Assateague Island

Jill's Journal: Yesterday was our first full day on Assateague Island and three major things stand out to me as I look back.

1). The Atlantic Ocean! Three little girls could have chased waves all day long. The laughter, the happy squeals, the pure joy…as hard as it can be to travel with children (and trust me, it can be hard), that made it all worth it. They were in heaven. I thought we’d just dip our toes in (hence clothing instead of bathing suits), but the strong waves knocked all three over repeatedly (which they loved) and they were drenched from head to toe. And the sand…how does sand migrate to places on children “where the sun don’t shine”? Ugh.


One more note…how often does one get to play in the waves with ponies just 50 feet away, also cooling their toes?




2). Ospreys. We decided for the first time ever to make hot dogs. And s’mores. And do it over a campfire. Imagine our shock and surprise when a bold osprey (or sea-hawk) swooped down and stole three hot dogs off the plate! It all happened in the blink of an eye. Erika was a little traumatized, but I think the s’mores soon erased any worries. :)



3). Ponies, ponies, ponies everywhere, including a small herd that took a particular liking to our campsite. One stallion, four mares, one foal. We all watched in wonder for quite some time. The foal was incredibly playful…running, neighing, chewing on our car, and trying to steal the girls’ Cinderella scooter! They got a huge kick out of that.

We made the girls come inside and stand in the doorway of the fifth wheel…close enough that they could have touched the ponies if we’d let them, but safe enough that we could have whisked them out of harm’s way in an instant. Although we’ve seen many people do otherwise, ranger-enforceable law on this island is that these ponies are not to be touched. They are wild and do not share the same responses to people that domesticated horses do. When people touch them, they not only endanger themselves (we’ve heard many stories of people getting severely bitten), but they also remove any fear or respect these animals have for humans. And these ponies are scavengers – they go after people’s food and will attack, just like a bear or other wild animal.

These wild ponies are actually the descendants of horses and are technically small, pony-sized horses. It is believed about 300 years ago, a Spanish galleon with a load of horses shipwrecked just off the coast and the horses swam ashore. They mixed with local stock – nearby farmers on the mainland would “hide” their horses on the island to avoid taxation of livestock. They had to be hardy to survive here with the harsh summers and harsh winters and little food. Eventually over time, they began “shrinking” to make best use of the little food they did have and are now the size of large ponies.

The current horses here are left completely wild, with no veterinary care or other intervention, except a contraceptive dart to alternating mares. The state of Maryland tries to keep the numbers at around 150-175, since the island can’t fully support more than that. The ponies all have bloated bellies because they drink about twice the amount of water as normal horses due to their salty, marshy diet.

And they're just so darn cute!

Wanderlust

/Jill's Journal: A new year; another step closer to scratching our wanderlust itch. We think this will be a quiet year for us as we prepare for the RV launch in 2010. We have just two major family goals:

1). Keep the status quo with our little family. In other words, keep everybody healthy and happy as we enjoy every day together.

2). Conquer that tax debt! Barring any unforeseen setbacks, our very aggressive goal is to be debt-free by the end of October. It requires commitment and sacrifice, but we’ve already made some major headway over the past six or seven months. We are dedicated and determined.

By the way, I’ve always loved the word “wanderlust.” I remember discovering it as a kid and thinking it was a positively delicious word! It also sums up an affliction I’ve had since I was very young. I’ve always loved to travel, always craved travel. I remember being 13 and literally begging my parents to let me use my life savings for a trip to England (especially as my fave band, Wham!, had just broken up and planned a farewell concert in London, but that’s beside the point). Naturally, my parents said no (I can’t imagine why!), especially as I planned to go by myself, and I thought I would just die from their stamp of refusal!! Somehow I managed to survive the crushing blow (!) and got a job as a travel agent before high school graduation. I put myself through college on my meager travel agent pittance and was fortunate to do more traveling in seven years than many people get to do in a lifetime.

I finally did get that trip to London and over a dozen more to Europe during those years (and certainly have visited a good portion of the U.S. and a few other countries), but like anyone stricken with wanderlust, I ache for more! I’m fortunate to have a husband who, although he probably doesn’t quite crave travel the way I do, definitely enjoys adventure and seeing the world.

Patience is a Virtue

Jill's Journal: Patience is not one of my stronger suits. Oh sure, I have an abundance of patience with my girls and my husband, but not so much in just about every other area of my life. I’m very much an “immediate satisfaction” kind of girl. And that is why waiting until 2010 to fulfill this dream is a great challenge for me! I want to do it now. Right now.

So why is 2010 the magic year? Well, we’re not jumping into this lightly. Luckily, even if I didn’t get the patience gene, I did get the logical and responsible gene. The primary reasons we’re waiting another year and a half to “fulltime” it in an RV include:

*A major life change like this with small children attached takes some planning! And plans have begun in earnest. We want to be fully prepared in every way possible. Much research goes into everything from finding the most compatible RV home for our family to little things like dealing with the girls’ well-child doctor appointments from the road.

*A four-letter word called debt. This, to me, is one of the ugliest words in the English language. I despise debt. We’ve been working hard for quite some time to eliminate ours. Earlier this year, we could actually see daylight. We were so close to being debt-free (including student loans!) that we could taste it. And then an evil three-letter word intervened: the IRS. A mistake we made on our taxes some years ago came back to haunt us and we were quickly blindsided with enough penalties and interest to make our knees buckle. The amount rivaled that of a new car. A rather nice new car. So, we had little choice but to push all our financial goals – like buying a new house or now, an RV – back two years so we can focus on our tax debt. We call it the two-year plan! If all goes like we hope it does, by 2010, we’ll have zero debt with the grand exception of our mortgage. That’s what I call an exciting prospect!

*Schooling. Our girls are young and right now only our oldest is in preschool, but we still don’t want to uproot them in the middle of the school year. In the fall of 2010, Erika will be ready for 1st grade, Madelyn will be starting second-year preschool, and Victoria will still be a year away from preschool. Although home schooling has never been something I’ve wanted to do, we can all handle it for a year. We think it’s better to do it for one continuous school year than interrupt a school year already in progress, so summer is our launching goal. I’m already checking into requirements and paperwork and how home schooling works in the state of Kentucky, which will remain our home base.

*Kristi and Adam. My sister and her new husband committed to Kentucky through May, 2010. Kristi arrived here from California nearly a year ago, got married this summer, and will finish nursing school at University of Kentucky in May, 2010. It is such a wonderful treat to have them here and we enjoy their company immensely. Who knows if we’ll ever get to live this close again? We don’t want to leave during their too-short tenure in our town!