Our Blessings far-outnumbered our Disappointments

After several days of exploring the ocean side of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, we are moving to a new camping spot a little further inland to explore the bay side. We moved to our third Boondockers Welcome site in a row, and we can't explain why we haven't joined this organization much sooner. We have been blessed with great hosts that really enjoy meeting new people and sharing their property with RVers. Today's hosts have tried to think of everything that a camper might need. For example, they added a room that contains a large walk-in shower with plenty of hot water for a long shower. Sue is standing beside another addition--a washing machine and dryer in a little building outside that their boondockers can use. Those are both great blessings that people boondocking would never expect!

They also offer 30-amp electricity and water, and plenty of good conversation and advice for things for their guests to experience. After finding out that we love bakery goods, our host showed up the next morning with hot-out-of-the-oven chocolate muffins for breakfast! We have been so blessed!

We were disappointed that the weather forecast called for rain storms today. But we still wanted to explore a little of this Chesapeake Bay coast line. So we headed off towards the town of Chrisfield, Maryland. We had planned to take one of the two-car ferries across the river. But when we arrived at the Whitehaven ferry crossing, we were disappointed to find a "ferry closed" sign. 

We called the number posted and we had to laugh at the message that was left on the machine. The ferry captain obviously hadn't spent a lot of time preparing for the bad news he was going to give to callers. We called the number three times just to giggle again at the message. Sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying. Right beside the closed ferry is a grand old house, and we had to take a picture. But we're pretty sure that our view of this old house wasn't worth the 20-mile detour that we'll now have to make to get to a bridge across the river.

Our destination is Chrisfield, Maryland. It is situated on the very tip of a peninsula jutting out into Chesapeake Bay. You might remember that we have already sampled a piece of Maryland's official state dessert--Smith Island cake. Well, we found out that the Smith Island Baking Company is in Chrisfield. We want to try another piece of that 8-layer cake, and this seems to be a great place to do that.

So we were certainly disappointed to find out they don't sell cake by the slice. We really weren't interested in buying an entire cake for $90. It would be fun to watch them assembling the cakes through their glass-fronted bakery. But it was afternoon and we were disappointed to find that they were just cleaning up for the day. We asked questions of the nice young woman at the shop, and she described how they individually bake each tiny layer, then frost them, and carefully stack them before a machine applies the outside frosting. We must have looked mighty forlorn at not getting to buy a piece of cake. Then she left, and came back with something for us.

It's one of those fragile little layers that had been baked and frosted today, but wasn't needed. She gave it to us with two forks, and absolutely made our day! We've been blessed again!

Back in the pickup, we tore into that red velvet cake with those two forks. Who do you think is the organized eater that carefully ate one-quarter, and who is the haphazard eater that cut off about a quarter all willy-nilly?

Let's just say that Denisa took her willy-nilly leftovers and stacked them up to look just like a Smith Island cake. Our trip to Chrisfield was a success!

After a stop at a local restaurant for a lunch of Maryland's state sea food--blue crab--we headed for a look at the town pier. It was all decked out in red, white and blue.

The wooden deck looks like a great place for a dance. We were disappointed that there was no music today, so we just took a picture of Denisa and the town's giant blue crab.

About that time, a fisherman brought up one of those blue crabs that are so famous here in Maryland.

It was too small to keep, but large enough to get into defensive stance to show off those blue pinchers.

On our way home from Chrisfield, we drove all the way to the Deal Island State Wildlife Management Area. With all the water in this area, the water birds are the only wildlife we saw. 

It was easy to get several birds in one picture, like the big blue heron in the foreground, and the white heron in the background. We were a little disappointed that after the long drive, the only thing at the end of the road were a few old houses and a spot to turn around.

We also made a stop at Janes Island State Park. Instead of hiking trails, this park has kayaking trails. Behind Mark is the main channel with inlets that branch off into the trees and around to the main inlet of the bay. We were disappointed that it was threatening rain, because we would have loved to be kayaking today.

So instead, we headed back to our nice boondockers welcome spot for long hot showers. We've had some disappointments today--but we have also been blessed with delicious baked goods TWICE, nice views, and the freedom to wander among God's wonders another day.

