• Today’s Distance (miles): 49 minus 17.6 for the bridge!
• Time in saddle: 2h 29
• Max/min temp – in full sun (°c): 45°/30° (highest max/min so far I believe)
• Climbing (feet) :191 (that is flat!)
• Calories used: 1,601
• Today’s 2nd Breakfast: Iced tea, coffee and fries at McDonald’s, Cape Charles
• Cafe time: 2h 42

There’s lot of info here today due to how interesting the bay is – you may need to take notes for the snap quiz.

GEOLOGY – IT’S CRAZY!: This is Chesapeake Bay Day here on Incidents of Travel. The Chesapeake is one of the largest estuary bays in the world, and the largest in the United States. It’s fed at the very top by the great Susquehanna River (had you heard of it? I admit that I hadn’t) which is the biggest river on the whole of the US East Coast.

I zoomed in on it on Google maps, and started following the river back inland, and it just went on and on and on. For 444 miles it says here, ending somewhere in Pennsylvania. It’s one of the oldest rivers on earth, 340 million years of constant water in motion, older even than the mountains it flows through (which were formed by the collision of Gondwana and Euramerica whilst the Susquehanna was quietly minding its own business – that’s how old it is).

Anyway, the Susquehanna is only one of 150 major rivers that feed the Chesapeake Bay, as it spreads out south towards the Atlantic for over 200 miles. The amazing thing I found out about it yesterday at the Virginia Visitor Centre, and which I hinted at in the blog, is that it wasn’t formed in the usual ‘river eroding a valley’ way. It’s the result of a huge meteor (or ‘bolide’, a super-bright meteor) impact 35.5 million years ago. So when the impact happened, the Susquehanna had already been flowing for 304.5 million years. In other words, geologically speaking, the meteor impact was very recent. (Does geological time make you head spin? It does mine). When the world woke up the morning after the meteor strike, there was a huge crater in the earth, which the rivers flowed into, but the crater was so large that not much more happened to the bay for another 34.9 million years, when suddenly – or 10,000 years ago – the last ice age ended and the great ice sheets melted, flooding the crater with seawater from sea-level rise and creating – ta-da – the Chesapeake Bay. (The same great melting of ice sheets also created the Prairies and the Great Lakes to the north).

There have been indigenous names for the places in this country for tens of thousands of years. The names given by European settlers are obviously incredibly recent, but of those millions of names, amongst they very oldest of the English ones – in the first 6 or 7 ever recorded – is the name Chesapeake (or Chesepiook as it was called by explorers in 1585). That gives you some idea of how important this place was in the settling of the America. I first heard the name when I was doing Geography O-Level, and it was given as the best example of combined freshwater and seawater environments anywhere on earth. I next encountered it when I took a Marine Biology evening class, and again it was the variety of ecosystems that made it such an interesting subject. But my most memorable encounter was in Shaw’s Crabhouse in Chicago on yet another US concert tour, where I ordered their special that day of 1doz. Chesapeake Bay Oysters, ‘on the half shell’. They were sensational, particularly with the white wine we ordered, even though they must have been flown in specially that day. As I remember, the price of the meal made me think that the oysters flew First Class. At least the live jazz in the cocktail bar was free.

I had just 25 miles to cover for stage one this morning, which was to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. Like crossing Confederation Bridge to Prince Edward Island, they provide a shuttle service for bicycles, which I had arranged the night before. My slot was 2pm, when I was told to appear at the Bridge Toll Booths.

Although the terrain was identical to yesterday’s ride, it couldn’t have felt much more different. Instead of battling a headwind, I had a nice slide/tailwind, and sped along for the first hour and a half at about 15mph – for me and my bike, that’s fast!

After a brief 2nd breakfast stop where I had to go semi-rustic to get my bike out of the way, in view from the diner, and in the shade (I don’t ask much)…

…I went to do some shopping at a supermarket next door. On the way out I might three young lads all sitting on the ground, with a cat-box next to them. ‘What’s that?’ I asked. ‘It’s a rescue kitten’ said the oldest boy. ‘We’ve saved him from the dumpster over there and our dad just bought a cat box for him’ They turned out to be two brothers, Wyatt (10), & Bode (pronounced Bodey, 7) and their best friend Levi (9).

Wyatt suddenly said ‘You’re from England, right? Do you have a team?’ So it turned out that I had bumped into two of the biggest Arsenal fans in probably the whole of Virginia. ‘What about Declan Rice?’, asked Wyatt. ‘Great buy’. I could not have anticipated this moment in a month of Sundays. Their favourite player? Bukayo Saka (correct answer, Odegard would have been ok too). Levi was Man City, but never mind. The kitten had fallen asleep and I had to go, but it was so good talk football with a knowledgeable expert (Wyatt). They all gave me a great wave off, and a bit of a cheer. Great kids.

