Lanexa, Virginia

As expected, we were without internet access for a couple of days, but we're back, Baby! Since last we spoke, Mike, the kitties, and I have traveled in three states. We left College Park, Maryland, on our way to Assateague State Park via a different route than we'd arrived. We drove around the outskirts of Annapolis and then crossed the William Preston Lane, Jr., Memorial Bridge across the Chesapeake Bay. For this we paid the tidy sum of $12...the same as the tunnel. We thought we'd avoid the toll since we didn't go back through the tunnel. Ha!

But what an impressive structure! Not sure I would have paid $12 to see it, given a choice, but what the heck?

On my side, were some large cargo ships. This is a huge body of water.

And whoa...what's that I see? It's the great state of Delaware! And I thought we would miss Delaware. A friend from high school lives in Delaware. I wrote to tease him during the time I was organizing my state folders to ask him why I didn't have anything from Delaware. "Doesn't anybody ever visit you? Doesn't anybody ever write about you?" I mocked.

He responded saying, "What do you mean? Delaware has 60 miles of freeway!"

And so it does. We enjoyed every inch we traveled. Here's the route we took as we headed toward our final destination. Our navigation unit wanted to take a more direct route south, but we thought it would be fun to travel out across the water.

Soon, we were getting our first glimpses of the Rehoboth Bay out my side of the window.

Of course, this meant crossing another bridge.

On Mike's side was the Atlantic Ocean.

Not too much later, we crossed back into Maryland. Bye bye, Delaware! Nice seeing you!

Then, we were in Ocean City, Maryland. I got a chuckle out of this sign, and posted a picture for my friends on Facebook. My quilting friend Marei used to live in Sacramento. She told me Sacramento has a similar sign indicating the distance to Ocean City. She supposes they were sister cities at one time. And just as I wrote that, I decided to Google it. Click right here to read the story. Cool!

We still had some distance to travel to our final destination. Toward the end of the journey, we passed down this tree-lined street.

We had one last bridge to cross.

And finally, we were there.

It was a beautiful day...sunny and warm...and we were so excited to be right next to the Atlantic Ocean we could barely stand ourselves. There were tent campers all around us because we were in a primitive spot. All the hook-up spots were reserved for this last weekend of the season at this park.

No matter. It was a great spot to spend a couple of nights. Turning directly around, we were right next to the beach access.

I took a little stroll all around the RV. Along the way, I found this seashell.

Also, I found this little pile. We knew there to be wild horses in the area.

We found plenty of evidence of them in the form of large steaming piles of horse apples. You can read about the origin of the wild horses right here. (And, Sue L., your books are mentioned in the article.)

The water was relatively warm, and even we wimpy Oregonians couldn't resist taking off our shoes and strolling through the sand right down to the water's edge.

Our shadow selves were so excited! It was the first time they'd been to the Atlantic Ocean together!

We saw footprints of humans and birds.

The smaller set at the top belonged to this fellow who was artfully dodging the surf in pursuit of sand crabs.

The lower set of webbed feet belonged to these guys. These are black-backed gulls, although this one is probably a female. The males are white on bottom and black on top.

Later in the afternoon, the shadows grew long.

I was intrigued by the play of light on the sand.

With shadows growing long, what could our shadow selves do but join in the dance?

We enjoyed watching the seagulls. They are such expert flyers. This one hovered there for several minutes before touching down on the fence.

After those aerobatics, what could she do but cool her pits. I've been known to do this occasionally too.

We were expecting rain the next day, and so we spent as much time outside in the afternoon as we could. When we awakened in the morning, sure enough, rain, rain, rain. It rained hard and steady for more than 24 hours.

We watched as our fellow campers in tents packed up and drove off as quickly as possible. By afternoon, all the tent spaces were inches deep in water.

We were actually pretty happy for the break from sight-seeing, and we didn't mind being cooped up in the trailer. I finished up the middle dress on my quilt block.

Here's what I had up to that point.

Then I moved my hoop to the right to stitch the third dress.

Sadie was happy for the lap time.

Smitty kept watch from his cubby up above.

Mike took advantage of the opportunity to replace the light fixture I mentioned in an earlier post.

Of course, a job like that always necessitates at least one trip to the hardware store. I rode along just to see the sights. On the way back, we saw one of the wild horses. They are also referred to as "ponies," and this one was about that size. It was drenched by the rain, poor thing.

And in a few hours...voila! A light we can use when we have no electricity! Very cool. It has two brightness settings, and it can also be dimmed gradually.

When we awakened this morning, the rain had stopped and the sun was rising over the Atlantic. We on the west coast don't usually see the sun rise over the ocean. When it hits our shores, day is almost done.

It turned into a very nice day for our drive of about 180 miles. Today we find ourselves in the third state I mentioned above: Virginia. I'll tell you more about today's drive in my next post. We're in a very nice campground a short distance away from the Colonial National Historic Park. We'll spend the next three days sight-seeing in the so-called "Historic Triangle" of Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown.

Oh yes...Bag Lady Stitchers: The linky party goes live tomorrow. Be sure to link up and show us what you've accomplished on your most recent Bag Lady.