Kayaks on the shore of Janes Island The wind. Janes Island is all about the wind. When it blows, it often blows hard. Not great for kayaking, but it does keep the bugs at bay. We arrived on a blustery day and, as it happened, we left on a blustery day. The difference was that we planned to cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel the same day we left, so we wanted those winds to die down. Luckily they did, and we pulled into the Newport News Park Campground just after noon on Friday, April 30th . With a plan to stay the weekend, we looked forward to reconnecting with some friends in the area before heading to Pocahontas for the month of May.
Dave turning over the soil in the office flower bed Host Work
While the park’s campground was mostly full on weekends, the rest of the week the traffic was pretty light. That gave us time to take on a few other tasks. On Earth Day, the plan was to revitalize a flower bed in front of the office with some native plants. However, when a storm rolled through around the scheduled time (yes, more wind), the plan was delayed a couple of days. When the weather cooperated, we helped turn over the soil and plant black-eyed susans, goldenrod, blue-flag iris, and a few other perennials that would bloom throughout the summer and fall – hopefully for several years to come.
While the park’s campground was mostly full on weekends, the rest of the week the traffic was pretty light. That gave us time to take on a few other tasks. On Earth Day, the plan was to revitalize a flower bed in front of the office with some native plants. However, when a storm rolled through around the scheduled time (yes, more wind), the plan was delayed a couple of days. When the weather cooperated, we helped turn over the soil and plant black-eyed susans, goldenrod, blue-flag iris, and a few other perennials that would bloom throughout the summer and fall – hopefully for several years to come.
Cathy routs out letters on a park sign “Would you be interested in making some signs for us?” Assistant Park Manager Brent asked us as we were entering our last week at the park. Sure. The state park standard was to have wooden signs with letters routed out. There were standard sizes, stencils for each size, a router and the necessary bits to make the signs. Using some simple software to plan the sign, we created printouts for each sign as requested and got to work. However, we wanted to start with a sign the need for which had come to our attention while watching some campers enter our loop.
Our RV sandwiched into the host spot With our RV’s location at the entrance to Campround C, we routinely observed campers stop longer than necessary, confused as to which way to turn. The sign post gave no indication which campsites were accessible in each direction. This was driven home when a first time RV’er drove her small camper the wrong way into a pull-through site. She was now “stuck” since she couldn’t maneuver her RV around the sharp left turn exiting her site via the entrance turning the correct way onto the one-way road. (A ranger ended us stopping traffic on this road to allow her to turn around.) We knew that a couple of signs with the site numbers and arrows would solve this problem. So, we used this as a test case. We, of course made an unrecoverable mistake on the first one, but learned quickly and managed to get the rest of them done in a couple days. We had a few challenges. Any letter that has an interior “hole” (eg. A, B, D, etc.) must be done in 2 steps. For unfathomable reasons, this included the G. However, the 2nd stencil piece of the G was missing. We managed to improvise this and the missing “-”. The park was pleased with our results, but we ran out of time to round the corners and stain the signs. Hopefully, a future host will find time to do this.
The magic number We finished up the light inventory that would be part of the park’s International Dark Sky certification. However, there was one critical step that needed to be done to determine if it was even worth proceeding with all the work to get certified. There is a measure of how dark the sky is that can be quantified with a device that you simply point at the night sky. (For those who care, it is the visual-band zenith luminance, measured in magnitudes per arc-second.) For the park certification, the number must be 21.2 or greater, measured over several months. If you’re not close, nothing the park does would make a significant difference in increasing the number.
Using a device loaned from another park, we took on the task to take an initial measurement. Unfortunately, the device arrived only a few days before a full moon. When we went out after astronomical twilight (i.e., when the effect of the sun is no longer felt), we kicked ourselves because a nearly full moon was up. We retreated to the RV to look up when we could get a sky that was not lit by the sun or the moon. That would occur between about 20 minutes after moonset and about 2 hours before sunrise. When would that be? Between 4:39am and 4:41am the next morning. After that it wouldn’t happen until after the full moon and our departure. So, we set our alarm for 4:15 the next morning, and then dragged ourselves out of bed.
The moonset, which we had never seen before, was beautiful. An orange globe susupended on the horizon in a dark sky. When we reached the magic time, we succeeded in getting the magic number. After passing on the good news, we crawled back into bed. We are not early risers.
