November 10, 2016

The wind blew at 18mph for most of the night. BOB rocked in the cross wind, in part because I hadn’t lowered the stabilizing jacks. A breeze of that magnitude also let me know that he is far from airtight. It was 55 degrees inside when I put the heat on in the morning. The blower seemed to lack power. I hope that's a reflection of it being powered by the batteries, as opposed to a new problem. I had to run the generator to dry my hair because the batteries don’t power the outlets. I have to admit that dry camping in either the cold of the winter or the heat of the summer is not for me.

​I saw the doe again last night, then I saw her and her fawn this morning. Three older-looking-than-they-are guys dressed in camouflage were standing near BOB this morning after I walked the dogs. They were dressed to kill but they were sporting cameras and binoculars instead of guns. I assumed they were "pony" spotting. About an hour later a pony walked by BOB. It looked like the same one I saw the night before but I couldn't be sure. As I left the campsite to drive to Chincoteague, there were three ponies along the road. One was a filly, and I was able to get a couple of pictures of her with my phone. She was scruffy and small and adorable. I wish her good luck: it's a hard life on Assateague.

The RV park in Chincoteague has 633 sites which makes it the largest park in which I've camped. Five hundred of them seem to be mobile homes and RVs which never move. The park closes the last day of November, so whatever remains has to be winterized and isn't accessible until the park reopens in the spring. The RV park only takes cash or checks; I carry little of the former and none of the latter. Cable is a la carte. Parking is on grass, and four sites share a multi-headed spigot for water. If this place is indicative of RV parks on the eastern seaboard I will not be happy. Fortunately the season is over so it isn't crowded, but it's noisier than any other park in which I've camped. It must be horrible in season, and this park is the best-rated site on the island.
The ponies of Chincoteague are the ancestors of the ponies of Assateague which swam to this island. I rode my bike to the southern end of Assateague this afternoon to catch a glimpse of them, but it was to no avail. The snowy egrets, great blue heron, Mallards, and fucking Canada geese were present, however. I parked my bike and walked to the ocean and watched the waves for a few minutes. On my ride home, I stopped to buy a Powerball ticket because I like the odds.

When I arrived at Kim and Kate's a few weeks ago, I ran yet another set of experiments to determine the source of the leak under the kitchen sink. I ran the cold and hot water faucets individually into each basin, but no leak occurred. The basin and the faucets have never felt wet when I've discovered the pools. The water must be coming either from the input pipes or the drains, since there is no way an exogenous water source (e.g. AC or heat condensation) could enter the cabinet area. I have been keeping a microfiber cloth on the left hand side of the cabinet to absorb the water because it only pools there. After I ran my experiments, I added a rubber shelf liner to the entire cabinet bottom. This morning, when I arrived in Chincoteague, the microfiber cloth was soaked. The rubber liner was dry beneath it. I replaced the microfiber cloth. The source of the leak remains a mystery because I can’t remove the panel to access the lines going into the faucet – doing so would require the disassembly of the drain pipes, and they are glued together.