Paddling with Ponies

Remember the movie “Dances with Wolves” about the guy who lived surrounded by wolves?  Well, my couple of days living on Assateague Island surrounded by wild ponies seemed like a similar experience.  This island is certainly theirs and we humans must abide by their rules!  But in return, they’ll let us camp on their island, use their beach, paddle their bay, and take lots of pictures of them!

The road to Assateague Island was tree-lined and curvy:

The bridge over the bay is the only way to get on/off the island other than via boat.

The island is home to a Maryland state park as well as the national seashore park and a small herd of ponies greeted us immediately as we reached the island:

I also spotted two miniature deer that looked very similar to the Key Deer I’d seen on Big Pine Key in Florida last winter:

We had a spectacular campsite right on the ocean beach at the National Seashore campground.  No hook-ups, but since the temperature was in the low 70’s and upper 60’s each day, we didn’t need heating or cooling.  To top it off, I had great cell and internet signals from here so it was a great place to work from the beach!

But first, Millie had to walk the boardwalk and check that beach out!  She doesn’t like to swim in oceans, but she certainly likes to run in and out of the waves!



We enjoyed a pretty sunset sky on our first night on the island.

With no electricity, it got very dark on the island at night.  I took Millie out for her final walk before bedtime and used my big flashlight.  As we walked the camp road, I saw a small white object crawling sideways across the road….it was a crab!  I must have scared it half to death by pointing a flashlight at it!  Millie was rather curious too--- never had seen a crab on her evening walks before!

It rained most of the second day we were on the island, but there was a brief reprieve in the late afternoon, so I decided to get quickly over to the bay to go kayaking before the next wave of rain came in.  Only one problem…a herd of ponies decided to come visit the campground and were determined to block every single car in the campground from leaving!  (they actually were so fun to watch no one wanted to leave).

 

 

 

 

 

 

This little gal decided to call my campsite home for a while:

Finally, I decided I had to make a run for it.  I started the car and began to back up.  Ut oh, rats!, blocked by a pony behind me!


Ok, well I’ll just drive forward to get out of here….neyyy!!!  Think again yellow car!!!


These ponies actually seemed to be laughing at me… ha ha, camper, we own ya now!!!

Well, after this bit of horse play, they finally let me go on my way.  The bayside boat launch was wonderful, and Millie and I were on the water fairly quickly to go check out another herd of ponies grazing on a small island.

These ponies are good swimmers too and think nothing of swimming over to another island if the food looks more appealing.

There were lots of egrets enjoying the marshland as well:

The clouds began to roll in so we had to paddle back to shore and call it a day, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable hour on the water…and very glad the ponies allowed us to do so!

49 states in 49 years!

While the two main reasons for my quick trip out East were to see the Hershey RV show and to camp at Assateague Island, my third reason was to visit Delaware for the first time (my 49th visited state!).  So now, only one more state to go (and hoping I’ve saved the best for last!)… Hawaii.   I’ll save that for next year to take the gloom off of turning the big 5-0

Before getting to Delaware, I spent a few days getting to know Pennsylvania better.  I’d experienced the “edges” of this state a number of times (Philadelphia for business a few times, visited Gettysburg as a kid, and drove the toll road along the Lake Erie shore), but had never driven and explored the broad interior of the state before.  I have to say that I was thoroughly impressed!

I drove to Hershey via the northern East-West route of I-80 and then turned near State College (home of Penn State) to drive through the mountains and along the Juniata and Susquehanna rivers into Harrisburg and over to Hershey.  Even though it was a cloudy day, the hills, rivers, and farmlands made for a scenic and tranquil drive!

I camped a few days at the Hershey Thousand Trails Preserve RV Park.  I’m not a Thousand Trails member yet, but my emergency road service, Coach-Net, offered a discount deal if I purchased a ReadyCampGo card through the company that owns Thousand Trails and Encore resorts, ELS.  For a $25 annual fee, I get 15 nights of camping at an ELS resort at a discounted rate of $25/night.  A great no-risk way to test out ELS parks to see if I might want to buy one of their broader memberships in the future.  While a number of these parks also participate in the discount camping program I already subscribe to (Passport America, which offers 50% off the nightly rate on typically weekday and/or off-season stays), the ReadyCampGo card will offer a discounted rate for the times when the PA-rate is not available(weekends and in-season).

