What I saw of Chincoteague, and a little of Assateague* · 3:42am Nov 10th, 2013

...since there seemed to be some interest.

These are some of the ponies from Assateague that did the swim across to Chincoteage this year. They have been auctioned and are awaiting their new homes: the proceeds benefit the Chincoteague Fire Department. The herd belongs to the Fire Department and is grazed on public lands on Assateague via permit from the National Forest Service (in America, National Forests are not the same as National Parks: in the former consumptive use by private entities is allowed within particular restrictions).

The Fire Department's herd is feral but not unused to humans: three times yearly they're rounded up and every horse is given a veterinary checkup. There is another checkup before the swim that determines which animals are fit to make the transit safely.

As to the town of Chincoteague itself:

The Island Theatre in Old Town Chincoteague--an example of an old single-screen community theatre that never really lost out to the multiplexes. The pony motif, as you might expect, is very popular there. And guess what's set in the sidewalk right under the marquee?...

Yeah, just like Grauman's Chinese Theatre. Cute!

Right across from that is the town square, with a statue that I photographed badly:

...because I didn't want to use my flash, because it was swarming with kids who were Trick-or-Treating and I didn't want to ruin their night vision, plus I didn't want to be THAT GUY shooting flash photos. Plus, unless you're a pro, flash photos suck.

A few doors down there's a souvenir shop called, I kid you not, The Purple Pony. And guess what's for sale inside?...

You have to provide the polka-dot boxer shorts, but...basically, yeah.

and OHAI WHO HERE WANTS TO BETA MY ROCKETEER/FiM CROSSOVER FIC? ANYONE? C'MON...

Chincoteague is just up the coast from NASA's Wallops Island Flight Facility. They've been launching rockets there since the 1950's, mostly suborbital flights but recently they've launched unmanned missions to the Space Station and most recently the LADEE mapping mission to the moon. You can see the launch gantries quite clearly from Assateague Beach.

So that was all Halloween night. The next day we went over to Assateague, and while we did see the ponies it was at a distance. Michelle got some good shots with a telephoto lens "which in our case we have not got." Likewise we saw the rare and elusive Delmarva Fox Squirrel, a brute half again as big as the biggest squirrel you've seen with long luxurious hair like an Angora cat, a ghostly pale grey in color.

Speaking of ghostly pale grey, here's Assateague Beach with winter coming on:

That's the Atlantic Ocean there on the left. Next stop is...from this angle? Casablanca, I believe.

That was quite windy and cold and sand blowing in every orifice of your body that wasn't covered. So we went to the landward side of the island where I climbed up this:

That's the Assateague Lighthouse, built in 1867. I couldn't get any good pictures inside because it was just too close to get a good shot, but it looks all set up for a steampunk convention: impeccably preserved brickwork, magnificent embrasured windows, and a spiral staircase which, while it's probably not the original cast iron, looks like it could be.

And it's still in use:

There's a catwalk around the top that they'll actually let you get out and walk around on, so I took this last picture:

That's Chincoteague Island over there across the channel, and that narrowest bit of water is the strait the ponies swim across every year, just as you may have read.

"And that is my holiday."

* I'm riffing on Ambrose Bierce's war memoirs, What I saw of Shiloh and A Little of Chickamagua. Just so you know how clever I'm being, OK?

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