Dismal Swamp Day
We spent today on the Dismal Swamp Canal - a beautiful ride, despite its unfortunate name. George Washington and some of his business partners owned the land and wanted to farm it, so they had their slaves dig a long canal to drain the land in the 1700's. The slaves probably named it. Imagine the labor, to dig a river 10 feet deep and 80+ feet wide, for 22 miles. In the civil war time it was a route for the underground railroad. The great grandchildren of those who built it used it to go north. Today it is a state park and has a "lock" on each end for boats to enter the riverway. This was our first experience with locking through. Not so hard - it clusters you up with a group of boats and you pretty much go down the canal at the same speed. Slow.
After all that tranquility and greenery (it looks a lot like the Fox River in Wisconsin) you all of a sudden emerge into the port of Portsmouth/Norfolk. It felt like driving your covered wagon onto a giant freeway at rush hour. So much industrial, construction and military activity. And its all coming from different directions. However, the waterways still have those same little red triangles and green squares as their only signage - but they don't put out very many of them in all this mayhem. Time for a break.
We are expecting stormy weather tonite and it is getting very windy, so we tucked into a nice marina and are planning to stay until the weather looks more cooperative. This is one of those times when plans are just going to step aside for reality.
The photos below show the scenery we ride through, and the trailer park marina and the chart for a waterway we were just on - and oh yes, the diesel truck. Too bad for that guy
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