|
Del-Mar-Va-lousNov 9, 2007
|
|
The Chesapeake Bay Bridge at Annapolis Maryland is pretty spectacular
View southward from the bridge
Mason and Dixon Monument. they were only off by a few feet...
| November 7-8; Delmarva Peninsula: From Mount Vernon, our itinerary took us to the "Delmarva Peninsula". The route included driving I 495 which is part of the Washington DC Outer Beltway. I waited until 9:30 to let some of the commuter traffic clear, and made the trip with no incidents - just a few white knuckles. Actually had some polite drivers, including a guy who let me in when I just about missed a turn lane, then protected my flank as I merged onto the freeway and got up to speed. We glimpsed the Washington Monument and the Capitol Dome as we crossed the Potomac River bridge about 5 miles south of the Mall. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge at Annapolis was spectacular, but soon, we were back on rural roads. A lot of this trip was on 4-lane, divided highway with stop lights and crossroads. Good roads and light traffic for the most part. This peninsula is mostly very flat, sandy soil and appears to be excellent farm land. There are large fields of vegetables like tomatoes and quite a few nurseries full of shrubs and trees. The biggest agribusiness here may be chicken farms. We passed several complexes of chicken barns and saw truck loads of chickens in crates headed to a huge "Tyson" packing plant. When we stopped to take pictures of the "Entering Delaware" sign, I noticed a monument in the borrow ditch that was nearly overgrown with weeds. It was a memorial to the 'Mason and Dixon Line'. The boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania was disputed, with both colonies claiming the land between the 30th and 40th parallels of Latitude. The border claimed by Maryland would have included Philadelphia. This actually led to some border hostilities between settlers in the two colonies. An agreement was reached between William Penn and Lord Calvert to set the border 15 miles south of Philadelphia at 39 degrees, 43 minutes N, which went right through the middle of Wilmington, Delaware. Two Englishmen - an astronomer and a surveyor - (Mason and Dixon) were hired to survey the line, which starts at a cornerstone previously placed at the half-way point across the peninsula at the SW corner of Delaware, travels northward to a tangent line of a 12-mile arc drawn to protect Wilmington, and then westward to form the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland and West Virginia. If you look at a map of Maryland, it is definitely a state designed by a committee. There is a historical novel (I have not read it, but it gets fairly good reviews) by Thomas Pinchon about Mason and Dixon, which inspired Mark Knophler to write the song "Sailing to Philadelphia" which is performed by Knophler and James Taylor on the CD of that name. It was about 100 years later that Mason and Dixon's line became associated with the border between the North and the South, and a satirical 'blackface' minstrel song became adopted as the unofficial anthem of "Dixieland". This area is famous for its 'watermen' that make their living from the wealth of resources in Chesapeake Bay and the barrier islands. Once famous for oysters, blue crabs, market hunting waterfowl, and fisheries; the area has suffered from development and pollution. I saw a reader-board that said 90% of the aquatic vegetation that is critical to most wildlife has disappeared and 98% of the oyster areas no longer produce. there are lots of watershed projects according to the signs, but it looks pretty grim for recovery with 17 million people living on the shores of the Bay. I saw a few Canada Geese, but no ducks and no duck blinds or hunters. However, there are still a few watermen around, and we stopped by a museum honoring the long tradition of carving waterfowl decoys and hunting. This is another of those areas that we are driving through and wish we could spend a year. We had visited with a couple from Pokomoke City (In far south Maryland on the Peninsula) when we were in Gettysburg, and they had called to see how we were doing, so we called and went to dinner at a very good seafood restaurant on Chincoteague Island. [Chincoteague and adjoining Assateague Islands are famous for oysters and wild ponies that are descendents of survivors from shipwrecks.] I had to turn down an offer of a fishing trip for striped bass and winter flounder and a chance to meet and visit with some of the present-day watermen because we had to get on to Williamsburg to get the truck serviced and pick up Darlene's arthritis prescriptions. This is country I really wanted to see on this trip because of the vivid descriptions in James Michenour's novel 'Chesapeake' and Robert Ruark's 'Old Man and the Boy' - both recommended reading selections. I'll get a little more time to hang out on the Outer Banks and Cape Fear. Our route took us across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel which is 16 miles of bridge with two mile-long tunnels crossing the wide mouth of the Chesapeake Bay between Cape Charles and Virginia Beach. That was an adventure! We are now in Williamsburg VA, planning to see the national historical park at Jamestown - the first English colony in America to stick, dated to 1607 - and "Colonial Williamsburg" which is a recreation/reenactment of colonial life. |
Advertisement 
|
