Back to the ocean

Camped in a state park, we woke up late because the forest was so heavy little sunlight got through. We thought it might be 7:00 and it was actually 9:00.

Our plan for the day was to visit a small town called Queen Ann which had a glowing write-up in some of our material: great historical district, lots of interesting old houses. We had trouble figuring out how to get there, but got good directions at a hot-rod shop. When we got there it was nothing. No historical district, no old houses, not much of anything at all. Taking another look at the brochure we discovered that it was Princess Ann.  Ooops! That town was some distance away, so we moved on to the other item in our plan, going back to the ocean.

So off we went, heading east. It was a very windy day (we hadn't noticed it under all those trees) and required close concentration. The Sprinter handles well, but it has quite a bit of windage. After about an hour or so we arrived at Rehoboth Beach. Reading the historical marker, we found that the town was first a place for a seaside camp meeting. The name is, among other things, Biblical in origin,

It is a typical beach town, but a bit more high end. The main street leading to the beach is quite wide, with lots of on-street parking. The town also boasts a wide boardwalk.

The town is on a barrier island, so there is a lot of beach. The sand is fine, with patches of coarser, darker sand mixed with small pebbles and broken shell. Other than that, it's pretty much like any other beach.

Leaving Rehoboth, we headed down island on US1 toward Ocean City, Md.  The good, strong wind brought out the kite surfers, who were zipping back and forth on the sound side.

Shortly later we pulled in to a restored Life Saving Station and museum. The barrier islands that run from New York, down the east coast, and around the Gulf coast protect the mainland from the ocean, but can be treacherous to ships. In the nineteenth century, the government established a chain of Life Saving Stations. These were houses and lookout positions every so many miles down the coast.

They were crewed and housed boats that could be launched through heavy surf to go to the aid of stranded vessels. They were also equipped to shoot a line to a vessel that the boat couldn't reach and bring people off the ships that way. It was a lonely and difficult service, but countless lives were saved by them.

We ate our lunch in the parking lot, then went in to the museum only to be told it was closing in 6 minutes. I was at least able to take a picture of the restored building.

We pressed on to Ocean City and found ourselves driving down an endless avenue of stores and hotels. I understand that there is a beach and boardwalk if we had pressed on, but we had other concerns at the moment. It was getting late and we needed to find a place for the night, preferably a campground with a laundry. We pulled in to a parking lot and Jean began working the phone. She found us a place at a reasonable price several miles inland, so we bailed out of Ocean City and headed inland.

We got to the campground just at closing time and got checked in. They put us in a spot close to the laundromat. Jean then worked on laundry while I got the rig leveled up and hooked up. This was only the second time this trip that we needed to put the Roadtrek up on blocks, Eastern Shore is pretty much flat country.

All told we got done most of what we wanted or needed to do except get some more supplies at a grocery store. I guess tomorrow we will probably end up eating breakfast out.