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Pony at sunset; by Daniel Pogonowski<\/p><\/div>\n
The Stare Down So there I was, with Aug. 8, 2009, my 50th birthday, staring me right in the face. I asked myself, \u201cWhat can I possibly do to celebrate? Then: Bing! It dawned on me. How cool\u2014and appropriate\u2014would that be to drive across the country on U.S. Route 50? It just made sense! <\/span><\/p>\n So on June 9, I departed my home on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, in a rented Dodge Caliber with the following ground rules:<\/span><\/p>\n Let the games begin!<\/span><\/p>\n For starters, I had always wanted to see the wild ponies of Assateague, located just south of Ocean City, which is the official start of Route 50. How convenient!<\/span><\/p>\n Assateague Island is a 37-mile long, barrier island just off the coast of Maryland and Virginia. Two herds of wild ponies freely roam the island, slightly smaller than domesticated horses and subsisting on marsh and dune grasses. Local lore relates that these ponies are descendants of horses that swam to shore after a Spanish galleon sank off the coast, but that has never been verified. Instead, these robust creatures are more likely the descendants of horses that early American settlers took to Assateague Island to avoid taxes.<\/span><\/p>\n The morning of June 10 found me crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel to\u00a0<\/span>Assateague State Park<\/span><\/a>, where I had reserved a campsite on the beach.<\/span><\/p>\n All of my pre-trip homework had told me how these wild ponies roamed both the state park and the national seashore. So before heading to my campsite, I drove all over both sites, trying to find the ponies\u2014all to no avail. I was disappointed.<\/span><\/p>\n After dinner at a local crab house and a shower, I threw my air mattress down upon the sandy ground next to my car. I had to; at the time, I didn\u2019t own a tent! In any case, I crawled into my sleeping bag, dead to the world.<\/span><\/p>\n Sometime in the early morning hours, I was awoken by hot breath on my forehead. Then I felt whiskers touching my cheek. \u00a0I opened my eyes to have a wild pony\u2019s snout in my face! I popped up and rolled over to see three wild ponies that had ambled into my campsite. Who could have predicted such an event? I didn\u2019t find the wild ponies of Assateague Island\u2014they found me!<\/span><\/p>\n Submitted by reader John Scanlan<\/strong>, freelance outdoors writer and retired U.S. Marine.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n Fishing on the Miles River; by J. Scott Bruce<\/p><\/div>\n Enhancing Content You can then choose to hear the entire report, or specific details on the upper, middle or lower portions of the Chesapeake Bay, freshwater or Atlantic fishing. Rest assured, you may continue to\u00a0<\/span>read the report online<\/span><\/a> as well, and even have it delivered right to your\u00a0<\/span>inbox<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n The Alexa Skill was developed for the state at no cost by NIC Maryland through a statewide, self-funded digital government master services agreement with the Department of Information Technology.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/b>For a man, the \u201cBig Five-Oh\u201d is a wake-up call. It\u2019s the one birthday where he finally realizes that maybe, just maybe, he isn\u2019t going to accomplish all of the things in life that he had hoped. Personally, I\u2019m still holding out for that NFL draft pick.<\/span><\/p>\n\n
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\n<\/b>Anglers and fishing enthusiasts: you now have\u00a0<\/span>another option<\/span><\/a> for obtaining our popular weekly fishing reports! Users with an Amazon Echo and other affiliated devices may simply say, \u201cAlexa, open Maryland Fishing Report\u201d to hear the latest conditions, hotspots and more. <\/span><\/p>\n