To Chincoteague Island VA

May 8, 2024

I'm having more than the usual level of difficulty moving the bike forward on the ride out of Exmore. Barry finds it very hard to ride this slow. He's ready to pull ahead and wait for me down the road, but before taking off he notices that my rear tire looks kind of flat. You'd think I would have considered that possibility.

Sure enough, the valve isn't screwed in all the way and air has been slowly leaking out. I'm not sure how that happened but it's easy enough to fix. Once we get it pumped up I'm back up to my usual 12 mph - not blazing but it'll get me where we're going.

With that impediment solved, we are enjoying a beautiful, if warm day, riding a little ways east of US 13 on chill country roads. There are even some little hills that aren't bridges. We're still in farmland, although closer to Exmore you can see the transition of farms that have been converted for housing developments.

Tall shade trees, sunny fields and an empty road. Can't ask for better.

Gotta have the courage of your convictions to do a pink-on-pink house

By the time we get to the town of Atlantic at mile 36 it's getting downright hot, somewhere north of 85 degrees, and I need fuel. Most of the lunch places are on the fast highway except for Wolff's Sandwich Shoppe which is right on our way. I have a hankering for a club sandwich, which isn't on the menu but the cook says sure honey, I can make that for you. Barry and I both get a tall glass of fresh-squeezed lemonade that has the little floaty lemon bits in it and comes with free refills. It's an ideal lunch stop on a hot day.

A few miles before the bridge to Chincoteague we pass a vintage rocket standing by the road. It does the job of grabbing our attention for the NASA Visitor Center. Across the road from the Visitor Center, NASA's Wallops Flight Facility handles launches from Wallops Island. NASA has launched thousands of rockets carrying satellites and science experiments here. On launch days you can watch rockets blast off from the observation deck above the Visitor Center.

We stop in and meet Dave, a volunteer who got his start with NASA as a machinist at Wallops and spent a lot of time fixing broken rockets. Now retired, he talks with visitors about the work at Wallops in scientific research and space exploration since the first rocket was launched here in 1945.

The scout rocket that got our attentionn outside NASA's visitor center

More specimens in the rocket garden at NASA's Visitor Center

In 1945 the Tiamat was the first research rocket launched from Wallops Island.

Science on a Sphere lets visitors project detailed images of the planets and moons of our solar system on a five-foot wide ball. All the planets are listed by their names, except for Earth which is called the Blue Marble.

Inside the visitor center are all sorts of hands-on demonstrations about rocketry and space exploration.

Continuing on, a tailwind pushes us over the bridge to Chincoteague Island. We check in at Pine Grove campground, one of the seedier places we've camped at. The ancient showers reek of ammonia. Water from the immovable shower heads hits the wall at waist level so you have to raise your feet that high to rinse the soap off. Outside the shower house, the smell of fish guts from the fish cleaning shed just behind it competes with the shower aroma. Delightful.

Oh well, we're not here for the campground. I spend a little time washing weeks of grime from my bike and then ride to the beach. Mike is already down there getting in his beach walk. Barry stays back to log some hammock time. He lost his sense of smell years ago and cares not a whit about ammonia or fish guts.

An egret takes off by the bridge to Chincoteague

Chincoteague has a fun small-town feel to it.

As usual, we have the tent space all to ourselves

Showerhouse and fish cleaning shed, a one-two punch in the nose

It's a five mile ride to the beach on the barrier island of Assateague. Just east of Chincoteague, the Assateague National Seashore stretches 37 miles north to Virginia. Uninhabited by humans, the area is known for the wild ponies that Marguerite Henry wrote about in her book "Misty of Chincoteague." I see more egrets from the beautiful bike path to the beach but no ponies today.

A cool breeze blows off the ocean as I cross over the dunes to the beach. The water at Assateague is the coldest yet, much colder than at Virginia Beach, just 70 miles south of here. I shake off any vestiges of the day's heat with a good walk in the water.

You can walk for miles here without seeing a high-rise hotel.

Just enough daylight for the ride back to camp

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Today's ride: 59 miles (95 km)
Total: 1,839 miles (2,960 km)

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Gregory GarceauThanks for the look at the Chincoteague-Assateague area. I was born there when my dad was in the Navy but moved away less than a year later. We came back for a visit when I was about 10 years-old, but the only thing I remember about that trip was looking for the wild horses and not finding them. I'm sure glad we didn't stay at the stinky Pine Grove Campground.
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6 months ago

Janice BranhamTo Gregory GarceauIt felt like a chill vacation spot when we were there Greg, one I'd be glad to come back to.
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6 months ago

Rachael AndersonAs far as I’m concerned, 12 mph is fast when you’re carrying a load!
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6 months ago

Janice BranhamTo Rachael AndersonI don't disagree with you. And I should be clear that the overall average is lower: 12 mph is the cruising speed once I get going not counting stops.
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6 months ago

Rachael AndersonThat’s still significantly faster than what we’re doing!
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6 months ago