Slight change to emailed posts

Ted. Judy and I are transitioning to a different email distribution service. Since you have signed up to automatically receive an email whenever we post an update to our blog, we want to advise you that the appearance will be changing slightly. It is also possible that our next email may end up in your spam folder.

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Thank you!

Maryland to Georgia

Judy. We’ve been back in Georgia for a couple of weeks now with time to reflect and once again it’s the people who have made a difference on our trip and here in Georgia. 

Lunch with our family in Maryland

Our great-nephew Caleb's graduation was a great family gathering that included my brother Billy and his wife Marilyn. While the graduation was zoomed, our party was very much in person. Billy and Marilyn were also about to celebrate their fifty-sixth anniversary, so we had lots to honor! 

We met up with Cari and Ian a few more times, including meeting at a minor league baseball game with the local Keys team playing. That morning Ian and Ted met a young couple, Bailey and Lenae, at the farmers’ market. They’d recently moved to the area, and attending a game was high on their list, so they joined us. These kids (MUCH younger than our own!) had left farm country in Ohio and were busy discovering all there is to do in a different part of the country. Lenae had even trained as an auctioneer and entertained us with her spiel!

Pulling for the Keys

Leaving these folks wasn’t easy, but we spent our first night on the road with friends John and Ann in one of the most beautiful spots I’ve ever seen. John is a high school drama buddy who became a journalist. 

John and Ann

He and his wife Ann have lived all over the world since he retired from the paper, teaching journalism in third-world countries, and have finally settled in a place his family has owned for generations. They have rebuilt their cabin to open to the river that flows by, and, as avid birdwatchers, have numerous feeders to attract almost any species you can imagine. 

Heaven in Virginia

John also took us to see the Natural Bridge in Virginia—I’ve seen others, but this one was spectacular, and the “GW” carved on one wall was supposedly done by George Washington. Evidently Thomas Jefferson owned it at one point. 

Natural Bridge

 

Leaving Virginia the next day, we stopped in North Carolina to visit another of our long-time friends, Faith. When Faith fixes a meal, it is an experience. Our picnic-style lunch was complete with plastic baskets and tissue, just like at a burger joint! 

 Our very dear friends Carolyn and Doug offered us their home in Snellville for two months while they’re on vacation, so we’re once again enjoying their home overlooking a pond and trees, and doing a bit of our own birdwatching. 

What a view!

We’ve spent time with the kids, and hugged our grandkids, and visited with dear friends here, including a group of former students.

So blessed to be in touch with former students

Ted and Caed make dinner

We’re settling in to catch up with ourselves and plan our visit back to Europe in August. News on France’s opening and closing fluctuates every day, so, on occasion we contemplate a plan B. Meanwhile, there’s a bluebird family I need to go watch.

WV AT

Ted. Having walked short stretches of the Appalachian Trail in six states now (three, just last month), a hike in West Virginia was all that remained to complete one our goals for this trip. 

Judy and I drove the 25 minutes back to Harper’s Ferry and began walking southbound along the AT. The trail crosses the Shenandoah River, just upstream from the point at which that stream enters the Potomac. We climbed up Loudoun Heights and walked the ridge for a couple miles. 

Only about four miles of the AT runs through WV and we saw most of it. We passed remnants of the old roads and fortifications built during the “disagreement” in the 1860’s. When Virginia seceded from the Union, the western region seceded from Virginia and Harper’s Ferry became a hotly contested town. 

On our walk we came across a snake and a deer plus a couple of toads and pileated woodpeckers that appeared to be feasting on cicadas, which were out in full force. I recorded their singing in the video below.

Cicada shells on a tree

Holes in the ground from cicadas erupting after 17 years

We met several "through hikers," bound for Maine but none were interested in breaking stride to chat. We will take one or two more hikes before we return to Georgia but will leave the Appalachian Trail for now. It has been fun seeing how the trail changes as one heads north.

Recrossing the Shenandoah on our way back to Harper's Ferry

PA AT

Ted. For the Pennsylvania leg of our Appalachian Trail adventure, we chose to begin at Pine Grove Furnace State Park. Located just 55 miles north of our base in Frederick, MD, the exact midpoint of the 2,193 mile long AT is celebrated here with a museum.

