Category: travel

In my previous post, I said I’d share pics from Cape Charles and Chincoteague, but, truth is, since it was raining, I did a really piss-poor job capturing images of Cape Charles. So you’ll just have to Google that one if you are really curious.

I did, however, get to spend a decent amount of time in Chincoteague. I got to poke around the town a bit — it’s bigger than I anticipated — and spend some time on the national wildlife refuge.

To get to the town of Chincoteague, which is on Chincoteague Island, you head east for about 11 miles on VA-175 from US-13. The landscape becomes rural pretty quickly after leaving US-13, so one would expect it to be less and less populated, with trees giving way to marsh as one approaches the Chincoteague Island (CI). And that’s sort of what happens. But first, you have to drive past Wallops Island, “NASA’s principal facility for management and implementation of suborbital research programs.”

Despite knowing I’d be passing the NASA facility, seeing the field full of radar antennas and other high-tech-looking stuff on one side of the road and a few smallish rockets on the other side of the road just felt odd.

Also odd was the number of billboards along the north side of the road leading to CI. For what seemed like a few miles, there was a billboard about every 50 yards (~150 meters) or so. They were all the same height and seemed to be positioned at the exact same angle in relation to the road. Weird.

It was late in the day when I reached CI, so I headed right for the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, which is located on neighboring Assateague (ass-uh-teak) Island.

The rain had slowed down a bit, but it was pretty windy and cold. And, with the skies so overcast, there wasn’t much light for pictures.

Fall at the marsh is lovely to me, with all of the contrasting colors.

I made it to tow before it was fully dark and captured a picture of the LOVEwork, then proceeded to my motel.

After a long, relaxing evening, I headed back to the refuge early Sunday morning. (I’ll share those pics in my next post.) I planned my day around the 11:00 a.m. opening of the Museum of Chincoteague, which is very close to the refuge entrance. I did poke around town a bit after leaving my motel.

With CI being a beachy destination, there was a certain amount of kitschy beach-themed and other stuff typical of east coast resort towns.

It seemed odd to me that I saw at least one giraffe every day during my brief journey. In a recent exchange with my buddy Fuzzy about the sudden appearance of giraffes in my life, she said something to the effect that maybe they’ve always been there and I’d just never noticed them.

Perhaps. But why have I all of a sudden started noticing giraffes?!?

I’ll have to file that question under unsolved mysteries of the universe. Oh, and hope I don’t continue seeing giraffes.

The lighthouse in that mural is the iconic Assateague Lighthouse, which was completed in 1867.

In addition to the refuge and one other must-see island sight, the Museum of Chincoteague was a must-visit destination for me.

I’d been wanting to visit Chincoteague since I was a kid and read Marguerite Henry’s book, Misty of Chincoteague. Henry followed with other books, but Misty always played a key role, whether as a character in the book or as the head of a long line of island ponies.

Look what’s at the museum. Or maybe I should say look “who” is at the museum.

I’m still sort of torn between being creeped-out that they’d stuffed Misty and pleased that I actually got to see her.

She looked so real. I mean, I know it is her, but in the above image, she almost looks alive, doesn’t she? She’s much smaller than I’d imagined. Of course, I was much smaller, too, when actually imagining Misty.

The museum is on the little side, but very well done and lovingly maintained.

Apparently, that lens was used in the lighthouse until 1961 when it was replaced by a more-advanced directional coded beacon.

It’s a lovely place. I’m not sure how I’d feel about it in the heat of summer amidst throngs of tourists, but it is certainly a charming place to visit in the off season. I hope to return. One day…

Having successfully captured King Neptune and the beach at daybreak (see previous post if you missed it), I set out to capture the other two oddities on my list and six remaining LOVEworks.

The Virginia Beach LOVEwork was first, then I was off to see “‘Hugh Mongous,’ the simian mascot of Ocean Breeze Waterpark.”

How can you NOT smile at him? He’s one big, colorful, smiley gorilla dude.

It was only later when scrolling through pics and seeing the previously unshared selfie of Hugh and I that I realized we are wearing the same glasses.

What can I say? The big dude has style!

From there, I headed inland to capture the LOVEworks in Newport News and Norfolk. On the way, since I’d be passing Mount Trashmore, I decided to stop and see the Whispering Giant (big carved Indian, more on that later) that’s been there since 1976.

I found the Newport News sculpture without incident. The first one in Norfolk was a bit of a challenge. I ended up at the Virginia Zoological Park, adjacent to Lafayette Park (the park where I was supposed to be). That’s where I saw this sculpture…

A VERY cool, life-sized elephant, fashioned of butterflies, holding a butterfly.

I know I use the word “cool” too much. I can’t help it.

I was on my way back to the car when I spotted this peeking through the bushes at me.

Another giraffe. How odd. I never see giraffe sculptures then, in less than 24 hours, I see two. Hmmm. (I had to manuever a bit to get that picture.)

I eventually found my way to the appropriate spot in Lafayette Park, thanks to the helpful lady at the zoo info desk. I captured the final Norfolk-area LOVEwork at the airport, which felt a bit weird. Who visits airports just to see stuff?

That’s where I realized I’d neglected to take my ATM card along on the trip. I had $5 cash and no ATM card. Crap. Oh well, I’d survive, hopefully without having to get a cash advance on the credit card.

From there, I headed north across the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay via the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, an engineering marvel I’ll describe another time.

I forgot to mention that the skies had been really overcast all morning. It finally started raining shortly after I reached Virginia’s Eastern Shore. By the time I reached Cape Charles, the next-to-last LOVEwork location, the skies let loose. A downpour. Ugh.

I did manage to capture a picture of the lighthouse water tower, which is one of the RoadsideAmerica stops I’d planned before leaving home.

Oh, and I was really tickled to see this as I was leaving Cape Charles…

I’d never actually seen cotton growing before. To the best of my knowledge, anyway.

I shot those pictures very quickly, since I had to pull into someone’s driveway to do so.

As I continued north, I passed another oddity I had NOT planned on stopping to see. But, since I did actually see it, I figured I should stop for a pic.

Again, road trip pics with the car are not nearly as interesting (romantic?) as road trip pics with the bike. 🙁

I’d been planning on grabbing lunch in Cape Charles, but the rain changed my mind. The further north I drove, the hungrier I got. I was half-hoping I’d see a Bojangles. The other half of me was thinking I’d just eat in Chincoteague, my destination for the day.

Then I saw a pretty big and interesting billboard advertising The Great Machipongo Clam Shack (web site) in Nassawaddox, Virginia.

The name makes me sorta giggle for some reason. also, I like clams. So I told myself that, if I passed it and the parking lot was full enough, I’d stop. Sure enough, there were quite a few cars parked at the place, so I hung a U-turn and visited the The Great Machipongo Clam Shack.

I’m glad I stopped. The food was delicious.

The sweet potato fries were served sprinkled with sugar instead of salt. I’d never heard of that, but those fries were damn good. I may never eat them with salt again. The shrimp were, by far, the best fried shrimp I’ve ever eaten.

The crab on the window had caught my eye on the way in, so I snagged a pic before I left.

From there, it was about an hour to Chincoteague. I was anxious to get to the island before dark so I could scope-out the wildlife refuge and maybe see a cool sunset from the marsh. But it was still raining. Perhaps I’ll get to see another marsh sunset sometime soon.

I’ll tell you all about Chincoteague and Assateague Islands in an upcoming post.