As was forecast it started raining shortly after dawn and rained in various degrees of heaviness most of the day. Visibility was significantly reduced at times but there were not as many trucks as I had feared. I didn’t leave Janes Island until afternoon and I arrived here shortly after three. There was a temporary lull in the rain so I was able to connect everything without getting too wet. I will need to replenish the fresh water tank before I leave but I was able to dump all the waste water.
I do not know what the area looks like, tomorrow I will go out walking weather permitting to check in at the office and of course photography. I have talked to one other camper out walking their dog - who gave every indication he would have rather been inside - but it started raining again and I have been inside most of the time working on the images for Prince William Forest Park. I have finished the scanning which is really the most boring part, now I have to working on the color restoration and identification parts which is a little more time consuming at least it is a little more interesting. I did talk to the Interpretation gal at Janes Island and there is perhaps an opportunity of coming down and doing their images and receive a free camping spot while I do it. That sounds fair to me, I will even do the normal camp hosting for them at the same time.

2002-20-29-It rained continually until close to midnight and stopped un till noon. I went out walking early in the morning and while there was no sun I was able to take some pictures. The state park was the terminus for the ferry crossing the mouth of Chesapeake Bay until 1964 when the bridge was opened and the ferry was no longer needed. A number of concrete ships built during WW II, from the looks of them they were floating antiaircraft vessels, were acquired by the ferry company, sunk and then filled with additional rock and concrete to keep them in place and these served as breakwaters for the ferries Even though they are in the Chesapeake Bay it is apparent they do get hit by heavy seas once in a while. I can see the start of the Chesapeake Bay and Tunnel about four miles away which actually was built in the ocean. The ocean waves just roll under the bridge with not much to stop them until they hit the Virginia mainland or in this case the concrete ships.
There is quite a large fishing pier which did have a few brave souls this morning but nothing much being kept. Flounder must be eighteen inches long and most of these were just shy of that and had to be returned.

It started a light mist on the way back and I ducked back over the bird watching trail, didn’t see any birds, they had more brains than this bird brain I suspect. Shortly after returning to Tiny it started come down hard and has been raining most of the afternoon. It is supposed to clear up tomorrow so maybe I can get some more hiking in. I sure can use the exercise.
I did get a fair amount of work on the images completed - not that there isn’t plenty left - so I feel better about that. I suspect I will do what I did last night, that is sleep for a few hours after dinner and then work most of the night. Sounds crazy I know but I do get a lot done that way without straining my poor old eyes.
A number of RVs left because of the lousy weather leaving only two or three other than myself. I can’t say that I am lonely, I almost prefer it that way. I was thinking about driving fifteen miles up Route 13 to have dinner at “Little Italy” where Mimi and I ate several years ago. As I remember it, the food was very good but I think I am too lazy to unplug Tiny and head up there. I will just have to suffer with my stale crackers and lukewarm water. If I am going to eat by myself I might as well suffer with dignity.

2002-10-30-It rained all last night and I discovered a new leak. I think it is leaking where the solar panel was attached by Camping World - not the only thing they have messed up - and if so it should be easy to caulk, of course I will have to wait until I get home as I have no way to get up on the roof. In the meantime I have a towel catching it so it doesn’t spread around in the closet. Of course I have been using the time working on the computer updating homepages and the new trips. Naturally when I finish that it will be back to the images which never seems to end.
There are only four RVs left in the park so it is very peaceful and quiet. I do not think ab out Halloween pranksters here even though the school bus does come to the park to pick up the children of the rangers.
I have noticed that what rain is still falling seems to be coming in at a different angle so maybe that means the center of the storm has passed by. The radio weather forecast seems to indicate that it will clear up this evening so I have hope. Of course in the meantime I can just take it easy. The one leak is a constant drip and I have to wring out the towel I am using to collect the rain water before it goes some place even less desirable like underneath the clothing.

