Dismal Swamp and First Landing State Park

Memorial Day we planned to meet our cousin, Vickie, but not until about 2 pm.  So we decided to see the Dismal Swamp which was sort of on the way to Virginia Beach, VA.

The entrance to the park was in the same parking lot as the rest stop on the highway.

To enter the park we had to cross this bridge.  It was both a draw bridge and swing bridge. 

A boat needed to pass thru.  You can see the center of the bridge swings to the side & the ends draw up.

Here is an up close view.

Here is the boat that passed thru. 

We looked around in the Dismal Swamp visitor center.  We learned that the canal was dug by slaves.  The owners got paid for the use of their slaves.  The slaves lived in horrible conditions during the 2 years it took to clear this part of the waterway.  We were told that if we took the 3 mile walking path to be sure to search our bodies carefully for ticks.  I did not want to deal with that so we stayed on the "Boardwalk".

The underbrush was thick.  We were told that is how it got the name of "Dismal".

The whole walk looked pretty much like this.

There were zillions of dragon flies.  Tic got this close up of one.

We also saw this skank.  It had a red head.  Looks like the tail got broken off.

When we got back to the bridge to leave, the bridge was open to let several boats thru.  The above picture shows 3 boats.  The sail boat in the foreground docked at the rest area dock.
Then we looked the other way and saw the 3 boats below.

This was 2 catamarans and a mono-hull between them. 

This was the last catamaran.  It is a 44 ft boat with a wind generator.  On open water, imagine the amount of energy that can be generated by the wind.  All boats are required to motor out to the ocean.

You can see 2 mono-hulls parked at the rest area dock and the last catamaran did also.  I visited with the family on the middle mono-hull.  They had 2 children, 4 yr old boy & 2 yr old girl.  There was a 6 yr old boy with them also that had come from the catamaran.  The 2 families on the 2 boats were traveling together for a few days. The family I visited with had been on the sea for 7 mos. and was in the process of returning to their home in Boston. He said he was going to have to work for about 1.5 years before they could hit the seas for an extended period again.  I would rather be traveling on land.

Now on to visit with Vickie.  We walked around the country side around their house, then decided to go the "First Landing State Park".

 We were greeted by grey squirrels everywhere.  

Vickie led us on a tour of the park.  This was a short dock.

 Vickie and I bonded a couple of summers ago when we took a long ride on a 4 wheeler out across the country side in Wyoming at Tic's sister's place.  She is so tiny, she makes me look like a big girl.

The swamps at this park did not look so "dismal". Actually pretty in its own way.

The 2 pictures above are at different ponds.  Vickie is a naturalist so taught us about eating several different plants in the forest as we walked along.

We came across a small area dedicated to the Chesapeake Indian tribe that spoke Algonquian. 

See the sign below for more about this.

This sign was at an area where Indian remains were moved to.  We left the park and had dinner at a true Mediterranean restaurant.  The food was delicious, but we did not think to take pictures.  We took Vickie home after that and then headed home ourselves.  It was about 9 pm by the time we got home. It was a wonderful day.