Tuesday 16th March 2010 - Crossing the Channel

          I'm staying right on US-13, called the Military Highway here in Norfolk.  I'm going up through Delaware, to cross over my earlier path near Glasgow (can't leave them alone, eh?) before heading off west.  Much to my surprise, I find the motel I stayed in last time is actually on 13, just where I want it, so Dulcie can have the day off.

          US-13 actually sweeps out across the Chesapeake Bay, in an 18-mile Bridge-Tunnel combo. 

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It's mostly a low-level tresle bridge, with two mile-long tunnels and a high(ish) bridge.  Including the approach roads, it's 23 miles long, so it's much-of-a-muchness with the tunnel between Britain and France.  I wonder how the costs compare?  This looks much cheaper, as well as being a lot easier to use.  I wonder why this solution wasn't chosen.  Could the desire for cross-border control have demanded all that extra engineering?

          I knew I wouldn't be in Delaware when I got to the other side, but I half-expected Maryland.  In fact, it's still Virginia, known as the "Eastern Shore".  When we get to Maryland, it seems to have an "Eastern Shore" as well.

          The weather remains fairly good for the whole journey, so I guess we're travelling behind all the rain the forecasts were warning us about.

 

          Later that night, feeling like a rest, I settle down to watch some TV, but the volume of advertising again starts to irritate me.  So I went down to the big cinema complex at Glasgow and watched "The Green Zone" instead.  I was hoping for something like the Bourne films, so I was rather disappointed.  I could have gone to the Digital-3D version of Alice in Wonderland instead, and I wish I had,  if only to experience the technology.