DWG Wildlife Pictures

We saw a lot of of wildlife when we were in the water gap, and got a few pictures but most of it we didn't manage to photograph. Some of the critters we saw were a very large and long-haired skunk who sauntered through the camp without a care while I was cooking one evening.  She dug through the fire-pit a bit, clearly looking for leftovers, then mosied on down to the river. I'll admit I was more concerned with keeping myself at a distance than grabbing the camera but she was really beautiful.

There were several deer that had no worries about strolling along the road, Rob even biked behind one for a ways who just couldn't be bothered to run away.

In the field on the way to the bathroom several bunnies and a couple of woodchucks, also fairly fearless were spotted. 

The most variety though was in the water, so many ducks, herons, geese, fish, frogs...and the occasional canoe and kayakers.  I was still figuring out the camera so the pictures aren't very good but I just loved this duck's head-feathers.  

 We found this interesting guy crawling on Rob's bike. Now that's a "do not touch" display if I ever saw one!

On the island in the river a heron landed to do some fishing.

 And here's a non-zoom photo, just for perspective (and to show that our camera is awesome!)

Next time I get to internet I'll put up the pictures from the pine barrens and Assateague.

Delaware Water Gap Pictures

So here are some photos of our campsite at Worthington State Forest campground in New Jersey.  Worthington is tucked right in the south end of the water gap and the campground has been our favorite so far.

Unloading and assessing 

Slightly different view

 This was the view from our campsite. That's the Delaware River folks, the same one Washington crossed! (but he crossed much further south)

Looking downstream

Looking upstream

 What a terrible sight to wake up to every day right? :P

Here's Rob updating the log book, you can see the food taking over the campsite.

As a "Yey we're finally on our way!" gift I got Rob two mystery lego figures. We thought the skydiver was pretty cool but the racist Indian we weren't so thrilled about.

The sky-diver is a little worried because he knows the parachute is just plastic. The Indian is pissed at being stereotyped.

 Here's a picture of our second night's dinner, cooked by yours truly! Sausages, beans and green beans, a balanced dinner (balanced on a grill on a bucket that is).

Pretty sweet table huh?

Another view before we put everything away for the night.  We were lightly scolded by "Ranger Doom" about having so much stuff out because there'd been lots of bears around, but we put everything away nice and snug and saw lots of wildlife, but no bears.

Messy Camp!

 Before breaking camp we had some leftovers and coffee (tea for me).  The little "penny stove" we're using was a gift from my dad, who carefully hand crafted it.  While it can use most flammable liquids as fuel, the rubbing alcohol we had brought didn't burn hot enough to get the water boiling, but once we get better fuel it'll be used quite a bit.

Penny stoves makin' mornings palatable

Prep Pictures

Yes folks this is in fact Miriam, I'm still alive and posting at last!

It's been so long and there's so much to write about that it's overwhelming.  In these situations  it's generally best to take Lewis Carroll's advice and "begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop."  So with that in mind I will begin, not just at the beginning but also with the pictures we have been promising you.

So, way back in the middle of May we set up my tent and tested the solar powered battery and inverter set-up Rob ingeniously put together that we were going to use to power the mini shop-vac-on-a-bucket to blow up the air mattress.

Practicing setting up the tent and air mattress

Battery box and inverter

As you can see it worked great! Just about a minute to inflate the mattress, which fit in the tent perfectly.

Unfortunately once we assembled the rest of our equipment and started packing we decided that the battery box and solar array were to large and heavy to justify bring.  Still, pretty awesome huh?

Diesel enjoying a bone

That day we (mostly Rob) also devised a clever awning we could attach to the car to provide some shelter.  The canvas is Rob's old pup-tent and the bamboo poles we picked up at Job Lot.

Pup-tent and bamboo awning.

Adding some privacy and shade.

Changing Room!

Aside from all of the work Rob has done on the mechanics of the car he also did a really nice job getting it spiffed up inside pre-trip.  Here's a shot of the back, before we started filling it.

So Large...So Clean!

Here's a shot of the gauges Rob put in (the round things on the wheel and by where the driver's knee would be) and the new radios, the fancy one to use with the i-pod in the normal radio spot and the CB radio right above the gauges on the floor.  The black case in the passenger footwell has 3 extra cigarette chargers wired into the car, so we can be fully charged!

Custom Gages, New Radio and CB Radio, Charging Case...spiffy!

Here's Moby, washed and waxed, ready for action!

Shiny!

The view from the front seats (pre-stuff).

Think we'll need an intercom system?

The small solar panel we decided to bring mounts nicely on one of the back windows.

