Virginia - Day 15 - from Chesapeake to Virginia Beach

Virginia Beach KOA
Friday, 15 March 2019

today's route

The wind all day long was at a velocity that was more than a little scary.

At my last campground, my campsite must have been broadside to the wind direction because the RV was actually rocking with the frequent wind gusts.  And the wind kept picking up all morning. 

I waited to check out of this campground until about 11:00, hoping the wind might back off a bit, but it didn't.  I knew a lot of today's drive would be along roads and over bridges that were completely explosed to the wind and wasn't looking forward to driving in it.  But in the end, it turned out okay, even if I did have to hang on to the steering wheel a bit harder than usual.

I passed what looked like a park along I-264, but I couldn't tell for sure because the main thing I saw was a really high mound that stretched along the highway for a fair distance.  But I could see people standing on top of the mound looking down and knew something was down there, so I looked it up later.  You're not going to believe this: it's called Mt. Trashmore Park, because it's a reclaimed landfill.  It's won environmental awards and is now one of Virginia Beach's most popular parks.  There's some basic information at virginia.org/MtTrashmore and more in-depth information at  wikipedia.org/MtTrashmore.

I heard a horn blown at an intersection for the first time since I've been in Virginia.  They're very polite, thoughtful drivers here

I passed Naval Air Station Oceana, with a sign saying it's a Master Jet Base.  So I looked it up and learned this is the east coast home to F/A-18 Hornets and Super Hornets.  And those are "twin-engine, supersonic, all-weather carrier-capable multirole combat jets."  Have you ever seen so many adjectives strung together?  That's Boeing's description (they make them).  Fourteen squadrons are based here, and there are 18-24 planes to a squadron.  (I had to look all this up, of course.)  NAS Oceana is not only the home base for these jets and their pilots, and does training and maintenance on them, but also they have fields that can be used for pilots to practice carrier landings - presumably very short and narrow, because that's what the runway on an aircraft carrier looks like to me.

I stopped to get groceries and found the power was out at the grocery store.  Which explained the nearly empty parking lot and the huddles of people standing around outside the store's doors.  But there was another one down the street, with power.

I passed another craft brewery: New Realm Brewing Co.  This one is a branch of an Atlanta brewery and seems to be in a perfect location: about 3 miles from NAS Oceana, 3 miles from Camp Pendleton, and 5 miles from several beaches.  And about 4 miles from my campground, as it happens.

The wind didn't calm down all afternoon, but the sun was shining beautifully so the dogs and I sat outside for several hours.  Not all KOA campgrounds are well set-out, but this one is and it was nice to get back to a more comfortable situation, even if it does cost more money.