Cross Continent and Back, Full Circle: Misty of Chincoteague (AKA There must be a pony in there somewhere)

Misty of Chincoteague is a 1947 book by American author Marguerite Henry, inspired by a real Chincoteague Pony named Misty. Set on the coastal island of Chincoteague, Virginia, the book tells the story of the Beebe family and their efforts to raise a filly born to a wild horse. The book won the Newberry Award. The 1961 film Misty was based on the book.[2]

I read this book to Martha, over and over and over, in the 80’s when she was little. Yet it was never a real place to me. That is, until a couple of weeks ago, when Leslie and I discussed, in Pennsylvania, that, hmmm, some Atlantic coastline days and nights would be fun! We had driven the Blue Ridge Parkway a couple of years ago, so we took that off our itinerary, put “south down the coast” on it.

Little did we know what magic lay ahead of us!

.Assateague Island is a 37-mile (60 km) long Barrier island located off the eastern coast of Maryland and Virginia. The island also contains numerous marshes, bays and coves. It has a National Seashore and a National Wildlife Refuge, and Bird Sanctuary.

The wild ponies at Assateague capture everyone’s attention. They are everywhere.....roadsides, beaches, campgrounds, visitor centers, parking lots. Emphasis: WIld. Cute, and very wild. We came upon this mare, her one-day-old foal, and another mare with them. The older mare was quite cranky, some dispute over the care of the foal, the rangers told us. As we watched and photographed and oohed and ahhed over how cute, how cute, the cranky mare spied Anna, her ears went back, her head down, and suddenly she charged! I dropped Anna’s leash, we moved behind the ranger’s cart. Anna took care of herself, her own ears farther back than I’d ever seen, and all were eventually safe, but we were pretty scared, and didn’t go for walks with her after that, stayed pretty much campground or open beach.

This is the moment Cranky Mare turned. I turned.......off the camera, that is. Dropped the leash, etc.

This captures camping for me: pancakes on the Coleman griddle, bay in sight, no campground neighbors!

Here’s a series of photos, just taking you through our days and evenings, sunrises, and sunsets, camps and beaches and bayside. We both like transitions, dawn, sunset, surf line, sort of stuff. Footprints and birds, especially those little dunlins that scurry at the water’s edge scooping up their meals.

Ponies everywhere, while exercising.............munching on grass next to tents and campers.......Bird sanctuary filled with egrets and herons.