Misty in Chincoteague

For my first federal holiday, I decided to take a holiday.

So far during the shutdown, I have been one of the lucky ones and haven’t been furloughed. It seems we’ll have at least next week, and that’s pay week. My financial confidence is growing slowly and I wanted to take advantage of the holiday.

The idea of a holiday, especially a little-celebrated federal holiday like Columbus Day, is really entertaining. With the exception of this last Fourth of July, Thanksgiving and Christmas I haven’t taken holidays off lately, which means dating back to 2007. And I can’t think of a time when I was off on Columbus Day. I mean, who celebrates that?

Anyway, with the thought of another paycheck next week I’m moving ahead with being a regular American, which means spending money.

My first foray was to go to the dentist in the US for the first time since 2007. Not surprisingly, I got a list of $1900 worth of stuff that needs to be done. Sigh. But I knew this was coming.

But that’s not a highlight for a three-day weekend. I pulled out the map and tried to find a place to go to for a little bit. I mean, it’s likely the last vacation I’ll have in the States until my first home leave, so I wanted to do something. Even if it wasn’t far away.

So I Hotwired a rental car and chose Chincoteague Island, which is only about three hours away. This is assuming you don’t get lost. “Lost” is a really vague term while on vacation with no set itinerary. Fortunately, since I didn’t bring my GPS.

Chincoteague Island is in Virginia (I had to reiterate this to the rental car people for some reason. I started to think the car might lock up when I crossed the state line or something, but nothing nefarious happened.) on the Eastern Seaboard.

The ride here is probably really gorgeous, but it has been a soggy, soggy time in the DC area. There’s been at least a steady misting from the get-go.

And "misty" is appropriate, I guess, because the reason I wanted to go to Chincoteague is because it’s the setting of “Misty of Chincoteague,” one of my favorite books from my youth. Marguerite Henry wrote it in 1947 and several related books followed. (As it turns out, there’s at least one I never read, “Misty Twilight” or something like that.)

For those who don’t have a clue what I’m talking about, the story centers around an annual event on the island called Pony Penning Day. In the book, a brother and sister save money and buy the filly of a wild pony than no one was able to bring in called Phantom.

The ponies originate on Assateague Island, across the channel. They’ve been there for 200 years. No one can really say for sure how they got there, but the legend in the book is the one about a shipwrecked Spanish ship that was loaded with horses. Some of the horses escaped, and the ones that roam the island today are descendants of those.

On Pony Penning Day, which is held at the end of July, “saltwater cowboys” round up the 150 or so horses on the 37-mile island (the island stretches into Maryland, but I think the boat tour guy said the horses were only in the Virginia part, but I’m not sure) and herd them across the channel to Chincoteague Island.

There, the colts and fillies are separated from their parents and sold at auction, although some people “buy back” some of the foals. That, I learned today, is when a benefactor basically makes a donation to the fire department and sends the pony back to the island to replenish the herd. (The fire department acts as the caretakers for the horses and runs the roundup and the auction, plus a carnival that goes along with it.)

In the book, Paul goes on the roundup and gets the Phantom, who has a filly by her side. She’s a flash in the wind, so he calls her Misty. Paul and his sister Maureen buy both the Phantom and Misty, but Paul winds up turning Phantom loose again because she’s a free spirit. Misty, OTOH, is “Misty of Chincoteague” and wants to stay with Paul and Maureen.

Misty is still a big part of the community. There’s even a statue downtown, modeled after one of the illustrations in the book. An artist named Wesley Dennis did all the illustrations for all Henry’s books, and they are just phenomenal.

The book was made into a movie, which I’ve never seen, and that’s blasted all over town, too.

But it’s not a hugely commercial place. It’s a beach town. Oysters and crabs are as big as the ponies. Well, in popularity, anyway.

I did a boat tour so that I could head over to Assateague to see the ponies (it’s a federal park/refuge so it’s closed due to the shutdown) and got the rundown on the seafood side of it.

I don’t think I realized how much I miss beach. I loved the boat. I miss salt water, salty air and all that. I could definitely retire to an island.

Photos to come. I have to unearth my connector cord thing first, but even before that I am going to splurge (in more ways than one) at one of the many ice cream shops I’ve seen.