Sometimes I get rather tired of people telling me, “it’s the journey, not the destination.”  For me, it’s both.  Each is important, but incomplete without the other.  They are Yin and Yang.  So this post is about some of the more interesting modes of travel that I experienced as I was travelling up the east coast, things that made me laugh or made an impression on me in some way.

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The lovely Fuller Warren suspension bridge over the St Johns River in Jacksonville, Florida was a pleasure to drive over each time I went that way.  It was both elegant and kind of exciting.

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As I was driving into Virginia Beach, I passed though the Downtown Tunnel under the Elizabeth River in Norfolk, Virginia.  On the other side, I discovered that the highway had added a “shoulder lane,” which was only open during rush hour on weekdays.  Honestly, now they’re just making stuff up.  There’s an HOV (high occupancy vehicle, or carpool) lane on the left, which is a common sight, but I’ve certainly never seen a shoulder lane before.  I get the impression that it’s an attempt to carry more traffic without actually constructing more lanes.

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Perhaps one of the most unexpected driving experiences I’ve had was the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, also known as the Lucius J Kellan Jr Bridge-Tunnel.  Somehow I had managed to look at my mapped driving route, and recognize that it went over a broad stretch of water, without actually thinking about how it was going to do that.  The Bridge-Tunnel turned out to be 23 miles (37 km) long, and included long flat bridge sections, narrow tunnels under the shipping channels, and a high trestle bridge section.  Almost before I knew it, this was my view, with the container ship in the distance about to pass through the shipping channel over the first tunnel section, although I didn’t know that at the time!  Note that having a seagull on every lamp post seems to be mandatory here.

It fairly quickly became obvious why this was called a Bridge-Tunnel though, when I was funneled into the entrance to the tunnel.  Seagull requirement continues.

As you can see, the tunnel descended to a low point under the shipping channel, and then climbed out the other side again.  The lanes were just barely wide enough for my truck, there was a wall on my right, only a line separating me from oncoming traffic (which included full semi trucks), and in spite of the speed limit being 35 mph (56 kph), at no time did it slow down to less than 55 mph (88 kph)!  I felt rather like a bullet in a rifle barrel, especially as I launched out the other side back onto the bridge.

After another long flat bridge span, there was a second tunnel very similar to the first, and then another long flat bridge section, before I saw the high trestles in the distance.  Seagulls noticeably absent.

The following picture was taken from the Bridge-Tunnel web site (www.cbbt.com), but I include it here to give you some idea of the size of this construction.  You can see where the two tunnels are quite clearly.  Simply from an engineering perspective, this was incredibly impressive, but it was exciting simply as a driving experience too.

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Continuing north from Delaware to New Jersey, I decided to take a more common means of crossing water channels, the Lewes-Cape May ferry, instead of adding hours to my trip by driving inland.  It was a cold and rainy day, but the FJ was tucked in nicely on the lower deck.  The ferry can hold 100 cars, but there was a lot of empty space on this trip.

Since we were only crossing the mouth of the Delaware River, I assumed (without going to the trouble of actually asking) that the trip would be about 20 or 30 minutes.  It was more like 1.5 hours.  The Delaware is a very big river, and very wide where it meets the ocean.

The deck chairs would probably be a great place to spend the trip on a more congenial day, but no one was game to sit out there in the cold rain on the day I crossed.

I wandered the deck for a while with my coat on and my hood up, then got a cappuccino and my Kindle, and settled into the warm enclosed lounge for the trip.  Ok, honestly, I doubt if I read one page, but ferries are a lovely place to daydream…

Out in the middle of the channel it was like being at sea, with no land visible in any direction.

I wish I had thought to get a picture of my GPS when we were in the middle of the channel.  The truck would have looked like it was driving on water.

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I stayed in New Jersey for several days with some friends, and spent one of those days in New York City.  Since I didn’t want to try to park in the city, I took the NJ Transit train to NY Penn Station.

While in NY City I walked a lot, but also made use of the excellent subway system.  It’s not pretty, but it works remarkably well.

That doesn’t really come close to covering all the interesting infrastructure I’ve come into contact with on this trip, but hopefully it’s a brief sample of a few of the more interesting parts of my trip up the east coast.  Having covered everything from narrow 4wd tracks up the sides of mountains, to 8 lane freeways (in each direction) though major cities, including gorgeous bridges, death-defying tunnels, and relaxing ferries, I have to say that driving in the US is almost always enjoyable, but still an adventure!