Virginia Landing, Quinby, Virginia – June 20-26, 2016

Compared to the last couple of weeks when we hit historical Virginia quite hard, this week was rather laid back and quiet. We did do a few things, which I think you’ll find interesting.

Monday was the day for catching up on computer stuff: email, publishing the blog, etc. The WiFi in our park is really slow so we packed up our gear and headed for the nearest McDonald's, which is about 8 miles away. We also picked up a few groceries on the way back to the park—after we stopped at the local Chamber of Commerce/Tourist Bureau to get information on the area.

We started our touristy stuff on Tuesday, by driving up to Chincoteague and Assateague islands for the day. Our first stop on Chincoteague Island was to the Pony Center, where we got up close and personal with some of the famous Chincoteague ponies, both those who have made the swim from Assateague Island to nearby Chincoteague Island for the annual “pony penning,” and the descendants from the famous “Misty” (from the “Misty of Chincoteague” book). 

From there we headed to the Assatague Island National Seashore. Here again we took of our Senior Pass for National Parks, which got us in for free. 

We were fortunate to come upon some of the wild horses that roam freely on the island. Here are some photos and a bit of info on them.

Due to the low quality diet, they have changed genetically so they’re now pony size even though they’re still considered horses. Their bloated appearance is due to their high salt content diet; they drink over twice the amount of water that domesticated animals drink. The horses live in family groups called “bands,” and each band is made up of 2-10 mares and their offspring, and a stallion. We saw only this one band even though there are about 150 horses on the island. In the scorching heat of summer they spend most of their time on the beaches and in the surf—it also helps them escape the flies and mosquitoes so prevalent during this time of year. In the cooler winter months they’ll move back into the marshes and shrub thickets. About 60-90 foals are born every year, so we were fortunate to see the one above. Privately owned by Virginia’s Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Department, most of the foals are sold at an animal auction every summer, which keeps the number of horses at a healthy number.  (There is also a herd of wild horses on the Maryland coast, kept separate from those in Virginia, which are not rounded up or sold. Their numbers are kept to less than 125 horses, and are controlled by a non-hormonal, non-invasive vaccine to prevent pregnancy that is delivered by dart.)

Pony Penning started in 1925. The story actually begins when 2 fires hit Chincoteague, one in 1920 and the other in 1924. The fires burned out of control for lack of firefighting equipment, and from this the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company was formed. Someone casually commented that a good way to raise money would be to auction off some of the wild horses that roamed freely on nearby Assateague Island. As a result, “Pony Penning Day” was born. July 1925 was the first time the ponies could be seen swimming across the channel to Chincoteague. Most of the “Saltwater Cowboys,” who round up the horses, are from Chincoteague, but they come from near and far to participate. And, the fire company raised enough money to buy the equipment they needed: a 750-gallon pumper with 2,000 feet of hose. Since then there have been no catastrophic fires on Chincoteague. Pony auctions bring in, on average, close to $3,000 per foal, and only 50-60 are auctioned off per year.

While we were watching the horses we met John and Rebecca, a couple from Wisconsin who were on their honeymoon. We chatted with them for quite a while as we were watching the horses off in the distance.

 Farther down the island we stopped at the national seashore, and roamed through the museum and gift shop, run by the Forest Service. The boardwalk took us over a marshy area that gave us a great overview of some fiddler crabs below.

 
On the way back from Assateague Island, we stopped at the Assateague Lighthouse, which has been around since the early 1800s. The lighthouse was a couple city blocks from the parking lot, and when we got to it we were assaulted by hundreds of mosquitoes. (I’ve never seen so many mosquitoes at one time! Minnesota has nothing on that place!)

We headed to Old Town on Chincoteague Island to have some “linner” (our meal between lunch and dinner). After driving through the entire old town area, we decided to eat at Don’s Seafood Restaurant., where we noshed on shrimp and crab. So good!

Then, it was next door to Lil Whippy’s for some Gelato. The perfect ending to a perfect time on the islands! While we were there we met these cute little guys.

As we neared the mainland we decided to stop at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, their most active launch range, used for launching scientific balloons and research rockets. It was so interesting. Formed in 1945, Wallops is primarily a rocket launch site to support science and exploration missions for NASA and other Federal agencies. More than a dozen types of sounding rockets, small expendable suborbital and orbital rockets, and high altitude balloon flights carrying scientific instruments for atmospheric and astronomical research are launched from here. They also launch flight tests of aeronautical research aircraft including unmanned aerial vehicles. Since it was founded, over 16,000 launches have been made from their site.

On the way back through our RV park we saw these creatures. Actually, we saw the turtle at our site.

Wednesday morning we rode our bikes around the park for about ½ hour.  The area is flat and perfect for novice bike riders—like us…ha! After a few maintenance things at the camper Dick rode his motorcycle for about 50 miles through the back country roads. A doe ran across the road in front of him, but he wasn’t able to get a photo of her. 

Later, we met Steve and Kathy from Maryland, who are also full-timers, and who are camping in our park ‘til Wednesday. Was good to talk with fellow full-timers!

Heavy rain pelted us on Thursday morning, with lots of thunder. It stormed until about 10:30, when the skies cleared and the sun came out—just in time for our little venture to the Railroad Museum in Parksley, VA.  We enjoyed touring the vintage cars, train station and museum.

