Again, I felt I had to make a detour. Had I gone to Greenbelt Nat'l Park, the route would have been a much different one. SCargo, Bubba and Newbie headed for Assateague in a different direction. Everyone probably recognizes this one too:
After 3 days on the road, a reward for all of the driving was waiting in Maryland. Yesterday was fantastic and worth the extra time and miles. Sunday was a new experience. I had never been to Assateague Island, but had gone to Chincoteague late one July with family to see the annual swim of the wild ponies from Assateague Island across the Assateague Channel. Ponies are kept to a count of 150 on Assateague, and the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire department herds the extras across the channel for auction to benefit the fire department. One should do it once if she enjoys horses and unusual events. Ponies roam freely on Assateague. The Northern half of the island belongs to Maryland, the southern half to Virginia, with a fence across the boundary.
After several stops and more hours than planned (as usual) I arrived on Assateague Island. There's a nice little bridge that connects the mainland to the island and northern entrance. (BTW, it's called the Verrazano Bridge) Running just beside it to the right is another new-looking bridge for pedestrians and bicyclists, who can park on the mainland side and take the bike path to the island. Wow, I thought, this is a great time to have bought my bike along with me. There are very few cars to contend with and not more than 150 horses.
The first signs of life as I was reaching the island side of the bridge were two wild ponies. Then I checked in at the ranger station and found my site. There was no doubt that horses have the run of this place. Horse poop everywhere. (hey, it's my blog; I can say poop in it) Horse poop welcomed me to my site. By the time I got parked, the wind had begun to pick up, then the rain started, then higher winds. I decided to just hunker down for the night, as it was not the kind of weather most persons go out in. For some reason I was having problems with the second battery, the one that runs the lights, etc. inside the RV. By about 7:30 it was clear there would be no blogging due to very low battery power. By then little SCargo was rockin' and rollin' in the wind. I spent the night wondering if this vehicle was going to stay upright. Then I thought, who cares; I'll just ask someone to help me get it back up and then write about it in my blog! Ha Ha Ha. I finally got to sleep by the lullaby of the storm winds, rain beating on the roof and the rocking of the V. When I woke up Monday morning - more of the same.
Would things improve so that I could explore the island? Stay tuned.
A couple of photos of what I saw on Sunday as I arrived on Assateague:
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