Hershey Preserve had just been flooded the week before by the torrential tropical storm rains that impacted much of the region, but fortunately, all except for one road within the park were now fully recovered.  That one closed road, though, made it very challenging to get to this site!


When you make a reservation at Thousand Trails, they don’t assign you to a campsite, but rather just tell you how many campsites remain.  As I was arriving on a Saturday, I knew that first night only had between 1-19 sites available.   When I arrived to the front gate, the park rep gave me a map and said I could go pick out any open site I wished.  While this normally is a great system, it’s not so great when there’s only 1-19 open sites in the huge park of 200+ sites, one of the main roads is closed, you’re towing a car and can’t back up, and the gate agent gives you absolutely no clue where the 1-19 available sites might be located……get a clue where this is going yet?

Yep, I finally experienced getting stuck in a spot for the first time where I couldn’t turn around and needed to un-hook the toad to back up.  Of course that happened just as it also started to pour rain!  So, let’s just say that my first impression of a Thousand Trails park was not very favorable

Fortunately, I had brought my little Dahon folding bike, so I just parked the toad where I unhitched it, put the bike in the motor home to go find the ever elusive available open sites, and once finally found, road my bike back to pick up the toad—fortunately, by then it had stopped raining!

After getting a good night’s rest, the park looked much more pleasing in the morning, and I actually ended up liking the park.  Sites were fairly big, there was a nice pond and walking trails, and oodles of amenities that I unfortunately didn’t have time to enjoy.  I also, unfortunately, didn’t have any time to explore the town of Hershey and it’s many tourist attractions after spending all day at the RV show, but it certainly looked like a pretty little town with lots to see and do.  I’ll need to plan a longer visit here next time!

 

Lots of Canada geese call this park home as well!



After working a few days from the RV, I drove to my next destination of Assateague Island, Maryland, where I planned to work a few more days from there.  The drive took me through a number of small towns in southeast Pennsylvania.  The towns all seem to have houses that are built similar to businesses and come right up to the sidewalks.
 

I also drove the backroads of Lancaster county where many Amish farms are located.  Lots of horse-drawn buggies on the roads, and a few even had turn signals!

 

 

 

 

 

You can tell you’re approaching an Amish farmhouse when you see the laundry out drying on the clothesline!


After all the interesting scenery of Lancaster county, the drive through Delaware was much less memorable.  The large peninsula known as “Delmarva” (Delaware/Maryland/Virginia), is fairly flat with coastal beaches on the Atlantic, numerous marshland coves on the bay side, and mostly farmland in between.

The biggest thing in Delaware (that I saw, at least) was Dover Air Force Base.  It’s huge, and home to the biggest transport planes in the military--.

Dover also serves as the main mortuary for troops killed overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan before they are returned home to their families.  An excellent movie, Taking Chance, featured some of the dignified work the personnel at Dover do to ensure each fallen soldier is prepared impeccably for their final trip home.

Delaware is only about 100 miles long, so in less than 2 hours I was now entering Maryland for the final leg of my trip to Assateague Island.

The Sweetest Place on Earth–Hershey RV Show!

Hershey, PA is not only home to America’s largest chocolate maker (thus, the town calls itself the “Sweetest Place on Earth”), but it’s also home to America’s Largest RV Show.  I had watched the annual special on HGTV called, RV 2011, RV 2010, etc. for a few years and always wanted to come see the show “live” in September (rather than have to wait until January for the TV show to air!), so with my trip out East already planned for Fall, I decided to make Hershey a stop!



This is indeed a massively large RV show!  It runs 5 days, takes up a large stadium and much of the parking lot around it, and has many smaller RV manufacturers in attendance who don’t normally go to the other RV shows around the country.  So, it was a great show to see some new and different things!

