Trip Diary for August, 2009
Based at Regatta Point in Deltaville, VA; mostly land travel

Aug. 1-31; Deltaville, VA: Saturday was a beautiful day.  After sleeping late to allow Rich and Lee to recover from yesterday's long ride we headed to Urbanna for its Buyboat Festival.  Before touring boats we diverted to Something Different for its unique, delightful sandwiches.  The historically significant buyboats were large boats that purchased the skipjack oyster catch from watermen for wholesale to restaurants, seafood stores and large ships. Next we visited Christ Church in Weems before a brief shopping stop in nearby Kilmarnock.  This still allowed time to drive on to The Crazy Crab in Reedville for early excellent crab cake dinners.  We returned to the boat to play Mexican Train with dominos late into the night.  Sunday also started slowly.  It was Lee's and Rich's 40th anniversary, so we drove to CoCoMo's for a celebratory lunch.  Returning, everyone enjoyed a brief dinghy tour of Broad Creek before playing the dominos game Chicken Feet.  It was then time to grill pork chops for a fine dinner with roasting ears and rice before opening cards for an evening of Hand and Foot and just visiting.

Rich and Lee departed at 7:40 AM Monday.  It was again time for laundry and items deferred, e.g. finances, for the past 10 days.  Lunch and dinner were aboard.  Tuesday began with Larry's 7:30 AM Middlesex Rotary meeting near White Stone, 14 mi. from the marina.  After lunch aboard we drove to for Kilmarnock for Lola's nail fill and pedicure at Nail Trix while Larry got an oil change for our auto.  We enjoyed Mexican dinners there at Buenos Nachos.  Wednesday started late with temperatures reaching the 90s.  We stayed aboard until the weekly 6 PM marina potluck with 24 attendees.  Overnight rains and cloud cover all day Thursday produced a high of only 78.  We spent a relaxed day aboard.  Lola ironed while Larry worked to order replacements for failed equipment at Wesley Thrift Shop in Crawfordsville, IN.  At 10 AM Friday we drove to Norfolk, coming back through Williamsburg to complete a successful shopping day.  Temperatures began to climb Saturday.  We worked aboard except for lunch at Cocomo's.  A 7 PM rainstorm with intensities as high as 6 in/hr accumulated 1.2 in.  The usual Sunday Clarksbury UMC lunch group did not attend this week, so after the 11 AM service we returned to outstanding boiled shrimp purchased yesterday at J&W Seafood in Deltaville.  Temperatures reached 93; good conditions for reading, Sudoku and relaxing aboard in air conditioning.  We drove to Gloucester for dinner at McDonalds.  Monday was laundry and new mail from W. Lafayette.  It was another hot, humid day with temperatures reaching 95.  Again, we drove to Gloucester for dinner, this time at Applebee's.  While Larry attended his 7:30 Rotary meeting Tuesday Lola ironed.  For the third day, temps were in the mid-90s.  As we returned from dinner at Salsa's in Hayes, rain began for much of the evening and night, ultimately bringing 1.5 in.  Wednesday was slightly cooler and mostly cloudy with light intermittent afternoon rains.  Only 14 attended the evening's marina carry-in.  Thursday was devoted to making travel plans for the Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday season and arrangements to have the compressor for the air conditioner in the master salon replaced.  It had a bearing that was failing, progressively worsening for the past month.  We drove to Yorktown Friday intending to visit its battlefield; however, it rained all day and we switched to shopping mode in Newport News.  Saturday was a cool, relaxed day with lunch at Something Different.  Following the 11 AM Sunday Clarksbury UMC service we joined 9 others for lunch at the Pilothouse.  At 11:30 Monday we returned to the Yorktown Battlefield for a delightful afternoon. This national park commemorates the decisive American victory over Cornwallis that determined the outcome of the revolution.  The park ranger, Linda, gave a fantastic tour/explanation of the preparation and battlefield victories that, with the French navy blockading the Chesapeake and their ground troop support, led to the eventual surrender of 8,000 British and German soldiers. We then enjoyed dinner at Cheeseburger in Paradise in Newport News before grocery shopping on the return.  Tuesday was laundry and repair day with 95 degree temps and high humidity; NOT comfortable outdoors.  We had fish sandwiches at Cocomo's for dinner.  Richard Graziano boarded at 9:30 AM Wednesday to remove the stateroom air conditioner to replace its failing compressor; as usual for boat systems, it involved an access challenge.  By 11:30 we were driving to Gloucester for Lola's appointment with Dr. Hooker, an orthopaedic surgeon for her knee; he released her and gave a recommendation for doctors at St. Simons, GA in case later treatments are needed.  