Bike, Beach and Drive-by

11 Sunday Aug 2019

Posted by Ronald Parks in Assateague, chincoteague, Eastern Shore

Tags

Beach, biking, chincoteague, Hiking, kayaking, oysters

Another day trip to Chincoteague. We rode around the wildlife loop and instead of taking the Swan Cove Trail we headed to the service road. This is about a 7 mile road. The road wasn’t bad but the mosquitoes were terrible!

Lots of dead trees.

Headed to the beach via the OSV – Over Sand Vehicles entrance.

This wasn’t a bad road either.

Parked our bikes. Ran into a volunteer ranger and we asked about all the dead birds on Chincoteague Road bridge. 100s of them. She said they were fledgling seagulls, just learning to fly. They come up out of the marshes and because they are young, they can barely get the height they need to get over the bridge. Not to worry she said…there are a lot of them. Ugh!

Lots of birds and other life on the beach.

Beach and ocean as far as you can see.

Aura around Kathy’s reflection.

Survey marker

Can never have too many seashells from the seashore!

Heading back, need to watch out for the 4 wheelers.

Took a different route home. Usually we take Chincoteague Road (Rte 175) to Rte 679, which turns into Rte 12 in Maryland. We turned on Rte 798 and went past Wallops NASA. Back to 679, turned at Captain’s Cove. This is on the Virginia side and put us in Greenbackville.

Next dinner date!

Left there and headed north to George Island Landing Road.

No windows or doors, but I have 3 boats.

Everywhere are signs, blocking the scenery…

Great day trip!

Indian Beach Vacation

01 Monday Jul 2019

Posted by Ronald Parks in Photography, State Parks, vacation

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Beach, Beach Life, boats, Bogue Inlet, dolphins, Fort Macon, North Carolina, tours, turtles

After months of retiring, selling our homes, moving, working on the new house…we finally were able to take a vacation. Kathy’s sister let us stay at her place on the Crystal Coast of North Carolina. Thanks Gail and John for a much needed break.

On the drive down we stopped for a rest at the Dismal Swamp Canal. Place has an interesting history. Google it. We also stopped on our way home.

While there, the hydraulic bridge was being moved for a couple of boats to go through. Boats have the right of way.

Molly needed a rest area too!

History

The canal

Whatever happened to this guy?

Onto Indian Beach. Some favorite shots.

Portuguese Man-o-War Jellyfish

Night time, sun sets.

One night we went for a bike ride.

Emoticons – Emoceans.

Headed over to Beaufort for a boat ride to Shackleford Island.

Bogue Inlet Pier

Thanks Gail and John! what a great vacation!

Bicycle

07 Friday Jun 2019

Posted by Ronald Parks in biking, Hiking, National Parks, nature

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Beach, bikes, biking, chincoteague, Eagles, nature, songs in head

Whenever I ride my bike, a variety of songs pop into my head – “I ride my bike, I roller skate don’t drive no car” (Brand New Key by Melanie). But we needed to drive my truck to get to ride our bikes!

Then pops in: “I’ve got a bike. You can ride it if you like
It’s got a basket, a bell that rings and
Things to make it look good
I’d give it to you if I could, but I borrowed it.” (Bike by Pink Floyd) But we took the basket off of Kathy’s and she hasn’t got a bell yet.

So I guess we will just settle on “Bicycle, bicycle, bicycle, I want to ride my bicycle” (Bicycle Race by Queen). We headed to Chincoteague for our first outing together. I use to ride my bike around Montebello Lake when I was working. This is my first time out this year. Kathy’s co-workers gave her money to buy a bike when she retired. She picked out a cruiser.

The Wildlife Loop is a 3.2 mile adventure. We went around twice. Kathy looking for the eagles. Saw the nest. None of the eagle babies survived this year.

Next stop is the Swan Cove Trail, which is 1 mile round trip.

Nice path that takes you to the ocean.

Park the bikes…

…and walk over the dunes to this.

An old stump with seashell ornaments.

Back on the bikes to continue the loop. Saw lots of egrets, ducks and red wing blackbirds.

Another pit stop along the way. An observation platform. No bikes allowed.

Oh yea, we saw a mud turtle.

A type of dandelion?

Making wishes…

Our National Park selfie.

Great day of bikes, nature, beach and God!

Chincoteague

03 Monday Jun 2019

Posted by Ronald Parks in Eastern Shore, Hiking, National Parks

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Tags

Beach, chincoteague, Crabs, Eastern Shore, Hiking, memorial, National Parks, nature

The beach, an island and a memorial.

A bunch of these roaming around.

Holes everywhere.

Plovers.

Horseshoe crab that didn’t make it.

The surf.

Rode through town to the far end of the beach and found a Waterman’s Memorial Park.

People placed pennies and seashells on the marker.

Odd little section of the island. The paths looked to be scrapped up road asphalt.

Nice view though.

Heading back to the car.

C.C. Rider.

Nice day for a mini adventure.

O.C. in the Spring

14 Sunday Apr 2019

Posted by Ronald Parks in Eastern Shore, ocean city

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Beach, Boardwalk, nature, ocean city, photography

After Cypress Park we headed to Ocean City for some lunch. Bikes, dogs and walkers. Dogs and bikes thru May 1st I believe. Humans anytime.

New construction going on. Looks like bollards?

Yes they are. Kathy said she once rode her car up on the boardwalk years ago.

Favorite art store. Bought Paul McGehee’s Old Baltimore at Twilight here a few years back.

Here is our postcard to you!

Time for lunch. Call me un-American, but I really do not like vinegar on my fries. At least there is not the usual summer wait in line.

Although, being retired and down the ocean, time is not important. This clock has been in this same position for a long time…

Kathy taking a risk holding up her fries like that – when seagulls attack!

The empty haunted house.

Walked up to the end. To the left is where we were the other day – at Assateague.

Scene from Final Destination #3..

Kathy’s pic of the Ferris wheel. Nice.

Time to head onto the beach.

Then under the fishing pier.

What is your favorite one – Surf City by Crack the Sky or Surfer Girl by the Beach Boys?

The North Easterly Easter Bunny.

Another great adventure. Happy Happy.

Terrapin Park

14 Wednesday Mar 2018

Posted by Ronald Parks in Hiking, National Parks, nature

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Tags

Beach, bridges, Chesapeake Bay, Hiking, photography, Terrapin

The last couple of times we visited this park, last summer, we were unable to hike the trails – too many people and too many cars in the parking lot. It was packed. I like that people and families go to the parks to enjoy themselves, I just don’t like it when large groups of people set up camp and stay all day – not allowing others to enjoy the park. It was so bad last summer, that the park service had to install Spot-o-Pots along the beach path. Here is our path:

It was a short hike. We just wanted to see and enjoy the Bay.

Along the Cross Island Trail, we stopped long enough to enjoy some of the beauty that is all around us.

Hitting the beach, our first view is of a ship going under the Bay Bridge. I don’t know how many times we travelled over that bridge and saw anywhere from 4 to 12 ships just parked on the other side. This is the first time we saw one actually heading to points north.