It was the 4th of July and, as usual, I got a late start on a very hot day. My plan was to the National Road, American’s first federally-funded highway to the West, to Cumberland in western Maryland and then return via the C&O Canal. I was not ready to take on Baltimore, so my first stop was Ellicott City, which sits on its edge. Ellicott City is a charming historic town famous locally for being flooded in heavy rains. It was a brutally hot day, but I walked up and down the main street taking in the charm of it. One of the original train stations along the Baltimore & Ohio line serves as a museum to the line, but it was closed. I crossed the Patapsco River into Baltimore County then back, ducking into a gelato place at the start of a rain shower. I ate my huge serving at a bay window in a gamer’s bookstore overlooking the back of the historic district. I sat in a bay window overlooking the back. Refueled, I walked up the street to the Thomas Isaac Log Cabin, which houses a little museum to the Quaker mill town’s founding and the start of the National Road. Of course, it was closed, but it offered a magnificent view of the town.
Then I proceeded west down I-40, despite the occasional disapproval of my navigational device. I moved past Hagerstown and stopped in Clear Spring, which had once been a good place for Conestoga travelers to overnight. Most of the town was closed, whether for Covid or the holiday, so I pressed west. It was still quite light out and, I figured, I could turn around at Cumberland if I just wanted to return home that night. I kept driving my car off the Interstate to take a scenic piece of National Road, and then I would rejoin the highway and snake along the mountains. I have driven this way home to Ohio many times in my life, but it all seemed new to me because I was actually paying attention to the scenic drive. I finally arrived in Cumberland and was completely surprised. I had been through it many times before and stopped along the highway for gas now and then, but had never explored it. I got very lucky and managed to book the last room at the Fairfield Inn, which sits where the C&O towpath meets the Great Allegheny Passage trail near the center of Cumberland.
I was too tired to cycle, so I headed down the historic path which offered up markers about the road and the railroad. The museum was closed, so I stopped for dinner. As I ate a classic American combination of spanakopita and peanut butter pie, I spied Charis Winery and enjoyed my first tasting of this state. I went home with brandy in peach and lemon, a real surprise. Cumberland was putting on fireworks that evening and people had started to camp out on the hotel grounds. I headed to a spot behind the hotel on C&O Canal Towpath and I found myself in a 360 degree surround of fireworks flashing across the canal. It reminded me of when I crossed over the Mississippi River into Iowa in 2015 and caught the fireworks happening at all of the Quad Cities. The hot day had turned into a perfect night, and I was grateful that Covid had not stopped this wonderful evening. The fireworks went on in multiple directions for hours, continuing at the front of the hotel until very late.
It had turned into a a perfect celebration of the 4th of July. I was so glad I explored it.