The road trip that went east before it went south... part 6

The following day we ventured towards Blackwater. Briefly we paused in a rundown town called Cambridge. There were a collection of rundown buildings that were interesting and eerie, but after being tailed by a pack of black guys making comments at me, I was ready to leave.

Blackwater's main area was shutdown, but one of the roads that wound through the park was open. Near the fishing area were a bunch of pier pilings that supported two kinds of gulls, terns and cormorants who were trying their hardest to maintain their grips on the wood planks while the wind gusted like mad.

Once we had our fill of the birds we continued on the road, hoping to find some shorebirds in the boggy/marshlands. Around a bend there was little dark creature crossing the road. Turtle! We quickly stopped, hopped out of the Element and nearly skipped over to the turtle. Who turned out to be a very small, very feisty snapping turtle! He gave us a snooty ancient reptilian glare as he hunkered down in the road. Not super worried that he would eat me (he was roughly smaller than palm sized), I tried to pick him up. The little booger popped up against my touch and scared the poo out of me! He didn't manage to bite me (whew!) and once Jen and I had enough pictures of him, I herded him back into the reeds.

A stunning view of the sky and a bridge, and some abandoned houses that were being reclaimed by the marshlands before we turned around and headed back towards the main road.

A touch of rain caught us, but we quickly outpaced it as we moved towards Assateague Island. I grew up reading Misty and Stormy (ponies of Assateague and Chincoteague Islands) so I was super excited to possibly be able to see some of the modern day wild ponies. We crossed the bridge to the island, the storm heavy on our heels. The state park side of Assateague was open and basically consisted of a turnaround.

Luck was on our side as a set of 3 ponies lazily grazed just off the road, oblivious of the people stopping to gawk at them.
We made it off the island and the rain hit. Through the rain we drove to the empty, nearly flooded Ocean City. It was very eerie as though the ocean had decided to take back the city. 

On the way home the storm clouds caught some color, but by the time we pulled off and into a mall parking lot, the color had fizzled.

Keep an eye out for the next entry!