We were up early again today. I think we’ve just gotten so used to being up and driving by 7:00 every day that that’s just what we do. By the time we had gotten ready for the day, cooked, eaten, and cleaned up breakfast, and packed everything away to get back on the road, our camping neighbors had just begun to stir. It does make for nice mornings on the roads though as the roads stay pretty empty in the early mornings. Our first stop today was at Fort Frederick in MD. This was a fort that was built and first used for the French and Indian War. It was used again during the Revolution and Civil War but had pretty much been forgotten about after that. Fortunately, the Civilian Conservation Corps worked on rebuilding the fort in the 1930s and the fort was made into a state park in 1975.
This is a fort that has time period re-enactors that always make for the most fascinating experiences. We were able to tour the entire fort with several of the rooms in the rebuilt barracks set up as displays of what the various rooms might have been used for during the French and Indian War.
Quick side note here to explain just how wonderful our backseat platform is that Will had made for the dogs. Basically, we took out the backseat in the truck and had a flat platform made to go into that space from the very back of the cab to the back of the front seats. With this platform in place the dogs not only have a flat space, but the space is much larger since they don’t have to worry about falling in the opening between the seats. The dogs take up 2/3 of this platform with a Coleman cooler, that we use only for water and drinks, taking up the other third.
So why is this platform so glorious? Well, there’s a number of reasons. First, it gives the dogs a flat space where we can put their small travel beds so that they can ride comfortably. The platform also gives us a perfect spot to bolt in the seatbelt so that the dog’s seatbelts are attached at a much better angle. Since the platform is flat, we can also leave the dog’s traveling, no spill water jug, back there so that they have water all the time. So obviously this thing is great.
But the number one reason this thing is so awesome?
It’s easy to clean.
And that’s important because our sweet, fat, lazy, dog, Gus, drinks so much water sometimes that he throws up.
So much so that it’s only day seven and today has been the second time he’s done it. So even though he’s throwing up in the truck, he’s throwing up on the platform. So rather than having to clean this nasty mess out of the carpet and seats in the truck, all we’re having to do is clean it off the rubber mat that we have on the platform. We knew this platform would come In handy, but now I know just how incredible it truly is. (We’re also learning not to leave that nifty traveling water can alone with Gus. He’s being much more closely monitored now so as to hopefully prevent any future throwups even though the platform makes it a breeze to clean).
Back to our regularly scheduled program.
Once we finished cleaning the platform, again, we headed on to Washington’s Headquarters at Will’s Creek in Cumberland, MD. This was Washington’s first assignment, I believe, at what was then Fort Cumberland. This seems to be a quaint little town even though we didn’t see too much of it. The streets were quite tight and parking was a bit hard to come by so we parked as soon as we could, walked a quick ways through a bit of a sketchy area, to the headquarters, had our drinks of Madeira and another toast to George, before heading right on our way again.
Our last stop for the day was right to our campground at Ohiopyle State Park. We got here around 2:00 in the afternoon and set up our site and went ahead and cooked everything for dinner since we knew a storm would be rolling in during the early evening and knew that if dinner was at least cooked, we could just crawl inside the teardrop to eat. Around 5:15 we decided to ride down into the Ohiopyle area, which is quite the busy area on a Sunday afternoon. We’re not exactly sure why it was so busy, it kind of seemed like Myrtle Beach, but we couldn’t figure out why so many people were there. There are some rapids there and some bike trails and I guess some people were simply swimming in the river, but all of that just didn’t add up for just how many people were in the area.
Anyways, as we came back to our campground after running into the small-town area, a huge storm blew in. We knew it was coming, but it came in fast and it came in hard. Will was driving up back up the mountain roads when it came in and the rain just poured, and the wind just swayed. I can’t recall too much about it specifically, because I honestly tried to focus so intently on not missing our turns that I think I blocked some of the storm out. However, once we were maybe a mile or so from the campground, we came across a massive downed tree.
There was only one other car sitting there when we came up. Will almost immediately went to work on it. While the rain was stopping and the storm moved out, Will cut the smaller branches off the tree while I moved them to the side of the road. As we worked, others slowly started to come up the road. I guess it’s worth noting that this tree was down across the entire road to the campground, is the only way in and the only way out. So, after we’ve gotten rid of some of the branches, we get to work on pulling out the wench and some of the tow straps, with Will guiding me on how to help, obviously. So, we’re working on trying to figure out how to move this tree with all these people around just watching when another guy finally comes up and asks how he can help. So he and Will get in there and keep working on the tow strap and cutting away the branches. Then another guy comes up and offers a bigger ax for them to use. And another guy comes up in his truck on the other side of the tree and shares that he has his own tow strap and that he can pull from the other direction.
So, by this point, we’ve got the winch hooked up to a snatch block with the other truck pulling the tree in his direction with his own tow rope and both trucks are working on moving this tree when it starts to give way. Everyone backs off a bit and we realize that if the tree gets chopped a bit where it’s starting to crack, it would likely just split and could then be moved to the side of the road. Wouldn’t you know that at just that time a park ranger comes up and asks if we could use a chainsaw. Well, of course. But you see, he doesn’t have a chainsaw. He has to call the fire department so that they can bring their chainsaw, whenever that may be. But these guys have put in all this work by now and they do not want the glory to go to the firefighters, so they keep working. Just a short while later, the tree does split and then needs to be pushed off the side of the road. Only then did the two bus-loads of high school boys decide that they could maybe be useful. They helped pushed the tree off to the side. Then they took credit for clearing the road. Their moms took pictures.🤦♀️
But in the end, it was a really fun time. We all worked together and got the tree out of the road so that everyone could get back to their campsites or out on their way to wherever they were going. It was definitely a triumph and we’re still reeling from the excitement. Even as we’re sitting here in the dark with all of the power still out at the campground since trees downed the powerlines during the storm.
I’m also starting to think that I really need to work on writing our adventures down at the end of each day. It’s obviously much easier to remember all the details when I’m writing it just as it’s happened. So, if you made it this far, more power to you. Maybe tomorrow will be sunny again. Who knows?
*Here’s a fun photo of an asparagus hash we made for dinner. We’re learning that when we’re going on long trips it’s much easier to prepare simple meals. This one is just asparagus, potatoes, and thick sliced ham, with fried eggs on top (eggs obviously not in this photo). It was simple and delicious and will definitely be made again. 
Life in the right lane,
Rachel
DMG Exploration 