Day 26 -- Travel from Virginia Beach, VA to Merrimack, NH
Monday 7/23/2001
We got up at 3am and by 4am we were on the road. We've started to get a pretty good routine at these early departures. The roads in Virginia Beach were empty so we were able to get to the Chesapeeke bridge quickly. Before we arrived at the toll-booth I realized we did not have any cash left, cursed, made a U-turn and returned back in towards town. By luck, the first gas station we passed by had one of those little dinky ATM machines. Works for me! Within minutes we were back by the toll booth again. $16 for a dual axle camping trailer. Not exactly cheap.
Leaving the campground, it invites us to come back
The bridge is combined with two tunnels. It is very long, around 15 miles. We did not see much because it was pitch black outside. On the other side Virginia continues for a while. You then pass through a short portion of Maryland and then into Delaware. The Atlantic ocean pretty much surrounds this peninsula. It was very foggy until the sun started to come up.
We reached New Jersey Turnpike and I-95 by the first five hour mark. We stayed at a rest area and ate a little bit and stretched our legs. We then bought gas. Learned that all stations in New Jersey (and Oregon) have full service, by law. Found that to be curious. Gas prices had climbed as we drove further and further north. Around the Virginia Beach area, typical prices were around $1.29. By Maryland it dropped to $1.19, only to come back up when we reached Delaware, reaching $1.39. By New Jersey it was $1.54 for regular.
The cloud cover was now gone and the roads heated up. I could see that on engine and transmission temperature. And for the first time since departing from Florida, the engine fan clutch kicked in. We took the Garden State Parkway further up and joined I-87. We crossed the Hudson by Tappan Zee bridge, joined I-287 to I-684 and then to I-84. We stopped in Connecticut after our second five hour pass. Bought gas a noticed the best fuel consumption towing so far: 10mpg!! From there, it was less than 100 miles home. We managed to reach route the I-495/route 3 interchange just before rush hour (4:45). By 5:30 we were home. Finally!
Everything looked fine. The grass was cut and the plants were all well inside. In fact, the grass had less bald spots than when we left. But there was barely any fruit left on the trees, except on the pear tree. We unpacked for a little while and then decided to go out for dinner; we'd been good during this trip and hate not ate out more than two times. We all hopped into the Mustang, top down, and drove to Chilli's restaurant. We went to bed as soon as we got back. It was muggy.
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