There were few hikers, the weather was beautiful and the mountain laurel were peaking. We walked north to a rock outcropping known as Pole Steeple to enjoy the views of surrounding Michaux State Forest.

The trails in PA have a reputation for being rocky and this one was no exception. However, the overlook at the end made it all worthwhile.

Finding Frederick

Judy. One of the things I enjoy about our travels is how much our surroundings can change in such a short period of time. One week after stepping out of tropical heat where we were wakened by the sounds of howler monkeys and both lyrical and squawking birds, we were wrapped in sweaters in a tiny apartment on a main street, and waking to the sounds of traffic and shoppers. In the evenings, instead of being lulled to sleep by the sounds of the ocean, we closed our doors to shut out the sounds of partying below us. Believe it or not, it doesn’t bother us—it’s just an interesting change. 

Although Frederick, Maryland, was founded in 1745, it was an important crossroads for Native Americans and early settlers much earlier. It’s close to both Baltimore and Washington, DC, as well as to Revolutionary and Civil War battlefields. The Appalachian Trail passes near here, as well as numerous beautiful hiking trails. 

So it sounded like the perfect place to settle in for a month. 

Actually, we had contacted a Servas family in the area—their bio said they loved hiking—and their first choice for us to stay was Frederick. Ian and Cari even drove by the apartment we were looking to rent to make sure it was ok. And they’ve turned out to be terrific friends. Frederick is filled with sweet old townhouses and shops. Our place is over a shop, and was noted to be the home of Samuel and Amelia Weinberg, built in about 1850, and home to the earliest synagogue in Frederick.  Exploring the building, it’s easy to see how the family lived over their shop and where the storage rooms were. There’s even old hardware on the doors! The front windows open onto the busy street, and a door off the bedroom leads to a balcony walkway with a clothesline and a view of rooftops and balconies of other buildings. 

Home sweet home

The back porch

 

Drive out of town for ten minutes, and you’re in the lush, rolling hills of Maryland. It’s a charming place to be!

 

View from an overlook near the AT

Two days after our arrival, we met our niece Becky, her son Caleb, and her husband Tom for our first AT hike in the area. It included a beautiful overlook, and we had a wonderful time catching up. Shortly afterwards, Ian and Cari met us downtown for drinks and appetizers, then took us for a walk along Carroll Creek Park, a brick walkway following the creek through the city. It’s lined with restaurants for a few blocks, then opens up on one side to a huge city park. There are murals on some of the buildings and metal sculptures along the creek. One was even made by the family of some friends in Georgia. A sculpture that spells out "Frederick" in sign language welcomes the deaf population. There is a school for the deaf here.

 

 

A dream of ours is to walk a part of the AT in all 14 states through which it passes. We’d done Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina, and our hike with family added Maryland. We’d heard about a flat hike along the C&O Canal, which is a national park, and also forms a part of the AT, so we hiked to Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. It’s a beautiful hike along the Potomac, and a tasty crab cake sandwich in Harper’s Ferry was a good break before our return.

 

Harper's Ferry from the trail

Crab cakes! Remember when we were in Nova Scotia and couldn’t get enough lobster? Well, that’s where we are now in Maryland! Wegman's, the local supermarket, makes delicious ones to take home, and both reasonably priced ones and off-the-chart ones are available in restaurants. Yep, it's a once or twice a week thing for us.

Cari and Ian invited us to their home for dinner one night, and we had the real pleasure of meeting their talented and interesting kids. We immediately felt right at home. On our anniversary we drove around the area to explore towns, and finished up with a delicious dinner at Isabella’s, a Spanish tapas restaurant across the street. 

Another day we took the train into Washington, DC, to visit the new Martin Luther King and FDR Memorials, and to see the National Gallery of Art. Shockingly—and truly wonderfully—there were hardly any tourists, and we could wander freely.

 

Part of the huge FDR Memorial

MLK Memorial

There are only about two weeks left, and we still have a trip to Philadelphia to visit our dear friend Vishal for the weekend, a graduation party for grand-nephew Caleb, and more hikes. As always, we are running out of time. We didn’t see more than we did see, but we’ve spent time with family and friends, and made new friends. 

Lonely Planet lists the top ten reasons to go to Frederick. Number ten is because “it’s perfect.” Well, it may not be perfect, but you can see perfect from here.