Category Archives: Maryland

5/27/2017 A Little More Delaware, A Little More Maryland, and on to New Joy-zee.

Posted on by

Holiday Park Campground was next in line for our new home. Located out in the sticks in a “town” called Greensboro, MD, this was another overpriced stopover along our east coast journey. Thick trees, water and electric only, sites of gravel and mud, it definitely did not warrant the $44 per night rate. But then, like most of the scarce RV parks we are encountering, people are willing to pay these high prices, so they can keep charging them. And this half of the country has very little public lands (BLM, Nat’l Forests, etc.) for those of us who would rather pay zero and boondock every now and then.

Still fighting the rain, we only had the opportunity to check out a couple of spots. First up was New Castle, DE. We loaded up Woodrow Wilson and road tripped into town. As luck would have it, New Castle is a very small, quaint, piece of history and upon our arrival we fell into their Historical Society’s big “A Day in Old New Castle” celebration. The old town area gets all dolled up and folks dress in period costumes to give tours of some of the old residences/buildings, to the tune of $25 per ticket for each adult. I’m still a cheap bast*%$, so we walked Woody around the town without touring inside. Some of the places still standing have been doing so since the 16-1700’s. Very cool…

A little Delaware history lesson about Independence hall. 
…and here it is in person. 
Libraries were built a little different in prior centuries… 
The historic downtown area gets blocked off to traffic while characters in period costume wander around as part of the tour, similar to that done in Williamsburg, VA, but on a smaller scale.
The Immanuel Protestant Episcopal Church, which, typical of a great many churches on this half of the country, contains the resting places of many early residents and historical figures.
Inside the cemetery section of the church.
Jeanne got wigged out over this burial site, looks like the occupant is getting a little restless and wanting to get up and stretch his/her legs…
Packet Alley, one of the features in old town.
Our history lesson about Packet Alley.
If you are just “dying” to come see all this history, they have a “taxi” for you…
Gotta love that old fashioned method of advertising.
The ticket office, still standing, for the New Castle and Frenchtown Railroad. 
Down at the waterfront, looking across the Delaware River to the state of New Joy-zee.

The other place we got to see without getting wet was in Cambridge, MD. We drove out to the Choptank River Lighthouse and walked around the  park there and the Cambridge Yacht Club. The folks there have a couple of bucks, judging by some of the toys floating on the water. Another thing we are seeing a lot of on this half of the  world, the people here are extreme patriots and thankful to our servicemen, as evidenced by the sheer number of war memorials we are encountering.

Guess we gotta do an occasional yuppie selfie, here in front of the Cambridge Lighthouse.
The lighthouse, close up. 
One of the little row boats headed out to sea while we watched.
Some of the sailing fleet, Commodore Herzog would be envious, right Chuck? 
A small local fleet getting ready to dock… 
The WWII memorial near the lighthouse. 
Front side to a WWI Memorial to some local boys, recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross.
The back side of the WWI Memorial.

Time to move on, reservations had been made (covering Memorial Day weekend), so off to New Jersey we went. We snagged a week at  Shady Pines MH & RV Resort in Galloway Township outside of Atlantic City. Still pricey, but the week gave us time to stretch and breath while we got to experience the Jersey Shores, AC, Ocean City, and Cape May. Still a bit rainy, but we gave it that good ol’ college try anyways.

Home at Shady Pines

We did not know what to expect in Atlantic City and at the boardwalk. With the past hurricane damage and on-going restoration, I thought the boardwalk might have been back to “business as usual” by now. We were a bit surprised at the number of businesses still closed up and the lack of humans frequenting the businesses that were open. Even the boardwalk casinos seemed like ghost towns; lots of empty floor spaces, majority of card tables closed and scant few gamblers to be found. But the actual boardwalk itself showed no signs of hurricane damage (at least to we who have never seen it before the hurricanes). It was good to see state run casinos are the same everywhere, no problem in allowing us to donate to the local economy. (Note: Somewhere in cyberspace I lost my original media gallery of pictures that I originally posted. These photos are strictly off the top of my head and hopefully still an accurate depiction of the Atlantic City Beach Boardwalk.)

