MAY 26
Left Greenbrier after 3 nights, drove to Fort Frederick, built in 1752 when this part of Maryland was frontier, a defense against the Indians incited by the French to attack British settlers. Because there was a special school group in attendance there was a costumed guide on site, a history major who was a great font of information. He was reluctant to admit that George Washington was responsible for starting the French & Indian War; in fact, he was at pains not to say anything negative about any historical figure or world power, but I could tell he harbored his doubts about some of the founding fathers. (Talkin’ ‘bout you, Hamilton.)
There was a nice trail at the park along the Potomac and the C&O canal at a spot called Big Pool. The Potomac was flowing as fast as I’ve ever seen it, after weeks of rain. Great Falls, one hundred miles downstream, was probably fantastic.
Went to my cousin Deb’s house on the National Pike in Clear Spring. She is my father’s brother Jack’s daughter and lives in the house that her mother’s family, Shirks, Anabaptists from Pennsylvania, built in 1820. Deb has restored the place, exposing the hand cut timbers and wide chinking of the original house walls and the six-inch wide heart-of-pine flooring. There is a state historical marker in front of Deb’s house noting that J. E. B. Stuart and his cavalry crossed the road here en route from one place to another to kill somebody or another. My family visited here when I was a kid, going “to the farm” or “up to the country”—a watermelon in a bucket down the well to keep cool, the men shooting crows off the telephone line, my uncle telling me to “watch out for Indians” when I went out for walks in the woods. I’m sure I made a face like “yeah right” but when I got into the woods a ways I began to think that maybe it wasn’t farfetched that some Indians could still be hiding up in the hills. I date my interest in the natural world to these trips. Thanks Uncle Jack and Aunt Jeanette! And thanks Deb for a great dinner and letting us stay.
There is a competition going within our kit of supplies as to which is the most useful tool. Second place so far goes to the Leatherman multi-purpose tool my father gave me (took the place of the forgotten can opener and a pot holder). But the most valuable item to date has been the gardener’s kneeling pad I brought along. I’ve had to get on my knees in the cap-covered pickup truck, on the gravel to inspect something under the trailer, and to blow on the kindling for my fire. Thanks gardener’s kneeling pad, you have been most helpful. But the competition has a long way to go.