Bridges, Bays, & Beaches

When planning a route back to NC for the holidays, our goal must have been let’s see how many bridges we can take. And to visit Assateague Island National Seashore.

We crossed the Rappahannock, the Potomac, and took the Bay Bridge (Highway 50 from Annapolis) to the Delmarva Peninsula. Delmarva is an acronym for Delaware and the Eastern Shores of Maryland and Virginia. Our first stop was our first Harvest Hosts location – Outstanding Dreams Alpaca Farm. I had been wanting to use Harvest Hosts since we first started RVing in 2017. It is an agrotourism program that gives RVers a free alternative to spend the night and an extra customer for the winery, brewery, or farm.

Of course, because this is 2020 and also Mary and Michael MISadventures we had a little drama. Hurricane Zeta had just dumped a lot of rain over the area the day before. Michael sent me out with the host to scope things out. Then, this happened.

Lucky for us, the neighbor used to work at an off-roading park and she enjoys getting people unstuck. Things improved after that and we had a great stay and meet and greet with the alpacas.

The next day we continued on to Delaware Seashore State Park. This is the most RV Park looking State Park we have ever been to. But it is in between the towns of Rehoboth and Bethany Beaches and there is a cool view of the Indian River Bridge. We practically had the place to ourselves during the week in November.

While Michael worked I did fun things, like take the truck for an oil change and laundry. We also walked to the beach, walked the trails, and watched gorgeous sunsets every evening.

Lauren had recommended we take the Lewes-Cape May Ferry over to Cape May, NJ to check out the end of the Fall Migration, which we did on our Saturday in Delaware. While we didn’t see much migration, we had a good time exploring the Cape. New Jersey had not been anywhere on our travel bucket list, but the Cape left us wanting more. We will certainly return one day to spend more time.

Cape May is one of the country’s oldest vacation destinations and one of the world’s top birding locations. The beaches are wide and the town is walkable and has blocks of Victorian homes that are B&Bs.

Next, we moved south to the Eastern Shore of Maryland where we stayed at the Bayside Campground inside Assateague Island National Seashore. Assateague, and neighboring Chincoteague, each has a herd of wild horses. Folklore has it that they are descendants of Spanish shipwreck survivors but there is no actual record of this. The NPS obviously wants you to keep a distance from the horses, as they are feral, but they did not seem skittish around people at all. In fact, every time we opened the door we had to look around and make sure one wasn’t munching on the grass right next to the camper before stepping out. If you stay at this campground I think you are guaranteed to see the horses.

Unfortunately, our week at Assateague was cut short. We were taking the 17.8 mile Highway 13 Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel across the mouth of the bay and high winds were forecasted. High enough that we wouldn’t have been allowed to cross. If nothing else, full-time RVing will make us more flexible. And more aware of the weather.