This Uh Oh isn’t my fault

Tuesday October 1, 2013
Assateague National Seashore
Maryland

 

 

Well they did it.  They shut the government down. 

 

Of course you already know all about it since I’m so far behind on my blog.  The republicans refused to send a bill without riders to deal with the question of spending.   The democrats refused anything that wasn’t a clean spending bill.  Whatever your political persuasion I hope you will agree that riders are ridiculous.  A bill should be a discussion about a single issue.  If you have another issue then you write another bill.  Too much sneaking crap into popular bills that then becomes law when it should have to stand on its own merit for examination.   OK, enough politics.

 

 

So what does this mean to us? 

 

Pretty clear it means we won’t be able to stay even our shortened 5 days here in paradise.  I’m pretty bummed.  I ask at the ranger station

“When do we have to leave?”

“In 48 hours”

“48 hours from when?”

“We don’t know yet.”

“Will someone let us know?”

“Yes, someone will come around.”

 

 

So for now we are just going about business as usual and enjoying this marvelous place.

 

That means going over to the ocean side to get in that wonderful water.  When we get there, the horses are grazing around the ocean side campground.  There are several bands of horses in the park.  About 100 horses in all, divided up into bands of about 4 to 10.   This band is different from the one at our site yesterday.  The tan structure in the picture is the cold shower.  One stall on each side.   The black stacks are from the stand alone pit toilets.

 

 

 

They really are beautiful horses who take care of themselves.  There is no feeding or handling of the horses by park staff.  Unlike Chincoteague where the ponies are forced to swim across the water to an auction, the herd is kept a reasonable size for its environment by shooting contraceptive darts at the mares for several years and then allowing them to foul twice to keep the gene pool from interbreeding.   There is a great video shown in the Visitor’s Center all about it.

 

 

 

 

If you didn’t already know, you can easily see which one of us is the real water fan.

 

David didn’t get any pictures of the waves splashing me in the face or of me very far into the water but it was terrific!  I’m as excited as I run out as I was when I went in.

 

 

 

 

After I come back, David goes out but he’s not as sure about it.  He’ll keep his hat and shirt on.  Just get his feet wet.  Wonder why he wears his bathing suit?

 

 

 

I have to say this is my very favorite place to be.

 

 

 

 

The waves today are again just fantastic.  Big and crashing.  Coming one right after another.

 

 

 

 

I spend the entire day on the beach.  As the sun sinks down in the sky, it cools off and I use my beach towel for cover so I don’t have to leave.   But finally it is time to go for dinner.  Pretty sure I’ll be back tomorrow. 

 

 

On my way out I see these guys still at it snacking the day away.  Sure wish I could do that.  But then I’d probably also weight 700 or so pounds.  Not a pretty picture to think about.

 

 

 

After dinner, we set out to see where we can watch the sunset since we can’t see it from our bayside campsite.  The sun is setting earlier and earlier now that we are past Fall Equinox and into the count down to winter.

 

On the way we see these little Sitka deer, a doe and two fawns.   The wildlife here is wonderful.  Earlier we saw a flock of turkey.  No camera then.

 

 

 

 

There is a nice picnic area right on the main water of the bay and we have a beautiful sunset to end our superb day at the beach.  It seriously doesn’t get much better than this.