The MisterEd 8000; Grande Tour of America

A long day and the Chesapeake Bay

When I got up this morning, I was pretty sure that this was going to be the next to last day of the eastbound trip.  That wasn't certain, but I felt it.

Today was a day just to sightsee and play a bit.  I had three main goals for the day - cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel; cross the Bay Bridge to Annapolis; visit my old high school neighborhood south of Baltimore.  Beyond those goals, it was a pretty loose day.  But it began in South Boston at 4:15 AM.

I hadn't gotten a super-early start to a day like this so far the whole trip.  I got some gasoline at a 24 hr place in South Boston and hit the road in the pitch dark and chilly.  Finally, the heat had broken somewhat.  Yesterday had been pleasant enough after the humidity let go a bit.  Today, the morning was starting out dry and in the low 50's.  I got chilly enough to stop for coffee in LaCrosse near I-85.  I then stopped for a proper breakfast in Middleton just before getting on the toll road to the Bridge-Tunnel.


View of a carrier (left) and a tanker (right) from Island 1 a the south end of the Thimble Shoal tunnel

A foggy day at the coast.  Who'da thunk it?  To me, it was delicious.  After five days of sweltering to various degrees, I was most happy to be shivering a bit as Quicksilver and I bit into the damp ocean air on the approach to the first tunnel crossing the mouth of Chesapeake Bay.

It's officially known as the Lucius J. Kellam, Jr. Bridge-Tunnel, but nobody seems to call it that. 

Crossing 17 miles of water on your motorcycle doesn't seem any more strange than anything else.  That first tunnel is a little spooky though.  It's a mile long and just simply goes down ... down ... down - then about two feet of level and then up again.  You just went under one of the main shipping channels into the Chesapeake from the Atlantic Ocean.


View of the North Channel bridges from Fisherman Island


Also from Fisherman Island

Of course, this day is a Saturday, and it's the last Saturday before Labor Day weekend.  The eastern shore of Virginia and Maryland is a zoo.  US13 northbound is packed with Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey license plates heading for Philly, Dover and whatever exit the NJ people were from - and they all seem to be attached to really big SUV's packed to the gills with kids, bicycles, toys, suitcases, boxes and the like.  Everybody was heading home from the beach for the summer, I guess.

I peel off US13 at US50 - so I've now ridden US50 in Nevada and again near its eastern terminus in Maryland - but no place in between.  US50 takes you back west and to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge (or just the "Bay Bridge" - or, if you must, the William Preston Lane Jr. Memorial Bridge) and over toward Annapolis.  I get on the 'new' I-97 north toward Baltimore and things start to get wierd.

You see, our family lived in Linthicum, MD from 1975 to 1979.  I graduated high school here in 1979.  I-97 is one of many roads that have been built just in the last 10-15 years.  This is the fourth time I've been back to the old neighborhood since leaving in '79.  I went back in 1980 to visit, then not again until my tenth reunion in 1989, the again for one evening in 1994 to have dinner with a friend the night before I interviewed for a job in York, PA just up the road.  Now it's 2003, so the last time I saw this area was nine years ago.  I instantly became lost - I mean instantly.  When I first got my driver's license I knew this area like the inside of my eyelids - but now, there's whole sections of town where only woods existed back then.  The old roads I knew are buried in a new layer of two and three digit freeways that seem to go everywhere - it's like being in L.A., for cryin' out loud.

By accident, I spot a street sign for a familiar road and take it into a quiet neighborhood.  FINALLY, I've found some of the old stomping grounds.  There's a familiar house.  That store hasn't changed any.  Those railroad tracks are in the right place.  Once I got on to some known ground, I was fine and knew my way around pretty well.  I went by our old house to see what color it is now.  I cruised by the library (no change there) and over to my old High School - which hasn't been our High School since about 1985 when it was shut down and the student body consolidated to a newer school a mile or so away.  But now, the county school district has revived the old place and put it back to use as - my old middle school.  It's bizzare; the place I went to High School now bears the name of the old middle school that I had gone to which apparently just got torn down a couple of years ago itself.

Oh well, enough of the memory lane crap.  It's time to hit the road again.  I stop at the old Texaco station down the street from the old school and find it not changed tremendously - although it's now an Exxon station.  The fire house across the street is still there, but the huge supermarket that had been next door is now four strip malls and a housing development...

Out on to I-695's inner loop around the west side of Baltimore (The Beltway) and up on to I-83 north toward Pennsylvania.  I pass through York, PA at about 4:30 PM and cruise on north toward Harrisburg and I-81 up to Wilkes-Barre and Scranton.  Then I peel off on to I-84 to set myself up for the final leg of the trip tomorrow.  84's going to take me in to New England on Sunday morning.  By now it's nearly 7:00 PM and I've been on the road for over 14 hours.  I pull off the highway in Newfoundland and grab a room at an overpriced hotel - that's OK though, it was comfy.

A few links