Maryland - Day 5 - Berlin, Assateague and Ocean City

Pocomoke River State Park
Tuesday, 5 February 2019

Happy Chinese New Year!  Year of the Pig, symbolizing optimism and hard work, they say.  I'd say that summarizes my last year.

Last week while the dogs were at day care, after I'd done the laundry I put clean sheets on my bed.  While I was doing that, I stepped back off the bed onto the stool Anna gave me, only the stool wasn't there and I lost my balance and fell, hitting the left side of my back against the refrigerator cabinet.  It was hard enough that I lost my breath for a minute or two - a little weird - but then I was okay.  I knew I wasn't likely to have any bruises because of all the Vitamin C I get through oranges, and in fact none have appeared.

But on the inside, I did get bruised and am finding that bruising getting more painful over time.  I notice it every time I take a deep breath, for instance, and I especially notice it when I'm walking the dogs and Dexter starts pulling hard on the leash.

On both walks this morning, the dogs saw or sensed deer and got started pulling really hard.  Gracie settled down fairly quickly but Dexter wouldn't give up and kept trying to chase them.  It caused so much pain and made it hard enough to breathe that I had to take them back early from the walk.  I can't seem to explain it to them convincingly enough to stop.

It wasn't so bad for the first 4 or 5 days, and I imagine it'll start getting better in another few days, but in the meantime it's a real nuisance.  Especially because I'm going through all the drawbacks of having bruises without having the satisfaction of actually seeing them.

today's route

Berlin
This place reminded me of an upscale Mayberry - if Mayberry was lower middle class, then Berlin is middle middle class.  Most of the houses look like they were built between 1880 and 1940, all with a decent amount of yard between them.  I didn't know there was any place like that left.

Downtown is mostly red brick - I think there was a fire in the 1880s and it all got rebuilt in fire-safe brick.  Very attractive in a solid kind of way.  Berlin bills itself as the Coolest Small Town in America - no false modesty here.  For a little local interest, here's the town's account of itself.   https://berlinmd.gov/about-our-town/  It explains its bouts with movie stardom.

this square and hotel were in Runaway Bride

internet photo of downtown

Berlin's claiming about 4,500 residents now and, given that it's 15 miles from the beach and prosperous in a comfortable sort of way, I don't doubt it.

On the outskirts of town I started to see newer houses and there may well be crowds of them on the other side of town than where I was.  But what I saw was so charming I'm still a little stunned by it.

Assateague Island
Assateague State Park and Assateague Island National Seashore are immediately next to each other, 2 management agencies and one island, which seems to work well.  Both charge an entrance fee, though Maryland doesn't seem to care much during the off-season.  The feds, though, now that they're back at work after the shutdown, are collecting fees from all cars.  Luckily, the Golden Age pass got me in for free - this country's best bargain at $10 for a lifetime of free and discounted entry for seniors.

The state park beach was completely deserted when we got there, and I thought we'd have a nice time on the beach, but Gracie proved me wrong again.

You can see there was considerable wave activity, and the breakers made quite the roaring sound.  Of course, Gracie freaked out and refused to go play with Dexter on the beach and tried hard to get back over the walkway again.  I don't always indulge her in these phobias, but this was supposed to be fun for them, which she was clearly not going to be able to have.  Too bad.  Lovely beach all to ourselves.

they do try to warn people - these signs are everywhere

Instead we walked around the parking area, where the wave sound was buffered by the sand dunes.  We saw plenty of sign that horses had been there but, fortunately, no horses.  I was afraid if we saw the famous ponies that both dogs would go as berserk as they've done before when they saw horses.  I wanted to see them for myself but wanted to do it from the RV with the dogs penned in.

We ate lunch there in the parking lot, and watched a load of people come, making me glad we got to see the beach when we did.

From there we turned into the national seashore area and - yea! - found the ponies.

The group I saw had 5 adults and 1 young 'un.  The park ranger at the front gate told me they had 79 of them "right now."  I thought that was an odd way to phrase it till I read this Wikipedia article about them.  wikipedia.org/Chincoteague_Pony  It also explains why they're on Assateague Island if they're Chincoteague Island ponies.

The ranger told me the ponies are usually found on the Chincoteague Bay side of the island during the winter, but these were on the ocean side and within plain sight, as you can see.  Some idiot tourists were getting closer and closer when I left, risking the horses kicking some sense into them.  There were signs saying the park staff can't make the horses move out of the way - and I had a mental image of people trying to stake out a place on the beach and the horses wouldn't go away.

Chincoteague Bay

There's evidence of the horses' presence all over the island.  There's a nice bike path but you'd never get to look at the scenery - you'd have to spend all your time dodging piles of horse pucky.

The Chincoteague Bay side is lovely as well, as you can see here.

The campground is closed for the season, I'm sorry to say, and it's probably packed when it's open.  But this time of year, with a reduced tourist burden, the area is lovely.

Ocean City
Ocean City claims to be America's Finest Family Resort.  Maybe it is.  The main street in town is lined with hotels, restaurants, amusement parks, and parking lots.  There's nothing else on that street, and there's miles of it.  It runs the length of the island all the way up to Fenwick Island, DE.

I passed a B&B called Atlantic House that was really attractive.  Their website says the house was built in 1927 and it's one of the few remaining 1920s Victorian beach houses.  But mostly the accommodations I saw were mid-century and later.

I saw a small hotel called The Barefoot Mailman (closed for the season).

This is an internet photo.  I tried to stop and take one for myself but could find no parking that I would be able to get out of without an accident.  I was sure I'd find one online and, sure enough, here it is. 

This boardwalk is 3 miles long and, even at this time of year, quite popular.  But a local I talked to said the town is dead from October until Memorial Day, which seems a long time to leave a seaside town to itself. 

The drive back
I crossed a bridge over Assawoman Bay (such an odd name - it begins in Delaware and runs south to this bridge) and saw what I think was a raft of gulls.  But it was absolutely enormous.  It looked like it ran an eighth of a mile and was quite thick.  One solid mass of gulls all floating in the bay together.  I've seen other birds do this, but always seabirds - ducks and such.  I just don't think of gulls doing it, but apparently they do.  I really wanted to get a photo but there was no possible way to stop on the bridge.

I drove through a small village called Powellville and have never seen such a decrepit place.  Almost every one of the buildings had pieces of lumber propping up porches or the building was sagging to the side or all the paint had peeled off or something.  Really.  I saw only 2 or 3 buildings that were in decent repair.  Something sad must have happened to this town.

All along the drive back I saw more fields and more chicken-growing places, separated by tree buffer zones.  At one point I could see a mile away, the land was so flat and cleared.

And then back in Snow Hill I saw a series of loaded logging trucks.  I don't know where the trees were coming from or where they were going, but the cut trees were all very long and very straight.  Maybe a tree farm somewhere around.

It was a nice day and seeing the ponies left me with a long-term smile on my face.

Maryland - Day 4 - Lower Eastern Shore

Pocomoke River State Park
Monday, 4 February 2019

On our second walk this morning, we disturbed a large flock of robins.  A lot of them.  Must have been at least 3 dozen, possibly 4 dozen.  I've never seen so many and it took me a while to believe they were all robins - but they were.  I hated to bother them but Dexter was ready to chase them.  (Good luck with that.  He keeps thinking he can fly like they can.)

today's route

We didn't drive very far today but I still got a lot accomplished.  We went down to Crisfield, Maryland's most southern point.  Crisfield is clearly a town that relies on seafood as there were maybe a dozen businesses still open that sold crab, especially, and other seafood.

I say "still" open because several businesses had signs up saying closed until spring and the whole town had a winterized look about it.  But there were still plenty of locals there - I saw 3 batches of obviously local people who were intending to meet up for coffee at a restaurant and were telling each other about the "closed until spring" sign and moving their meeting to another place.  I saw other obviously local people meeting up at the ferry dock for fishing.