The wind has gradually been picking up so it just might get a bit rocky this evening. Gusts of 40-50 are expected. Tiny is facing into the wind so I will not be bothered that much. My eyes are bothering me from digitizing so I think I will call it quits and maybe watch a DVD or something. 2002-10-31-The rain has lifted but it is chilly, when I do my Druid dance this evening I am apt to freeze an appendage of mine off. The temperature is today and supposed to drop close to freezing, it should keep the trick or treaters down however. I am not concerned with them here of course.
I have been busting my hump working on the digitizing and I think I have finished the editing portion of this conversion. There is still much to do, the labeling and relocating is very painstaking but doesn’t require that much computer work. My shoulder is aching somewhat with all the mouse movement. My wrist doesn’t hurt however which is good news. The weather forecast for tomorrow is sun so I will probably take pictures in the afternoon and drive to Cambridge and spend the night at WalMart there. It is an easy drive home from there, probably about two hours. I do not want to drive in Friday night traffic in the D.C. area.

2002-11-01 - I woke up this morning to a weird glow coming in from the ocean side of the peninsula, discovered later this`was caused by some strange phenomena called sunrise. It has been such a long time since I had seen it I had forgotten what it was. However, It was much too early to go outside - it was chilly - so it was a good time to drink coffee and read for a while. I putzed with the computer for a while and did some cleaning and rearranging in preparation for leaving sometime today.
The wind picked up and Tiny was moving around a little bit. I hadn’t put down the jacks to steady her as with just me inside and just sitting in front of the computer Tiny doesn’t move that much anyway. Being here at the site where there was complete hookups enabled to clean out the tanks pretty much which of course is part of the preparation required for winterization. I do not want to through with the business of replacing the pipes and the valves as I had to that one memorable year.It is expensive and usually results in getting a good portion of the carpet wet requiring that I take out the bedding and run heaters for a while so it doesn't mildew. One of these days the wood under the carpet might rot and that would be the end of it I fear.

About 1000 I and trusty camera went out hiking. I headed for the northern end of the park and beach; I was delighted to see just how much of the original growth of trees has been saved, many of the sites are completely covered overhead which would assist significantly during the heat of the summer. I think all sites have water, there are more than enough faucets to be seen in the camping area and surrounding it. There are cable connections at some of the sites, I didn’t avail myself of that as I had the DVD player with me. I guess it is easier to hook up to cable than it is to align a satellite dish or maybe even aim an antenna. I know the people across from me were most unhappy with the channels available, things are rough.

There were a large number of sea birds, at least two varieties of pelicans, and four of sea gulls. There was a small shark, two foot long, almost stranded on the beach and I pushed him out into deeper water. How he got into such shallow water is beyond me. Had I not helped him he would have been left high and dry by the receding tide. I followed the beach down to the cloistered area where there are a few species that are on the endangered list and making that area off limits. I wasn’t all together surprised that Virginia requires a salt water fishing license there in the bay. While a license isn’t required on the fishing pier, they do charge a daily fee so they get you one way or another. I do not recall having a license to fish in the surf, maybe I had best check that out. Going back up one of the walkways I noticed that there were many more varieties of birds and colorful one at that, than I have seen many other places. I took some pictures when I could. Naturally the birds do not stand still and pose so it can be a challenge with an auto-focus camera that is just a little bit slow. Once off the beach I noticed I was in a bird banding area and that there were nets all over the place.

There were quite a few small birds entangled waiting to be freed and then banded and what ever else they do during bird banding. I talked with a few that walked along taking these birds out of the net. They stated they checked all the nets every thirty minutes and that the birds were not hurt by the experience but I was watching them close to an hour before the people showed up. None of the birds seemed hurt however so I guess it isn’t totally inhuman. I originally planed on leaving about 1500 and spending the night in the Cambridge area at Walmark but I left at 1300 and made much better time than I anticipated. I reached the Chesapeake Bridge before 1700 and was home a little over an hour later despite the rush hour traffic. I didn’t even unload everything, just the computer and camera and crashed for the evening. It was a great week, the weather could have been better but at least it allowed me to get a lot of work accomplished which I otherwise wouldn’t have.Time though however to return to reality.