My month in Maryland

My take on the US's 7th state

February's

route

Little America
Maryland sees itself as "America in Miniature" (they really do, it's not just a slogan, one person actually used that phrase with me), and I think I can see why.  They've got some decent mountains up to 3,360'.  They've got oceanfront and beautiful beaches.  They've got swamps and wetlands.  They have major waterways and tiny creeks.  They've got farmland and small towns and major cities.  They've got all different kinds of sports.  They seem to have 4 seasons, though these days it's not easy to tell.  But they tell me the fall colors are beautiful and the spring cherry blossoms are stunning.  They're squnched in between 4 different states and still have an international port city.  And they've crammed all this into a state that ranks 42nd in size among the 50.  About the only thing they don't have is a desert.  But they do have an official state dessert: Smith Island cake - usually 10 layers with chocolate frosting in between (Smith Island is just off Caswell, near Pocomoke River State Park on the Eastern Shore).

Politics
The diversity in geography is mirrored in its politics.  They mostly elect Democrats but have a governor who's definitely a Republican - I'm guessing they're mostly middle-of-the-road here - there're strong pockets of Trump supporters and ditto on the other side.  Some still resent the Union Army having imposed martial law in Maryland in 1861 (understandable, except it happened 158 years ago): Virginia took back the land it had donated to make up the District of Columbia, and the Union was afraid the US Capital could be surrounded by Southern forces.  The Maryland Legislature voted not to secede, but they also didn't want to contribute to the war in any way - problematic for the Union.

The War of 1812 seems still to be a big deal here, probably because they were on the front lines: to retaliate for the US burning Toronto, the British burned government buildings in Washington, DC, and then sailed up the Chesapeake Bay to Baltimore, intending to capture Fort McHenry.  A garrison of Maryland soldiers stopped them.  One of their main license plate designs honors the War of 1812.

People
I found vast differences between folks on the Eastern Shore and the Western Shore of the Chesapeake.  In the east, people are fairly laid back, and life is slower and calmer there.  They seem to be willing to live and let live.  In the west, life moves faster - even in the rural southern section between Point Lookout and the DC-Annapolis-Baltimore corridor.  And of course, in the cities they act like cities everywhere, though other than Baltimore (pop. 600,000+), Maryland's cities are smaller than 100,000 (about the size of Waco).  Once again I'm sorry not to have had the chance to visit the western hook of the state, because it sounds so different from the rest.

I cribbed this next bit from the Wikipedia page on Maryland because it describes what I found pretty well.  Actually, I don't know about western MD, but the rest of it fits my observations.

Maryland's history as a border state has led it to exhibit characteristics of both the Northern and Southern regions of the United States. Generally, rural Western Maryland between the West Virginian Panhandle and Pennsylvania has an Appalachian culture; the Southern and Eastern Shore regions of Maryland embody a Southern culture,^[84] while densely populated Central Maryland—radiating outward from Baltimore and Washington, D.C.—has more in common with that of the Northeast.

Drivers
Near the District of Columbia, almost all drivers, including Marylanders, become really rude, really aggressive, and made driving pretty hard for me.  But in general, Marylanders drive like Texans: kind of pushy but not rude, not too aggressive.  They don't drive as fast as Texans do (nobody does), and I didn't have much trouble finding someone to let me change lanes or merge.  This driving style took some getting used to after southern New Jersey and Delaware, but once I did, it wasn't a problem.

Overall
I liked Maryland a lot, despite my little problem with its multiplicity of high bridges.  And the Marylanders I talked to all liked their state very much.  They liked where they were living, wherever it was - slow-moving Eastern Shore, cities with multiple resources, all over.

Marylanders adore the Chesapeake Bay and all it offers.  They love that their state has mountains and ocean and everything in between.  They like that it's easy to go to a big city if they want to or enjoy rural areas nearby.  I didn't talk to anyone who would rather be living somewhere else.

I'd like to come back sometime.