I knew it was going to be a small town miles before I got there because I saw a billboard saying for the ferry I should turn left after the fire department and go to the motel to buy the tickets.  Reminded me of Alaska.  And sure enough, when I got to town I found the motel at the first left after the fire department, and it had a big sign saying tickets here for the Smith Island ferry.  At Crisfield you can get a passenger ferry to Smith Island, MD, and one to Tangier Island, VA.

ferry dock

Crisfield is located in a protecting bay with Janes Island just off-shore.  The working dock for fishing boats is on the other side of the ferry dock.

a dock park next to old businesses next to new condos

Crisfield seems to be segueing into a future that includes a diminished dependence on seafood, but also includes a recognition of its scenic value.  New townhouses and condos are being built to take advantage of the sterling view of Chesapeake Bay.

I thought this was sweet; the ferryboats are named after his children 

Crisfield claims to be one of the safest cities in America.  "City" is a bit of a stretch, in my opinion, since its population is under 3,000, but that's its claim (and it's sticking to it.)  Crisfield is also the location for Mud Bog Races which, as far as I can tell, are when monster truck owners bet on how long it will take them to traverse a mud bog.  And I'm sure a good clean time is had by all.

I took a back road back to the campground that I hoped would take me by a place called Furnace Town.  I knew it wasn't open (another seasonal attraction) but hoped it would have explanatory signs.  And it did have plenty of signs though none of them explained much about Furnace Town, but I saw online that it's the earliest surviving hot-blast furnace in the US.

this is how I knew it was there

the houses must have belonged to management

explains housing for the workers

I think, when it's open, this is one of those tourist sites where the staff wear period costumes and operate machinery - it has that look about it.  For some reason, I don't care much for that sort of thing so am just as glad to be missing it.  Still, I would have liked learning more about what was here.
 

What they did have was a large sign about the value of forest fires.  I remember seeing information about this in other places - about pine trees, for instance, that have cones that open only during a fire and are going extinct due to humans not allowing fires anymore.

Information about birds and plants that have adapted to fires.

It seems humans have finally evolved to recognize the sense of the original natural set-up and are starting to undo generations of mucking things up.  Hope it's in time.

All along the way I saw scenery much like Delaware: fields and chickens and orchards.

On the way back to the campground I stopped to get more propane at a place the campground host had recommended.  Actually, he wasn't too clear about how to get there and didn't remember the name, but said it was a hardware store and the owner was the most reliable and most honest and the nicest guy around.  So what could go wrong?  I looked up hardware stores in Snow Hill on the computer and found it, tucked way down a side road by a batch of grain elevators.  And sure enough, he had a propane tank.

Oddly, it took a really long time for him to fill me up because he said I had an air lock and there was a whole lot of unnecessary air in the tank and he had to get some of it out to put propane in.  So I listened to hiss and smelled the yucky propane smell for quite a while while he tended to other customers.  This was quite clearly a small-town hardware store.  Eventually he got me filled up, and then I found the inside of the RV smelled so strongly of propane I was afraid we'd all pass out, so I put the windows down for the drive back to the campground.  Weird experience, and a little unnerving - all that extra air.  How did it get there?

Back at the campground I dumped the waste tanks, dumped the trash and extended my reservation for 3 more days.  This place is comfortable and inexpensive and I haven't seen nearly enough of this area yet.  The park ranger sold me an annual pass for Maryland parks that gives me a 50% discount on weekday nights, and made it retroactive which saved me a bundle of money and made this place even more inexpensive.  Nice ranger. 

When I complimented her on the wonderful shower facilites, she said they're new.  She said every camper had commented on how nice the park is and how crummy the bathrooms were until finally the park service noticed and fixed it.  And I'm getting the benefit - great bathrooms and nobody else here and cheap space rent.  Can't be beat.

Maryland - Day 3

Pocomoke River State Park
Sunday, 3 February 2019

Last Sunday I bought a Washington Post but only read a few of the sections that day.  So now a week later I decided to take a look at the comics section and magazine and so forth - you know, serious reading for a Sunday morning. 

The comics section had a half page devoted to a monster Sudoku puzzle that was called Samurai Sudoku or something - it's 5 interlocking Sudoku puzzles that you have to solve all at the same time or none of them comes out right.  By 10:30 I was still sitting there, still working on it, and my puppies were having increasing difficulty being patient with me fudging on their walk time.  It was addictive.  I took the dogs out and came back and started in on it again and finally finished it at noon.  Crazy.  But of course it made me feel brilliant for having finished it (and dumb for having taken all morning to do it).

