After enjoying a relaxing long weekend, it was back to reality for Nicolas as he prepared for his upcoming underway at the beginning of June . . . and me, too, as I got back to work.
He was working full days, but he still got home for dinner most of the time, and we did manage to have another campfire one evening before he had to start saying on the ship again.
The weather was great -- it cooled down a little, and we didn’t have to keep the A/C going 24/7 for several days!
On the day we thought he was leaving, we drove down to Fort Monroe in the afternoon, in hopes of spotting the carrier as it made it’s way out of the river and into the Chesapeake Bay.
When we arrived, we could see the ship still at the pier.
Fort Monroe is on the edge of the water, where it protected this major shipping channel during the Civil War,
surrounded by beautiful residences.
We killed some time walking along the seawall, and then took a drive around the grounds. There’s a beach at the north end of the peninsula, and a small RV Park overlooking the Chesapeake Bay.
Lots of good spots for getting pictures of the ship as it goes out to sea!
While we were driving around, though, Nick called to tell us that they weren’t leaving that day. He had the next 4 hours off, but didn’t want to drive all the way home. Since we were close, we fought with the rush hour traffic and made our way through the tunnel over to Norfolk to meet him for dinner before heading back to the campground.
They were re-scheduled for the next afternoon, and we considered driving back out to the Fort again, but by the time Nick called to tell us they were definitely going, it was pouring down rain and we decided against it.
Maybe we’ll get another chance to see them go out before we leave Virginia.
While he was gone, Tom and I were on our own . . . I kept busy with work during the day, and did some sewing in the evening, and Tom found people to talk to and projects to work on during the day.
We had some beautiful weather . . .
with some great sunsets! Casey likes to look at the sunset, too!
We enjoyed a few beautiful days at the beach here at the campground,
and ventured out into the surrounding communities, too
We went back to Virginia Beach for the Honey Festival, and back to Smithfield again to pick more strawberries.
Smithfield is well-known in the country for their hams and bacon and sausage, and the company has a restaurant in downtown Smithfield.
Taste of Smithfield
We enjoyed a delicious dinner!
Back at home, Tom got a new T-shirt for Father’s Day, and we got a new flag to replace ours that got a little battered in the wind recently.
As our first month wound down, we moved sites so that we could add a few more days to the end of our stay, getting us through the holiday weekend. Our new site was across the loop from our first site, out in the full sun rather than under the trees. It means we don’t have any shade, but it’s also much cleaner, for both the RV and Casey!
Nicolas had to spend his birthday and Father’s Day at sea, but the time passed pretty quickly and before we knew it, he was calling to tell us that he was back at the pier! He didn’t get much time off that first week back, but we did manage to have a birthday dinner for him one night, and enjoyed a beautiful evening at a baseball game in downtown Norfolk with Nick and one of his friends, Cameron.
It was a great night for baseball!
It was nice to have him home again!
Summer had definitely arrived, as the temperatures that week rose well into the 90s every afternoon! Our air conditioners were getting a workout, and we discovered that the middle A/C was not working at all – it would try to start several times, but eventually just shut down. Luckily, we had two others, and we never run more than 2 at one time anyway. One afternoon there was a local RV Repairman in the park, so he stopped to take a look and determined that our start capacitor on that unit was burned up. Tom called around a few places, and found a shop to order a new part for us from Dometic. It arrived a week later, and Tom replaced it – now we have three working A/C’s again!
They were waffle cones in the shape of a taco shell, filled with strawberries and topped with whipped cream and candy sprinkles. YUM!
