The weather went bad over Shabbos just like the forecast predicted. By midday, tenters were packing up and heading home. We went for a short walk on the beach despite the blowing sand.
I was worried that if we left Sunday morning we wouldn’t be able to get home by Sunday night in time for Shemini Atzeres, so we left after Shabbos ended. We used the dump station and were on the road by 8:30PM and were home by 2:30AM this morning.
After a few hours sleep we cleaned out the RV today. The trees in our yard are putting on quite a show:
Hopefully our next RV adventure isn’t too far off.
This morning the weather was grim. The forecast showed mist and fog, then high winds gusting to 40MPH moving in around midnight:
Another yummy RV breakfast, featuring FakeBakon™:
We laid out the shells and shell fragments we collected this week:
The kids played in the surf again. Note the fog reducing visibility to a few hundred feet:
I went for a bike ride. The fog dissipated as it moved inland beyond the beach, so the bay side of the island was clear. I watched the horses out in the marsh:
After riding a bit on the mainland, I came back to find this fellow right near the road:
Another horse along the island road:
By the time I returned to the RV, the fog had cleared, so I went for flight #114:
Trish photographed me from the RV as I came in to land:
Last night, we met the T family when they arrived in the campground. They were excited to see our sukkah. I went over to say hello and check our their sukkah. We chatted for some time, and it turns out Mrs. T is related to the Rabbi of the congregation in Santa Fe with which we spent Purim on Day 959. Small world!
This morning, the T family stopped by on their way home to check out the RV and we swapped more stories about frum RVing:
The first two days of Sukkos (Monday and Tuesday) with congregation Ahavat Shalom in Ocean City, Maryland were great. It was the first time we’ve spent a holiday with a Sefardi congregation. Since everyone there except us were Israeli expats, the Rabbi delivered his sermon in Hebrew. On the second day I walked down to the beach and walked the boardwalk for a bit.
RV breakfasts are always fantastic:
The passenger side of the RV seemed to be sagging, and a peek underneath revealed that the rear passenger leaf spring had broken. This is the same spring position that broke and had to be replaced on Day 366. Back when that spring broke, I replaced the springs on both sides so the axle would be square to the trailer and therefore the tires would not wear poorly. As I result, I had with us the unbroken leaf spring pulled off the driver’s side of the rear axle those few years ago. I crawled under the RV and got to work:
The congregation used to be headed up by a Chabad rabbi, which explains why the synagogue was built to resemble 770:
After Shacharis and fixing the leaf spring, we relocated back to Assateague Island. We had camping reservations at Assateague Island National Seashore, but we would have had to change sites in the middle of our stay, so we decided to try for the first time camping at Assateague State Park, which was much less crowded. For a couple more dollars, we have use of bathhouses with toilets and nice showers, as opposed to just pit toilets in the NPS campground.
This morning was sunny and warm. The ocean is on the other side of the protective dune:
I drove over to the local airport to fly my PPG over Assateague:
Launch of flight #111:
Assateague Island lies beyond the bay at the end of the runway:
Flying south, I overflew the undeveloped northern section of Assateague:
Flying north, the city of Ocean City, Maryland is visible on the southern end of Fenwick Island, across the channel from the northern tip of Assateague Island:
Approaching the airport:
This video contains my four flights during this trip:
I raced back to the RV to exit our campsite by the 11AM checkout. We relocated to the day use area for the rest of the day. The kids went off to the beach, and Trish and I stayed back at the RV. I was in touch with Cherie and Chris, two fulltime RVers whose adventures I have been following on their blog Technomadia since a year or so before the trip. They happened to be staying at the state campground on Assateague, and they rode their bikes over to say hello. It was great to meet them in person, and our conversation quickly turned to topics at the confluence of technology and mobile living.
At lunchtime, a group of Assateague’s feral horses wandered through the parking lot:
After lunch, we relocated to Ahavat Shalom, the synagogue where we will be spending the first two days of Sukkos. We set up our sukkah: