Set the alarm for 5:00 a.m., jumped out of bed, dressed, than jumped onto my rental bike and rode to the Pony Walk over on Assateague Island. This is the day when the Saltwater Cowboys bring the ponies they’ve been gathering for the last week down from the northern end of the island to the pens on the southern end of the island in preparation for the pony swim. Figured the ride would take about 20 minutes or so, ended up taking closer to 35. I thought from the research I had done that the Walk would begin at 6:00, but it turned out that they meant from the north end of the island, so they didn’t arrive at the spot where the crowd had gathered until after 7:15. There were several hundred people gathered along the beach’s edge, but from the conversations I was having with some of the regulars, the numbers were down quite a bit this year. Still, I saw a lovely sunrise over the Atlantic, had a number of interesting conversations, and then, when the ponies finally emerged from the mist on this beautiful morning, they were gorgeous! So many babies, though the Saltwater Cowboys kept between them and the crowd so they were kind of hard to see. I and many other bikers fell in behind the herd as they traversed off the beach and down the road to the pony pens. One older foal kept trying to break away, I guess he lost track of his mother and wasn’t interested in doing anything but finding her and going back home. It was kind of sad to realize that for many of those babies, this would be their last walk of freedom, and their last walk, except the swim, with their mothers. But it’s also obvious that the resources of the island would be quickly overrun if the ponies weren’t auctioned off annually, and the consequences of that would be even more unthinkable. After spending some time watching the ponies in their pens, I headed back home at a somewhat slower pace than I took earlier. Arrived back around 8:30 and discovered Hubby was still sound asleep! He soon got out of bed, we had breakfast and relaxed for the rest of the morning. Later we took a bike ride over to Mr. Whippy’s on Maddox for our ice cream lunch, then relaxed as much as we could through the afternoon, though I was still compelled to do some computer work, settling some logistics for our upcoming busy month. Later in the evening we were joined by our friends Jane and Bob, whom we had invited to join us for the week, and we went out to dinner at a fabulous restaurant on Main Street called Don’s Seafood, or should I say a little family restaurant with fabulous food, thoroughly enjoying the company. Once we got back to the house we had a nightcap and continued talking until bedtime at about 10:00. Having gotten up at 5:00, I was ready!!!
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