Wild Horses Couldn’t Keep Us Apart – A Rendezvous with Dear Friends at Assateague State Park

As much as we could have easily settled in for a few more day at Lums Pond, we woke up on our departure day full of excitement. Today was the day.

The day we would rendezvous with dear friends at an exciting location!

When we last parted ways with Nina & Paul of Wheeling It in Arizona back in February, we had intentions of meeting back up in Michigan this fall and caravanning to Florida together for the winter (they originally were going to travel up the west coast then across Canada –  and us up the east coast and then west into Canada).

They’ve had a crazy year with lots of events that have changed their course multiple times, which our nomadic lifestyles give a lot of allowance for. They did end up in Michigan (just not via Canada).

However, as soon as we hit the Northeast we realized the fallacy of our plan – we weren’t feeling the call to rush our time in the Northeast.

Then one morning I had a message from Nina – their plans had shifted again. Their cat Taggart was going to need a special treatment at a clinic in NYC.

While a bummer for kitty and their pocketbook, it would mean our paths would align and we’d get to caravan after all!

This post covers October 12-18.

Assateague State Park, Maryland

We loved coming up the Delmarva Peninsula on our way north earlier this year, and pretty much knew that would be our preference heading south. It’s so much less traffic, and many coastal areas to explore.

Plus, there was Assateague – this barrier island populated by herds of wild horses! We had really only heard about it from awesome blog readers like yourselves, and hadn’t been able to score a reservation back in June.

And it just so happened that Nina & Paul had it on their hit list too. So, it was pretty easy to converge on the idea of taking the coastal route south so they could hunt lighthouses and us boats.

We both made reservations at the state park, and thus Assateague became the meet-up spot.

We got parked and were greeted with HUGE hugs! It had been way too long since last we saw each other.

The campground itself, was honestly.. kinda… eh.

The spots were slightly too close to each other and offered very little privacy.  During the week, this wasn’t a problem – in mid-October is pretty much empty.  The weekend however filled to capacity, and we felt it.

They also only have a handful of loops that accept pets, so it can be difficult to get a reservation over a weekend.

Our loop had no hook-ups (at $33/night), which was fine – as we both have awesome solar/lithium setups that keep us abundant in power (join us tomorrow evening, all four of will be sharing about our lithium batteries – details at the end of the post)

But the location is pretty darn awesome. You just cross the dune, and you’re on the beach and can walk for endless miles.

WheelingIt’s Campground Review: SP Campground Review — Assateague State Park, MD

And the wild horses!

Well, technically they are feral ponies.  They roam free along the island, including the campground.

On the Maryland side, they are treated as a wild herd – no interaction is allowed. They’re not treated and may carry diseases and there are fines for touching them (we saw several given out).

On the Virginia side of the island, their herds actually receive veterinary care, and folks can buy them at auction.

And these ponies are pretty smart.

During the week, we’d hardly see them in the campground – but mostly out and about along the bay. But as soon as the weekend campers arrive (several ignoring the rules of needing to secure all food and trash), they pretty much made camp amongst us.

 

In fact, our neighbors setup camp and left to spend the morning at the beach, leaving their trash out and food in a plastic bin. Sure enough, 3 ponies ransacked their spot.

Of course our instinct was to go try to scare the ponies away and save our neighbor’s site – but with warnings of them biting & kicking, fines being imposed for interacting with them – there’s really not much else to do. In fact, a park ranger stopped by during the incident and told us precisely this.

So, we filmed it in case our neighbors might like to see what caused their mess (they loved it and had great humor about it). They encouraged us to share the video with our audience, so here you go:

It was pretty cool to hear ‘clomp clomp’ right outside our window in the morning and just have these guys casually hanging out during the day.

Rockets!

Assateague is not too far from Wallops Flight Facility. And as serendipity would have it – the first launch in nearly 2 years was scheduled for our visit. (I’m sure they heard Wheeling It and Technomadia would be in the area, and scheduled it especially for us.)

Our last evening was a true treat – a night launch on the beach!

