A little bit of history – prior to the construction of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, there was a ferry service between Virginia Beach and Cape Charles, and the ferry landing site on the Eastern Shore side was on the site of Kiptopeke State Park.
In the woods next to the picnic area, is this old sign for the Tourinns Motor Court, which had been located at the ferry landing.
Today, that ferry landing is a very busy boat launch . . .
full of boat trailers on a busy summer weekend!
Our last two weeks, after Nicolas’ camping trip, really went by quickly. Our days were busier, as the campground stayed more full during the week (although still not as busy as a typical state park in Michigan in July!), but luckily the new camp hosts arrived and we worked together to keep everything under control.
In just a few weeks we became good friends and enjoyed several dinners together, as well as afternoon visits and evening trips down to the pier for sunset.
Casey loves her after-dinner rides on the cart . . . and she thinks she gets to ride shotgun!
Silly doggy!
In addition to hosting, Tom spent another Saturday on the kayak rentals,
so I went down to the beach with him and after walking the beach to pick up trash, I settled in and enjoyed my book.
I sat too far back from the water though . . . it was hot, and the sand was really hot, so I didn’t want to walk across it to get to the water to cool off!
What a beautiful day!
We had many more beautiful sunsets, too!
One evening there was a helicopter flying around over the concrete ships – it looked like some kind of training exercise.
As we finish up our time here, I reflect on the experience . . .
The park is beautiful, with multiple trails for biking and hiking and a gorgeous beach for sunbathing and swimming (if you don’t mind saltwater – I’m a Great Lakes girl and prefer unsalted and shark-free!!)
The volunteer sites provided are spacious, and the three sites in the C loop are backed up to the woods, which is nice for a little privacy. I wouldn’t want to be on the primary host site in the B loop, next to the bath house – too busy for us, and would have driven Casey crazy.
The water is a little hard, and power was flaky until Tom changed our 50 amp breaker, but basically good. Laundry facilities were provided, but I used my own, except for rugs. No wifi available, but Verizon signal was good (I used my booster to make sure I always had a strong signal). No cable, but we picked up all major networks out of Norfolk. We did not try our satellite, but the new hosts moving onto our site after we left were able to use theirs.
30 hours per couple, per week, is requested and the work is easy – checking sites, maintaining a list a who’s on which site, cleaning firepits and sites after people leave, and selling firewood. Tom also did a few days of renting kayaks and some maintenance work. The work is definitely not difficult, although it tends to become a 7-day routine. The one feedback we gave is that they need to do a better job of distributing the work between the hosts and making sure that everybody gets days off – we recommended that rather than splitting the sites between 2 hosts, they just alternate days on/off. I’m not sure if they’ll make that change, but the new Assistant Park Manager (who arrived after we did) seemed to understand the issue.
Overall, it was a very enjoyable volunteer opportunity. Most of the staff was very nice and pleasant to work with, and the atmosphere was definitely laid back and relaxed. There’s a slower pace over on the Eastern Shore!
One thing to note – although there are a variety of restaurants and shops in Cape Charles (cute town!), there is just one grocery store – Food Lion (decent store, though), and the Walmart is about 30 miles north in Onley. If you want more than that, you are crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel to Virginia Beach and Norfolk, at $13 one way (although a return trip within 24 hours is just $5, IF you have an EZ-Pass).
We made several trips over to Norfolk and Suffolk to visit with Nicolas, but we knew that going into it,so we didn’t mind the tolls. In fact, we spent our last weekend in Suffolk with Nicolas, and had dinner with Bryan and Janetta and Tessa again. We said good-bye to Nick for now . . . not sure when we’ll see him next . . . maybe Christmas, but maybe not until Spring . . . it all depends on his schedule when they finally get out of the Shipyard.
It was hard to say goodbye, but it feels good to be getting back on the road! We have several stops planned on our way back to Michigan, so stay tuned!
