Tom’s Cove Park Campground - Chincoteague, Virginia (October 2019)

We hoped we were leaving the coastal flooding behind in Delaware. It turned out that flooding problems were widespread and an issue at our next campground while on the WBCCI Southeast Coast Caravan. We could see the signs of water over the road as we pulled Rosie, our 25 foot Airstream trailer, into Tom’s Cove Park Campground. 

Entrance to the campground

We watched the rising water creep into the lower sections of the campground as we walked around the park the first evening. Trucks entering the campground had to forge through standing water on the roads. 

We noticed something else while on our first walk. A large section of the campground was roped off with big tents inside the gated area. It appeared that some festival was about to take place there. 

When we asked a campground staff person what the tents were for, the look we were given made us feel like we were aliens from outer space. After all, everyone knew about the Oyster Festival. Well, I knew a few people who weren’t up-to-date on local festivals.

The Oyster Festival opened at 10 a.m. the next morning. We were amazed at how many people showed up as the gate opened and the number of people in some sort of a costume. This was a “big deal” local event.

Our first round of food at the Oyster Festival

A cupcake for desert

Really, its Root Beer!

We were also surprised at the length of the lines waiting to get food. Line length was a good judge of what foods were the current crowd favorites. 

Sometimes you had no idea as to the destination of the line you were standing in. I ended up getting oyster fritters. I thought I was in the shrimp line. It didn’t matter because everyone was festive and the conversation was good. 

For some unexplained reason, a surprising number of people were in costume. Did I mention that beer was the most popular drink among the participants? That became more evident as the day wore on.

Maybe this festival is world famous?

The festival shut down promptly at 4pm. It appeared that many people simply moved “the party” back to their campers. The residents around us abided by the 11 pm quiet hours rule. 

Speaking of campers, this is a huge campground with nearly 900 sites, most of which are seasonals.

Rosie and friends in the campground

One of the interesting things to see in this area are the ponies. There are wild horses on Assateague Island. It appeared that living on the island for 300 years has helped the horses get over any fear of people. We were able to get about 25 feet away before the horses started to walk away.

Wild horses on Assateague Island

More wild horses

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• Our site was a back-in
• Our site was grass
• Our site was nearly level
• Our site had only 30 amp electrical service
• We had to use a 25 foot extension cord to reach the power box
• The power box was shared with four other trailers 
• Our site had a water connection 
• The water connection was shared with four other sites
• We had to use 50 feet of hose to reach the water connection 
• Our site had a sewer connection 
• There was a dump station in the campground 
• The restroom and showers near our site were clean
• The showers were functional and had ample hot water 
• We were able to watch ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS using Rosie’s antenna. We didn’t see any digital channels 
• The campground provided mediocre cable TV service. The connection point nearest our site had only two jacks to serve six trailers. We were able to connect after some of our neighbors left
• AT&T placed maybe one bar of 4G service for voice and data over our site. The Speedtest app on my iPhone said we had 1.6 MB download and 275 KB upload speeds 
• The campground provided WiFi service. We were unable to log on and it appeared that the password we were given was incorrect 
• There was a laundry facility in the park
• There was a camp store in the campground. 

By the way, I was confused about the park’s name. Half of the signs said  “Tom’s Cove Park” and the rest were “Toms Cove Park.”  The possessive form of “Tom” made more sense to me over the plural version. 

This campground shuts down during the winter and it was easy to see that the staff was winding things down. We understand that the park reopens in the spring with a big seafood festival. 

Lighthouse on Assateague Island

View from the top of the lighthouse