Just A Little Sunday Drive....

We left our farm up on the Ridge around 8:30 this morning...  arriving at our hotel in Columbia, Maryland around 3:30 pm.  Google Maps says that it's 347 miles and should take 5 hours and 27 minutes.  It took us about 7 hours.  We drove the Scion and left our rig at home.  No photos for the first 175 miles or so as I was driving.  We head down to West Virginia... cross the Ohio River and then east towards Clarksburg, WV...  then north up to Morgantown...  then east into Maryland.  We stopped a few times to look at the scenery...

 Our daughter and her husband lived in Baltimore for 6 years when their daughters were in grade school, so I drove this route several times during those years.  I always stopped at the Maryland Visitor Center to stretch my legs...  and look over the beautiful scenery.  

 This trip was no exception...  the view is always lovely and now the leaves are turning their fall colors and provided bright spots of color.

I think I had the best driving conditions....  Bill drove the rest of the way and driving through Cumberland, MD, we ran into heavy fog at times...

 Visibility was sometimes limited....  

This next photo is for my friend and fellow Blogger...  Dizzy

 He recently wrote about the Youghiogheny River flowing north...  and here's the reason why.

Water on the west side of the "Divide" flows to the Gulf of Mexico...  water on the east side flows to the Atlantic.  Guess that doesn't really explain the north thing unless you see that it eventually flows into the Ohio... which flows into the Mississippi...  which flows into the Gulf.  See that rain coming down?  Which way will it flow?

The trees are definitely in their fall colors, but even the range in elevation driving through the mountains makes a big difference in just how far along they are...

They would have been outstanding if the sun had been shining.

But...  they were still beautiful.

This unfinished structure has looked just like this for all the years I've driven past it....

Wonder if they gave up on the "Next Flood" ever happening?  Or maybe they just ran out of money.  Quite honestly... to me it doesn't look like it would float....  and just where would all those critters sleep?

Along about now the rain really came down!

If the visibility was low during the foggy places, look at it now.

The speed limit in Maryland is 65 mph, but it would have been foolish to drive that fast.

Finally, the rain let up...  and we got through Hagerstown...  on towards Frederick, and closer to Washington, DC....

 Good Grief!

Look at the traffic...  backed up...  often coming to a complete stand-still.

On we went...

Once we got past the Baltimore/DC split, the really heavy traffic got a little lighter, and on we headed to our exit...  just on the west side of Baltimore.

Between Google Maps and our GPS we found our hotel fairly easily...  got checked in and found our room.  I've written before that the software company that Bill uses for his genealogy information has an annual conference/convention.  This marks the 9th year for it and the 8th year that it's been held on a cruise ship.  The cruise doesn't start until Thursday, but other events were planned for early arrivals.  Really neat events, like a tour of Gettysburg and a trip to the Library of Congress.  Well, as we all know...  these have all been cancelled now.  Bill & I haven't any big plans on how we'll spend our extra time here, but I'm sure we won't be bored.  

I'm thinking maybe a trip to the Inner Harbor... or maybe that great crab place at Fell's Point...  or....  hmmmm.....  we'll see.

That's All For Today!