Southeast Coastal Road Trip

I was organizing my photo albums and came across last Christmas's Southeast coastal road trip, so I figured I'd write it up.

The route went from Columbus east to Baltimore, then south along the coast to Savannah, and finally north back to Columbus.

D1 Columbus-Baltimore

D2 Baltimore

Mainly came to see friends. Spent a day wandering around downtown, ate seafood, checked out Little Italy, strolled around the Inner Harbor for a long time, toured four ships. Felt pretty safe, didn't sense any issues. In the evening, went to the Christmas light show at Longwood near Philadelphia.

D3 Delaware-Virginia Beach

Originally planned to visit the Air Mobility Command Museum in the morning and drive to Virginia Beach in the afternoon to see the USS Wisconsin. But ended up spending over five hours at the ACM, having a great chat with a bunch of older gentlemen at the museum. Topics ranged from WWII to flight safety to Trump to US-China relations to Chinese history to Qin Shi Huang. By the time we left it was already past 4 PM, and by the time we got to Virginia Beach, the USS Wisconsin had closed ages ago. Guess it'll have to be next time.

Back to the ACM—it's a really great museum. Not too many planes indoors, just about a dozen, but they're quite significant. There's a C47 that participated in the Normandy airborne drops and Operation Market Garden, and you can even go inside the cabin and cockpit. There's also a B17 where you can see the specific mechanical structure of the ball turret. The old gentleman even pointed out a small hole on the turret to me: "You see, they had very little space inside and stayed in there for a long time, couldn't come out to use the bathroom, so they'd pee out through this hole."

1000-pound bomb

Outdoors is bigger—C19, C130, C5, CK10 and such are all there, and a few you can go inside the cabin to tour. The gentleman introducing the C5 turned out to be a mechanic for that very C5 in the 1980s. Very talkative, and he recommended I come back in spring for the open cockpit event, where you can sit in the pilot's seat. Of course I very happily flaked on that.

Not sure why this rat looks like it has a kamikaze crew vibe.

D4 Virginia Beach, Norfolk - Outer Banks

The USS Wisconsin was closed that day, so couldn't tour it. Instead went to the Mariners' Museum and Park in Norfolk. Admission was $1, spent the morning looking at ships and ship models.

In the afternoon, went to Cape Henry to see the lighthouse. Didn't expect it to be part of a military base—had to surrender my ID to get in and pick it up on the way out. Nothing particularly special besides the lighthouse, though you could see a lot of military families. Had nothing better to do, so bought a lighthouse passport and started collecting stamps for fun.

There's also a small shop—the soldiers' clothing material didn't feel great to the touch, and it was pretty expensive.

In the evening, wandered around the beach at Virginia Beach.

Finally left before freezing to death at night, drove to the Outer Banks in North Carolina.

D5 Outer Banks

The Outer Banks is a chain of islands in North Carolina. Seems busier in summer, not many people in winter. I just wanted to ride the ferry, which is why I chose this route. Most of the islands are connected by roads, but two segments require ferries: from Hatteras Island to Ocracoke, and from Ocracoke to Cedar Island (the mainland part). The first segment is free, just queue up; the second requires a ticket, available online for $15.

Morning was alternating between moderate rain and overcast. So didn't visit the Wright Brothers NM on the island. There are also some lighthouses, but several were under repair and couldn't be climbed, only viewed from afar.

By the time we got on the first ferry in the afternoon, it finally stopped raining, but still overcast.

When leaving Ocracoke and queuing for the second ferry, the weather finally started to clear up.

Saw a beautiful sunset over the sea.

D6 Wilmington to see the North Carolina

At the time I was watching The Pacific, especially obsessed with the Guadalcanal part, so I made a special trip to see it. Very well preserved, the Bofors on deck are still operable. The interior tour covers nine decks up and down, from the engine room and radio room to the sailors' living quarters, mess hall, barber shop, laundry, etc.—all visible, very interesting. But the most impressive was the ammunition magazine, with 406 high-explosive shells arranged in circles filling several levels.

There's also a machine shop, and the handwheels on the lathes still turn haha...

The 406 looks much bigger than I imagined... The blue ones are training rounds, only the yellow-tipped ones are live high-explosive.

Most decorated BB.

D7-D8 Charleston

Can't write anymore, will continue when I have time.