Fifty miles to a space launch

   Out of the rack and on my way by 8:06, fifty-one miles  with the wind at my starboard aft quarter giving me a good push almost the whole way. Stopped at Ruby Tuesdays in Pocomoke, Virginia well into the eastern shore.  I needed a hot lunch in a decent restaurant after a cool morning ride.  In my search for evening accommodations, I discovered a nice camp ground eighteen miles south of me, Tall Pines Harbor Camp Ground. Arriving before around 3:30, I checked in and set up my tent next to a couple who had done some short rides around the Eastern Shore. Once cleaned up and chilled out, I made contact with a warmshowers couple, Dave and Lee Ann about thirty miles south of me. Bruce and Sonja Nisley had stayed with them and had a great time.  Things began to ramp up at this point.  Dave mentioned a NASA rocket launch from Wallop, Va east of me at 9:15 tonight. Expressing my enthusiasm for the space program, he asked me to join him for the launch within sight of the launch pad. Then he called back asked me to join him and Lee Ann for dinner over at a funky dockside restaurant in Saxis.  They picked me up in there Tesla, the butterfly doors opened automatically to my amazement.  An incredible machine with an amazing array of high tech gadgets including autonomous driving.  The acceleration was incredible. Dave drove like he was on a formula one race track explaining along the way that the whole area was only two feet above sea level and the government was not going to save it from the rising sea. Houses along the way had been raised but county being one of the poorest in Virginia, most residents would be forced to move.  

The restaurant was a shack on the edge of a dock on a huge tidal salt water marsh. Crabbing and oysters were subsistence business covering this whole lower Chesapeake area.  Dinner was delicious and I footed the bill knowing that I was staying with them tomorrow night and that Dave would be driving over the Chesapeake bridge (twenty-one miles) the day after. Before leaving the restaurant he had his Tesla perform and animated rock tune with the lights keeping the rhythm and the butterfly doors going up  and down.  It was the most amazing  performance. I put it up on Facebook.  Next we drove to the site where we were to watch the rocket launch.  Right on the tidal marsh with a full moon lighting up the place and the tide extra high just shy of flooding out the parking lot.  The launch was spectacular about two miles way but very visible. There was a ten second sound delay and the ground shook upon its arrival.  What a display of awesome power as the rocket lifted into the sky, something I won’t forget.  

He took me back to my camp site after giving me the route I should take to their house tomorrow.  What an evening I had!