Day 3 and coming home

On the morning of the third day with my new CS, we awoke from a great nights sleep at our B&B in Cape Charles, Va. to a beautiful, if chilly, morning.

After cleaning up, we headed downstairs to another great breakfast - we're really liking both B's of this B&B thing! - and some interesting information about the town as provided by our hosts.

Once we had finished breakfast, we decided to walk a bit of it off by taking a stroll around the town to see the sights in daylight. Cape Charles is an old railroad town, about 10 blocks square with a central park area in the middle, a business district on one end, and a very nice beach on the west side of town along the Chesapeake Bay. We discovered, by way of some educational signage at the beach, that Cape Charles had been the impact point of a large meteor several tens of millions of years ago, which had created the fifth (I believe) largest impact crater known on the planet. Among the modern day relics of this crater is the Chesapeake Bay. Very interesting, and we were sure glad that impact happened long before we showed up!

After about an hour of walking and seeing much of the town, it was time to get back, pack up, and hit the road for the last leg of our trip home to Raleigh. The first big thing we came to, after only about 15 miles, was the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. For those of you who have never been over this, it is an amazing 13 miles of three sections of bridge and two mile-long tunnels which crosses the Bay. As a civil engineer (read: geek) it has always impressed me and the scenery most of the way across is really quite beautiful.

Once over the bridge, you are in the Norfolk metropolitan area, and the traffic becomes quite bad. My plan was to head around the east side of town and then south to Route 17. I've never been that way before, and it rapidly became obvious this was NOT the quick way around Norfolk! In point of fact, it was something of suburban hell, with strip malls and traffic lights every 1/4 mile or so. On the plus side, it got me familiar with operating the car in stop-and-go traffic. While the clutch was still heavy, and there was some concentration involved to drive smoothly and without stalling, I was rather impressed with the tractability of the engine and just how smooth car is in around town driving. There's that word for the Cayman again - SMOOTH!!!

We finally made it to Route 17 and then proceeded to head south and west into North Carolina. Along the way, we made several side trips do some drive-by exploration of Elizabeth City, Hertford, and Edenton, NC. All three are cool old towns with waterfronts (river or sound) and are something of a trip back in time. We pretty much drove right through Elizabeth City as we were still somewhat "hung over" from our experience in Norfolk and felt like we needed to make a little time.

Soon, though, we had slowed up a bit and tried to get into the Down East mosey rythmn. We stopped along Main Street in Hertford and found a neat looking deli for lunch. I had an excellent grilled pesto shrimp pita and my wife had a quite tasty egg salad sandwich. I think the whole lunch cost about $10 with drinks - yep, a trip back in time all right!

After Hertford, the next stop was Edenton. I had not been there in many years, if ever, and my wife had never been to her recollection either. It is a simply beautiful town with great old houses along the water and lots of history. We toured a historic home on the waterfront, walked through the park a bit, and did a driving tour of some of the old houses and historic sights. Mental note: We'll have to come back some weekend, stay in a B&B, and soak some more of Edenton in!

On the road again, we somewhat reluctantly got back on 17 and took that until we reached Highway 64, which would lead us directly back to Raleigh. It's a somewhat boring road, but it was the first road I'd seen all weekend with a 70 mph speed limit and it was time to open the Cayman up a bit! I'll admit I was a bit chicken, as we'd seen more than our share of law enforcement over the last few days, but I did see 80 a few times, and once again SMOOTH was the word. The feeling of control at speed in this car is hard to put into words. It puts a smile on my face though, that much I do know!

I do have a funny story to share before I finish this up. While cruising about 80, we came up to a pack of cars in the right-hand lane going a bit slower. I moved to the left and proceeded on my way without slowing up. As we passed the line (about 6 cars), I saw the second car in line was a Corvette. Once past the line, I slid back into the right lane in front of them. I then looked at my wife and said: "Wait for it..."

1...2...3...4...VROOOMMMM!!! I was rewarded, as I had completely expected, with the sound of a big bore V-8 at full song as it blew by us on the left! The driver went up ahead a bit and then let off the gas and let us catch up. (I hadn't varied my speed.) As we drew side by side, I saw it was a couple in their mid-60's, perhaps, and they both gave us a big thumbs up and smiles and then goosed the gas one more time and took the next exit. That was kind of fun, and really the first outside acknowledgement of how cool my new car is from anyone along the trip. It put a nice cap on the drive and soon enough we were pulling into the driveway of my CS's new home. It seemed to take an immediate liking to it's new surroundings, and though I'm still amazed every time I walk out to the car it is mine, it sure does feel right to get into it and drive away!

Well, thanks to everybody who has spent the time to read my rambling account of my first Porsche experience. I hope it was somewhat entertaining, and maybe even a little informative. It remains to be seen if I'll keep this blogging thing up, but I've enjoyed it so far. Like life with my Cayman S, I'm thinking the best is yet to come!

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