Today the real trip begins, as we start dancing with bridges and barges, locks and shallows. We made it through the Gilmerton Bridge without trouble though the additional time restrictions resulted in a pileup of about 20 boats or so. There were the usual mega-yacht irritations as they pushed their way to the front of the pack, but the bridge finally opened and we quickly turned away from the hoards for the quiet of the Dismal Swamp. KK had never been down that route so they were especially enjoying the new adventure. The Deep Creek lock was jam packed, a first for us. There were 14 boats in the lock, 5 on each wall and 4 rafted in the middle. However, the lockmaster was a pro and everyone got smoothly in and out. Robert, the famous conch playing lockmaster had the day off but was there anyway. We wondered if he really lived there all the time! The Dismal was peaceful and beautiful. We had a few gentle log bumps but the overhead trees were well-trimmed and the passage was uneventful. The visitor center docks were already full when we got there, but we rafted to a sailboat named Adirondack and KK rafted to the power cat Semi-Local, owned by the cruising guide authors, Mark and Diana Doyle. As darkness fell, Jim saw a set of red and green lights headed our way so we quickly got out fenders and readied for an addition to the raft. A young man named Dan skippered her. He had bought the boat this summer in Irvington. She was currently named Soybean, but he was going to change her name to Solitude. I thought Soybean was a strangely cool name. By night’s end we had at least ten boats in the raftup.