September 23 - 28, 2019: Havre de Grace, Maryland
We have been spending all of our time in Maryland on the Delmarva Peninsula and around Annapolis and we are flying out of Baltimore on September 29 for a quick trip to the Baja, so we wanted to hang out in Northern Maryland and choose Havre de Grace because of it's proximity to things we wanted to do.
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We crossed from Maryland, into Delaware (saw another cool bridge) and then back in Maryland. And...encountered another toll road. Sometimes we bypass them and other times...we just do it! : )
We crossed the Susquehanna River and made it to our campspot at Susquehanna State Park. Our site was good and the shower houses were okay.
Once we got settled, we realized that we did not have cell service, so...no internet. We both had quite a bit that we needed internet for so we figured we would spend time in town at a coffee shop : )
We also did not realize until a day later that there was an infestation of stink bugs. OMG....I mean infestation! The second night we got about 30 out of one clothes closet. The next day about 20 out of another clothes closet. Each day we would find some, capture and release. You don't want to kill them because their smell will attract more, so... If we could have gotten a refund, we would have left, however you know us...we were not in camp very much and spent most of our time away. Then we would spend our evenings capturing stink bugs ; )
The next day we spent most of our time in the town of Havre de Grace wandering around the town, having lunch, and hanging out at Concord Point Coffee House doing computer work. We wanted to find something cool to do in the town, so that evening we attended a Special Pre-Release Documentary entitled Tell Me More And Then Some. It was about Jazz in Baltimore. It was awesome because the film makers were there along with Cab Calloway's daughter and grandson. We were able to ask questions after the film.
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Wow...what a great Documentary with a ton of history. The film evoked many emotions in me, happiness, anger, sadness, inspiration, and many more. The film will not be released at any theaters because of the cost. So...if you are curious, you can watch the entire Documentary on the YouTube links below, The filmmakers are hoping by distributing through YouTube the Documentary will make an impact on current day Baltimore and our next generations regardless of locale.
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Tell Me More And Then Some E01
Tell Me More And Then Some E02
Tell Me More And Then Some E03
Tell Me More And Then Some E04
Tell Me More And Then Some E05
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Havre de Grace is a really neat little town with some really cool buildings. Look at the one with the turret below and the cool windows in the turret. We found a really cool shop called JoRetro that has all of this old Corning Ware in amazing colors!
One of the days we drove to Cochranville, Pennsylvania and met our friend Ionicia who is from Boise! Ionicia's daughter, son-in-law, and grandbaby live in Pennsylvania so Ionicia and her husband bought a condo near them and come to visit frequently. It was great to see Ionicia and catch up!
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On the way back to camp, we stopped in the town of Oxford and visited Wholly Grounds Coffee. Wow...what a cool coffee shop and they had GREAT chocolate chip cookies! And, of course, we saw a ton of Quakers with their cool horse drawn buggies.
Another day we spent the day doing laundry, washing the truck, having the oil changed, and tires rotated. Craig took a bicycle ride on some of the mountain bike trails around our camp and had fun.
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In addition to seeing Ionicia in this area, we also wanted to visited Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. So we took an entire day taking several guided walking tours and wandering around the gardens.
Longwood Gardens was created by Pierre S. duPont in 1907. Notice one of the pics below mentions his boyhood friend, Maxfield Parrish. We have several pieces of Maxfield Parrish (Thank you Dennis and Michele) in our Boise house and I love his work!
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Below are random pictures from the day:
This is the Conservatory. The vines growing up the wall is an original Wisteria and Ivy. Poor Craig, I see cool stuff and....want it. How they water the plants in the Conservatory is they have hoses hidden in the floor. They pull them up, water the plants and then let them coil back into the floor and cover them up. And...right next to the water cover there are two knobs so they can turn it to normal water vs. fertilizer! WAY COOL!!!!
Check out these amazing lily pads. They are a special hybrid developed and found only at Longwood Gardens. Notice the nasty spikes on the sides, they say the bottoms have spikes that are l.....o.....n......g......ouch! These actually move and shred the other plants that are in the ponds.
After the guided tours, we ventured out to the truck and had a picnic while sitting on the tailgate and enjoying the surrounding trees and plants.
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We then continued our tour of the grounds. Look at the size of that Rabbit Foots Fern!!
In the Conservatory there is a wing that is for entertaining. It has a music room, giant ballroom and pipe organ. Very cool!
There is even a garden for kids. Yes...we both enjoyed it as well ; )
They even have three treehouses on the grounds. Two of them have Dr. Suess type talking devices!
As you can see, we had a fun time at the Longwood Gardens!
Well our time in Havre de Grace is done and we are ready to head to the Baja! We dropped the trailer off at Public Storage (got a GREAT...monthly deal for $25) and...guess who hitchhiked inside and outside the trailer? Yes...stink bugs! Since the major 20-30 bugs in two clothes closets at the beginning of our stay, we have been getting about 10 per day on the inside of the trailer. At the storage unit, we had about 8 inside and about 15 outside. Who knows how those little stinkers (get it..smile) managed to hang on during a 60mph.
We then went to the Sheraton Hotel for the night. They have a stay, shuttle, park deal so we were able to leave our truck there while we flew to the Baja!
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