lot is now.

The hydrangeas were lovely.

We stopped in a small town called Snow Hill for a couple of geocaches and also did a five-part Adventure Lab that took us on a tour of the historic buildings.

River house is a bed and breakfast now.

The slow-moving Pocomoke River is a popular canoe and kayaking place.

One of the buildings we went to was the Makemie Presbyterian Church. Turns out it was the first Presbyterian Church built in the United States. We have also been to the first Presbyterian Church built in Canada at Niagara-on-the-Lake.

This was originally a Catholic Church but is now an art museum in Snow Hill.

After we finished exploring Snow Hill we decided to do some driving for awhile. Not long after we passed into Virginia (again, back road. No Welcome sign. Sate number 17) I was looking for roads to detour on so as to avoid a boring drive down the Interstate. On the Atlantic side of the long narrow spit that makes up the east coast of southern Virginia I spotted a road to Chincoteague Island.

When I was young I mostly read comic books. It wasn’t until about age 10 or 11 that I discovered novels. And the first novels I read were about horses and written by Marguerite Henry. “King of the Wind” was my favourite. I read it at least 15 times. It is a novelized account of the original Godolphin Arabian stallion that is said to be the “Father of the Thouroughbred.” Marguerite Henry also wrote “Justin Morgan Had a Horse,” about the beginning of the Morgan horse. “Born to Trot” about a championship trotter race horse, and her first book, written in 1947. was called “Misty of Chincoteague” about one of the wild ponies on Chincoteague Island! There is a four or five book series about Misty.

John, turn here…. and across the causeway we went. The ponies are all protected in a wildlife reserver and you have to pay a fee to even reach the part of the island where they live, but we did some exploring of the town anyway. Major summer vacation place too. (And I was okay with not going to see the wild ponies because on Thursday when we are at Nag’s Head, North Carolina and getting together with family before the wedding on Friday, we are all going out on the dunes to see their wild ponies!)

Before we went searching for a few geocaches we drove to the Captain Timothy Hill House; reputed to be the oldest house on the island. It is only open on Fridays, but we didn’t need to see the inside anyway.

I have never seen a chimney like this.

There were a couple of geocaches in a nature preserve so we found them before driving off the island and heading south.

The NASA Wallops Flight Facility and Visitor Center are located near the town of Chincoteague and Assateague Island National Seashore.

They must have about a hundred different types and sizes of satellite dishes pointing in every possible direction.

After we left Chincoteaque we did not have much choice but to drive the rest of the way down the ever-narrowing spit to Chesapeake Bay and across the 17.6 mile (28.3 km) Bridge Tunnel. There are actually two bridges – two lanes in each direction except where they narrow to one lane through the two underwater tunnels. The bridge tunnel cost about $1.58 billion in 2023 dollars and 3.5 million vehicles cross it every year. At $16.00 per vehicle the the bridge tunnel earns the investors $56.000,000 per year. It was an absolute marvel of engineering.

The black line disappearing into the horizon to about mid-center of the photo is the bridge.

Open water as a far as you can see on both sides.

The road reduces to two lanes through the tunnels and they go downhill under the ocean quite steeply before climbing out again to split into the two lane bridges. There are two tunnels that allow seafaring craft to navigate Chesapeake Bay unhindered.

There was construction work going on at the entrance to the second tunnel.

Immediately you leave the bridge tunnel you are in the combined cities of Norfolk, Virginia Beach, and Chesapeake and the dreaded multi-lane freeways. Thankfully we only had about 10 miles of it before we exited to our hotel.

We will be stuck in it again as we leave to go to Nag’s Head, North Carolina. That too is a short driving distance. We plan to stop at the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kitty Hawk before making our way to the house our son, daughter-in-law, granddaughter and members of Carrie’s family are staying for the week either side of Friday’s wedding. So, family visiting time tomorrow! Yay!