Ready for the Chesapeake

What a change in surroundings over the last two days, and what a variety of experiences.

Saturday morning we were at one of the free slips in Elizabeth City NC (ICW mile 51). Riggs did some ball chasing, then I did some grocery shopping (at a CVS store of all places). We shoved off at about noon and headed up the Pasquotank River, through Turners Cut, and were at the South Mills Lock in time for the 3:30 lock-thru, which lifted Spray by 8 feet and put us in the Dismal Swamp Canal. Only 4 miles later we (and a sailboat we locked-thru with) tied up at the Dismal Swamp Visitors Center (ICW mile 28) for the night.

A few minutes later a fella walks up and invites us all to an outdoor dinner being held there to celebrate the 80th birthday of a man named George Ramsey, who has much history with the canal. What a great time! Some 75 of his friends & relatives were there, several of whom work either at the Visitors Center or for the Corps of Engineers. Several people spoke in admiration of George, and there were some great jokes. It was a canal-fest and it was catered southern style with fried chicken, BBQ pork, hushpuppies, many salads, and of course, sweet tea.

This morning we set off about 8 am and had a liesurely 17 mile ride to the Deep Creek Lock, at the northern end of the canal (ICW mile 11). We locked through at 11 am and dropped 8 feet, back to sea level. In a few miles we were in super-busy Norfolk VA (ICW mile 0!!). We worked our way out to the Hampton Roads shipway, dodging th big traffic (below) and finally tucking up the Hampton River, where we are anchored right off downtown Hampton VA. Sowe're poised to enter the Chesapeake tomorrow and work our way north. Stay tuned!