The Ponies of Assateague Island

A couple days ago, we got to see the wild ponies at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge in Virginia. But today we are hoping to see them in another park in another state at Assateague Island National Seashore in Maryland. While both these federally-run areas are actually on the same 37-mile-long barrier island, they are miles apart. While we are heading to the ocean side of Assateague island, we can't help but admire the cloud reflection on the bay-side water of the island.

We drove over the Verrazano Bridge to get to the island, and right past the entrance to Assateague state park. We headed to the National Seashore, and a line was already forming at the entry gate. We get in with our annual national park pass, so it's another free day of fun for us.

We drove to the furthest point where the paved road turns to sand, and got a good parking place near the South Ocean Beach. We were hoping to see a wild pony some time today, and we hit the jackpot! Just as we walked over the dune to the beach, we found this group greeting us to the Atlantic Ocean.

It was such fun to snap the quintessential Assateague Island picture of the ponies with the waves of the Atlantic Ocean in the background.

Visitors are warned to keep their distance, and petting or feeding a horse can lead to a park fine. But the horses obviously hadn't read the rule book, because they didn't keep the suggested 40 feet away. It was amazing to see how close the horses got to people on the beach.

Denisa was having a ball taking pictures of the ponies in this unusual setting!

Her favorite, of course, was the mare and her colt on the beach.

We wore our swim suits today. We are usually content to walk in the sand looking for shells. But it is high tide and all the shells are covered with water now.

Hide tide meant that the waves were crashing high up on the shore. 

After getting used to the cool temperature of the ocean water, it was great fun standing in the water and waiting for the waves to slam into us.

We took way too many pictures of crashing waves, so we have to include a few more.

The waves were fun on the beach, but they were also forming far enough out for surfers to catch them. We watched as several surfers braved the cool water in their wet suits to surf the waves.

With a special permit, people are allowed to drive further up the coast in their vehicles. They were sold out of these special permits, so we could only walk out to see this section of the "over sand vehicle" beach.

We had a great time in the water, but we decided it was time to explore the rest of this park. The horses had left the beach, and we headed back to the pickup. As we were walking toward the parking lot, we found that the horses were heading back to the beach.

They knew that it was easier to walk on the board walk instead of the sand. So Mark had to make way for them to pass. 

While visitors aren't supposed to approach the horses, we guess there isn't any rule that prohibits the horses from approaching visitors. No zoom needed for this picture, as this pony crowded Denisa off the board walk and walked within a few feet of her.

We were glad to see that this federal beach has provided outdoor showers. We had heard that the ponies have learned how to turn the water faucets on to get a drink.

 It was nice to rinse off the sand and salt water before we headed back to the pickup.

Another visitor was glad to see our parking space opening up. When we left, we saw that the parked cars had spilled out onto the side of the road and stretched for about a half-mile. The South Beach was noticeably more crowded this afternoon. 

While the horses at Chincoteague were fenced into a specific area of the wildlife refuge, there are no fences here at Assateague. You can find wild ponies anywhere! While we can appreciate the efforts of the Chincoteague fire department to manage the wild ponies in the Virginia section, we have to say that we much prefer seeing the ponies in the wild here at Assateague in the Maryland section. Here the ponies are under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service, who obviously have a different wildlife management philosophy.

We drove down most of the spur roads, many that took us to the bay side of the island. We found some interesting places down Bayside Drive.

Very often we would find wild ponies, eating on the abundant sea grass in the bay.

We had noticed that many of the horses had round swollen bellies. Could all these horses be ready to drop a foal? Then we read at the visitor center that the main diet of these horses is salty marsh grass, and they drink a lot of water. The combination makes them look bloated.

At this stop on the end of Bayside Road, we found that people were having some success catching crabs. This couple showed us the blue crab that they had just caught, and was on ice for tonight.

The sign close to the boardwalk had a notch in the bottom, that is used to see if your just-caught crab was large enough to take home.

Anything smaller than that five inch notch has to be returned to the water off Assateague island.

Just in case it would seem that we are only taking pictures of ponies and crabs, we will also photograph a swallow that posed beside the walkway.