I had hoped to come a week early to attend the RV-Dreams Rally, but my work schedule was not going to be able to swing the time off. I still decided to stay at the park where the rally had been held, Thousand Trails Hershey Preserve.  I wanted to try and meet Howard & Linda, but my timing was a bit late as I watched them roll past my rig this morning on their way to their next destination.

But, I did get a great opportunity to meet another travel blogger today, Suzanne (who also reads my blog).  We met up at the show to peruse Winnebago’s many RVs on display.  Suzanne is hoping to full-time soon and is shopping for her 1st RV.  What a dizzying array of choices at the show for her to consider!

I have no idea what models the upcoming HGTV RV 2012 show will feature, but here are the ones that I found most interesting:

Small Travel Trailers:

The manufacturer who recently purchased and revived my beloved T@B brand, Little Guy, did not attend the show.  Little Guy is currently only making one of the T@B floorplans, leaving those wishing for the old T@B clamshell model out of luck.  But never fear, the new-aged retro trailer brand, R-Pod, now has a clamshell available…and it even has a slide-out as well as a full bath on the inside!  Pretty nifty:

Travel Trailers:
I’ve not seen Airstream attend an RV Show in over 5 years (apparently, they don’t think they need to), but there’s a new competitor aimed to give them a run for their money, Element RV.  Priced similar to Airstream (i.e. “expensive”), the Element uses modern materials and technology throughout it’s 24-26 foot designs.  No wood is used in the trailer at all, and the interiors are as “Euro” as I’ve ever seen for an American-made RV.

5th-Wheels:
There were plenty of boring white box 5th-Wheels on display with boring conservative interiors,  but a few started to break the mold.  Among these, this Elite Suites model featured windows that were not only flush-mounted, but “skinned” in the same paint scheme to become nearly invisible!

The interior of the Elite Suites was fairly conservative except for the neon blue accent lighting!

But, without a doubt, the most innovative 5th wheels on display were those from Open Range.  Here’s their 39’ model that has usual TV and fireplace, but also has a patio door leading to a large fold-out balcony!

The bathroom is innovative as well—a glass vessel sink!

And in the kitchen, a center island with a twist—it’s on wheels, and easily moves to where ever you want it!


Open Range did a very neat thing on one of their shorter 5th Wheel models.  They put folding countertop panels on the rolling island and made it double as the dinette!  Ingenious!


Class B and B+ Motorhomes:
The usual camper van manufacturers were there, such as Roadtek and Pleasure Way, but a few “B+” manufacturers were there as well, namely, Coachhouse Platinum and Born Free.  The Coach House 261XL CL on display was very intriguing for a “work from the road” RV’er—one of the benches of the dinette had been replaced with a free-standing dinette chair (which could easily be removed and replaced with an office chair if desired. Finally! Someone “gets” it!  Only problem was this coach was $135,000!
  
Born Free had some nice units too—exceptionally sturdy construction, but rather limited in interior décor options.

Class C Motorhomes
Of course, my vote here goes to the Winnebago View! It still was the highest-quality construction of any Class C’s I saw.  But for most outrageously innovative Class C?  That winner would be this Super C model with it’s own garage for your Nascar racer, and a balcony on the roof to watch the race from!  Insane!


Class A Motorhomes:
Tiffin and Winnebago had some very nice, high-quality Class A’s on display (I liked the interior décor of the Winnebago better, though).  If I were wanting a giant motorhome to replace my house, the Winnebago Journey 40U would certainly be on my short list!

But for pure design innovation, the Monaco Vesta was quite different looking on the outside.  Unfortunately, the interior was not as efficient or innovative.

Park Models:
The largest units of wheels look more like mini-mobile homes and are meant to be semi-permanently parked at an RV resort.  I really liked this unit by Fork Creek.  At $79,000, it wasn’t much more than a 5th Wheel, but had vaulted ceilings, a full sized kitchen, a computer desk nook, and a neat mirror in the bedroom that allowed the TV behind it to project through the glass!

After a long day at the show, my feet were sore and it was a long walk back to the parking lot.  Where, oh where, did I park my car?


I really love having my little yellow Tracker!!!