Royalty Tours USA

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Royalty takes a scenic ride down to Norfolk, Virginia!


Me, the King and Bob Kelly
 On Saturday morning I rented a car for the weekend from Avis.

I proceeded to drive to Astoria to pick up the King and off we went to Norfolk.

The first time we did this ride there was back in March 2006.

I remember what a beautiful ride it was. Now we got the opportunity to do it again. So we took advantage.

As for the journey, we drove down through Delaware on US 13 which goes through a few small towns along the way.

In addition, we passed through Salisbury, Maryland which is the home of the Delmarva Shorebirds, the Single A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles in the South Atlantic League.

In order to handle this ride you need to pack your patience. US 13 is a long tedious road with lots of traffic lights and fluctuating speed limits with breathtaking scenery.

We allowed a lot of time knowing what to expect. The best part of the ride is the 20 mile stretch as you get close to Norfolk.

I'm talking about the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel which consists of two bridges and two tunnels. It's quite a structure. We enjoyed our joy ride which culminated in meeting up with my friend Bob Kelly who lives in Virginia Beach which is right after you get off the Bridge-Tunnel.

In December we saw Bob by surprise on our flight to Cincinnati. He was returning home from a business trip. I told him we were going to Norfolk in March. He said we'll hook up.

As it got close, I contacted him and we made it happen.

We wound up driving 380 miles to get there but meeting up with Bob made it all worth it.

We decided to get a quick meal at Wendy's before we went into downtown Norfolk to go to the Scope which is the arena where the Norfolk Admirals of the American Hockey League play.

On this night we saw the Admirals host the Albany Devils.

We "scoped" out the building before the game and we found some nice center ice seats in the upper level to sit in which gave a great elevated view of the action.

Since the King and I were there in 2006, they have upgraded the seating area with new comfortable cushioned seats. They made an older venue better by doing so.

The Scope has been around for 40 years now. It opened back in 1971. It's a unique looking structure and there's a parking garage attached underneath it.

Back in the day, the Virginia Squires of the ABA with Julius Erving aka Dr. J used to play there. I can imagine how great it was back then to see him play in person there. It's a nice intimate bowl that holds 12,600 people.

As for the game we saw, the Admirals fell behind 3-0 but they came back to tie the score as the goals came fast and furiously in this seesaw battle.

It turned out to be an action packed match. The game went into overtime and finished in a shootout.

The Devils scored the first and only goal of the five round shootout as they outlasted the Admirals, 6-5!

Bob Kelly who joined the King and I had a blast. So did we.

We look forward to seeing each other again during the baseball season at Citi Field.

After the game, we parted ways. The King and I went towards Washington D.C. We stayed in Fredericksburg, Virginia which is 55 miles from our Nation's Capitol.

Stay tuned as I recap our visit there in a special post.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman

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