I’m still working on that self-imposed LOVEworks scavenger hunt. You know, the one where I visit and photograph all of the LOVE sculptures around Virginia that are part of the state’s “Virginia is for Lovers” campaign? As their website says…
We’re out to prove that “love is at the heart of every Virginia vacation” in a BIG way by having giant “LOVE” artworks pop up in many different and unexpected places across Virginia.
Ever since seeing that there’s a LOVEwork in Chincoteague, I’d been pondering how and when to capture that one. Chincoteague is a town on Chincoteague Island, which is off of Virginia’s Eastern Shore. There’s no quick way to get there from here. I’d either have to head north and east through Maryland, crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge near Annapolis or head south and east to cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel near Norfolk/Virginia Beach. Either way, it’s about a four-hour drive, much of which is via highway.
Rather than re-tracing my steps, which was one option, I preferred doing it as a loop, as shown below.
I’d hoped to do it on the bike, but it’s getting late in the year and the days are shorter, not to mention colder and sometimes wetter. Since the weather was sketchy for the weekend and I wanted to cover as much ground as possible, I took the car.
Of course, I included a “few” other LOVEworks sites I hadn’t yet visited. In all, I captured nine LOVEworks this weekend — yay, me! — bringing my total captures to 36. Pretty good, eh? I only have 11 more to capture and I’ll have seen all of the big ones, assuming no other new ones get added anytime soon. Three new ones were just added to the list on Thursday, the night before my journey began.
Anyway, the trip was a complete success. I saw all of the LOVEworks I’d planned on seeing AND lots of other fun stuff along the way. My Instagram feed over the last few days is full of odd stuff, LOL.
It was a hurried, but fun, trip. The best thing about this wacky scavenger hunt of mine is seeing parts of the state and/or towns I may never have seen otherwise, revisiting places I don’t get to often, and getting to visit places I’d been wanting to see, but never had a compelling enough reason to go.
Anyway, here they are, in order of capture.
If Chincoteague (pronounced like shin-cuh-teak, said quickly) sounds familiar to some of you, it’s because the town is known for the Chincoteague Ponies. The ponies and the annual Pony Penning Day are the subject of Marguerite Henry’s book, Misty of Chincoteague. It was one of my favorites as a kid. The ponies are actually on neighboring Assateague Island, which I’ll explain later. Chincoteague deserves a post of it’s own.
One of the coolest things about the Chincoteague LOVEwork, which I first visited Saturday evening, is the welcoming committee that greeted me.
You’ll need to have your sound on to appreciate this quick video.
I enjoy seeing the diversity of these sculptures/art pieces. Which of these nine is your favorite? I’m sort of partial to Farmville, with Cape Charles and Chincoteague tied for a close second. But, really, I LOVE them all. 🙂
Chincoteague gets my vote. 🙂
It’s a shame no one was there to get a picture of me sitting in one of the giant chairs. 🙂
Well done, Mama! I really enjoyed seeing the pics roll in through Instagram.
Each of the LOVEs is special in their own way but the peanuts makes me chuckle .
Something about those ducks reminds me of the jangley bells of the cows in the Alps 🙂
Thanks, Fuzz.
You’re right about the ducks and the mountain cows. 🙂
Awesomely successful trip!!
Farmville is my fave. With South Boston second 😀
South Boston was nice. There’s visitor’s center is really nice, but it was late in the day and they lady manning the desk had an appointment to keep. I’d like to revisit that, too.