In real life terms, I ran out of time to go see any local sights.  Instead, the dogs and I saw the really local sights.

This park has a .7 mile nature trail right next to our part of the campground and, since it was a beautiful day, we walked the length of it.  The trail ran through a cypress swamp (I'm now able to recognize them) that is undoubtedly teeming with life in the summer, probably including mosquitos for the lack of which I'm extremely grateful it's still fairly frozen right now.

Most of the snow's melted, but most of the standing water (and there're a lot of small ponds in this park) is still frozen.  That meant the trail we walked on was covered with dead frozen leaves that crackled when we stepped on them.  It also meant that we were really lucky, because I think that trail's going to be a soggy mess when things start to thaw out.  As it was, the trail and the walk were really pleasant.  The trail is blazed, but the blazes were infrequent enough that I had to keep paying attention to where we were so as not to get lost.  The dogs paid attention only to what was really important: nature.  They loved it.

The campground host and I are still the only campers in the park, which is nice.  I've seen other people come and bring their dogs to walk here, but they seem to be local because they sure aren't camping here.

This campground has, hands down, the very best shower facilities I've seen in the last almost year of living in my RV.  I've seen campgrounds in 15 or 16 states now, public and private, and these are absolutely the best.  Plenty of space in the shower stall, plenty of places to put things in the shower, plenty of hooks and a bench to put stuff on out of the shower, a large curtain on the shower stall, an outer door for privacy, and unlimited hot water with a good water flow.  The bathroom wasn't heated but nowhere's perfect.

In all, a pleasant quiet Sunday in the park.  Hard to beat.

Maryland - Day 2

Pocomoke River State Park
Saturday, 2 February 2019

Happy Groundhog Day!

Apparently Phil is saying we'll have an early spring, but I have my doubts, given that it was 12° when I woke up this morning.  But the sun came out beautifully and the dogs and I have had some nice snowy walks around here.  There's a nature trail right behind this part of the campground - lots of snow, but that's why God made rubber boots.

Maryland must have the oddest shape of any state in the union.

Look at it.  It's split in half by the Chesapeake Bay, and technically the eastern and western parts aren't even connected because the Susquehanna River flows down from PA into the Chesapeake and bisects them.  There're 2 bridges across the Susquenanna to connect the 2 sides, and there's one more bridge farther south that connects Annapolis with the Eastern Shore, and that seems to be it for connections between the 2 sides.

The part of the Eastern Shore that's bordered by the Atlantic Ocean is smushed between Delaware and Virginia. 

The southwestern boundary follows the Potomac River and look at the way it winds around.  Virginia is up against most of the western side, but West Virginia forms the whole northern part of that side, and West Virginia is also what forms Maryland's far western boundary. 

And see that area in the panhandle that's squeezed between West Virginia and Pennsylvania?  In one place it's only 1 mile wide - even narrower than the Oklahoma panhandle, which is 34 miles wide.  The Florida panhandle is practically spacious at 50 miles wide. 

Most other states are bigger overall - MD ranks 42nd in size - but I can't think of one offhand that's quite as geographically split.  Well, Alaska and Hawaii both are, but nobody else in the Lower 48.

I noticed all this as I've been trying to figure out what I might be able to see this month.  The towns in each area aren't all that far apart, but each area is distinctly separate from the others, so I'll have to find places to stay in each one.  And if the weather's really bad, then I'll be limited.  But we'll see what happens.

The sun's been out all day and it warmed up, relatively speaking, this afternoon.  The snow on the roadway has melted, but there's still a fair amount of snow in my campsite, which seems to be more shaded than some of the others.  I'll hope to be able to look around the area a little tomorrow, but it'll depend on whether it keeps warming up as promised.

Still, the dogs and I had some nice walks today, which I for one appreciated.

