Virginia Beach to Onley

May 3, 2015

Another great cycling day where everything went right. Breakfast close by at The Village Inn was spot on. Highly recommended if you need good eats in the morning. From there, we routed ourselves to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel administration building through some very quiet and pleasant neighborhoods. We were hoping to enter the administration building's parking lot through a rear gate, but unfortunately it was locked. So we re-routed ourselves to the US-13 on-ramp off of US-60 (which sounds worse than it is). There are no shoulders until shortly before the toll plaza, but it's a short distance, and we had no problems.

Today's ride to Onley

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As promised, a maintenance truck driven by Maurice was waiting to take us over to the Eastern Shore. I had called when we left breakfast, and it was so matter-of-fact that it was almost unbelievable. It was like they do this every day. We were actually Maurice's first bicyclists for the season, and we had a good chat crossing over and exchanging stories.

Our toll gal. Very friendly. Knew Maurice (of course). Cost: the $13 toll. What a deal!

Through the tunnel. The crossing has two bridges, each with two lanes, but they use one tunnel, with one lane in each direction. Additional tunnels (two) are planned to be advertised and procured later this year or early next!

The far side lands at Fishermans Island National Wildlife Refuge (taken through the window of the pickup).

With that, we were on the Eastern Shore! The rest of the trip was pretty and very quiet but still with some wind, all out of the north (of course). So even though we did not travel a great distance today (55 miles), we were pretty worn out. We followed Seaside Road the entire way, which, despite its name, is not along the sea. But very bucolic nonetheless.

Lots of farm houses set well back from the road.

Green fields of what? Green stuff. If you know what this is, let me know!

And some older houses, abandoned but reminiscent of grander days.

So this was quite a beautiful day (in spite of the wind). The only drawback to this route was the lack of services. There were none. Literally. Not a single service station or convenience store for 40 miles. But this road parallels US-13, and you occasionally catch glimpses of it. That is where you will find your Gatorade. Otherwise, stock up well before you make that first turn to blissfulness.

After our arrival in Onley (pronounced Only), we checked into the Shore Lodge (the name gives it more gravitas than it deserves) and went for Chinese (the selection is limited in these small towns, but Chinese seems to be a good bet). And if you believe in fortunes . . .

Today's ride: 55 miles (89 km)
Total: 1,737 miles (2,795 km)

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