Small Solar Array

The first thing we got packed was the luggage rack. You can see our water jug, the cooler, two spare tires underneath and Rob's bike.  The spare gas can is hidden on the other side of the cooler.

Luggage rack all packed up

This tilty picture is the spare tire well that Rob had to rebuild.

Because still shots get boring here's something more fun!

Action photo!

This is what the awning looks like all bundled up.

Awning all packed up

And then we were close we were sooo close...

Day before departure

and the sink broke...so with that fixed we tried again...

The big day!

Kiss for good luck!

And were on our way! Here's the view from the front seats as we headed out for the first time.

Yup, that's the same view from the front, think we packed enough?

Farewell to Assateague Island!

Today we're off on the road again, after four nights in AINS, Despite some bad weather and horrendous biting greenhead flies which seemed hellbent on attacking my ears and face, it was truly a wonderful place to stay.  We were devoid of horses in our camp loop yesterday but "our" herd decided to come back for a visit sometime in the middle of the night.

Miriam and I stayed in our tent for the first time on the trip, seeing as it was easier to load up the car in the evening and leave just the tent and bedding to be packed after breakfast (and before the 11 a.m. check-out time).  As luck would have it, Mohawk and his ladies strolled right through our campsite around 10 o'clock-ish while we were quitely reading in our tent.  I'm not sure if they realized we were in there or not (although I doubt they would care either way), and Miriam frequently poked her head out of the zipper door to get some close up views as they grazed just feet from us.  I was a little nervous that we might get trampled since I have no idea how good equine night vision is, but Miriam assured me that they wouldn't because "there aren't any warning signs saying to watch out for it."  Not exactly the most comforting explanation from someone who is a walking multi-volume horse encyclopedia!!

Alas, we were not trampled to death in our sleep, although Miriam did wake me up around 1 a.m.  to help get the rain fly put on the tent after seeing a few flashes of lightning just a ways off.  Only a few minutes after the fly was up and we were back inside it started raining, eventually working up to a few hefty downpours with pretty substantial wind through the night.  We awoke nice and dry though, with a stiff breeze that thankfully kept pretty much all the flies away for the morning.  Our herd was lazily occupying one of our neighbor's campsite and seemed to be making their (the campers') morning routine a bit difficult since they were grazing and lying around all their camping gear, car, and picnic table!  Thankfully that wasn't us as we were busy trying to pack up our site most of the morning.

Me yelling a "Chin" a few days ago...she was trying to get at our stuff

A very happy Miriam trying to keep her distance from "Baby".  I doubt it was an easy task for her!

Miriam spent some time in the visitor center on our way out rifling through a horse register to try to find the five horses in our herd.  Most were positively identified but a few she was not totally sure of since they lacked distinguishing marks (at least any shown in the single photo for each horse's file in the register).  We managed to get a "passport" for the national parks, which is just a little book with some historical info and room to stamp cancellations from each of the national parks.  I guess this is the alternative to giving out window stickers from each park, which is what the parks started with when they were created as a national system.

Hopefully tonight we will be staying with some Grossman-Garber family friends (Walter and Mary Ellen) in Prince Frederick, MD.  The timing is perfect since there is a pretty bad storm headed into the area with all sorts of warnings attached.  Not exactly the time to be camping if we have a choice in the matter.

I had some charging difficulties with my phone the past day or two so we haven't been able to update since we need the USB for the keyboard which means no power to the phone.  Currently we are updating from a Dunkin' Donuts/Baskin Robins somewhere in Berlin, MD.  Since they have wifi and a plug we were able to plug in and update on the laptop, hence the above posted photos.  Miriam is planning on doing a full photo update for the other legs of our trip tonight from the comfort of a real home.  I'm also hoping for a bit of clear weather and a semi-level driveway as our brakes are squealing something awful at every stop.  There's nothing wrong with them, but the silicone backing on the pads must have worn off which requires taking the wheel and brake caliper off to re-silicone and thus quiet them.  Not terribly involved work, but kinda hard to do when you're at a campsite.  We could very well leave it be for the rest of the trip but it gets quite embarrassing when you're pulling into a parking lot or up to a Ranger station and it sounds like you're dragging nails across a chalkboard.

That's about all for now, we still have many many stories to share from Assateague, the road, and our other stops in NJ but we really should hit the road again before we wind up swamped in rush hour traffic.

Till next time!
RhodeKill Rob

Assateaugue Island Facts

This is Miriam, updating from Camp Mohawk (so named because it is clearly his herd's territory).  I'd better get the horse babble out ofthe way, since basically my reaction since we drove onto the island has been "PONIES!!"

So facts first, the first morning i managed to corner a ranger and pepper him with questions, so Ihave the most important facts. (Though there's still so much I want to know!)

