Today was one of those days that have been a long time coming. When I was in 4th grade my teacher read Justin Morgan had a Horse to us after lunch every day. So I had to read more horse books. I found Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry. This book was written in the 40’s. In this book we learned about the wild horses on Chincoteague or Assateague Island. These horses are descendants of domesticated animals brought to the island 300 years ago. These horses are descendants of Spanish horses. They do a round up of the horses twice a year. The first one is in April. They check the horses out and they receive vet care. They round up a second time the end of July. This is the 100th anniversary of the roundup. They take the young foals and sell those to raise funds for the upkeep of the older herds. When they round them up the horses run along the beach and that would be really fun to see.
Getting there. Look at the following map. You can see Chincoteague at the upper right hand side. Now look down at the line that goes between the words Newport News, all that area is a bridge with tunnels!!! I don’t like bridges. I think it has something to do with the old Guntersville bridge I had to learn to drive on. It was very narrow and trucks had to stop and get a lead car before they could go across. Now throw in two tunnels in the middle of this bridge that go under the water. It was not a fun drive through that part. There was one more long bridge with tunnel too just to the west of that one. Once we got off the bridges it was a nice drive.
I got a picture or two of the bridge.
We did stop at a pretty nice antique mall to walk around for a few minutes. This one had a couple things we found interesting. There were two autographed Alabama national championship footballs. They wanted $750 for one so we left it there. They also had several Daniel Moore Bama prints including Goal Line Stand. Must be some displaced Alabama fans in Virginia.
We drove into the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge in search of the horses. This is a marshland area. But just like in Yellowstone seeing a lot of cars pulled off the road is a sure sign Simeon has spotted something. And that is how we found the horses. They were clustered in a group and a pretty good piece off the road.
It was neat to see them.
We took a short hike to see the lighthouse.
There are some pretty murals in town.
We ate at Ropewalk. It was on the water with fresh seafood.
Our server knew the assignment well. I don’t think I’ve ever had a glass so big. It was good tea too.
There were several Reagan things in the restaurant. I asked someone about it. She said that the owner’s father was on Reagan’s secret service detail. I thought that was pretty neat.
We drove around and saw some sites and looked at some pretty houses. Joe had spotted Island Creamery on our way into town. And Mr. Vanilla had to try a vanilla milkshake
I had cherry. It had fresh cherries in it and it was good.
We checked out a store that had some cute things outside.
We even saw a NASA facility on the way.
It was a fun day even if we did have to cross very long bridges with tunnels. Tomorrow we head to York which is our final destination of this trip. This is the location of this year’s Gilbert show. I’m thinking I might find a quilt shop or two in the area.
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