May 2021, I was finally able to check camping at Assateague off my bucket list. Tanya, our Sisters on the Fly wrangler, hosted seventy-two sisters at this event. Camping with wild horses walking, charging, moseying, and galloping through our campsites was quite a trip. And I mean this in the trippiest sense!
Campfire home fries right off the grill.
Mischief maker! Look at that face!
These two above came charging right in our driveway the first morning I was there. I was seated at the picnic table, but I stood up sharply and waved my dishtowel at them, so they circled around the back of the site and then exited with a loud round of neighs and whinnies. They proceeded across the road where the home fries smelled much more interesting than my muesli and yogurt. Yum yum yum, right out of our neighbor’s pan on the fire.
Mare and her foal
Foal was very young, maybe four weeks? Kept napping all over the place. Nice to feel safe with your mom and herd standing watch.
I was sharing my site with my sister-pal, V. Moore, from West Virginia (Originally a Maryland girl!) She is well versed in camping with the wild horses. Yes. Horses, NOT ponies. They’re small in stature because of their diet. Mostly that’s salty beach plants. (And the occasional camper-food they can liberate.) V. showed me how to make our campsite a sort of complicated construct, to deter the herd from dashing through willy-nilly. They don’t want to get hung up on our tie-down ropes and our stuff.
We had the best neighbors, Mara, Debbie, and Debbie. SO good to camp with my sisters after this miserable pandemic year-and-a-half.
Gorgeous light!
One night, we hosted one of the campfires. Had a lot of laughs, of course!
I took a bunch of other photos at the fire, but all were too blurry to be of use. :-( Sorry Sisters. I did include the one of V. in her pelt. She looked like something right out of Game of Thrones. LOL
The beach was simply glorious
Of course it was way too hot for the Irish White-Meat! But I have this great hat. Thanks Liz!
I did get to the beach one early morning. Not too much sunburn, and I finally caught photos of those brown pelicans fishing for their breakfast.
A couple of days the weather was a bit too hot for me.
We drove over to Ocean City, walked the boardwalk, and had lunch.
We were not permitted to gather all in one site for the traditional giant bonfire, so one of our brilliant sisters came up with the idea of a Pony/Pearls/Pie Stroll event one evening. A number of sisters put their tables out near the road, and we all brought our pies over to share. Then, we wandered along sampling, talking, and eating. I guess we outnumbered the horses, so they left us alone. Not too shabby, as far as pandemic work-arounds go!
In the heat of the day, we sought the shade of an awning…
…or even better, a little motorhome AC to play Mexican Train and RummyKub
There’s more than one way to catch a breeze. Right, Kathy?
Mara’s new Motorhome. This beats camping all over Queens, I bet!
V. camped in her Tardis. (Dr Who? Where’s the Doctor?)
And this is where the little horses come from…
We took a ride over to the federal side, and found ourselves in a horse/car traffic jam. But once we entered that part of the park, we were really lucky to find a herd of horses very close to the boardwalk. The foal over here was just a couple weeks old—even younger than the one living in the H-Loop.
Let’s go ducklings!
Big family out for some swimming lessons.
They really blend into the environment!
Here’s a couple light houses for my sister Debbie White, in case you missed them.
Met up with Sister Joanne Bevan on our homeward journey, on the Lewes-Cape May ferry.
Because of the no large group gathering rules in force, I did not have a chance to hang out and chat with many of the sisters I haven’t seen in a long time. That was disappointing. I hope to see you all at some other trip somewhere down the road. Safe travels, sisters.