Cape May is home to the Cape May Point State Park. There we found the Cape May Lighthouse and the remnants of a WWII gun emplacement bunker on the beach. I guess I did a lot of sleeping in history class, I was not aware of a lot of WWII activity on this coast. But we are running into a lot of WWII bunkers of all sorts, as well as lookout towers all up and down the coast. Further down the coast we found what was left of the S.S. Atlantus, one of several experimental ships made of concrete during WWI, which sunk and now stands partially exposed just off the beach. Downtown had a large outdoor mall shopping area we let Woody lead us about, until we saw the teeny, tiny, itty-bitty sign that prohibited dogs in that area. Oops…So we headed down some of the skinny streets lined with historical Victorian homes, many of which have been converted to businesses, particularly B&B’s. We wanted to stroll the promenade (concrete boardwalk) which fronted the beach, but, alas, not a dog-friendly city.

We wanted to check out the further reaches of the boardwalk, away from the central area, so a jaunt to the North Beach area in the city of Ventnor was in order. On the way we wandered by the Absecon Lighthouse. Kinda strangely situated a bit distant from the water, it was not open to the public at the time of our pass-by, so one quick pic and on to North Beach. We were happy to be able to park on surface streets without having to pay through the nose (free, but with time constraints). A short walk got us to the beach where we ran into a unique situation. Now, up to about 5 years ago we have been California “lifers”, lived there all our lives. I grew up in Orange County, in the heart of the Southern California beach lifestyle. We’ve been all over the country, visited innumerable beaches. Evidently, this area of New Jersey makes you pay to enjoy the beach. They required a “beach badge” which we were supposed to purchase at some location undisclosed on the signage. Don’t tell anyone, but we became scofflaws and ventured out onto the boardwalk and beach without said “beach badges”. (Oh, great, now all of our travels will include the added stress of constantly looking over our shoulders for Johnny Law, always on the run, trying to stay one step ahead of our pursuers). And the beach here in Ventnor City was further unique in that posted signage prohibited dogs, alcohol, picnicking, and ball playing…basically all the reasons, except for the sun, for anyone wanting to go to the beach. The only prohibitions they need to add are no swimming or suntanning. There was a fishing pier where one has to pass through 2 gates. The public is allowed to the second gate, but then only paying “members” could pass gate #2 to the end of the pier and only members were allowed to fish off this pier. I was surprised they did not have a sign prohibiting fish hooks posted somewhere. The boardwalk was crowded, this being Memorial Day Weekend, with joggers and bikers, and the beach had ample “sunbathers” even though the weather was not great with overcast conditions. While strolling the boardwalk we passed by all the beach houses, many of which were your typical beach rental properties, some of them very impressive in structure. One of them was for sale and out of curiosity a quick check of realtor.com revealed the selling price of just short of $3M. I’d hate to have to live like that (piled on sarcasm here)…

The Absecon Lighthouse. Not real close to any water… 
Makes one really want to go to the beach, don’t it?! 
Looking north along the boardwalk toward Atlantic City.
Here’s a couple of fixer-uppers along the beach… 
They are serious here about making you pay to play on their piers! 

The rain is still with us here, planning our escape for tomorrow. Jeanne has been feverishly working on research/itinerary for our weeklong stay near New York City. A very large part of that research involved other folks’ blogged experiences. Particular shout out and thank you goes to Nina of wheelingit.us , one of the blogs we regularly follow. She is very detailed when it comes to the bolts and nuts of planning attacks on destination locations. So tomorrow, we’re off to play our new reality game, “Avoid Those Toll Roads!” ’Til next post…

5/18/2017 Hangin’ out with Abe, Edgar, the Babe, and some crabs.

