Virginia Beach (and a tornado)

Today marks the start of month five of my journey. That feels reasonably significant. Also, happy May Day and a tribute to all workers.

First, a follow-up to yesterday. As some of you may have seen in the news, a tornado hit Virginia Beach yesterday. About an hour and a half before I arrived. I should probably thank the horrible drive in the rainstorm (which likely spawned the tornado) for arriving a bit late. That is my closes call so far. I missed one in Oklahoma City by a weeks, and one near Jackson, MS by a couple of days. This one was the closest both geographically and chronologically.

Today was dry and moderate, but very windy, perhaps a remnant of the storm. I wanted to visit the Old Cape Henry Lighthouse located inside Fort Story, a working military base. It is normally open to the public but, as it happens, that is exactly where the tornado hit. Nothing happened to the lighthouse, but they were cleaning up debris and the site was closed to the public today.

So, I spent the morning hiking First Landing State Park . This is a lovely little park that contains a variety of ecological zones and is 15 minutes from an urban center. I has lots of Cyprus bogs and ospreys that nest and hunt around the lake.

I headed back to my room for a couple of hours in the afternoon, then went out to explore the Virginia Beach Boardwalk. This attraction had received much hype and is listed as the 5th best boardwalk in the country. I failed to find the appeal. It is a cement strip that parallels the beach for three miles, separating it from the row of hotels that also parallel the beach. Yes, there are some art installations and you can access the hotel restaurants and bars from the boardwalk. Past that, it is a pleasant walk, nothing particularly interesting or unique.

I did meet Alex and Brian after we all avoided a cyclist who insisted on riding on the pedestrian path. They are planning a round-the-world trip similar to my 50 state trip, so we had a lot to talk about.

Tomorrow I head to Richmond, a city where I spent a lot of time for work some years ago. But I only ever saw the inside of the building that houses the State Crime Laboratory. I am looking forward to exploring the rest of the city.