The Eastern Shore

I have always prided myself on being a brave and adventurous person, but something has happened as I have gotten older. I have developed a fear of heights. It's not just being on a ladder, it's also crossing over anything that's not close to the ground, like bridges. When leaving Williamsburg we had the choice of driving 340 miles by land or 107 miles including the bridge..we took the bridge. The 20 mile ride over the Chesapeake Bay was an experience!! This included three bridges and two tunnels.

In this case it wasn't so much the bridges that were scary, it was looking off into the distance and realizing that the road seemed to stop ahead of us. And I have to admit, it really wasn't that bad.





The Eastern Shore is what they call the northern part of Virginia that is under Maryland, it also includes the part of Maryland that is south of Delaware. It is a beautiful place! It's mostly old fishing towns and surprisingly farmland.

Perdue Farms (as in Jim Perdue and his chickens) has their corporate headquarters in Salisbury Maryland and several processing plants in the area. Tyson Foods also has processing plants here too. So most of the produce including fields of marigolds are used to feed the chickens. Of course there are also lots of chicken farmers in the area. The winds were favorable most of the time, but I'm sure the neighbors don't always appreciate the chicken farmers!!

We spent parts of two days enjoying the wild horses of Asseteague. One day we went to the south portion of the Asseteague National Seashore and the Island of Chincoteague. The town itself is charming and we had a wonderful seafood lunch there. The drive over the causeway is something else. As you approach the causeway, you see beautiful marshland on both sides of the road. We saw numerous different kinds of birds, from egrets to gulls. As you round the crest of the first bridge and you look to the north...and all you see are billboards.... It's so sad, that they felt the need to ruin such a beautiful view with dozens of billboards.

We did stop at the State Park's Visitor Center and learned how the Fire Department of Chincoteague have been taking care of the wild horses for years. There are two stories as to where these horses came from: they are either descendants of Spanish horses that swam ashore from a ship wrecked galleon, or they are descendants from colonial times, when the colonists put their horses on the island to graze in order to avoid paying a livestock tax.


In order to control the population of horses at the south end of the island. The Chincoteague Fire Department holds a roundup every year in July called the Pony Penning. They swim the horses across the water from Asseteague Island to Chincoteague Island and then auction off some of the horses.

They try to keep the herd at 150 horses. Unfortunately here, you can't get up close to the horses.

In addition, there are wonderful trails around the island where we saw the rare Delmarva fox squirell. We were hoping to see the Sitka elk, but maybe next time.

And what day would be complete without a geocache at the lighthouse. So far we have thirteen straight days of caching!!







Another day we drove up to the northern part of Asseteague Island and saw some of the horses that the National Park maintains.

Here we were able to see a few of the horses up close.

They have several campgrounds on the island, so we talked to a ranger and a volunteer couple about being hosts.

Always planning ahead. I would love to spend a few months here, watching the horses and walking the beaches.










A trip to the Eastern Shore is not complete without going to Ocean City Maryland. We have never been to a place like this before... It was a carnival atmosphere on the beach.

We never saw so many hot dog stands, funnel cake shops, and t shirt stands. We were going to eat some good fresh seafood, but the temptation was to much.  Let's just say it wasn't a healthy lunch! They were still doing some repairs and clean up from Hurricane Sandy, but I'm sure things will be hopping come Memorial Day weekend.





 One thing that we enjoy about our travels is visiting with old friends. I have a high school friend who now lives in Salisbury Maryland. Unfortunately, she was back in Kenosha visiting her sister, but Fred and I were able to spend an evening with her husband.

The campground that we stayed at was in the middle of nowhere. It was almost ten miles from the nearest town, but it was so peaceful. There were very few other campers, so it was very quiet. We spent a quiet day relaxing, doing laundry, some minor household chores, reading and wandering along the marsh.

Life doesn't get any better than this!