Camp Hosting at Kiptopeke State Park

As Memorial Day Weekend approached, our month at Davis Lakes  Campground was winding down and it was time for us to move across the Chesapeake Bay to Kiptopeke State Park, where we would be hosting for the months of June and July.

We packed up and hitched up the Jeep for the 60 mile drive.  We took our time – giving the rush hour crowd plenty of time to get where they were going before we got on the road.

There was some traffic on I-64 through Chesapeake and Virginia Beach, but soon we were approaching the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, which was the tail end of our drive.

Traffic on the bridge-tunnel was light, and passing through the toll gate we confirmed that we had our propane turned off and our EZ-Pass was charged the $39 toll . . . and we were on our way across the Bay.

17 miles of bridge and tunnel!

When we reached the Eastern Shore we had just a few more miles to go the reach Kiptopeke State Park.  We checked in with the office staff and were sent to the campground to settle into our site.

Nice big site, but not much shade . . . so the next week we picked up a 10 x 10 canopy to help us stay cool in the afternoon sun.

It helps quite a bit!

When we arrived, there were two other host couples onsite.  One was the host for the RV loop, and the other was the host for the tent sites and part-time maintenance.  The 2nd couple was leaving after the holiday weekend, and it sounded like we were going to be their replacement.

It worked out really well that we had a few days of overlap, as it allowed us to work together a few times and get the rundown on what is expected.  Tony & Claudia were really nice people – too bad they were leaving!

Nicolas came out Thursday evening to spend Friday with us, and we did a little exploring in the park.

Tom ended up spending most of the weekend handling the rental kayaks because the park hadn’t yet hired anybody for that job.  It was very hot, and a pretty physically-demanding job, carrying the kayaks down to the launch and bringing them back up when they came back in, but he took his Dad down to the boat launch with him, and they enjoyed watching all the activity at the beach and the boat launch.

Those were a couple of long days!  He doesn’t mind helping out down there, but was glad to hear that they hired a big, strong, teenager for the rest of the summer!

We’re in a great location for beautiful sunsets!

This is a really nice state park, with 2 nice beaches on the Bay (one that is dog-friendly), the boat launch and fishing pier, several hiking/biking trails, RV sites, tent sites, yurts, cabins and lodges – something for everyone!

We’ve got lots of areas to explore!

We spent the rest of the week getting up to speed on host duties (which are pretty easy),

and met Nicolas for dinner in Virginia Beach one afternoon.  We’re actually really close to Virginia Beach – other than being across the bridge ($18 toll, round trip, in the Jeep) – it’s a short, easy drive!

On Friday evening, Tom and his Dad took a ride on the golf cart down to the pier after dinner,

and they met some fishermen who showed them their day’s catch,

and sent them home with a bag of fish fillets!  Tom’s Dad was so excited to get fresh fish!  Nicolas came out again on Saturday, so Tom cooked up some of the fish for the three of them for lunch.

It’s been a pretty good gig so far, and we’ve got quite a list of things we want to see and do while we’re here, so we certainly won’t get bored!

I think it’ll be a pretty good summer!