Temps again reached the mid-90s.  The 15 people at today's marina carry-in enjoyed an in-door setting while a major thunderstorm passed, dropping .9 in. of rain and briefly lowering temperatures about 10 degrees.  Thursday's temps were again in the mid-90s.  The morning was devoted to correcting errors in our Medicare registration that occurred when Larry fully retired from Purdue.  To relieve tensions from the several extended phone conversations with our government, we drove 22 mi. to Kilmarnock for dinner.  Friday morning Lola worked on Longaberger tasks while Larry repaired the broken pocket door to the guest stateroom, a non-trivial task requiring removal of the room's aft inside wall.  Following early dinners at Applebee's in Gloucester, we boarded the neighboring boat, Back Dock, to play Chinese Train (dominos) with Larry and Ruth Smithers.  After expecting the stateroom AC to be reinstalled Saturday morning, it finally occurred at 4 PM.  The marina had scheduled a pool party for the Regatta Point Yacht Club plus transients for 5 PM.  At 4:45 a storm arrived, dumping almost 2 inches in the next 45 min.  Everything was delayed until 6 PM when 39 people participated in a wonderful indoor carry-in.  The storm brought some heat relief and a glorious sunset. It was wonderful to again have an AC-cooled bedroom, especially when the unit was now quiet-running. Fortified Sunday morning with Lola's fresh baked breakfast rolls, as usual we attended the 11 AM Clarksbury UMC service followed by lunch with 9 others at the Pilothouse in White Stone; it was 3 PM as we returned to the boat.  Today was about 8 degrees cooler so we relaxed on the cockpit with knitting and Sudoko before snacking aboard for dinner.  Monday was laundry and cleaning day, one of the few days the car did not move.  With a leisurely start Tuesday we headed for George Washington's Birthplace 75 mi. NE of Deltaville.  This allowed a magnificent early lunch at the recently opened (Feb. 16) Carwash Cafe in Kilmarnock, a former gas station.  Larry's crab sandwich had the largest, best crab cake he has ever eaten and their she-crab soup was awesome!  With a few minor detours for shopping, we arrived at the park about 1:50 PM, just in time for a most informative ranger tour of its grounds.  Situated on a high bluff on Pope Creek one mile from its mouth into the Potomac River, it provides a spectacular view and beautiful grounds. The recreated Georgian-style home contained many period furniture pieces, but only one from the original Washington birth house which burned when he was 3; it is the small tea table to the left in the picture. We left at 10:30 Wednesday, our anniversary, for business and shopping in Gloucester and Newport News.  Temps and humidity had again returned to their summer peaks.  The anniversary treat was ice cream at Cold Stone before returning to Larry's favorite dining model, the 6 PM weekly carry-in at the marina.  Larry and Ruth Smithers invited us to join them and 6 others aboard Back Dock, a 56 ft. Vantare Pilothouse, for a Thursday 9:45 AM day-trip to Tangier Island, 27 mi. up the Chesapeake. It began uneasily when just 3 mi. from the marina the port engine suddenly stopped.  Ultimately, it was only an air block in the fuel line  that was easily cleared by starting the engine at 3/4 throttle, but getting to that determination took several minutes.  The Bay was nearly flat; it was a delightful ride.  Once there we enjoyed excellent lunches at Fisherman's Corner. Next was a golf cart ride around the commercial part of the 1.5 x 3 mi. watermen's island, accessible only by water and known as a place almost unchanged by modern times.  It has a population of 600 people whose living is from crabbing, oystering and tourism. We returned at 6:45 PM.  Friday was all work: laundry, cleaning, pump-out and ironing.  Another hot, muggy day.  The only break was fish sandwich dinners at Cocomo's.  We left Saturday at 11 in order to stop by Gloucester for Lola's nail fill and lunch before continuing to Newport News airport to pick up our daughter and son-in-law, Sandy and Klaus Leitem.  Their plane arrived at 2:50 PM, 30 min. later than scheduled.  We then enjoyed an early dinner at Cheeseburger in Paradise before continuing to Prime Outlets in Williamsburg.  Sunday began at Clarksbury UMC followed by lunch at the Pilothouse with 6 other church members.  In the afternoon we toured Mathews County.  By late evening temps began their overnight retreat.  Monday's high was 71 with light intermittent showers all day; finally, no air conditioners running.  We departed for Norfolk and the Macarthur Memorial Museum at 11 AM.  Surprisingly, we experienced no tunnel delays either direction!  We returned at 7 PM for a delicious dinner of peel-an-eat shrimp, crab muffins and munchies.

Water miles traveled to date: 3,592; this month: 54 (aboard Back Dock)

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