Getting Eaten Alive

     

        Thursday, Sept. 8 - headed for Eastern Shore of VA             

It was hard to say goodbye to dear Teresa in NC.  Our visit was much too short.  She had many things to do, and I had many miles to go.  The drive up to the Eastern Shore of VA was rather pleasant.  The drive across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel was a shriek-inducing experience!  This 17.6  mile engineering marvel was spectacular.  Just before the first tunnel, there's actually an island that holds a gift shop, restaurant and fishing pier.  The views were amazing, and every light pole had a gull perched atop (wish I could remember what I learned at Gull Frolic!)

There are 2 mile-long tunnels that I will say are a bit freaky - single lane, no shoulder - heck barely enough room to get through.  High rise bridge near the other side, crashing waves and birds soaring by.  Loved it! 

First Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel

              Nearing the Eastern Shore on the CBBT

Best town name on the Eastern Shore

After checking in to my hotel, I high-tailed it for the refuge which was just a few miles up the road.  Ponies, I saw a few ponies in a marsh! It was getting dark and a thick fog had rolled in, but I could see them.

Pony in the mist

Went to the end of the road at Tom's Cove and walked along the beach. Enormous, crashing waves and a wonderful breeze. Aaaah, the smell of the ocean and the cries of the gulls...

Day 2

Ok, having spent my early years in Louisiana, I thought I had seen mosquitoes.  Jumpin' Jackalopes, I was not prepared for the numbers and viciousness of the blood-suckers at the wildlife refuges here.  I have never seen anything like it.  Despite deadly (to me, but apparently not to mosquitoes) quantities of nuclear-strength OFF, I soon found that getting out of the car was as risky as climbing over guardrails at the edge of a cliff.   My first stop was the lighthouse trail and I had to run to the lighthouse, take a couple of quick photos, and run back to the car.  Safe inside.  NOT.  About 100 of them got in with me.  Swatting and slapping and swearing.  Not necessarily in that order.

Assateague Lighthouse - in the mist

Back to the beach.  Lots of cool birds, still foggy, big waves, but the breeze kept the mosquitoes away.  New bird for the life list - Black Skimmer.  Yay!

Stops at both visitor centers - very nice.  Back to hotel to don long pants/sleeves.  Back to the trail.  I'll thwart those skeeters.  Not.  Arms, legs, head covered - they go for the face!  I decided that the only way I'd see any wildlife this trip was from the car.  Or if they knocked on my hotel room door.

I spent a pleasant afternoon in downtown Chincoteague.  A few cute galleries and shops; picked up lunch.  Back to change clothes again, back to the beach.  Enjoyed a fabulous sandwich, watching the crazy sanderlings race about the shore as the waves crashed behind them.  I waded in, used my scoop net and hoping for shells.  Instead pulled up a few teeny crabs and some weird bugs - which I later found out were "sand crabs" - also known as "sand fleas."  EEK!  I was told "don't let them get in your pants."  Oh thanks - I'll try to remember that!

Beach - in the mist