Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel

Leaving from the farm, we were looking for a way to head up toward New Jersey that avoided the major cities (D.C. particularly). Googlemaps suggested the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. We weren't sure that we would be allowed to cross it, but found that if we turned off the propane, we would be ok.

I (Patti) was driving and noticed that there was a scenic stop off and a sign said "Tour Buses Welcome" - I figured that we were touring and in a bus, so... why not? When we got to the pull off, I asked Dwayne if he thought we would be able to get out of there and he said, "Sure!"

Well... if you take a look at the googlemap:
https://www.google.com/maps/@36.9650615,-76.112589,3008m/data=!3m1!1e3
The way they want to route traffic around is that you go in and out the same place, which would mean that we would need to make a **tight** U-turn to get back onto the highway. Miss Doozie is not real good at tight U-turns, especially with the Jeep attached. We decided that since we were "stuck" here, we would go ahead and enjoy it - so we walked around and reconnoitered. We thought that we might be better served by trying to drive all the way around the island parking lot area and go out the side that is supposed to go south, but make an illegal left turn.

Miss Doozie would be expected to make a sharp right U-turn onto the highway just on the other side of that wall that goes down into the tunnel. Even if we pulled way right (blocking the incoming traffic lane), it is doubtful we could make it without backing up (necessitating unhooking the Jeep). Our alternative plan was to drive all the way around the stop area (island) and come out the other side that you can see to the right of the picture - and make an illegal left turn to go down into the tunnel.

We are on the first island, closest to the south end of the bridge tunnel.

This is the tunnel that we will eventually go through.

There is a nice restaurant/gift shop here, as well as a fishing pier.

In the distance you can see the "island" where the tunnel comes up back to a bridge portion.

This was from the end of the pier - the next "island" is on the left side, the island we are on (South Thimble Island) in the middle. You can't really see her, but Miss Doozie is just to the right of the right-most lightpost in the parking lot.

One of the ships passing by...

This was a Navy vessel that was traveling very fast.

There was an identification board for the US Navy vessels.

This was the "fast moving" one.

As we were walking around, we saw an official looking guy on a golf cart, so Dwayne went to ask him how tour buses make it (while they don't have a Jeep attached, they would still have a pretty long turning radius). He said that he stops traffic while they get onto the roadway and he would do that for us too!!!

We are enjoying watching the boats come and go (US Navy as well as commercial and pleasure craft) that we're planning to spend the night here. We asked the nice guy on the golf cart and he said it would be fine and no one would bother us!

Thought it was interesting that a Cartwright lost his life during the building of the bridge tunnel.

Noticed this sign - so... since we got here about 5pm, we'll need to leave by about 11am tomorrow!

Miss Kitty is finding the birds and the waves to be MOST interesting!

Dwayne and a container ship that was passing by - the far "island" for the tunnel next to us is just behind the container ship.

You may just barely be able to see Miss Doozie down there in the parking lot... we're settled in for the night!