We had lunch at a local Mexican restaurant, Tequeria El Sol. Was quite expensive, and we really wouldn’t recommend it.

Friday morning we headed into Painter, Virginia to the Hair Loft, for a long overdue haircut. It had been over 7 weeks since my last cut, and I had had enough! Thankfully, Shelby was a great beautician, and able to cut it to my liking…all for $18. Then, it was home to do laundry and relax. We spent the remainder of the afternoon relaxing—quite different from the last couple of weeks.

Saturday was a windy and hot day so we didn’t spend a long period of time outdoors on our patio--just enough to get some rays and read a bit.

Sunday morning we ate breakfast early and headed out the door to catch the 10:00 am passenger boat from Ononcock, Virginia to Tangier Island, Virginia. The ride over took about an hour and 15 minutes. But what a beautiful ride—and day! Our new friends Steve and Kathy were also on board, so we spent some time with them, too.

Our captain, Mark Crockett, is a Tangier native, is the 3^rd generation “waterman,” who loves the island and loves being able to raise his family in this serene location. Tangier is located about 12 miles from the mainland, and the trip across takes about 1 hour 15 minutes. We traveled back in time to this small, picturesque island that is only 2.5 miles long and 1.5 miles wide, although only 1/3 of it is habitable. The rest is marshland. Only about 500 people live on this island now (the 2010 census noted there were 727), and most are waterman—men who work the Chesapeake Bay, harvesting the abundance of seafood it offers. It’s only about 3 feet above sea level, so there is a lot of marshy area, even in town and surrounding the homes there. A unique English Restoration-era dialect of American English is spoken there, so it behooves you to pay close attention when speaking to a native!

We arrived just before lunch, so Dick and I headed to Loraine’s, a local restaurant, for a lunch of cream of crabmeat soup, a crab cake sandwich (that we split), salad and ½ pound of peel and eat shrimp. YUM-YUM!

Tangier Island is quite an interesting place. It was known as a summer retreat for the Pocomoke Indians from Virginia, for centuries. Their existence on the island is known from the thousands of arrowheads and spear points that have been found all over the island. Thousands of oyster shells have been found in an “oyster midden” (a huge dump of oyster shells, not natural) that is further evidence that these Indians inhabited this island. Captain John Smith first visited the island in 1608, but didn’t settle there. Instead he traveled farther inland to the mainland of what we know as Virginia. 

Today many of the Tangier natives still have the English surnames, Crockett, Pruitt, Thomas, Marshall, Charnock, Dise, Shores and Parks—all descendants of the early settlers to the island. By 1900 there were 1,064 inhabitants. Over the years this number has declined, partly due to epidemics of cholera in 1866, followed by tuberculosis and measles, and in the 1800s there was smallpox. We noticed quite a few grave markers with dates coinciding with the dates of these horrible times.

The British used the island as a staging area during the War of 1812, when there were as many as 1,200 British troops on the island. Many slaves escaped captivity on the mainland, fleeing to Tangier Island, where there were given their freedom. Tangier was used for the failed British assault on Baltimore, which was the influence for the writing of our national anthem by Francis Scott Key.

One curiosity we found was the old custom of burying relatives in the front yards of their homes. This was a common practice in colonial America—and if you so desire, you can still do that, although there are now churchyard cemeteries at each of the island churches (Methodist and New Testament Church). Concrete vaults are buried into the sandy soil of the island, only 3-4 feet deep, due to the high water table, so the tops of the vaults are visible.

Today the people of Tangier Island still rely on crabbing and oystering for their livelihood. Scattered in the bays around the island are free-standing docks where crabs are sorted and held while they moult, turning them into the soft shell crabs that are so, so good! Recent government regulations have put a strain on this island, as the regs have cut back harvesting from 12 months to just 7. The watermen negate the claim that their harvesting is desecrating the bay of a viable source of seafood. Sad…

There are very few cars on the island, with folks relying on golf carts, mopeds, bicycles, and of course walking to get around. The speed limit is just 15 mph so that’s a good thing. There’s just 1 grocery store, 4 restaurants, a few souvenir stores, 2 churches as I mentioned, and a couple of inns. There’s also a medical facility, open Monday through Friday, with a PA onsite; a doctor comes in once a week from the mainland. The tourist industry is the only other money-making industry on the island, besides crabbing.

Television is available, as is WiFi which was brought to the island in 2010. There’s very limited cell service. The school, grades K-12, boasted a 2016 graduating class of 7. There’s one policeman on this island, and no jail—very little crime. A small airport is on the island, for small planes only.

Tangier Island is a “dry” island, so no alcohol is sold here. If you do bring your own, it’s recommended that you drink it discreetly, and not in public. Producers wanted to film the 1999 Kevin Costner film Message in a Bottle here, but the town council declined the offer due to the movie’s drinking, profanity and sex. Traditional religious values still dominate the community.

Here are some photos for you to enjoy.

The boat ride home was only about an hour, after which we joined new friends Steve and Kathy at a nearby restaurant, Mallards, for a bit of libation. We were entertained by a solo musician and his guitar—actually quite good—for a little over an hour before heading back to our camper. The day was beautiful—sunny, a bit of a breeze, and warm, with temps in the low 80s, so it was one to remember!

That’s it for this week. Stay tuned for more exciting adventures from “Cummings and goings…” next week!

Hugs to y’all!

RJ and Gail