I got down to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel a whole hour early, and was told at the tollbooth to go and wait in the Guest Area. Unsurprisingly, there were two unused Adirondack chairs provided.

I chatted with the two women working in the visitor centre, who gave me LOADS of maps for the next couple of weeks and also both confirmed the way that corporations have been moving in to take over the businesses struggling post-Covid, and in particular all of the campgrounds. Senie, who’s the main officer there, promised to send the name of the Corp, if she remembers it! Hope you did, Senie…

At that moment Scot (one t or two, Scott?) appeared, who was there to drive me over the bridge and tunnel. We loaded my heavy bike into his van together, tied it up with thick string, and drove back across to the toll booths where I had to pay my $14 to cross over (great value with the lift!).

Then we launched ourselves onto the bridge! It’s 17.6 miles from end to end, partly bridge but then diving down under the water in 2 separate tunnels for the deepest sections of Chesapeake Bay (Scot said there was a deep channel in the middle of the bay), very like the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge I got to see from the land in Hong Kong in 2019. The Chesapeake Bay crossing was completed in 1964, the same year that I was. And Susie. And also, funnily enough, Beechwood Park School!

Scot had worked for the bridge for his entire working life and was incredibly knowledgable about its construction and maintenance. He said it was built to last 50 years in theory, but it was done so well it should be good for a 100 if they keep maintaining it properly. The most recent work, however, on the bridge heading south, had been competitively tendered and the result was less stringent quality control to save money. ‘We’ll see how long that lasts’, said Scot sagely. The most surprising thing was that after having read up about the Susquehanna River, and how far into Pennsylvania it runs, Scot told me that his wife’s Uncle lives right next to the very source of the river. ‘He’s at one end, I’m at the other!’ he said.

Scot was great company and also said that hardly any bikes use this free service. ‘You’re only the 3rd one I’ve carried this month!’ he told me, which I was absolutely amazed at. They once had a special bike day and closed the bridge for it, but the man-hours needed to run the event, plus the cost of closing the bridge and tunnel, meant that Scot thought it was very unlikely to ever happen again. He gave me a tremendous ‘Good luck!’ send-off, then headed back across the bay. Great to meet someone who really understands and enjoys his work.

Google maps gave me a moment or two of amusement as it thought the the best route to my hotel, given that I’d been dropped at the rest area on the north-heading side of the highway, was to recross the bridge (which would mean paying another toll), do a u-turn and come back again, rather than simply cross the carriageway and keep going south. (Anyone remember the Confederation Bridge google-debacle in 2017?) :

Just as saw that I was only 1.6 miles form my motel, I had a weird and annoying thing happen to me, or more specifically to my bike. I stopped briefly to take this photo:

I thought it might be a possible funny sign, but then things became less funny. As I turned to rejoin the road, I left a high kerb and dropped into a deep rut in the road surface, that was full of nasty looking debris. I managed to steer the front wheel to one side, but the back wheel bounced down hard into the collection of metal bits a bobs. I heard a bang and knew I had just achieved the near-impossible – (I’ll say it now) I had punctured a Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyre. 5,000 miles of Canadian roads didn’t do it, nor the last 25 days of cycling (or even the 6 years in between that I’ve used this tyre brand on my bike).

The sun was roasting, the hotel over a mile away, so I knew that I would have to sort this out there and then. Luckily the Poppa’s Pub had a shady spot for me to make the repairs in. I still sweated more than you would in a steam room, wiping my brow on every bandana, tissue and rag that I had to hand, trying to see what I was doing.

Hotel shower – great. Looking for towels after shower – not great. Picking up phone to call reception about lack of towels – also not great.

Woman bringing towels very quickly (after dressing in swimming trunks to walk back to reception) – great.

So that’s almost a wrap today – it’s felt like another full one, but regardless of what happens each day, they all feel full! I told Susie the other day that, as often happened in Canada, I’ve failed to have proper rest days again (esp New York), so I’m planning to try and really relax on the next one. If I can just work out when it’s due…? Oh, and look out tomorrow – I’m hoping to visit somewhere inland with a great name!

SIGN THAT IS FUNNY: just this today!

UPDATE: I worked out that my free day should be on Friday, but I’m going to take it on Saturday instead, when I should be camping on the Outer Banks, North Carolina! Can’t wait. I also have a ‘Royal Report’ from John Mills to repost here tomorrow – it’s a bit full today!