Just back from a quick three-day trip. We took the granddaughter on a shorty to see the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, and pick up an eBay purchase in Hopewell, VA. From Delaware Memorial Bridge, S on 13, and Delaware Route 1, very easy route. There was a fair amount of shore traffic around Dover, then again at Georgetown, and Millsboro. Once the people headed for Rehobeth/Bethany & Ocean City MD all headed east, though, the traffic thins out considerably. No constructions to speak of. Delaware's Route 1 and US 13 parallel each other for much of this. At Milford, we pick up US 113, which swings a bit east of US 13, but has almost no stoplights. It bypasses Salisbury and all that build up in northern MD. 113 joins up with 13 again at Pokomoke City, and then it's a simple straight shot down to the Cape. You pass through the tiny burbs like Temperanceville, Exmore, Painter, and Onley, paralleling the old Norfolk & Southern rail tracks on your left.
Kiptopeke State Park, 3 miles north of the CBBT, is a very nice place. It's the site of the old ferry terminus that was operated until the bridge opened, in 1964. The camping area has spots for about 100 or so RVs, it's a large, flat, relatively open meadow, with only about 30 or so spots having any shade trees. They don't reserve specific spots, so when we got there about 4:30 Saturday afternoon, we cruised around a bit to find an open spot. No shade for us, unfortunately. Back in, hook up the E/W/S, and we're good to go. It's a very quiet CG, I will say - appeared to be a mix of transients, weeklys, and maybe even long term campers. DW said the bathhouse was cruddy, but other than that they seemed to be diligent about keeping the sites tidy. The boat ramp and swimming beach is about 500 yards down the road, but we were advised to drive the rig there, and parked in a long boat trailer spot, so it was a 20 foot walk to the beach. Nice hiking trails, a little playground for the tots, overall very nice place. Very family oriented.
Monday we headed over the bridge, to have lunch at the Island restaurant. Traffic was light, so no problems pulling in and then reversing back out. Then we headed through Norfolk, out I-64 East, and toward US 460, headed to Hopewell to meet an eBay seller. As usual, Norfolk/Newport News/Chesapeake area always seems to have heavy traffic, even at 2PM on a Monday. We headed west on US 460, which is a four-lane highway for most of the way up to Richmond, but had no median barrier, and pretty much no shoulders either, so in tougher conditions it could be dicey. I would not want to do it in a driving rain or heaven forbid, snow. We buzzed through the little peanut centers of Windsor, Zuni, Wakefield, Waverly, and the oddly named Disputana.
Just north of Disputana, we hopped on I-295. This southern chunk of it was rough, the pavement rattled the old bus pretty good. We got off at Hopewell, did our business, and then back on for a bit until we hooked up with US 301 N. As soon as we got off I-295, the whole RV breathed a sigh of relief...smooth, empty road, sun shining through the trees, we glided through Fort A P Hill, met a little re-paving road work just as we exited the Fort, and then cruised smoothly and effortlessly up to the Potomac River bridge. Of course, we hit the expected stop-n-go from La Plata north, but careful planning helped us stay green for at least 50% of the lights. We hook up with US 50 up west of Annapolis, then over the Bay Bridge, through Queenstown, and then the rest was a simple, relaxed jaunt up 301. One note - as of 7/15, there was road work just at the separation of 301 and 50 north of Queenstown, and you detour down 50, and catch MD 213 to go back up and hook into 301, but it's an easy, short detour, and the work looks like very minor - they had some lights and a rig at the US 50 Westbound overpass bridge over 301, so it may be something very short term. Not a problem, and you might even be able to slide through the Queenstown Outlets place there on 50, and come out on 301 past the stoppage.
301 North through Maryland is a breeze, 60 or so miles with nary a stoplight, until Middletown DE. Then north a bit, over US 40, onto 95NB to the Delaware Memorial Bridge and home.
602 miles total, got about 7.7 mpg with the genny running. NO road construction slowdowns to speak of, roughest roads were around Norfolk, as expected. For anyone in the Philly metro area, this would make a fairly nice three-day trip. Had we not had the side trip to Hopewell, we could have taken any number of back/side roads north back up through the Maryland and Delaware eastern shore.
[img]
#1- Southbound, DE 1, Near Dover by Jimbo in Jersey, on Flickr[/img]
Kiptopeke State Park, 3 miles north of the CBBT, is a very nice place. It's the site of the old ferry terminus that was operated until the bridge opened, in 1964. The camping area has spots for about 100 or so RVs, it's a large, flat, relatively open meadow, with only about 30 or so spots having any shade trees. They don't reserve specific spots, so when we got there about 4:30 Saturday afternoon, we cruised around a bit to find an open spot. No shade for us, unfortunately. Back in, hook up the E/W/S, and we're good to go. It's a very quiet CG, I will say - appeared to be a mix of transients, weeklys, and maybe even long term campers. DW said the bathhouse was cruddy, but other than that they seemed to be diligent about keeping the sites tidy. The boat ramp and swimming beach is about 500 yards down the road, but we were advised to drive the rig there, and parked in a long boat trailer spot, so it was a 20 foot walk to the beach. Nice hiking trails, a little playground for the tots, overall very nice place. Very family oriented.
Monday we headed over the bridge, to have lunch at the Island restaurant. Traffic was light, so no problems pulling in and then reversing back out. Then we headed through Norfolk, out I-64 East, and toward US 460, headed to Hopewell to meet an eBay seller. As usual, Norfolk/Newport News/Chesapeake area always seems to have heavy traffic, even at 2PM on a Monday. We headed west on US 460, which is a four-lane highway for most of the way up to Richmond, but had no median barrier, and pretty much no shoulders either, so in tougher conditions it could be dicey. I would not want to do it in a driving rain or heaven forbid, snow. We buzzed through the little peanut centers of Windsor, Zuni, Wakefield, Waverly, and the oddly named Disputana.
Just north of Disputana, we hopped on I-295. This southern chunk of it was rough, the pavement rattled the old bus pretty good. We got off at Hopewell, did our business, and then back on for a bit until we hooked up with US 301 N. As soon as we got off I-295, the whole RV breathed a sigh of relief...smooth, empty road, sun shining through the trees, we glided through Fort A P Hill, met a little re-paving road work just as we exited the Fort, and then cruised smoothly and effortlessly up to the Potomac River bridge. Of course, we hit the expected stop-n-go from La Plata north, but careful planning helped us stay green for at least 50% of the lights. We hook up with US 50 up west of Annapolis, then over the Bay Bridge, through Queenstown, and then the rest was a simple, relaxed jaunt up 301. One note - as of 7/15, there was road work just at the separation of 301 and 50 north of Queenstown, and you detour down 50, and catch MD 213 to go back up and hook into 301, but it's an easy, short detour, and the work looks like very minor - they had some lights and a rig at the US 50 Westbound overpass bridge over 301, so it may be something very short term. Not a problem, and you might even be able to slide through the Queenstown Outlets place there on 50, and come out on 301 past the stoppage.
301 North through Maryland is a breeze, 60 or so miles with nary a stoplight, until Middletown DE. Then north a bit, over US 40, onto 95NB to the Delaware Memorial Bridge and home.
602 miles total, got about 7.7 mpg with the genny running. NO road construction slowdowns to speak of, roughest roads were around Norfolk, as expected. For anyone in the Philly metro area, this would make a fairly nice three-day trip. Had we not had the side trip to Hopewell, we could have taken any number of back/side roads north back up through the Maryland and Delaware eastern shore.
[img]
#1- Southbound, DE 1, Near Dover by Jimbo in Jersey, on Flickr[/img]
