20 May  Two Ferries Fiasco

Departed  9:08 a.m. from Shoney’s at 5668 Indian River Rd., just south of I-64 (Indian River Exit) in Virginia Beach. Of the six on the ride only two did not have breakfast at Shoney's. 

We took two free ferries in the area that was fun to ride on and to, especially since there are some nice two lanes leading to them. But, doing both on one day was a trick requiring good timing and routing.  The main problem was the Currituck-Knotts Island Ferry only runs every two hours (from a given side).  Thus, the departure time from Shoney’s on Indian River Rd was designed to make the 10:00 am crossing.  Unlike some ferries that can go in either direction this ferry actually had a front and a rear so it was backing out of the Knotts Landing port and turning around in a head wind.  We hit the pilings several times while it turned around.  Good thing they told us to standby our bikes while near the dock.  After this ferry, we took several back roads to work west and around the Great Dismal Swamp, ending up in old towne Suffolk for lunch.  We took the “usual” route up 32 to 10, past Smithfield, and to the Scotland-Jamestown Ferry via Chippokes Plantation State Park. After the final ferry we took the Colonial Parkway to Route 199 and then to US-60.  We lost a few south-siders before the push north.  The one Peninsula rider dropped off just before the Newport News Airport while the south side group took the James River Bridge back to Portsmouth/Chesapeake/Norfolk/Virginia Beach.  Things don't always work out as planned and a traffic accident forced them back across the James and I-64 to home.  Distance traveled ran from 199 miles to 210 miles depending on where home was.   There was some wind but lots of sun.  Overall it was a great trip.

Thanks Greg for doing such a wonderful job in planning the trip.  See pictures below:

The route is shown below (Click on image for high resolution PDF):

Click on pictures for larger image.

Knotts Island Ferry	Knotts Island Ferry parking
Knotts Island Ferry Parking	More bikes
From the bow of the Knotts Island Ferry
Surry-Jamestown Ferry Parking	Surry-Jamestown Ferry