Well, girls and boys. The road does end. Right at the beach. The Atlantic Ocean. And we got there. Sand exchange, wet feet, and a selfie. With side trips, right at 3500 miles. We had a geat deal at the Hotel Annapolis, and recommend it. We suspended the no fast food rule and no franchise rule and had Dunkin` Donuts for breakfast.
Annpolis is a great city.
Founded in 1649, incorporated in 1708. As I said, as we moved east, we moved back in time. Well preserved colonial architecture, very clean, beautiful. Greg, who is a Spokanite to his core, said he could live there.
Probably his favorite town on the trip. I liked it a lot too, but my favorite town Coolville. And all the ones with Union in the name. Cumberland Maryland was great too.
We leave Annapolis and cross the Chesapeake on a series of very long and well designed bridges. The bay is incredible. It has been supplying America with its riches for hundreds of years. Crabs, clams, oysters, fish, a trade route, and access to Baltimore and DC. Our navy finds it indespensible. It has haroured shipbuilding yards for 300 years.
It provided native Americans with an abundance of riches for thousands of years. Its estuaries are the greatest fish breeding grounds on the east coast. control of Chesapeake Bay by American and French naval forces blockaded the British navy from reaching Cornwallis in time, forcing his surrender.
On the Delmarva peninsula we see flat ground, lots of marinas, farming, and there are many small villages here. But a clean, nice, historic place.
Our excitement grew as we approached Ocean City.
It was not founded until 1875, much younger than Annapolis. Founded as a resort town, The land was purchased from Native Americans (I don’t know the details) in 1869, The first cottage was built to receive paying guests. So we arrive. A very large boardwalk, typical of many Atlantic resortt owns. en.m.wikipedia.org/… we drive 1/10th of a mile up the beach and hit 3500 miles. Up on the boardwalk, we walk onto the sand and to the water.
Remeber our vials of sand we picked up on the beach in San Francisco?
We dumped part of them on the beach here and picked up sand from the Atlantic and mixed them up in our film canisters. Mission accomplished. Sea to sea. We are happy.
To our surprise, we find a firefighter memorial, very well done.
So some seafood, and a bar that turns out to be a firefighter bar.
Really neat. 118 miles from Annapolis. A 4½ hour round trip.
I had hoped to get to Yorktown Virginia where Cornwallis surrendered. One of our ancestors is buried there.
If any of you have the impression that the French military is weak, read about Yorktown and you will see that without our friends the French, we would not have won the war.
But alas, it would be a bout a 4 hour drive and the Nationals and the Pirates were warming up.
We get into the stadium in the 3rd inning, a great stadium with cherry trees blooming inside. The Nationals put up a fight and tied in the 9th, but Pittsburg scored 3 in the 10th, and DC had no answer.
But a great game, fun, and I walked out with a Juan Soto bobblehead.
After the game we go to my wife Lydia’s cousin Manny and his wonderful wife Ingrid’s fantastic place in Maryland. He let us stay overnight, we had breakfast with them and a family friend, they were off to spin class and we head out to start the return to Spokane.
So that is the trip. But still we have another 3000 miles to drive. I will drop a blog or two on the way home to Spokane. Back in Austin, I will sort the photos, and write a summary. Thanks all for following, hope to hear from y’all. This has been a fine experience. for both of us. Greg and I have not spent so much time together since we slept in the same room when he was 18 and I was 10. Now 60 and 68. We were 7 siblings and our parents in a 4 bedroom house.
So that and our ties through firefighting. Thanks for giving me a reason to write this. It means a lot to have this story. On the backside. My apologies for the delayed posting.