What set out to be a four day photography trip to Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge (CNWR), turned out to be a four day stay in the confines of the Hampton Inn. Beginning on Wednesday of last week and lasting through Saturday a massive Nor'easter tore up the Mid-Atlantic coast from North Carolina to New York with wind gusts of more than 50mph and 8 or more inches of rain. Chincoteague is a small barrier island connected to mainland Virginia by a two lane causeway that is barely above water level at normal high tide. Imagine getting across the casueway only to be told it is going to be closed and will probably only open the next day. CNWR is mostly wet lands with at best of times a road network that is marginal. These were not the best of times, and CNWR was closed on Wednesday with an expected reopening "sometime" this week. The dunes will not be a pretty sight.
Given these circumstances there is a lot to be said for the Hampton Inn - the electricity stayed on, it did not flood, and - most importantly in times like these - the WiFi stayed up with full connectivity to the internet. This was not the worst storm to hit Chincoteague - four days stuck in the hotel provides lots of time to read up on history! In 1962 a Nor'easter put the entire town underwater. The destruction, however, did have one benefit as in ended all thought of developement on neighboring Assateague Island and three years later Assateague Island National Seashore was established.
Well stuff happens and the birds will still be there for the next trip. And I will be out there again too.
PS Well, I did finally break out and went hunting for cool neon signs.
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