Assateague Island National Seashore

As a child I read Misty of Chincoteague and many other of Marguerite Henry's books and dreamed of going to Assateague to find my own wild horse...I mean what child doesn't dream of that?

Today that dream became half a reality...we got to go to Assateague Island National Seashore.

We saw a few horses in the distance

but headed to the Rangers station to try our luck at a campground. Nope, so we drove back out to the Assateague State Park to see if they had any camping spots and nope. So we headed back to the Assateague National Seashore.  Our America the Beautiful Pass covered the $15 entrance fee.

For those of you starting to get tired of seeing our warm water beach adventures have no fear this beach was COLD so you don't have to be jealous of the warm wonderful waters anymore! Cold or not the girls had fun and I jumped in the waves a few times myself.

 Aayla made a slide in a big hole

 And we saw many dolphins swim by. This was a group of probably 10 or more.

 Sierra got chilly so she snuggled up with daddy

Then we headed back out of the park in search of a place to get closer to the horses. You are not allowed to touch, feed, harass, chase etc the ponies but you are allowed to get within 10' of them. Within minutes we came across many!

(believe it or not I have many more pictures of this mom and foal...can you tell I was excited to see the foal???)

The horses roam the roads and cause traffic jams of those taking pictures and of those who just can't move :)

The dark Stallion in the background of the picture below walked out in the raod and stuck his head right in a cars window!!!

We saw this dead snake while walking...we assume it was trampled by the horses.

These horses above walked right by us and one came up to sniff Sierra but I was changing my scandisc card and missed it all I got was the one below of them now in the distance.

Here the horses are walking by us as we are getting ready to leave...I secretly hope one will pop their head into our window...Ian hopes they don't!

I could have stayed for a week watching the ponies and would have gladly paid the camping fees...another trip we will reserve ahead of time for sure!

Unfortunately it was time to leave :(    We drove North and stopped at a rest stop in Smyrna just off of the 13 (North of Dover) It's a nice little rest stop; very clean. We made supper, the girls played on the playground

and then I saw a tick on Aayla. I quickly picked it off and saw another one. We then headed back to the trailer to find 2 more on Aayla and one on Sierra.

These ones didn't come off so easily. Nasty little bugs!!! Aayla had a really hard time staying still and we couldn't get the tick's head out so it looks like we are rushing up to Canada to go to the doctors. We researched on line as I was prepared to go straight to the hospital here but from online research it looks like we will be OK to wait a couple days until we get back into Canada and have her checked out for Lyme disease. I am sure she is fine but better safe then sorry. We'll keep an eye out on the area until we arrive in Canada early next week. Since we will now arrive to NS before my mom even fly's there we will probably head to PEI first...who knows, plans seem to change daily with life on the road.

Boondocking REVIEW near Snowhill/Girdletree Maryland

This spot at a National Wildlife Area tonight was a wonderful spot. The closest house was about a mile away and all we could hear was the crickets chirping and signing their song as the fireflies glowed.

To get here head South on the 13 from Snowhill (Maryland) to Girdletree. Continue South for about 3/4 of a mile until you see the below sign for the E A Vaughn National Wildlife Area on your left. (If you hit the town of Stockton turn around and go back. It will be shortly up the road on your right now.)

 

Value 5/5
FREE

Site Quality 3/5
This parking area near the National Wildlife Area (NWA) was beside an open field. The ground was packed dirt and was fairly level. We did use one leveling block to even it off. No other services here.

Facility Fun 3/5
We arrived at about 6:30 so just late enough not to worry about hunters as the signs posted said Dove hunting from noon to 5:00pm daily. There was a road in behind the gate but we didn't walk down it. The girls were quite happy to fly their fairy dolls around all the wildflowers in the field.

Natural Surroundings 4/5
In the middlw if a NWA so we were surrounded by forest and parked beside a wide open field. Lots of flowers, crickets and many, many fire flies in the evening.

Bathrooms N/A

Staff N/A

Location 3/5
This spot wasn't far from Pocomoke which is a fairly big little town and was about 40 minutes from Assateague Island. It was fine for a stop over. Not sure how much it is used for hunting but I wouldn't want to stay hear as a getaway if there is alot of hunting as the gunshots would certainly disturb the peacefulness of this spot!

Overal 3/5
If needed we would stay here again. It was a nice little FREE quiet spot for a stop over.

Not quite what we had planned for today :(

This morning we left our National Forest Walmart location and headed to Virginia Beach. Like Myrtle Beach there are many places to park cars along the way however we did not luck out and find residential roadside RV parking this time. Finally we pulled over to a narrow pay parking area along the road and as we pulled in there was a parking sign overhanging the road that was in the mirrors blind spot. We ripped the awning all the way down it's side :( We were so mad we left Virginia Beach in a hurry and vowed not to drive in cities anymore! Parking 56' is NOT fun!

