A Few Days at the Beach - Assateague State Park

On Sunday we had a beautiful drive from Beacon Hill Camping in Lancaster County PA down the Eastern Shore to Assateague State Park.

We avoided major highways and had excellent country roads.  It was great!

We arrived about 11:30 AM and had to wait until 1 PM to check in.  So we parked and went for a hike down to the campground to check out our site which was about 1.6 mi away.

Wow - this is a big campground! In fact it has loops A through J with 20-30? camp sites on each.  Most were a mix of tent camping, trailer, and motorhomes.  We made reservations about 3 months ago.

The biggest attractions to the park are the wild horses (and deer), the beach and the Assateague Seashore NPS which is almost co-located. By car it is about 3 miles to the Visitor's Center.

After check-in we got set up and walked on the beach.

The horses are not everywhere but are frequent visitors to campsites.  They walk around like they own the place, which they do.

They are beautiful creatures but ones that bear watching.  One has to remember they are wild and though somewhat used to people, they could be still dangerous.  Plenty of signs and warnings are around but you know people...

Gladly we did not see any problems with people getting too close.  On the other hand, we saw ponies nudging their noses through picnic tables and coolers.  But to no avail-- nothing handy to eat that we saw.

We liked our campground a lot.

It had plenty of space between neighbors, was close to the beach access and the restroom/showers and came with a fire ring.

The camp hosts drive around selling firewood and plenty of people took them up on it.  We had a good one blazing.  There is just something wonderful about a campfire!

There are no hookups for campers at this campground.  It was really no problem, we love to boon dock and chalked up another one.  We ran the generator in the morning and evening and had all the power we needed.  We monitored our black and grey tanks and had to fill up our clear tank when we arrived.  I took showers in the campground facilities and we will be dumping our tanks when we leave later on today.

The beach is a great one.  It is long and has plenty of wave action to mesmerize one for hours....We went to the beach everyday with a book, chairs and our shade umbrella.  We also went for a couple of long walks and really enjoyed it.

Back at the campsite a couple of days it was a bit breezy, if not windy, so we didn't ever pull out our big awnings.  We only pulled out the over-the-window awnings.

There was no shade unless you brought your own.  We are looking for a good end-of-season deal on a folding canopy that is on the smaller size.  We will see how that goes.

We liked it here because of all the campers.  Most folks are friendly and stop to talk and are here getting in one more vacation before school starts.  We had a couple next to us from Michigan three nights that were on their honeymoon.  Across the way, a couple were here for a two weeks that had been doing this for 16 years.  Yesterday morning a guy with three small boys came by and asked if they could tour the Roadrunner.  I said sure! and learned a little about them.  Wished I had taken their photo.

Time to move on down the Eastern Shore.  Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles.  Until next time...

Quartzsite Memories - 2014

We are going to leave Quartzsite later this morning and move on down the road to the Yuma.  In addition to what I have already posted in the last few days, there are a number of things I will remember from our time here.

Campfires

Sunrises

Sunsets

Rising Moon

The mountains in the distance - the 'smoky' look.  Like Princeville, HI and the Great Smoky Mountains in TN.

And the wispy clouds in the sky

And one of the most unique breakfast ideas I've seen:
"Breakfast in a Bag"

Separate your 1 or 2 eggs, put everything you want in your freezer bag, add the eggs, put your name on it, let it boil for 13 minutes - take it out of the boiling water.  Add salt and pepper.  Eat.

The leaders of the rally, (Robert and Tiziana) did a great job with lots of behind the scenes work to pull off another great 'informal' rally.  They have been doing this for the last four or five years.
Here is a picture of them from a couple of years ago:

Kudos to them!

That is all for this edition of the Roadrunner Chronicles!  Until next time...

The Happening in Quartzsite, 2014

This year's unofficial Tiffin rally aka "The Happening 2014" at Quartzsite, AZ got underway on Thursday.  We found the exit off I-10 (hard to miss)

We arrived early on Tuesday to avoid the traffic jams etc.  Some estimates are that 150,000 people show up each year for the RV show and events. The big RV show started on Saturday.

We stopped at the "check-in" office at La Posa South 2 miles south from Quartzsite on  US 95.  It was not busy when we showed up.  But things changed a couple of days later...

We dumped at the sewer station and filled up with water, then proceeded to the Tiffin rally area and found a level area to park.

I think we were rig #6 or 7 to show up.  They were expecting over 30.

This is our second time here in our 4+ years of fulltiming.  The events started on Thursday afternoon with a Meet and Greet followed by folks from Redlands Truck and RV Service.  

They have a booth at the RV show and brought a lot of inventory get rid of from Redlands, CA.  They came out to our area with a small truck of stuff and gave a presentation. The owner talked about a number of products including tires and heavy duty shocks.  A bit price on the shocks but good to know. Always something more to learn from these 'seminars' and sales presentations.

Each day more and more people join the group.

Yesterday evening was the big potluck and we circled our chairs around the tables of food.  

Robert begins by welcoming everyone and then announcements followed by everyone standing for a prayer and saying the Pledge of Allegiance.  

After we made it through the food and gorged ourselves (who doesn't at these potlucks?) we noticed friends from our first Tiffin rally here at Quartzsite four years ago.

It was fun to see them again.  I think we started full timing about the same time we did.

Each evening there is a big campfire.  We all donated some wood and should have plenty...

We are enjoying our time here and glad we came we came for some boondocking in Quartzsite!

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!  Until next time...