Posted on by

So after careful consideration, painstaking research and planning, many megabytes of data usage, we closed our eyes and stuck a finger in the mapbook, settling on the Washington DC area for our next stop. We found the Greenbelt Park, a National Park run campground, in beautiful downtown Greenbelt, Maryland, just outside of DC. It is a typical old NP campground inside a heavy cover of trees, sites and interior roads not real big-rig friendly and on the whole not even close to being level. The sites are dry-camping only with potable water scattered around the loops. They do have bathrooms fairly convenient in the loops, and in Loop D, recommended for bigger rigs, there is (1) shower stall in (1) of the bathhouses. Our problem here was the thick tree cover, coupled with the several days of rain, trumped our solar power system, so we ended up running our generator a bit each day. But there is always an upside, I needed to give the generator it’s monthly “work out” anyway. The rate here is $20 per night, $10 if you have the NP pass, so that was a big plus. But if you do have a bigger rig, you cannot be shy about brush scratch, the park maintenance folks don’t keep the branches trimmed back very well.

Our dry-camping home at Greenbelt Park. Not much solar gets through them trees…
Come on, maintenance boyz, can we trim a few trees here?!?!
Jeanne found this friend inside our campground. I believe this would be one of them there black rat snakes…

We fought rain most of the 5 days we stayed here in Greenbelt. Our first outing we pretty much got rained on the whole time. We drove into Annapolis and over to Kent Island, mostly off of Hwy. 50. The Bay Bridge was cool, but it did cost us $4 in toll extortion money. In Annapolis we got to see the Maryland State House and the Governor’s house while ducking and dodging raindrops. It is mind numbing seeing all that is history on this side of the continent, dating back into the 1600’s/1700’s/1800’s. Being from the Loony Tunes State of California there is no comparison as to volume of things to see dating back that far. 

Downtown old town Annapolis, traffic, in the rain. YUK!
A little background on the State House.
The Maryland State House.
Here’s the Governor’s Mansion.
Looking out to sea right down the belly of the beast. Welcome to Annapolis…

The rain kept up all night but let up enough the next day to take a bike ride from East Potomac Park, a short run throught the Jefferson Memorial area and onto the Mt. Vernon hike/bike Trail. We rode the trail into Alexandria (somewhere around a 9-mile one way trail) and back. Once we returned we pedaled around the Washington Monument area, then returned to base camp. Parking in these high traffic areas is a bit pricy at times and we were happy to find the East Potomac Park with all of its free parking. We noticed on one of our rides as we passed Reagan Int’l Airport they had parking listed as $17 per half hour for the first 2 hours, then more thereafter (I did not pay attention, the $17 per half hour was enough to send me into a tizzy).

Our parking spot was here along a thin spit of land with this, the Washington Channel coming off the Potomac River. And we just happened to be here near high tide which made the sidewalk disappear and us worry if our Jeep would become a submarine soon. 
Here’s a couple of peddle boats for you. Maybe we should dump the bus and get us a small boat like this to full time boat in. I’d need sailing lessons from Commodore Herzog…how ’bout it, Chuck?
Thomas Jefferson, taking visitors as usual… 
Part of the Mt. Vernon Trail that we rode into Alexandria on.
This was part of the Mt. Vernon Trail as well, boardwalk style across a swampy area.
Now when I see this, I am embarrassed to claim membership in the human race. We have a pig problem, coast to coast. 
The trail affords good views of the Reagan airport and it’s comings and goings.

We got more break from the rain and took a drive into Baltimore for a day. Jeanne had several sights picked out for visits so visit we did. She discovered the Westminster Church and Burial Ground was the final resting place for Edgar Allen Poe. We stopped in to pay respects and Jeanne’s apprehension level got raised to the top of the creepiness meter over the whole macabre vibe she was receiving.  

This is the monument marker to E.A. Poe in the front yard of the church. His gravesite, however, is in the backyard.
Jeanne got a little creeped out walking among the dearly departed.
E.A. Poe’s gravesite. 
Westminster Church, Baltimore, MD.

