Day Forty Four - Washington & Maryland

Today, we would do a loop out from Larry's home near Harrisburg, PA then down into Washington DC, then to Baltimore, MD, and finally back home We picked a Saturday deliberately so as to minimize traffic and we were glad we did even though we did still hit some major delays due to construction...

Day 44 Track

We got off this morning at 6:40 AM. Larry's wife Sally rode along with him today. Larry was ride leader today also. It was cool (about 61) and there was a heavy fog in the air early on. We headed directly downtown to Harrisburg to get the Metro Bank Park - Home of the Harrisburg Senators baseball team. The park actually is located on an island in the middle of the Susquehanna River!

Metro Bank Park - Home of the Harrisburg Senators - Baseball Tour

From the park, we headed west on I-81 until we got to Chambersburg where we got off onto US-30 (AKA The Lincoln Highway) which we took into Peters Township where we got the the Buchanans Birthplace State Park. This is where former President James Buchanon birthplace was. The home is no longer there, but there is a memorial structure and an entire State Park dedicated to it. That was a 74 mile leg that took us 2:10 to complete. That included a breakfast stop of 30 minutes in Chambersburg.
Here are the photos we got at the birthplace.

James Buchanon Birthplace - Presidential Tour

And here's a close up view of the board so you can actually read it.

James Buchanon Birthplace

We left the birthplace at 9:55 AM. We are headed southeast on some named (no route numbers) roads for the state border where would get our next item - a Washington County line for the Presidential Tour.

Washington County line - Presidential Tour

It was 10:15 when we got the county line and our next stoop is just 20 minutes away on the south side of Hagerstown, MD - the Municipal Stadium - Home of the Hagerstown Suns baseball team.

Municipal Stadium - Home of the Hagerstown Suns baseball team

Our next checkpoint would be down in Washington DC so it would be a 68 mile trip lasting 1:19 to get there. We headed southeast on I-70, down past Frederick, MD where we got onto I-270. We took that down to near North Bethesda where we took the I-270 Spur southbound and then got off onto the Clara Barton Parkway, which was a lovely 2 lane road that ran along side the Potomac River and would take us right into downtown DC. There we captured this photo of the Washington Monument - a Big Bonus for our Presidential Tour.

Washington Monument - Presidential Tour

While we were in town we thought we would also get the Washington Nationals Stadium. It was just a few miles away, though it would take us about 15 minutes to work our way over and into a position to get a decent photo.

Washington Nationals Stadium - Baseball Tour

Our next checkpoint was in Baltimore, MD but it was a slower go to get there than we'd planned. We got onto DC-295 to get our of DC and that turns into the BW Parkway (AKA the Gladys Spellman Parkway) but we ran into some major delays due to road construction. The first one took us 9 minutes to make .9 miles. After that it opened up for a while and then we hit a second snarl that took another 9 minutes to make 1.2 miles. We would hit 2 more slowdowns, but none as bad as the first two. We ended up getting off for a 30 minute lunch break in Arundel Mills, MD. We got back on the parkway and made it into downtown Baltimore to get the baseball park - but it turned out there was a game on so it was packed with people and cars and many streets were closed. We wound our way around the stadium looking for opportunities to get an appropriate picture. We finally resorted to lane splitting to make any headway and when we got around to the east side of the park there was a pair pf motorcycle cops guarding some kind of loading zone that just happened to be right in front of the sign we needed. We pulled in and told them what we needed and they told us go ahead!

Oriole Park at Camden Yards - Home of the Baltimore Orioles - Baseball Tour

We would leave here at 2:10 PM heading for Towson, MD. Since we had gotten off our planned route in running around the stadium for our photos, we punched in the next waypoint on the GPS and it took us across Baltimore entirely on surface streets. It would take us nearly an hour to get to the next checkpoint and when we did - we were expecting a US Post Office labelled "Towson, MD" and instead it was labeled "Baltimore, MD"! Another search on the GPS showed us another PO 1.8 miles away so we headed over to that. It was tucked in behind a maze of one way streets and some construction closures but we persevered and were rewarded by the following photo.

US Post Office Towson, MD - for the "T" in Team for the ts30gt

 As we headed out of town from this one, we would stop at a McDonalds for soft serve ice cream to take a break and cool down as it was getting hot. Soon though we were headed up I-83 north where we would cross back into PA and then get off in Shrewsbury and head northwest up to a little town named Glen Rock - which we needed for our I've Been Everywhere Man tour. That trek would be 35 miles in 45 minutes.

I've Been Everywhere Man - Glen Rock

Only one more for today - The town of Jefferson for the Presidential Tour. This was just 15 minutes up the road from Glen Rock.

town marker for Jefferson - Presidential tour

By now, my fuel computer was flashing at me saying "you only have enough fuel for 28 more miles"! We continued along Hwy 116 and finally came to  gas station in Spring Grove PA. From here it was another 54 miles to get back to the house and that would take us 1:10. We finally got in at 6:10 PM so it had been a pretty long day and we were glad to be home.

Today's Stats: 355.6 miles in 11:19 elapsed time, 8:13 saddle time