Assateague Vacation

[winters_queen]

The trip to Assateague was fun. Glad I went, even though Saturday, Sunday and Monday were chilly in the mornings because of a rain storm that went through Friday night. Because it was so chilly, I hadn’t taken a bath since Friday because the facilities only had cold water showers. And I wasn’t that into getting chilly.

Cut for an image heavy post.



Had a pretty sky the day we set up. We were on the ocean side ring so that we got the breeze off of the ocean. That kept the mosquitos away from the most part. Those guys are vicious little buggers.

It was cool Wednesday but there was no real storm though there were storm clouds that were out at sea and up towards Ocean City (Which was like 15-20 mins away).

One post set up nap later, we did a minor drive around the camping areas to see if we could find any of the bands that were in the area and it must have either rained earlier before we got there because we found some wet ponies.

I think this was the stallion of that band. Couldn’t see since he was too busy eating and couldn’t care that humans were looking at him.



There were some whitetailed deer and one of them had a tracking collar around her neck. And I’m guessing the young deer with her was her baby. When we were going we saw a couple more but these two hung around in sight more.

Then were there the Sika deer. They were tiny to begin with. The picture of it looking towards us, Nance had to beep the horn. The other one was being stealthy so that we could only see its legs. :)

From what we could see, there were at least four bands in our area of the island.

The following band were usually on the road heading out to the main road to go over the bridge. They pretty much stuck around there consistently. I love the stallion’s tail because he has a band of white in it and he doesn’t have any white on his butt to give it that coloration.

The stallion is the paint behind the chestnut. Here is a better look at his tail.



These three came out of the trees on the other side. Then the one backed up so she could scratch her butt on the trees. The other one had a still young foal with her that was so cute. Bebe fuzz!

Then there was another baby that was tired on another day while momma watched.

This is the same band that was out on the bayside of water noshing on the grass and then on Sunday, when it was cooler and the mosquitos wouldn’t eat us, we did the forest walk and found them further in.


Friday morning sunrise

The next band actually went through our camping area during the day. They had been there the night before. We heard these strange munching sounds and couldn’t think of what the sound was until my eyes focused. Here we were next to the dumpster. Apparently one of them decided that whatever was in there smelled yummy so they managed to get the dumpster open enough to pull out a bag or two of garbage and nosh on what was inside. The morning after you could see the mess they made. This was the same night we were ready to kill our neighbors. Quiet time is from 10pm to 6am. That means there are no generators running and that you should respect that other people might be sleeping. THESE idiots were up and cackling and having a good ol time with the people they knew on the other side until 1 in the morning or so. Needless to say, we were not pleased. Something was said but we don’t know if they were told because when the camp hosts went to say something, they weren’t around. And those hosts were leaving the next morning and new ones were coming in.

These were also the idiots who left food and alcohol and cups out on the picnic table until that afternoon. One of the rules is to clean up after yourself so that the horses aren’t compelled to come into the campsite and get food and then get in the habit of harassing campers. On top of that they had a garbage bin that was left out all day and wasn’t tethered so if there was any strong wind, it would blow over. There was also no lid so if any ponies wanted to get into it, they could.

These people were freaking morons. They left Sunday morning so we had a bit of peace and quiet before we left ourselves.

But since the night before there were such interesting things to find in the garbage, the band came back the next day.

At first all I saw was this sleepy mare who found some shade and was trying to catch a bit of a doze.

Maybe she wanted a shower too.

Then the stallion of the band wandered into view and the rest followed. This guy had been listed as the only charcoal stallion in the area but there was another stallion who was the same coloring that was probably one of his babies that was wandering with the band. Though he was getting to the age to where he would be kicked out soon and go join up with the other bachelor stallions.

This was a cute picture when the one chestnut mare touched noses with the stud.



Where this group was grazing, was the location of the idiots next to us. I –think- the charcoal in this picture is the baby of the stallion. I think. But it was funny, these people had a satellite dish on the ground and one of the horses decided to try to taste it like a big donut. It also seemed to throw off the signal because it was beeping and making noises. As annoying as it got after a half an hour, it was funny that their stuff got messed up.

They also had a bag of food that one of the horses decided to take an interest in and there was a short tug of war where the horse won that contest and food fell on the ground. There was a man who came behind them and was trying to shoo the horses away but just waving your hands and telling them to ‘shoo shoo’ isn’t going to cut it. You need to make a noise loud enough or smack them on the rump with a broom to get them to move or they’re just going to look at you like ‘human, please’ and go back to what they were doing.

I have video of this group that I need to upload.

Saturday night we had a campfire down on the beach and while we were waiting for the Lord of the Flame (Ken, the husband pair of the barn I board at) with more wood, we were feeding the seagulls from marshmallow and graham crackers. These guys were pretty polite. Once they realized that the food was gone, they left us alone. I have video of the seagulls too. There were three different seagulls that we could figure out. The small ones, some Godfather seagulls (these guys were the size of small dogs, geez) and then the brown ones.

The next band were the ones that hung out towards the very front of the campground entrance and would stand in the middle of the road and make people drive around them. :)

Have some random pictures of the ocean, a group of pelicans that were flying away, a bathing seagull and the view across the bay on the island from the marsh walk.

Here is the picture of one of the mares where the expression is classic and I want to do a bunch of sayings for her. Because standing there is just so expressive. Heh.




Lastly, the weekend we were there, Ocean City was having it’s Wine Fest. So for under a hundred dollars, we got six bottles of one, one of which was polished off at the beach. Another is a gift for the roomie’s mom.

This is what is left. From left to right: Niagara; Swan’s Dream, a chocolate raspberry dessert wine; Bramble Berry; Cabin Fever and Red Cat.
The Swan’s Dream was more expensive because it was a limited batch and the single bottle was $25. But it’s sooooooo good.