Life's a Beach

Virginia Beach, Virginia to be exact. We arrived on Sunday, May 7 for a ten day respite and visit with my old Navy roommate and his family. John Clements and I were stationed together at Navfac Adak, Alaska in 1973-74 and again at Navfac Centerville Beach, California in 1975-76. We lived next door in a duplex in Ferndale, California and went to school together at College of the Redwood to study radio and television production. I went on from radio to photography and he pursued a career in television. He is still working in that field as a Production Supervisor for CBN here in Virginia Beach hoping to retire in September. He and Ellen came over Sunday night for dinner and we got caught up on life. It was a wonderful visit and a great start to our stay in the Holiday Trav-L-Park RV campground.

The Holiday Trav-L-Park a huge resort facility with over 1000 sites with hook-ups not far from the Oceana Naval Air Station. The park has 4 large pools located throughout the campground and a miniature golf course with 18 challenging holes. Plenty of things to do nearby and close enough to the beach to ride our bikes. Our first two nights we stayed at site #531 with full hook-ups. We planned on moving to the RV park at Fort Story on Tuesday, May 9 but ran into problems with base access, so I cancelled that reservation and extended our stay at Trav-L-Park. We moved to an electric/water only site #525 in the rear of the complex. This site is huge, in the trees and remote from traffic. Our nearest neighbor is three sites away so we feel like we are in the woods almost alone.

Since Tuesday we've been seeing the local sights with John and Ellen. Wednesday they took us to the Norfolk Botanical Gardens and we enjoyed a beautiful walk and good conversation. On Thursday, May 11 Karen and I took a bike ride down General Booth Drive to the Virginia Beach boardwalk. This is a spacious walkway between the hotels and the Atlantic Ocean with designated bike lanes to travel the entire 6 miles along the oceanfront. We had lunch at one of the many restaurants then rode back to the campground. After the 12 mile excursion we both rested, read and I took a nap in my new hammock. We chilled in our campsite and enjoy a quiet setting punctuated with periodic interruptions by F-18 flights out of Oceana Naval Air Station.