Camping on a beach on an island right after a hurricane: the idea was part serendipity, part madness. Serendipity because friends had a reservation they could not use, and so we were able to obtain one coveted camp site on Maryland’s Assateague Island on Labor Day Weekend. Madness because of likely post-hurricane dampness, because the facilities were an outhouse, because sleeping on sand is cold and uncomfortable, and because sand is prolifically invasive.

But our fumble-thumbed failure to light a fire triggered neighborly aid from a friendly meteorologist camping nearby with his extremely pregnant foreign wife. In the evening, there was wine on the beach under the stars with the calming whoosh of the ocean. And there were the miniature wild horses that roam free about the beaches, salt marshes, and forests of Assateague Island.

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Callie Leuck is a writer, recently graduated from the Johns Hopkins University with a master’s degree in science-medical writing.