Maryland - Day 1 - arriving

Pocomoke River State Park
Friday, 1 February 2019

Maryland - State #11

today's route

On our second walk this morning, I saw another Belted Kingfisher.  I've been hearing them fairly often flying around the lake, but they're fast and not always easy to see.  But today, just like the last sighting, I saw one perched on a tree limb for long enough for me to see she was female.  I think Belted Kingfishers must be one of the only bird species where the female is more colorful than the male, and you can see that she definitely is.

male

female

The morning weather report said it was snowing right then in Dover and points north, but that it would likely total no more than an inch.  They said the snow flurries would work their way south and be in the area of tonight's campground by late afternoon.  Accordingly, I decided to leave earlier than I'd originally planned.  We were gone by 10:00.

From the campground to Salisbury, the principle town in southeastern MD, is only about 15 miles so it didn't take us long.  A car passed us that had clearly been snowed on, and its rear window had been scraped and still had ice on it, so I concluded it had spent the night somewhere north of Dover.

I'd thought about doing some sightseeing in Salisbury to keep from getting to the campground earlier than check-in time but, while we were sitting in a grocery store parking lot eating lunch, it started to snow.  Not much - just a little flurry, but the flurry didn't stop and I decided if I was too early to go to my campsite, at least I'd be sitting in the campground if it were going to snow on me.

As we drove farther south, we ran out of snow - very reassuring to me as far as driving conditions - and the campground let us check in hours early.  Just as well, too, because after we'd been here for about an hour, it started snowing and it didn't stop.

This is about 2 hours worth.  You can see it's not much, but it's not nothing either.  I'm glad I planned to sit here for tomorrow as well, because it's really likely to be adverse road conditions tomorrow.

The campground came along with a snow plow on the road after about a half-inch fell.

Except for the campground host, we're the only ones here.  Odd kind of feeling, but it's certainly a guarantee of quiet and no dog problems.

I'll spend some time tomorrow trying to figure out what I might be able to see in this state this month.  The prediction is for temps in the 50s for much of next week, though that's hard to believe now, but most of the state is north of that Dover line and has been getting snow all day, which may mean difficult access later in the month.  Well, hope on, hope ever.

My month in Delaware

My take on Delaware

where I went this month

You can see I covered most of the state.  I missed some of the country around Dover in the middle, and I missed some of the northwestern part of the arc, but otherwise I pretty well saw the countryside.  It helps to have a small state.

I missed several places I'd hoped to see, primarily because of the weather and my increasing reluctance to get out in it.  I think my winter hibernation instinct started revving into high gear as the month went on.  But there was also the problem of places being closed for the season, or only open on a restricted schedule.

If I come back, I want to visit Winterthur (the h isn't pronounced), originally the home of Henry DuPont and now a well-known museum with (during the summer) wonderful gardens.  I want to visit the Zaanendael Museum in Lewes, which tells about the original Dutch colonial efforts in the state.  The Hagley Museum in Wilmington is where gunpowder was originally made - 1802.  Dover has an Agricultural Museum and also the Air Command Museum, both of which I'd like to see.  Fortunately, though, I did get a good look at a lot of farmland and beaches and some natural areas like cypress swamps.

What I learned about Delaware that surprised me the most is how much of an agricultural state it is: 50% of its land is used for agriculture.  I've always vaguely thought of Delaware as being a business state, what with so many companies incorporating here.  Instead, when I wasn't in a town - and even Wilmington, the largest city, has fewer than 75,000 residents - I was driving by farms.

And although most of that farmland is used for crops, most of the agriculture money is in livestock - primarily chickens.  I've always thought of Maryland as the chicken state, but clearly Delaware is keeping up its end.

the fields grow feed for the chickens, which are raised in the buildings; Snow Geese flock in the fallow field

Delaware's nickname is The First State, because it was the first state to ratify the Constitution, and Delawareans are proud of it.

An alternate nickname is The Blue Hen State, and that's a little weirder (to me).  Delaware's official state bird is the Blue Hen Chicken, one of the few state animals that's not a native.  Blue Hens are a strain of gamecock, originally from England and used for cockfights.  Cockfights were popular during the early days of the republic (though, thankfully, not so much now), but because the state animal designation wasn't made until 1939, it seems an odd choice.  But Delawareans are proud of it and you find Blue Hen references all over the state.