First off,the  shipwreck story? Lies! Apparently these little guys are not decended from horses that survived a Spanish shipwreck but are the result of farmers avoiding a livestock tax. The farmers released their
"extra" horses (working horses, no fine Spanish breeding stock) on the island, where the couldn't be counted and, therefore, couldn't be taxed. Old fashioned tax-evasion at it's finest! When they needed a horse or two they'd come to the island and round up however many they needed and swim them across to the mainland.  The rest of the herd adapted to life on the island and have been living here ever since.

Today the island is separated into three management areas. The southern part, which is in Virginia, is owned by the  local volunteer fire department. They also own the horses in that area (divided from the Maryland area by a fence across the island) and treat them much like a semi-domesticated herd, providing supplemental feed and some veterinary care (according to the ranger I talked to).  Every year they do a round up and swim a bunch of ponies over to the mainland where they are auctioned off to the public.  This both keeps the herd size manageable and raises (quite a bit of) money for  the fire department.

The Maryland portion of the  island is designated  as a national seashore, with the exception of a small portion that  is a state park. This part of the island, and the horses on it, are managed by the park service.  They consider the horses to be wildlife and treat them like any other  wild species, directly interfering only for humane reasons.  Sadly horses are occasionally hit by cars, which necesitates this interference.
The park rangers control the herd population by administering birth control to the mares.  I believe (but may be wrong) that this is done via dart.  Currently there are 105 horses (106 any day now, one mare is close to giving birth) in the park and they try and keep the herd size between 80 and 110 (I think that's what he said).

So those are the facts! Once my hand uncramps I'll come back with my observations, especially about our campsite herd.

Happy Trails!
Miriam, Fact Finder

Soggy Greetings From the Land of Marsh and Horses

Okay so in retrospect the "Land of Milk and Honey" doesnt exactly sound like the title of this post, but it was worth a shot.  So we finally made it to Assateague Island, the national park with all the wild horses!  I really should let Miriam update you on this one since this is more her "thing" than mine, but I do have to say we're having quite a good time despite the crumby weather.  Right now there is a passing thunderstorm that is pouring down on us quite relentlessly, hence my updating the blog since we're both stuck in our "camper" until the rain clears.  This is the first time we attempted to set up a tent as part of our campsite village and it is working splendidly.  All of our extraneous gear is accessible, and more importantly, dry!  Since we dont have to worry about bears on the island (just the horses), we are able to hide our cooler under the picnic table on site and dont have to sleep with it in the car with us, which is also a plus!

Weather aside, this park is great.  We havent gotten to go on any hikes yet, but are enjoying our stay in our little campsite area all the same.  For those interested, you can look up the site for Assateague Island National Seashore and find our campground on the map; we're in Bayside Campground, Loop A, site A14.  I would post a link here but it's kinda difficult to look it up, cut and paste all on the smartphone.   The site we chose is excellent, with an open view to the bay and a flat marsh that leads out to it where there are all kinds of waterfowl constantly coming and going.  We're also on an end site so we only have one neighbor, although we do get the lion's share of lookie-loos passing by since we are essentially the first campsite one finds on this side of the island.  We're a short walk from water and pit toilets/cold showers, and there is a nice constant breeze which keeps most of the bugs at bay.

Yesterday, shortly after our arrival we had a herd of five horses gallop into our camp loop, which was amazing, and a bit scary since like I said we're the first site off the road and it seemed like they were headed straight for us!  Fortunately though, it seems like they were just trying to get to their next grazing spot in haste and luckily picked our Loop to stay in, at least for the time being.  Miriam has taken to naming all of them, based on her observations, although she learned this morning from a park ranger that they already have names given by park  patrons as part of a fundraising plan hosted by the park.  "Our" herd consists of five horses; four mares and a stallion.  Miriam named the stallion Simba (park name Mohawk), and the mares Baby, Belly, Footsie, and Chin (park name Lori).  She seems to be soo happy to be here, especially since we have our own Loop A Herd that sort of just mills around the nearby campsites and grazes.

After returning from a run out to get some ice at the local rip-off-mart we were fortunate enough to have the heard come grazing right though our own campsite!  A few times they had to be shoo'd away from our campstove  and my bicycle which seemed to be equally delicious to them.  These equines are quite the curious bunch and are in no way shy!  There are warnings everywhere not to get too close to them, and pictures posted in the ranger stations and bathrooms of bites that park-goers received from being too friendly with these inquisitive equines.  We have been sure to keep the minimum 10 feet distance the park warnings demand although once or twice I managed to come pretty close in an effort to shoo one away from our campstove lighter.  I think it must be hard for Miriam to see these horses and not be able to really interact with them, especially since she says that one of our herd is exceptionally curious and friendly and seems to just want to make some new people-friends.  At least Mac will be waiting at home for her when we get back (although he has the opposite problem where its almost impossible to catch him).

