Buckroe Beach in Hampton, Virginia

    

                Buckroe Beach  Hampton, Virginia...

Buckroe Beach on the Chesapeake Bay

 is located in the middle of Hampton Roads which is a loose affiliation of 7 cities. Hampton, Newport News, Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake and Suffolk. Located right at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay and about 4 hours south of D.C. With a population of about 2 million, we are the largest region in the U.S. without a major league sports team. We pin all of our hopes on the Washington Redskins which adds to the depression of the residents in the winter months. ANYWAY...

         

       Although Buckroe Beach is part of the independent City of Hampton...

it's largely underutilized and/or forgotten. I've lived here for 3 years and in the 10 years prior, I had only been here once even though I was less than 6 miles away. Now don't get me wrong , Buckroe is not the VA Beach Oceanfront. It's somewhat of a budget beach but it's on it's way up like the Jefferson's. The attendance last year was 25% higher than the year prior. 25% growth!! That's huge! I was in the trenches, selling timeshares, meeting the people that had driven 6 hours to be here.( not really timeshares in the traditional sense, more like a parking spot) 30 more minutes would have taken them to the VA Beach Resort area but they stopped here. It wasn't  a flat tire that brought them here, they actually planned it. 

       My enthusiasm for a ghetto beach is only understood with a history lesson. 

You see, this area was the family destination before eroding into Crackville. It began with the earliest of us. The French settled here in 1620 to plant mulberry bushes. Not joking. They drove all the way here because their country demanded mulberries. 

        See. Frickin' mulberry trees. For pies maybe. 

 I'm going to sign off for today with that cliffhanger...

But tune in next time as our story continues... and grows more absurd as an entire settlement gets lost,.. 

then found again,

 The most famous pirate of all enters stage after sinking his own ship,(maybe)

 and seagulls compete in a contest that ultimately leads to war ...                                                                               oh yeah, don't forget the Reggae Fest. 

D. Pulley