Night in Rodanthe

Things got noisy early as the gang of kids across the road started heading to the bath house. Trying to sleep in was fruitless, so we got up and prepared to move on. We were rolling down the road by 11:00 this morning and after just a few short miles we were at the toll plaza for the Chesapeake Bay bridge-tunnel. The complex covers 17 miles shore to shore with two mile long tunnels that travel beneath the bay to allow for ship traffic over the top. Almost as cool as taking a ferry. Miles over the water and then you are funneled into this narrow tunnel that drops you down below the salt water to drive for a mile under the bay. Try not to think too much about what might happen if it springs a leak or remember that the tunnel was built over 50 years ago. It was the highlight of my day.

The bridge, disappearing under the sea

After exiting in Virginia Beach, we had to navigate several miles of city traffic before we were once again on a two lane country road heading out to the outer banks. We soon crossed the border into North Carolina and then over the bridges onto the barrier islands. After passing through Nags Head, much of the road showed evidence of flooding and the sand dunes were encroaching into the roadway. It was slow going for a while but not long after we arrived in Rodanthe and set up camp at the beach.

We were a little worn down when we finally got parked up. Not sure if it’s the bombed out energy of the area or just a bad night’s sleep. We took a little down time in the RV before going down to explore along the beach around sundown. Lots of wind and flotsam on the sand. Dogs were excited though and ripping around back and forth on the beach. For the first time on the trip, we connected to cable and had t,v. Since we never have access to t.v., we enjoyed lounging around for the evening watching random shows. Full moon filling up the sky over the sea.  Low key night.