Now, I’m a Space Coast girl, having lived in Melbourne, FL for many years before hitting the road. I was used to timing my beach walks for launch windows.

This however was my first non-Florida launch to see in person, and it was incredible!

And just as the rocket disappeared out of view and we’re feeling the rumble, we had a gorgeous red-moon rise over the ocean.

You just don’t wrap up a stay more perfectly than that!

WheelingIt’s Travelogue of this Stop:
Wild Ponies, Good Friends & A Rocket Launch — Assateague Island, MD

Continuing down the Delmarva

Since we were in the area, just watched a launch and we’re all geeks – we just had to stop at the Wallops Visitor Center on our way south.  It was an easy 1 hour drive from the park.  While small, it’s very well put together and informational (and free!).

We then all headed to the CBBT Welcome Center on the north side of the Bridge-Tunnel entrance for our overnight stop. We stopped here on our way north, and loved our stay. It’s not often you find a welcome center with free 48-hour parking and hiking trails.

The four of us enjoyed a sunset dinner at The Shanty before parting ways for a bit as Nina & Paul headed down the Outter Banks of NC, and us to attend to some boat shopping & research.

 

Thoughts on Community on the Road

I’m not going to lie – community on the road is rough.

It’s probably one of the toughest aspects of the lifestyle and has been a constant struggle for us. And if there’s an element that might one day tempt us to settle down in one spot for a while, it’s this.

We’re constantly meeting new people (which is awesome) but it’s tough to form close friendships that way. We don’t usually have the same continuity of relationships as we did when stationary – meeting back up regularly with the same people where you don’t have to start from the beginning with.

For us introverts, it can leave us feeling awfully lonely in-between stretches of quality time with people who really know us. It’s like constantly eating candy, and not nourishing meals.

It can lead to periods of isolation and even depression, especially when tough stuff comes up and you’d love nothing more than a good friend to watch a movie with in your pajamas.

When you click with such people on the road, you might not see them for a very long time. Especially if they’re a fellow nomadic traveler and your paths might not intersect often.

Sure, social media allows us to keep up to date with each other via blogs, Facebook and Instagram. And there’s always video chats, e-mail, messaging and phone calls.

But nothing.. nothing…  replaces in person time.

Especially prolonged in person time when hanging out can be integrated in as just part of your day/week, not a special occasion to have to try and soak up every moment possible.

Caravanning for periods of times with nomadic friends has been our solution, while our wanderlust still overrules the desire for a consistent community. We get the benefits of travel and exploring AND a sense of community in our little roaming pack. At least, when it lines up.

And it was an extra special breath of familiar air to re-convene with Nina & Paul.  After all, we’ve done some extended traveling together over the years and know each other pretty darn well. Quirks and all. And we love each other for them.

Past posts on community:

• Community Aspects of Nomadic Travel
• RV Social Life – How to Meet People On the Road (video)
• Caravanning with Friends (video)

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Next Live Video Chat: Lithium Batteries for RVs

We’ve scheduled our next live (and free) video chat:

When:  Wednesday, November 2 (TOMORROW!)
8 pm EDT / 5 pm PDT

Topic: Lithium Batteries for RVs
With Special Guests: Nina & Paul of WheelingIt!

 

Back in 2011, we built our own lithium ion battery bank for our motorhome, and wrote extensively about it in our Lithium Battery series. Earlier this year, our RVing buddies Nina & Paul had their new system installed.

In this live video broadcast we will cover these topics:

• Overview of lithium batteries for RVs (pros over lead acid, costs)
• Recap of our respective setups
• Five year update on how our setup has been holding up, and the lifestyle benefits we love.

We’ll then be happy to field questions on lithium batteries, and then morph into a more general Q&A (we’re sure our viewers have lots of questions for Nina & Paul too!).

Join the Chat on our Livestream Channel

You will need to create a quick free account with Livestream to view the video cast. Just click the link and setup an account in advance… a couple minutes ahead of time should be sufficient, but you can do it anytime. At the end, we’ll be happy to field questions. And if you can’t make it, you can catch the archive later.