One of the best parts of camping is getting up early and having that first cup of morning coffee in peace and quiet, often with a beautiful view, before the rest of the crew gets moving. But this morning we slept in a little bit and then we watched Gayle King take her trip to space with the all-female Blue Origin crew before venturing out to enjoy the sunshine. Although the temps still made it sweater weather, it wasn’t raining, and the wind was light and warm. Let’s all remember how this trip started – scraping snow off Kevin’s roof.
Heading into Ocean City, we enjoyed a fun lunch at the super-cool Bad Monkey Restaurant before hitting the Baja Go-Kart Center in Ocean City. This was just what the kids needed – a way to burn off some energy and another chance to compete. It is impossible not to smile when you are whipping around the track trying to pass your sister, your friend, a complete stranger.,someone’s grandma. (Is it wrong to pretend you don’t know your own kid when he’s just about sideswiped a grandma on the Slick Track? Asking for a friend.). What amazes me is how busy these Go-Kart tracks are all the time. It also amazes me that the boys never got tired of the Go-Karts! We probably could have fed them a snack and circled back to pick them up the next morning.
While Rob and I sat out of Go-Karting, we did get to take an afternoon walk, just the two of us, down the Life of the Dunes trails, a sandy trail about a mile long, right near the Over Sand Vehicle Area of the park. Rob is a fast walker and long legged, while I have a more compact stature (stumpy legs) and sometimes (always) find myself half running to keep up with him. I know the back of him very well because this is what I’m looking ahead at most of the time. Part of the trail includes an old road from the 1950s that was destroyed during a hurricane and was never repaired. It’s great for climbing and you can get a nice peek at the ocean if you stand on top. When you jump off the road back onto the path, you should know that you will not land on solid ground, but rather uneven sand that gives way. When I hit the sand, face first, all I could think about was how horrifying it was going to be when the rangers had to drag me out of the trail on a stretcher. Fortunately, the only thing hurt was my pride. After he made sure I was not injured, Rob did what anyone else would do in this situation – he took a picture.
Road tripping in an RV means going with the flow and being adaptable to new situations. It also means that at any given point in the trip, you will need to know how long it would take to get you to the nearest Walmart or Tractor Supply Company. First of all, if you don’t visit Walmart at least three times on your road trip, are you even living? I love a good Walmart visit in another state. You might not realize it, but Walmarts carry very region-specific items, usually in the aisles right by the registers. We knew we were in the vicinity of the Mason-Dixon when we discovered pecan-nougat Easter eggs on the shelves. You also know you’re not in Connecticut when you come away from Walmart with plastic grocery bags – at no charge. We now have a bag of bags in the camper, giving early 2000s vibes.
Why the sudden trip to Walmart? Six people use a lot of water and we ran low – so low that we were in danger of running out. Now, keep in mind that we were about 50 yards from a spigot, but the thought of moving Kevin just to fill the tank with enough water to get us through until the morning seemed unreasonable. So, we ran out to buy a 6-gallon portable water tank. This will also be useful in the future, as we plan on doing more dry camping in National Parks where there are no hookups.
While we were out supporting the economy and troubleshooting our water transportation issue, Kai and Jools had some fun of their own. They made a steak dinner, complete with beans and potatoes (that didn’t quite cook) on Kai’s new camping grill. They also built a campfire in the fire ring on the dune and sat around it to eat their meal. It’s pretty awesome to see how self-sufficient they can be when they have a goal, although I was half convinced we were going to come back to the RV and find one or more of the boys with no eyebrows. Sometimes, you just have to trust that everything will turn out fine. After dark, Kai and Jools continued their evening of adventure and took off down the beach with their flashlights down to look for horseshoe crabs. And I ended my night by taking our new 6-gallon water tank to the spigot to fill it up with water douse the campfire so we didn’t get a middle of the night visit from the Assateague Island Park Rangers.
Tomorrow we move on to Williamsburg. Assateague Island has been one of my favorite places to stay, and though I wish it were a few degrees warmer, I don’t know if I would want to camp here in the height of summer. Between the heat, the bugs, and the massive crowds, I’m not sure I would find it so charming. This little visit was quite perfect.
Wandering, But Not Lost 