Back in January, when I was just starting to hit my cabin fever winter slump where I start to doubt if I’ll ever enjoy being outside again, I made a reservation for a campsite at Assateague Island. Kyle and I went there for the first time in 2011, and hadn’t managed to make it back since, but we both have great memories of how much fun we had on that trip and have wanted to go back for a long time.
When we went last time, we camped on the national park side of the island. Assateague is known for the wild ponies that wander around, and while it was cool to see them, they can also wreak havoc on your campsite (especially when you take a car with no doors on it and can’t properly hide your food). The national park is greener (it is on the bay side of the island, so it’s a bit more wooded), but the campground only has cold showers and chemical toilets, and the tent sites are mixed in with RVs. Being the old lady that I now am, I wanted to stay on the state park side this time around, mostly because of the hot showers and flush toilets, but also because it is on the ocean side of the island and closer to the beach.
When we got Abigail a week before our trip, I was a bit nervous about taking her. She is still being treated for heart worm and can’t get worked up or too hot, and I know from our past trip that some dogs really freak out around the ponies. I also wasn’t sure how she would react to being in a new environment so soon after coming home with us, to taking a three hour drive in the car, or to sleeping in a tent. Turns out, as usual, all my worry was really for nothing. She absolutely, totally LOVED it!! When we got to the campsite she hopped out of the car, dug a hole in the sand to lay in, and looked completely content with life.
We spent the whole weekend doing nothing, which was exactly what I wanted. We built campfires, laid on the beach, tried (unsuccessfully) to keep the ponies from wandering through our campsite (most hilarious moment: watching MB walk back from doing dishes, not realizing the ponies were RIGHT BEHIND HER, and then watching her realize how close they were and start trying to inconspicuously run away from them), and cooked some pretty amazing meals. I still managed to get sunburned even though I spent all of my time in a hat, under an umbrella, with SPF 50+ on.
We also found out that Abigail will go NUTS for cabbage! I had brushed some scraps after chopping it up into the grass, and she walked over and gobbled it up. Later on when we roasted some on the campfire (which came out DELICIOUS), Kyle dropped a wedge into the fire, and from the next morning on we would catch her trying to dig through the ashes for more. I got to catch up with Mary Beth, and it was just really nice to be away from technology and at peace outside.
We’re still trying to decide where our next camping adventure will be, there are a lot of places in western Maryland that we still haven’t explored so that may be our next stop.
The Uprooted Path 
I adore your dog from afar!! ❤
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