Jackson Creek, Piankatank River

Today is a hang-out day -- we spent the early morning working/puttering around the boat, then decided to take a dinghy ride into the northwestern branch of Jackson Creek -- it would be closer to the "center" of Deltaville -- we were going to out for lunch ;-)

Deltaville isn't much of a town -- it has no real "downtown" -- mostly it's a series of marine service stores, a very few "restaurants" and an occasional curio shoppe strung out along route 33, the main road in and out of the area. There is a large concentration of marinas in the area, by our count 17 -- it has become the "weekend home" for many "Richmond-ians" because of relatively easy access from that city.

The dinghy ride up the creek was pleasant enough,  like its Eastern counterpart, it is mostly lined with very nice homes on relatively large lots. We headed as far up the creek as practical (to get close to the highway) and lucked out: -- we found a small private marina (essentially a row of slips) and a nice couple who told us leaving our dinghy in the "empty" slip next to theirs for a few hours would be "no problem".

Dinghy-ride scene -- the Crepe Myrtle made this house gorgeous !

Arriving on the dock -- the dinghy is in an empty slip

On the way out of the marina, we met two other nice beings, one canine and one human. The canine, a large black Lab with a collar but no tags, greeted Sue as she came off the dock with great enthusiasm -- he seemed like he had been expecting her and was genuinely happy she had arrived! The human, a "Richmondian", was working on his outboard in a small shed that served as the Marina "office". He welcomed us as well, explaining that dog wasn't his and that, in fact, he had to stop his truck on the way down the road to the marina because it was "just standing there" -- apparently he had spent some time coaxing the dog out of the way; the dog then followed him into the marina!

Since he was a "local" (relative to ourselves), we asked him for recommendations as to where to get lunch. After hemming and hawing for a while, he finally admitted that he didn't think much of any of the local restaurants -- he did mention, however, that a new place had just opened up that he hadn't tried  (Southern Bliss Cafe) and "it might be your best bet" -- armed with this information, we set off to walk the 1.5 mile or so to find something to eat.

It was at this point that we realized our canine friend, let's call him "Midnight", had decided to escort Sue and I to the cafe. Really!! - Midnight stayed with us all the way, He would walk out in front of us, then circle around behind us, all the time sniffing out and marking territory. He had no compunctions about walking in the road, even on the busy Route 33 he was oblivious to the traffic, which invariably went out of its way to avoid him. There were a number of occasions where we even had to explain to drivers that it "wasn't our dog". Midnight also tried to enter a curio shoppe we stopped at along the way and the restaurant when we arrived -- he had clearly become "our" dog.

Jack & Midnight patiently waiting for Sue on the curio shoppe porch

The sun was out and it was hot; Midnight was clearly thirsty, his tongue hanging out to almost the ground. He even sampled some culvert water along the way, but rejected it (it looked pretty foul to me). When we got to the cafe (which turned out, by the way, to be very good) we asked for a paper bowl and put some out for him -- he lapped up three large glasses worth -- and genuinely seemed grateful. He hung around outside the restaurant while we ate and joined us when we were done, seemingly to return with us. Shortly after we started back, however, he disappeared -- we aren't sure where he went but certainly enjoyed meeting and "hanging" with our new canine friend.

When we got back to the marina, we ran into the Richmond gentleman driving out in his truck -- we waved him down to thank him for the recommendation -- when we told him about the decent food (and characteristically southern slow service), he thanked us -- he was on his way to get some lunch and was wondering whether we did OK. Oh, and during the ensuing chitchat, he dropped this "bombshell" on us -- he was leaving later in the day to go back to Richmond for a "birthday party for Bruce Springsteen's Band" -- he actually asked us not to tell anyone because it was a "surprise" -- don't know why he told us -- perhaps he saw the NJ sticker on our dinghy or perhaps he was pulling our leg -- we spent the next three days sampling Google to see if we could find an news about it, but never did.

After dinghy-ing back to our boat, we spent the rest of the afternoon by the Marina's pool (we paid to use the facilities), take a shower and hang out in the lounge (just an air-conditioned room -- sadly, no bar :-) Dinner was crab cakes and clams we had purchased on our "road trip with Midnight" -- yum.

Setting up to read at the pool

I liked the colors and the reflections

Oh, one post script-- in addition to the very friendly people and canine that I mentioned above and yesterday's helpful grocery store and marina owners, we were stopped literally 5 different times while we were walking by drivers leaning out their windows and offering us a ride -- Deltaville is demonstrably  the "friendliest" place i have ever been to.