Long Days, Many States

On Thursday I finished my class (yay) and had a picnic that night. On Friday everyone left, but I didn't leave because I get to stay another week. But class doesn't start until Monday! So what to do in the meantime?

I slept in a little on Friday and then took a stroll back over to the St. Elizabeth Anne Seton Shrine to get some pictures. I also went and looked at the cemetary there. I had lunch and poked around campus for a bit until about 2:30, when the guy from the car rental place came to pick me and another fellow up and deliver us to our chariots for the weekend.

I hopped in the Ford Focus (bleh!) and went on my way immediately to get a map. I then made my way southwest. I want to visit all 50 states by the time I'm 30, and West Virginia was the lone state in the "I'm not sure if I've ever been there, the bus driver was was lost, but I don't know if he was *that* lost" category. So I made my way toward Harper's Ferry. After crossing the Potomac, I actually ended up in Virginia, the non-West one. I needn't have worried, since I was only driving through for, literally, a minute or two before I crossed the state line into West Virginia!

I drove on some smaller roads toward the north, with a song in my head. I actually broke out singing a time or two, but thankfully I was the only one in the car. West Virginia has some weird highway signs- I tried to puzzle out all the different numbers on the different shapes of route markers, but heck if I could figure it out. No matter- in short order I was back in Maryland, a ways upriver from where I crossed over the first time.

Maryland gets really narrow in that part of the state, so I was just toodling along the highway when, all of a sudden, "Welcome to Pennsylania!" The states back here are so small and close together, it seems like you almost can't help running into another state by accident. Anyway, I headed up a little ways into Pennsylvania, then turned back east, towards Gettysburg.

By the time I got there, it was drawing on dusk, so I stopped for a quick dinner, then went into town. The downtown was busy, I saw a few "Friday First" flags and figured they were having a first thursday-type thing going on. I found parking and strolled around the downtown for awhile. There weren't a lit of places open, but it was fun to walk about. I stopped for a very tasty hot chocolate at a cool little coffee shop. Then I headed back to Emmitsburg, which was less than 10 miles away over the state line.

Which brings us to today. You thought I was done? Not so fast! With an ambitious schedule ahead of me, I woke up, had breakfast, and was out of Emmitsburg by 8:45 this morning. I drove back north towards Gettysburg, but headed east on the Lincoln Highway instead of west. It may have been faster to go up to the turnpike, but that costs money, and besides, the little highways are the most fun! On my way east, I passed through Lancaster, but only saw a few Amish folks. I imagine that had I looked harder I could have found more.

After a few hours, I was at my first big stop of the day: Philadelphia. I parked at a garage downtown, then hopped on the Market-Frankford for a ride down to the Independence historical area. They are building a whole bunch of new stuff there, so it was kind of a mess. On top of that, there security barriers everywhere with more Park Rangers around than in Yellowstone. Lousy code orange! I still got around though. I saw Independence Hall, and went through old-school airport style security to see the Liberty Bell. Oh, and of course I had lunch of a Philly Cheesesteak.

I returned to my car via the Market-Frankford and a short 1-station trip on the Subway-Surface. I then headed out of Philly via the Betsy Ross Bridge over the Delaware River and into New Jersey. New Jersey was categorized previously as an "Airport" state thanks to a layover in the Newark Airport. From what I saw from the highway, South Jersey isn't much more than swampy forests and sound barriers.

I headed south and eventually crossed the Delaware Memorial Bridge into the First State, the next state I had never visited before- Delaware! I headed to the south again, wanting to go through some of Delaware (there isn't a lot of it to go through) before running back into Maryland again. Eventually I cut over to the west to catch the bridge over the Chesapeake. I was thinking that I would be going over this bridge-slash-tunnel, but really I went over this bridge.

As dusk drew close, this brought me to Annapolis, which I remembered fondly from my first visit 10 years ago. My return did not disappoint. Annapolis is just a very neat little town. I like the city dock right at the foot of the main street, the Maryland State House in the center of town, and of course the Naval Academy. As I walked around, there were plenty of Midshipmen also strolling about, enjoying a lovely (if a bit wet) Saturday evening in town. I walked around and had some dinner. After a few hours, it was dark out and I still had about 2 hours of driving to do to get back to Emmitsburg.

April 05, 2003 08:14 PM

Comments (1)

04/08: kelley said:

i think this illuminates a great difference between you and me: i will belt out a few lines of "take me home, country roads" in public without batting an eyelash.
man, do i love that dear, departed john denver.