12. Assateague Horses, Whitby Horsepower!

Movement is our specialty, so we stowed our stuff, hitched the Casita, and headed out from our super-campground at Cape Henlopen State Park...to the dump station! Yes, it's true that you must learn a new set of skills to RV camp, even with a small trailer-RV like ours. You, uhhh, have to dump the contents of your black-water and gray-water tanks occasionally, at "dump stations" usually found at the exit to most campgrounds. Put on big rubber gloves, connect a huge collapsible hose to your trailer tank valve, stick the other end of the hose inside the dump tank pipe in the ground, next open the valve on each of your waste tanks, then stand back and let the stuff flow. Eventually it's done, so then you rinse out the black-water tank by squirting a hose inside the base of the toilet, put in some cleaner chemicals, and stow the collapsible hose and gloves away until next time. No worries, but remember not to scratch your nose during the process.

NEXT, we drove to Assateague, to see the wild ponies. The whole drive was through beautiful farm country, lots of fields under cultivation, and lots of factory poultry operations by Perdue and Tyson. We found the Assateague Beach Park, and a friendly ranger to send us to the right place to see the horses. Sure enough, after a short SLOW drive, we found several of them grazing along a park road, and some others in the marshland, just a couple hundred yards from the beach. Beautiful, but not to be confused with tame riding horses. We left them alone, took photos, and moved along. Maybe we could find some roaming the beach??? Nope, nothing at the beach but beautiful abandoned sand, nice surf, and lots of wind! We had a beautiful visit, and headed off to our next destination.

We crossed one bridge that was remarkable, because it had a separate companion bridge next door, reserved solely for bicycles and pedestrians!

Our GPS map showed us magically crossing a huge stretch of the Chesapeake Bay somewhere down the road. Ferry? Bridge?? Hovercraft? Who knew...so we kept driving. Turns out we drove over and through one of the seven engineering marvels of the modern world: CBBT (the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnnel)! It's a 17.6 mile long bridge across the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, with TWO TUNNELS, each a mile long, interspersed along the way. This way, big ships can come in and out unobstructed, while we mortals drive our little vehicles underneath! It was quite the driving experience. I'll try to post some pics that explain the mammoth-ness of this thing better than I can. 7 Mile Bridge in the Florida Keys...impressive?  HA!!!

Portsmouth Naval Yard, at the end of the bridge! 

We motel'ed it again so as not to have to disturb all our packed stuff...we're on the home leg of this journey. The motel was a typical chain place, free breakfast in the lobby (waffles!) , and the worst shower ever encountered in our entire trip, even counting all the camp bathroom and shower facilities out in the woods in the middle of nowhere! We split early the next morning for the last miles of our journey, headed for Greensboro, NC and a quick lunch visit with my old Cobra-building friend Jeff Collins at Whitby Motorcars.

What a fun reunion, after having not seen each other for probably 10 years! Jeff is still the meticulous craftsman, funny and gentle friend, and just all-around great man as always. After hugs and introductions to new faces, we had a blast touring his shop and looking at all the Factory Five Racing cars under construction, or being rebuilt/restored, or custom-modified, or painted, or Lord knows what. The shop was crammed with cars and parts.

Best part was the people: just like Factory Five's operation in Wareham, Jeff has hired some of the most dedicated young folks to do the hands-on work of turning out these custom cars. Everybody was engaged in their craft, but not too busy to say HI to this old guy visiting and admiring their work. Awesome experience! Lunch was another ton of fun, at a famous local BBQ place., where we caught up on family details and stories from Jeff's (scary) adventures towing a huge trailer filled with FFR cars and parts all over the place. Jeff is a friend I'm so lucky to have made through this Cobra hobby, and I hope to see him more often, maybe while building a new car? Thanks Jeff for everything!

A short three hours after we left Whitby's in Greensboro, we arrived at our home in Waynesville, NC, completing the New England tour Lynn planned so long ago. Of course, most of that drive time was in pouring rain, a common factor during this particular trip. It looks like we drove about 2600 miles altogether in the past 3 1/2 weeks,  mostly while towing our little camper. Lots of adventures and fun people and sights are behind us. All three of us are glad to be back in our own home tonight. Sheldon is already back on the big bed, ready to snooze.  I'll try to summarize anything I left out tomorrow, but for now, it's time to pack it in!

Our Photo Album for the trip is at this link if you are interested:
TRIP PHOTOS LINK