Story 21: Being given our marching orders by the military

A combination of busy weekends and a lingering cold have been keeping me off my bike, but those are poor excuses for the absence of blog posts as there are still plenty of wee stories from the saddle to tell.

My last post referred to us being ordered off a military base while we were in the States. Now, that might have been a slight exaggeration...but we were stopped, searched, ID'd and told we could go no further on our bikes! 

Alex had read that there was an old lighthouse nearby, called Fort Story, that was worth a visit and we'd figured it wouldn't take us long to cycle there from our hotel. Sure enough, after a pleasant jaunt along the boardwalk and then on through the leafy suburbs of Virginia Beach, we arrived at a big set of gates on the road beside a sign saying 'Fort Story'  However, instead of being met at the gates by your local friendly guardian of  the lighthouse, we were met by your local not-quite-so-friendly gun-carrying guardians of a military base! Had we examined the guide book and map a wee bit closer, we would've realised that Fort Story is the name of the base, and not the lighthouse contained within its grounds. Undeterred, we pedaled to a halt at the gatehouse and smiled at the two soldiers walking towards us. For a tense few moments we thought we were going to be turned back but - after a bit of negotiation, close scrutiny of our ID (which, luckily, we carried with us everywhere) and the securing of our bikes to a lamp post outside the entrance - we were allowed to pass through. We had to leave our bikes behind as cyclists were only allowed on the base if they had a helmet on. 

There was, of course, a list of conditions attached to our permission to enter: don't step off the road, don't approach anyone, don't go past the fire station and, of course, don't dare take photographs or videos until you reach the lighthouse...



The most exciting thing we saw on the walk through the base was, em, well, nothing really. A few buildings and an empty road. That was it really. So, we passed the time by concocting all sorts of crazy scenarios about what might happen if we dared to step off the road, or if we were spotted filming, or if we said the word 'b--b'. It was all a bit of an anti-climax when we finally - and uneventfully - reached the lighthouse.

Is that it...?!

There was a nice view from the top, especially of that busy, busy road that we'd walked along. Good job we didn't cycle along there without a helmet on, eh...?!

Since there wasn't much else to do, we wandered back along the road and out of the base. I was really happy when we were back on civilian soil, and even happier to be back on my bike. And, as you can see, it looks like we weren't the only folk that day who'd been given their marching orders by the military!