As strange as it may sound to many of you reading this, the concept of touring by car is a little bit foreign to us. When Ken and I lived in Toronto, we didn't own a car, and only occasionally rented one to go anywhere; we preferred public transportation. Now, however we have full use of a car, as we rented one for a month to expedite our visit North.

Going somewhere at 65 MPH as opposed to 6 MPH is something we could easily get used to. In sixteen hours we accomplished in a car what it took three weeks to do in the boat. However, we also had to pay for all of our meals, and for a place to sleep for the night. We also had to pack the clothing and whatever else we thought that we might need for the car trip. The boat is our home, so everything we need is right there with us! Meals are prepared on the boat as required, and we aren't at the mercy of really bad fast food places that we might choose by mistake (Roy Rogers is probably rolling over in his grave at the crap that his restaurants bearing his name are serving).

Driving through the New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virgina countrysides was a real eyeopener for us. We have seen quite a bit from the water, but we received quite a very different perspective from the secondary roads. There aren't a lot of mountains in the Chesapeake, after all. The mountains, rivers and trees were very picturesque, and quite different from the Rocky Mountains that we have both experienced.

Once we arrived back at the boat in Deltaville, we figured that we should take advantage of our new found mobility. We drove to Colonial Williamsburg. This is about an hour's drive from our dock, but it was very interesting, and well worth it. Williamsburg was the capital city of Virgina until part way through the American Revolution. Then, the capital was relocated to Richmond for better defense. The original portion of Williamsburg has been restored and is presented as it was in 1775, just prior to the American Revolution. It has been well done, and they have done a very good job of making it clear just how tough life was for working people. There is a great deal of emphasis on the living conditions of "Enslaved Virginians" - the term "slave" is not used at any time.

Tomorrow we head over to another marina with facilities more conducive to liveaboards. Costa and Ainsley have been very nice, but the marina we will be leaving is very much a working marina, with few amenities. With the temperatures around here, a pool will be very welcome. They have a courtesy car as well, so once the rental car is done in a couple of days, we still won't have to walk the three miles to the grocery store - and they have laundry onsite!

We are staying for another month to install the new projects that we picked up on our trip, including dinghy davits. Nothing like working in the heat and humidity, but Toronto life has prepared us for that. Sort of.