After a quick detour north to drop off the rental car, we proceeded south on Rt 13, towards the infamous Bay Bridge Tunnel.
The Bay Bridge Tunnel connects Virginia’s Eastern Shore to Virginia Beach. It’s been about 25 years since I’ve made this crossing, which was in a 1970’s VW square back. Needless to say, there is a significant difference between crossing the Bay Bridge Tunnel in a VW versus a 40 foot motorhome. For one thing, the tunnel seems a lot smaller. Especially when a tractor trailer is going past you in the opposite direction. Unfortunately, unlike the ferry, I was too focused on the crossing and didn’t think to turn on the camera to videotape adventure. All in all it wasn’t that bad, since there was no crosswind and traffic was very light for a Wednesday.
Once we landed in Virginia Beach, we took I-64 south to168 (Chesapeake Expressway) straight to the outer banks. Crossing over the lanes of traffic to get to the exits ramps was a little tricky, but the other drivers were very hospitable and gave us plenty of room. Not sure that would have been the same case if we were traveling during rush hour.
Our next stop was in Kill Devil Hills to pick up the rental car we will be using for the next week. We always use Enterprise and this location was very convenient being only a few miles away from our next campground. Regrettably, the person being the counter at this location really needs to work on his customer service. When I walked in our dialogue went something like this:
Rep: You never confirmed your rental.
Me: Yes I did, I returned Abby’s call yesterday and told her I would be here between 12 and 3, it’s 3:30 now, sorry I got stuck in traffic.
Rep: There’s no Abby here (I later learned her name was Libby) and I called you twice today and left messages.
Me: Really? What number did you call?
Rep: xxx-xxx-xxxx, and xxx-xxx-xxxx.
Me: That’s strange, (pulling out my cell phone), I don’t show any missed calls, and if you called xxx-xxx-xxxx and left a message I would have received an email with your voicemail. Don’t have that either.
Rep: Well I did leave messages for you. You’re just lucky we still have a car for you.
Wow. I hope this isn’t a preview to our stay at the outer banks!
After picking up the car (that we were lucky to get) it was a quick few miles to OBX Campground.
Let the fun begin!