Using a device loaned from another park, we took on the task to take an initial measurement. Unfortunately, the device arrived only a few days before a full moon. When we went out after astronomical twilight (i.e., when the effect of the sun is no longer felt), we kicked ourselves because a nearly full moon was up. We retreated to the RV to look up when we could get a sky that was not lit by the sun or the moon. That would occur between about 20 minutes after moonset and about 2 hours before sunrise. When would that be? Between 4:39am and 4:41am the next morning. After that it wouldn’t happen until after the full moon and our departure. So, we set our alarm for 4:15 the next morning, and then dragged ourselves out of bed.
The moonset, which we had never seen before, was beautiful. An orange globe susupended on the horizon in a dark sky. When we reached the magic time, we succeeded in getting the magic number. After passing on the good news, we crawled back into bed. We are not early risers.
Slice of Smith Island cake - Maryland's state dessert Cakes and Kayaks
Did you know that Maryland has a state dessert? It is the Smith Island cake. Smith Island is located just off shore of the Janes Island State Park. The last time we came to the area (15 years ago on Orion), we had first sampled this 7-layer cake, and were looking forward to refreshing our memory with a new sampling. After exploring the commercial establishments in Crisfield, we spoke to some of the park staff who put us in touch with a Smith Islander who worked at the park as a seasonal employee. She was working her other job, but we connected and had her make a delicious original Smith Island cake. To avoid consuming the whole thing in one sitting, we shared it with the park employees and hosts at the season opening potluck.
Did you know that Maryland has a state dessert? It is the Smith Island cake. Smith Island is located just off shore of the Janes Island State Park. The last time we came to the area (15 years ago on Orion), we had first sampled this 7-layer cake, and were looking forward to refreshing our memory with a new sampling. After exploring the commercial establishments in Crisfield, we spoke to some of the park staff who put us in touch with a Smith Islander who worked at the park as a seasonal employee. She was working her other job, but we connected and had her make a delicious original Smith Island cake. To avoid consuming the whole thing in one sitting, we shared it with the park employees and hosts at the season opening potluck.
Mark paddling a kayak next to ours at Janes Island Over the course of the month, Mark had offered to take us kayaking over to Janes Island, but inevitably the wind kicked up and we had to postpone. Finally, just a few days before we were to head out, Mother Nature cooperated. We paddled to the beach on Janes Island, visited a primitive camp site, and watched as the sun began to set. The beach was deserted, and the bay was calm and peaceful. We can see why this is such a big reason why visitors return to the park.
Ship crossing over the tunnel as we prepare to enter Parting Shot
The night before we headed out for Hampton Roads, Cathy woke to the RV shaking from the high winds in the park. Checking the Windy app forecast, to ensure we still had a window to cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, it appeared the winds would die down around 10 and pick up again around 3. Leaving around 8:30, we started across the bridge-tunnel around 11. The bay had waves (not just white caps) breaking on its northwest side. But the winds were down to 17mph, so we once again had an uneventful crossing.
After wading through the 5-mile back up on the HRBT, we made our way to Newport News Park Campground. Luckily we arrived ahead of the crowd, since our site was pretty narrow. We had to park so far forward in the site so that our slide could fully deploy, that we had no room on the site for the truck. However, the ranger was very helpful, allowing us to park the truck on a nearby site that was not being rented due to Covid. We then had time for a bike ride to explore the park, and a fish and chips dinner from a nearby restaurant. Tomorrow we planned to join Steve and Linda for the Blessing of the Fleet, that is if the wind died down.
It’s all about the wind.
The night before we headed out for Hampton Roads, Cathy woke to the RV shaking from the high winds in the park. Checking the Windy app forecast, to ensure we still had a window to cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, it appeared the winds would die down around 10 and pick up again around 3. Leaving around 8:30, we started across the bridge-tunnel around 11. The bay had waves (not just white caps) breaking on its northwest side. But the winds were down to 17mph, so we once again had an uneventful crossing.
After wading through the 5-mile back up on the HRBT, we made our way to Newport News Park Campground. Luckily we arrived ahead of the crowd, since our site was pretty narrow. We had to park so far forward in the site so that our slide could fully deploy, that we had no room on the site for the truck. However, the ranger was very helpful, allowing us to park the truck on a nearby site that was not being rented due to Covid. We then had time for a bike ride to explore the park, and a fish and chips dinner from a nearby restaurant. Tomorrow we planned to join Steve and Linda for the Blessing of the Fleet, that is if the wind died down.
It’s all about the wind.