I think the state of Delaware must be wealthy, probably thanks to its laws that encourage companies to incorporate here.  More than half the Fortune 500 have incorporated here, for instance.  The state tax rate on them is moderate, but the total collected must be considerable.  It's enough to allow Delaware to have no sales tax, yet excellent roads and well-maintained public facilities.

Most Delawareans tell me they're glad to be living here - about the only one I found who wasn't said it's too flat here and she's planning to move to Pennsylvania.  I talked with several folks who moved here from other states and told me they're glad they did.

I think the main characteristic I noticed around the state is complacency.  Not about national issues, where the folks I talked to often seemed very religious and fairly conservative and at least somewhat opinionated.  Instead, it's more of a general feeling I picked up and could well be wrong about, but there it is.

I had mixed feelings about Delaware.  On the one hand, it seems a comfortable place and people were very pleasant.  Drivers were extremely polite statewide.

But on the other hand, Delaware's segregationist past seems to be still reaching into the present, even at this late date: for instance, Delaware's at the forefront of the charter school movement.  I've got nothing at all against private schools and, in fact, went to one myself for 1st and 2nd grades.  But these days, with the schools' proponents becoming more and more insistent on getting government funding, they seem to me to be trying to avoid integrated classrooms - a version of "white flight."  If that's at the bottom of the charter school business, then I've got a problem with it.

I can't say I myself saw anything to support the idea that many here are prejudiced, but with their history, I can't help wondering.  Though the state's population is one-quarter African-American, I saw very few people statewide who were anything but Caucasian.

I think this sounds very judgmental and I don't mean it to be because I haven't made a judgment.  I'm just trying to put my finger on why I feel hesitant about reaching a conclusion on whether I do or don't want to come back for another visit.  Well, whatever it is, I do feel hesitant, but I met some really nice people here.

Delaware - Day 31

Trap Pond State Park
Thursday, 31 January 2019

I heard on the morning weather report that road salt doesn't work when temperatures fall below 20° so, while it was still dark, I was a little apprehensive about the road conditions.  When the sun came up, though, I could see that, despite the forecast to the contrary, there hadn't been any snow or other precipitation overnight.

And it has been sunny today, which is nice.  It's deceptive, though, because when I stepped outside to check the propane level, I got blasted with extremely cold air.  Today's high was supposed to be no more than 23° and the wind chill was expected to bring it down to the teens.

Time before last when I filled up the propane tank, the guy told me these heaters stop being efficient at temps like these.  He urged me to go to Walmart and pay $75 for an electric space heater.  I didn't bother to explain that, between my critters and me, there's zero extra floor space or, in fact, any place I can safely set up something like that.  But the inefficiency helps explain why the heater's been running at least half the day and I can barely keep the internal temp above 60°.

Before I came to Delaware I read that there can be quite a difference in both precipitation and temperature between the northern and southern parts of this state.  Once I got here, I couldn't believe it - this state is so small and so flat, how could there possibly be much difference, I thought.  But now that I've spent a month here watching the weather reports I can say that, though I don't know what makes it so, it's actually so.  The north is noticeably colder and wetter than the south.  Ninety miles apart!  Weird.

In the middle of the afternoon I set out to pick up my puppies.  It's lucky I'd listened to the morning TV news (relatively local) because one person noted when he drove to work he'd heard a thump thump and it was his tires that had gotten misshapen during the cold night.  Lucky because when I started driving I too heard an odd sound, though not a thump thump, that I finally figured out was my tires.  Because of that I drove pretty slowly at first to give them a chance to come back into shape, which they did after a while.

I was driving on one of these country roads where there wasn't much color because of the fallow fields and frost and suddenly a Cardinal flew across in front of me - a sizzling bright spot of red in that landscape.  It was great.

The dogs were as glad to come home as they'd been to go to day care in the first place.  It's so much quieter while they're gone that I'd missed them.

On the way back to the campground I stopped to get yet more propane.  The heater had been running so much these last 2 days that I was down to 1/4 tank left.  With tonight's forecast at 20°, I was afraid we'd be scraping the bottom of the tank by morning.  Crazy, but I used 6 gallons of propane in only 2 days, and the inside temp never got above 65°.