When in Baltimore… just gotta see Camden Yards, a mainstay in our history involving the boys of summer. Home to the Orioles, the park was vacant now with the home team out of town for the week. 

Some of the interior of Camden Yards.
The outer wall.
The Babe, standing guard at the park.

Among some of the historical sights downtown were the original George Washington Monument, the Peabody Conservatory and Library, and numerous places of historical significance which, almost without exception, goes hand-in-hand with an architectural “wow” factor.

A look at the first Washington monument, with a statue of Lafayette on his horse in the foreground.
From 1843, the Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church, still going strong.
The Peabody Conservatory and Library building.
An inside look at the Peabody Library.
The Stafford Hotel.

Jeanne had also learned that Federal Hill Park affords one an impressive bird’s eye view of the downtown area of Baltimore. It was an OK view of the harbor area, and was a fitting end to our tour of Baltimore.

A view from the top of Federal Hill Park.
A look over the waterfront area. You can barely see the Hard Rock Cafe telltale guitar across the way.
Looking away from the waterfront, you can see the home of the NFL Ravens. 

We lucked out weather-wise and were able to do another bike ride around the capitol mall as well as take the Rock Creek Parkway trail to the Nat’l Zoo. It was nice to be on bikes at the mall area, easy to get around despite all the tourists jamming the area. I was not surprised at the rudeness of the foreign tourists, I watched as a wheelchair-bound person tried to navigate a sidewalk full of non-English speaking folks and they kept crowding and cutting him off. I was ready to wring some necks…

Some of the World War II Memorial.
The Three Soldiers, part of the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial
The Vietnam Memorial wall, with visitors.
Don’s house.
Abe, taking visitors as usual.
Part of the Rock Creek Parkway. A very busy hike/bike trail.
Jeanne putting the pedal to the metal here along the Rock Creek Pkwy.
More of Rock Creek Pkwy. 

Of course, the weather cleared up on our travel day. We headed out in the direction of the great state of Delaware. I found the Delaware Seashore State Park to be an acceptable temporary home, near Rehoboth Beach. Nice, paved level sites with FHU’s, no tree cover, right on the Indian River Inlet at the bridge of the same name. $40 per night, we were good to go.

Home, at Delaware Seashore State Park, under the Indian River Inlet bridge.
Another view of the campground looking at the bridge. 
We watched as the locals were catching bluefish. They knocked ’em dead while we watched!
Bluefish. It looked like a fun fish to catch, they DO have a set of nasty little teeth…
Lots and lots of Horseshoe Crabs coming up on the sand to lay their eggs.

Besides some beach walks for Woody, we went to Cape Henlopen State Park and did part of the Dunes Hike there. Despite the name, the trail did not traverse any dunes but meandered through a marsh area instead. Not a real impressive hike. To make up for that, we went into Rehoboth Beach and walked the boardwalk there. It was a small boardwalk, but the weather was nice for a stroll through that typical beach town.

Rehoboth Beach area and boardwalk.
Looking south on the boardwalk. 
Looking north on the boardwalk. 

The next day we gave the bikes a workout and rode to Ocean City (Maryland) and back for about 42 miles worth. They had nice bicycle lanes the whole route and I got to see quite a few cool rides cruising south on Hwy. 1. Apparently there are many local businesses in that area who are putting on car shows scattered all over. There were some pretty mean looking muscle cars as well as many classics motoring or being towed that way. I wasn’t fast enough to snap pictures of most of them, but I did get one classic ride on film (OK, digital media, geez!).

OK, gotta do a yuppie selfie while on our bike ride to Ocean City.
Delaware’s version of a sea turtle, the mini-me version. 
We caught a sunrise from under the bridge…
…then an unimpeded sunrise.
Car shows apparently abound in this area. I lucked out and got the camera ready just in time to catch at least one of them…

On the eve of our travel day, we partially mapped out our destinations as we creep northward. We found it is getting close to requiring reservations at various parks, many being full up or with limited availability. So we found space at several parks for the near future, I’ll expand on those stops and locations in the next post…