Our Labor Day Daytrip
When the weather is nice and we have a Monday holiday available, we like to take an excursion, heading out in some direction to explore some unfamiliar territory. This past Labor Day happened to have beautiful weather in our part of the country, so we set out north.
Part of the excuse for the trip was a desire to take some new photographs, and we managed to do that. You can get to the new gallery, called "Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 2007" either from the main Björnslottet Photo Gallery page, clicking on the "Lancaster County" album (and then click on one of the thumbnails to see bigger images and navigate through), or else go directly to the "Lancaster County" album's first page.
The first image in the album is a map showing our route. We started by going up through north-central Maryland (Carroll County) to Westminster, which happens to be a good jumping-off point, but which also happens to have a Roy Roger's restaurant where we could have lunch.* Getting to Westminster is pleasant on MD Rt 32, once it turns from four-lane, divided highway into 2-lane country highway.
From Westminster we took MD Rt. 97 to Gettysburg, where we shopped a bit at the small mall of outlet stores there. As was customary, Isaac was able to buy lots of dress shirts for comfortably small amounts of money.
We headed out of Gettysburg on PA Rt 116, a road we don't often take, to head through Hanover, PA, a place we frequently pass through on our northerly excursions. Some of you on the east coast might recognize Hanover from its association with at least three food processors (Hanover Foods, Snyder's of Hanover, and Utz) and one famous shoe brand (Hanover Shoes) to its name. Given the holiday none were open, but we got to see a different side of town when we drove through the town square.
We continued on PA Rt 116 through South York, PA, and then on PA Rt 462 across the Susquehanna River nearly to Lancaster, where we turned south on US Rt. 222 until it joined with US Rt 1 and we crossed the Susquehanna again. That crossing is a dam near the Peach Bottom nuclear plant, although the dam is rather older than the power plant. Then we headed home via Rt. 1 to Baltimore, I-895 through the Harbor Tunnel (under that branch of the Chesapeake Bay) and back down I-97 to Bowie.
Although one excuse for the trip was to take pictures, I didn't really feel motivated to snap any until we were in Lancaster County already. We were driving along between towns an a two-lane road when, through a tiny gap in the trees along the road, I saw a luscious image of a small pond reflecting a row of Adirondack chairs around its opposite end, set up next to a small dock with an American flag, also reflected. Stop the car! Stop the car!
Okay, we didn't stop the car but we did turn around at the next intersection and back-track so I could try to get the picture. I did get that shot — they show up as #9 and #10 in the album — although I needed more manual intervention with the camera to get it just the way I wanted, so I didn't get quite what I wanted.
Those aren't the first images because we turned around on another side road where we saw an interesting farm scene (the Amish farmer was just behind the tractor, by the way, but didn't seem too upset by our interest), and the neat cemetery with the iron fence in front of it. I loved the look and sort of got some shots that I liked.
After that you've got various scenes along our route, of houses, rural intersections, a church where Isaac once played a recital (First English Lutheran, in Columbia, PA), picturesque farmhouses with silos, and one existential scene with a cow.
The one real destination we encountered was the Robert Fulton Birthplace. I had a lot of fun taking shots there because we had arrived just as the sun was about to go down and the light was exceptional on the house, outhouses, and gardens. So there are a number of photographs there where I was trying extra hard to capture something picturesque. The best one of the bunch I think was this Hopperesque view of a barn, where the light and the composition were just right. I find it interesting to compare with the next photograph in the album, which looks like an accurate but uninspired documentary photograph of a barn. I took the two photographs in quick succession; I didn't move except to turn the camera. There must be an aesthetic lesson in there someplace.
It was a place of remarkable serenity; since the house was closed because of the holiday, we were the only people who were visiting. It was a very pleasant way to spend the waning hours of the day.
One last note: to identify the start of the section at the Fulton Birthplace I moved the sign that names it to the first position; otherwise all the photographs are presented in the order that we took them, so you can think of it as our travelogue.
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* I always used to prefer Roy's cheesburgers with fixin's bar, and I liked their french fries best, compared to the fast-food alternatives. But, maybe a decade or so ago, there was this big corporate kerfuffle where Hardee's bought all of our local Roy's restaurants, thoroughly messed them up, and then they all went out of business. So now we have to drive at least two hours to rustle us up some Roy's. The nearest Hardee's is only about 1.5 hours away, although we think we recently spotted one somewhat closer, if only we could remember where that was.
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on Saturday, 8 September 2007 at 02.22
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Some very nice photos from what looks to have been an enjoyable trip. Thanks for sharing them. I especially liked the one of the very old stone house.