We met another camping couple today with two of the biggest English bulldogs I have ever seen.  They were out on a short walk and seemed to be dying with panting that sounded like the exhaust from a diesel truck.  I imagined the boy dog to be probably 60lbs of solid squishy dog mush and the female to be maybe 5lbs lighter.  The boy reminded me of what Diesel would look like if he were put in a compactor face-up and came out with the same amount of skin but just half his length and no snout to speak of.  Oh, except these dogs were super happy despite their dying from exercise. I wonder if Diesel is even moreso the most pathetic and sad dog since we're both away "forever".

The rain seems to have cleared up now, so I'm going to take this opportunity to get some air and try to get a bike ride in before we get another round of the wet stuff.

Till next time!
RhodeKill Rob

This Roadtrip Has Not Been Beta-Tested

Good morning vicarious travellers!

I must apologize for the long interlude between posts, but we've had an eventful almost-a-week between the Delaware Water Gap and where we are today, Assateague Island National Seashore.  

I think we last left you off with the notion that we were going to stay an extra night at the Water Gap and then move on to the Pine Barrens.  The morning we left the DWG I noticed a bit of a reduction in our already camping-unfriendly ground clearance due to the metric ton of gear hanging off our trailer hitch.  While the mounting gear for the spare tires was holding strong, and the reinforcments welded on the cargo rack were proving to be sufficient, the receiver mounted to the car frame seemed to be bending.  The only available hitch assembly for this wagon is a Class II which means that the tongue load (the amount of weight that can hang off it, not the amount of weight you can tow) is only rated for 300lbs.  While the tires and cooler and bike combined with the bike rack and cargo tray should only weight around 220lbs, the weight had no other support beside the hitch mount itself.  This meant that the rack would "bounce" up and down everytime we hit a bump, an effect which was exaggerated by being pretty far behind the rear axle.  So even though it was not technically overloaded, the end result was that the receiver tube (the part mounted to the car that the cargo rack slides into) was starting to bend slowly downward, decreasing our ground clearance from about 4" to maybe 2", not nearly enough to clear the bumps and mounds of a campsite road, or many of the ill-paved backroads we are sure to encounter further along the trip.  

But enough of the physics of trailer hitches and load bearing statistics, the whole point of this lengthy explanation is that Miriam and I made a joint decision to head home and re-evaluate our cargo arrangements.  I figured that if we could lose about 200 lbs of total weight to make the car happy for the rest of the trip.  After a lengthy return ride home which took us wayyy north over the Bear Mountain Bridge  and then just south of Hartford, we arrived back in RI on June 6th at about 9pm.  I immediately went to work on rearranging our spare tires and Miriam got busy trying  to reduce some of our food stocks to save weight.  

After a full day at home we managed to reduce our travel weight by about 250lbs (we're estimating).  I removed both spare tires from the cargo rack and replaced the tool kit in the spare tire well with an single spare tire which saved about 60lbs and moved quite a bit of weight further forward.  Next I removed the spare parts box and replaced it with a much abridged and smaller tool box with only a few repair items such as radiator hoses and extra filters.   Losing the spare alternator and starter motor saved an additional 40 or so lbs.  We removed most of "doubles" of food and repacked all the gear and Miriam's clothes into smaller and much more easily packable plastic crates that we got from WalMart (of all places for us to shop!)

Now our new load arrangement is much easier to pack and unpack compared to the myriad of different size and shape boxes from our initial pack.  Most of the boxes (with the exception of the two food packs) are much lighter and are no longer a chore to load and unload from the car.  The car sits and handles much much better now with the reduced and shifted (forward) weight, and  our ground clearance is much more amiable to campground roads roads.  

Oh and for those of you that didnt quite get the title of this post (mom, I'm looking at you here!), beta-testing is what you do (usually in reference to software development) to makes sure you get all the bugs out of things.  Since we were leaving significantly later than we had  planned we didnt have time to do a trial run locally and work out any kinks in our camping arrangements, but luckily we were close enough to home that we are able to return and repack with only about a 36hr delay in our trip.  

It takes soo long to write on here off the cell phone that an actual trip update with details like where we are and how the camping is going will have to wait till later when I have some more time.  And we promise that a picture update IS coming soon, Miriam has one almost ready to go on her laptop, we just need to get to some wifi and plug!

Till later today (hopefully)!

RhodeKill Rob