We headed towards Assateague Island National Seashore in Maryland. As Ian ran into Lowes to get the supplies to fix the leak I decided to look up the park on the internet to see what time the entrance station was open until and realized that I misread the info the other day telling me they don't except camping revervations and it is walk in only. Apparently in the winter it is walk in only...this time of year you can reserve. I checked the online reservations and sure enough they were full.

We drove to the Ocean City Walmart and found these signs posted everywhere

I have a list of possible boondocking sites in the area so we headed backwards past Snow Hill to Girdletree to a Wildlife Management Area. We had to backtrack about 40 minutes but that was better then paying $68 or more to stay at the local RV parks that we looked up! We followed our directions and as we pulled down the road we saw a gate and thought "OH Great...now where do we go?".

But off to the right of the gate was a nice little area where we enjoyed the night.

It was quiet and peaceful. (There was a Dove hunting sign on the gate but apparently that is only between the hours of 12 noon to 5:00 so we missed having to hear any shots)

Ian was able to fix the leak, the girls enjoyed running around and flying their fairies through the field from flower to flower.

and I found a lucky patch of clover...



How many 4 leaf and 5 leaf clovers can you find in this picture?

 I have a natural ability to find 4 leaf clovers everywhere...I wonder how unlucky my life would be if I didn't find them all the time? Hopefully now we will we have better luck at Assateague Island tomorrow. I sure hope so anyway!

Warm Welcome wishes going out to John. He just bought a Surveyor as well and we hope he likes it as much as we like ours! I couldn't find a link to a blog for you John...if I missed it let me know and I will add it in :)

Mrytle Beach South Carolina and North Carolina Boondocking

This morning we left our site at Honey Hill Campground and drove about 30 miles to Myrtle Beach. Myrtle Beach is a neat little town that we had to drive by mostly much to the girls dismay as they see the beach through peek a boo views as we drive...not to mention driving by about 25 mini golf places, amusements parks, water slides and more interesting things for 3 and 5 year olds!

There are many beach access spots along Ocean Blvd with parking.

However there is NO ROOM to try to park an RV anywhere. Just as we finished telling the girls we probably couldn't go to the beach here we found a more residential area with street parking.

We parked, had lunch and headed to the beach for a couple hours. The water was wonderful, the sand was perfect and the waves were delightltful!

Surfer girl Sierra riding her imaginary surf board

Tooples by a wave

Aayla prefers to stay near the safety of the shore

We were sad to have to pack up and leave but knowing that we still had a long drive to get to the Croatan National Forest we had to leave :(

We arrived at the forest at about 6:00 and headed to Long Point Boat Launch which has some dispersed camping sites right on the lake. (sorry forgot to take a picture) However these posts were all small and there was no room for us to park, or turn around so Ian had to back down the Forest Service Rd until he could find a place to turn around. Thankgoodness he does the driving...I would have been in deep trouble if I needed to back down that road!

We continued on searching for other spots. The National Forests here are weird...with lots of residential areas so finding a road off to the side and entering in search of a boondocking spot is a bit more difficult.

We did get lucky though. Right in the middle of the Croatan National Forest we found this little lake and enjoyed the wildlife present.

The forest in front of us

then we turn around and you see this

YES that is a Walmart and Yes it is in the town of Havelok which YES is in the middle of the National Forest!!! Since no typical boondocking sites were to be found we were thankful that this National Forest has 4 lane highways with Ford dealerships and Walmarts to camp for the night in!

4 lane highways and cities in the middle of a National Forest???
I say PARDON?

Sierra decided to let Fasty the second go tonight so she pet him for awhile, caught him and let him go by the pond.

Aayla hugging a tree in the middle of the Croatan National Forest..
oh wait that's not a tree...but yes there is a Walmart in the National Forest...go figure???

Sierra catching Fasty the 2nd to let go home to his family

Surprise...he jumped out and landed on her unexpectedly

Bye Fasty we will miss you

As the sun sets in our Walmart parking lot in the middle of a National Forest

We go inside to discover we have our own little stream inside our Forest River Surveyor. (Hey if Forests can have Walmarts we can have stream inside!)

Guess we found some more warranty work...luckily Ian can give it a quick fix so we can have water in the meantime. Can you believe they put a nail right through the water hose??? Thankfully it wasn't through the electrical! makes us really wonder about puncturing the roof though and voiding our warranty to put up solar panels!