No Direction Home: Assateague Island

October 5, 2021

Assateague Island

Having spent a couple of nights in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, it was time for Kathy and I to hit the road on our meandering week-long trek home to Key West during which we planned to take our time and without any firm agenda just sort of visit places of interest along the way and enjoy a vacation with just the two of us.

Our first destination was Chincoteague and Assateague Island, Virginia where we planned to stay a couple of nights and visit the wild ponies at the Assateague Island National Seashore, but before getting there we had a couple of additional stops along the way to eat and visit another National Monument in Maryland.

Upon leaving Alexandria, Kathy and I drove into downtown Washington DC with the expressed intent of going to have lunch at the famed Ben’s Chili Bowl. A landmark institution in Washington DC, Ben’s Chili Bowl has been a go-to restaurant since opening in 1958. Known for its chili dogs, half smokes and milkshakes, Ben’s caters to the neighborhood as well as the myriad of celebrities and politicians who flock to the original U Street location in droves.

It is one of those iconic foodie experiences that I just had to experience, and Kathy and I were there for a great lunch before hitting the road again. Once back on the highway, we took another break in Cambridge, Maryland to visit both the Harriet Tubman Museum and Educational Center as well as the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historic Site.

The museum, located along the main street of the town of Cambridge is small, but features a great deal of info and some interesting display on the life and story of Harriet Tubman who grew up in slavery at what has now been transformed in a National Historic Site that celebrates Tubman and all others involved in maintaining the Underground Railway before and during the Civil War.

It was a cool, informative and interesting, if not somewhat sobering experience, but as someone who views Harriet Tubman as a true American heroine, it was well worth the time. After our visit we drove on to our hotel on Chincoteague Island on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

Chincoteague is best known for the wild ponies that inhabit nearby Assateague Island, just over a short bridge, which is now a National Seashore where the ponies are protected. Kathy had been to the area a couple of times previously including for the annual pony round-up and auction, which happens once a year to cull the herd and keep the ponies population balanced.

This was my first visit to the beautiful and quaint area that was probably made most famous due to Marguerite Henry’s 1947 book of classic children’s literature, “Misty of Chincoteague” and the 1961 film version of the book, “Misty”. Kathy certainly was influenced to visit because of the book.

We had a boat tour booked first thing the next morning after arriving with a great company called Up The Bay Pony Tours. Captain Mike was great as we had our own private tour out onto the Cheseapeake Bay. The trip is billed as mainly a pony watching tour, but it is really an all-inclusive wildlife experience as we saw bottlenose dolphins, a large assortment of birds including a bald eagle as well as the famous ponies, which his low draft boat was able to come right up to the shore within a few feet of the beautiful wild creatures which seemed nonplussed by our proximity.

It was a wonderful and amazing experience and it was only the first day of our time in this beautiful area. Seeing the wild ponies so close was a wonderful adventure and I hope to get back again soon.