We had a great day at Assateague Island National Seashore! Our pony encounters were better than expected, and the waves were great fun. We feel like we have wandered into another of God's wonders today!

Welcome to Maryland!

After a nice stop at Chincoteague National Seashore, we drove the pickup back to the motor home waiting for us in the grocery store parking lot. We were back on Highway 13 heading north, and it wasn't long before we passed a state line that the motor home had never passed before. Welcome to Maryland--open for business.

Then we headed toward our second Booddocker's Welcome stay. We knew it was going to be a special location when we turned into the driveway bordered with tall pine trees. 

This is going to be our home for three days--at Buck's Way. We have 50-amp electricity and water hook-ups in the side yard beside their barn.

But the best part of our camping spot is our hosts. In the course of three days, we got to know the Bucks, and they allowed us to take a picture in front of their custom-made front door that has a carved--you guessed it--buck on it.

They greeted us like old friends, and gave us the run of their 60-acre lot. Their garden is right beside the barn where we were parked, and Luraine surprised us with just-picked blueberries. They recently purchased a motor home, and they like getting RVing advice from the boondockers that visit them. We tried to give them our best tips, but we feel like they gave us much better advice. That would include ideas for things to do (and eat) while we are visiting Maryland. For example, they told us to be sure to eat Smith Island Cake while we are here.

Made from 8 or 9 layers of very thin cake, with frosting between each layers, it is the state cake of Maryland. Originally made at a bakery in the tiny island off the Eastern shores, we managed to find this cake for sale when we visited Ocean City.

This was another piece of advice from our hosts. Visiting the beach and board walk is a must-do when staying in Maryland.

We walked the entire 2.5-mile boardwalk during our visit. We found all sorts of places to eat, things to buy, and rides to ride.

We also found curiosities like this record-breaking tiger shark. It took 3.5 hours to land this 1,210 pound shark off the waters of Ocean City.

We spent a little time in the sand, but this is a crowded beach. From the pier we could look down to see that this is a popular place to be.

Businesses know that this is a good place to advertise, and planes fly over the beach streaming banners with company names and logos. We appreciated this public service advertisement, "time to reapply your sunscreen."

While people were playing in the sand, someone has been working in the sand. We liked this sand sculpture close to the boardwalk.

Our hosts also suggested that we eat Maryland's most popular sea food--crab. Her favorite dish is Crab Imperial at a local restaurant in Salisbury. We followed her advice exactly, pairing the crab with a side of succotash and a baked potato and roll. It looks like a very monotone brown meal, but we liked her crab dish a lot.

They also told us that we needed to try Thrasher french fries. Available on the boardwalk, this is a special family recipe. We met our host's Mother, and she told us the secret because her family made them the same way. They use only Idaho potatoes, and they are only fried in very hot peanut oil--three times. That way the oil is very hot and doesn't allow the cooling oil to soak into the strips of potatoes. The other thing that makes them a uniquely Maryland dish, is that they are served with vinegar--not ketchup.

We noticed that the famous Idaho potato was parked by the boardwalk. We found out that they were supporting the Thrasher family and their french fry business in Maryland.

They also suggested that we visit the zoo in their town of Salisbury. Only a few miles from our camping spot, this is a nice little zoo.

Our bird picture of the day is not like anything we usually see at the bird feeders.

And the price was right for this visit to the zoo--it was free!

Our favorite display was of the Andes bears. Father bear was swimming in the pool.

But we were sad to find out that Mother and the two baby bears were resting in the back. Denisa sure wanted to see those little bears, so we actually made a second trip to the zoo on another day. Still no babies! So we walked to the outside of the park and peeked in the back. That's when we got to see them! Not a great picture, but we were persistent.

Our host's last advice of a truly Maryland food to try was scrapple. We took them out for breakfast before going to church with them on Sunday. We ordered the blueberry pancakes, eggs and scrapple. We're a little glad that we didn't read what scrapple is made from before we ate it.

We have a great place to stay and we're enjoying our time eating and seeing things that are new to us. We're feeling very welcomed to Maryland!