Another exciting year to head to Assateague Island State Park in Maryland, this being our first trip here with our hybrid instead of the popup camper. Travel down was smooth this year with little traffic and it wasn't long till we were at the entry to the ranger station. While I went in to check in, I hooked up the camper hose to have Becky fill the on board water tank so we could have the bathroom and kitchen facilities at our campsite. We were on D loop again this year, directly across from our normal location. There are no hookups in this loop.
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| Our setup on D Loop, Beach in the background |
The week was looking good weather wise so we spent some time at the beach, at Ocean City, and just hanging around the campground area. We brought the bikes down this year so everyone was out riding around to get ice, see the horses, or just burn off some energy.
Being that we don't have a hook up, I had the solar panels setup that we used with the Popup. I noticed on Day 1 that it didn't seem we were getting a good charge back from the panels based on our load and our battery voltage was not being replenished that well. It was getting charge, but not enough to really hold the battery in a good condition by sunset to make it through the night. I was all over the camper, manuals, etc to try and find this draw, and I found that the electronics in the refridgerator along with the CO detector were the two items drawing on the battery through the night. If we ran the bunk fans, we woke up to a battery in the 10.5-11 V range,.... another words, Dead. I ended up having to make the decision to get a generator. I had priced some online earlier this year (Briggs and Stratton, Generac, Yamaha, and Honda), but was now in a pinch. Without a generator, we couldn't keep our food cold in the fridge and would have to resort to ice runs and a full cooler. Doable, but we chose to go for a generator.
Took a few hours to call around, search HomeDepot, and ended up driving about 45 minutes away to a farm tractor supply place that had only 2 Honda 2000W gens, so we purchased one and a small gas can and were on our way back. I really love how quiet and easy to use the Honda is. What everyone says about them is true. We would typically run for about 4-5 hours (Dinner to Dark) and that would get us in good shape for the night. Then in the morning we would run a little bit too. Some people ran all day, but since ours was new I didn't want to leave it unattended.
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| 2016 Boardwalk Ice Cream |
The kids like to go up to the Ocean City Boardwalk one evening, I found the benches close to where we typically try to get ice cream and tried to get the kids in the same location as they were a few years ago, it is amazing how much they have changed!
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| 2013 Boardwalk Ice Cream |
Some of the sights around the camp and at the beach!
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| Well,.. Good morning horses! |
I wanted to go out and enjoy an activity as a family, so we chose to head over to Ayers Creek Adventures for another kayak rental and short paddle. They are very good people and the prices are very reasonable with good equipment. Becky and I each got tandem kayaks so we could take the younger two kids who haven't kayaked solo much before while Bella was able to paddle herself. The weather was great and the water was pretty calm which made for a nice paddle for about an hour. Becky had so much fun she though we should consider getting a tandem kayak! Wow!
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| Becky's true reason for a tandem! |
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| Madison and her single paddle helping out. She did good. |
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| Bella having a blast. |
We have been camping at Assateague now for a few years and it isn't very often that you see large groups of horses out on the beach. Sometimes you can catch one or two in the early morning, but this was the first year they were trying to excape some of the biting flies one humid afternoon and they made their way to the waterfront. Quite a sight and some photos are nearly post card worthy!
So another good trip to Assateague in the books. We have become regulars now on Loop D, but unfortunately, weren't able to keep it for next year cause I missed the chance while we were there to book next year. So, we will be in C Loop next year and a little earlier in July, hopefully we will have good neighbors and a good time there too.
