Bill's Random Thoughts

There's no place like home, but I don't know too much about my new home. For the last year living with my daughter on the Choptank River in Cambridge, I've spent more time driving to work in Washington DC than I've spent on the porch.

Today, I started changing that. I joined the Chamber of Commerce and made some appointments to meet local leaders. I want to know the history and the characters like I know the backroads. For example, who built this beautiful, this graceful skipjack that the public can sail? The Nathan of Dorchester was built in 1994, one of only two left in Cambridge. There are a few dozen still sailing and working the Chesapeake Bay but there used to be hundreds, and the watermen's tales are stuff legend is made of.

The Choptank River here at Cambridge is almost two miles wide, and gets wider as it flows west toward the Chesapeake Bay. Entering Cambridge from the north across the Malkus Memorial Bridge, I always picture Key West or some other place on the ocean because the water stretches on forever. In fact, the Malkus Highway 50 Bridge is the second longest in Maryland, second only to the world-renowned Chesapeake Bay Bridge which is also part of Highway 50.

Another record Cambridge can claim is the second largest deepwater port in Maryland, after Baltimore. Not bad for second place!

At the Cambridge end of the Malkus Bridge, stop at the Dorchester County Visitor Center at Sailwinds Park. The friendly volunteers there will fix you up with advice and brochures to make sure you don't miss something really important. I'll tell you some of my favorites but they are just that - stuff I've happened on. Just like the Smithsonian, you could spend years in Cambridge and Dorchester County without seeing everything.

When you leave the Visitor Center, drive west on Maryland Avenue. Visit Ruark Boatworks, on the right, to see Cambridge's second skipjack. Then, cross the drawbridge, guarded by condos, that opens anytime a boat of any size or height wants to go through. Take a right at the first traffic light past the drawbridge and gaze on the Glory of the Lord. Christ Church is one of the most beautiful church buildings I've seen anywhere in the world. If the gargoyles don't spook you too badly, visit the cemetary where five Maryland Governors and a bunch of other folks are buried.

Facing Christ Church, continue right on the yellow brick road named High Street. According to local brochures, James Michener thought, while working on his book "Chesapeake", that High Street was one of the most beautiful streets in the country. Who am I to disagree with James Michener? Two or three of these 18th and 19th century homes are for sale right now so be careful which way you let your spouse look when you drive or walk the yellow brick road. High Street ends at the Choptank River with war memorials, a marina, the Nathan of Dorchester skipjack, and a view to die for. Walk on the water at the end of the street.

As you leave the end of High Street with the water behind you, turn right at the first intersection on Water Street. The marina is on your right, and you'll pass Oakley Street. Our condo is to the right at Oakley Beach, and the street ends at the river like all the streets in this part of town. Can you guess who Oakley Street is named for? You get a sucker if you guessed Annie Oakley! She lived here after she retired from the wild west show circuit, but still squeezed off a few crack shots from time to time.

Oakley Street contines as Hambrook Boulevard and then as Bellevue Avenue, always with the Choptank River on your right. Bellevue Avenue takes a sharp left at the Annie Oakley House and becomes Maple Avenue. Follow Maple Avenue for one block, take a right on Bay Heights Avenue for a block where it takes a sharp left and becomes Riverside Drive. All that street name changing and turning is worth it because you have now arrived, truly, at the Glory of the Lord. To your right is the Million Dollar View! If you are really blessed, you will time your arrival for the sunset. In my past, I wished for friends with big sailboats who would take me with them without the cost. Now, I just pray for a friend who owns one of these houses who will invite me to sit in their front yard, with a glass of wine, and glory in the view of the Mouth of the Choptank and the Chesapeake Bay. Are there really people who live this everyday?

Sunset or not, lunch time or dinner time, retrace your route to the yellow brick road and prepare to make a hard choice about food. Cambridge has dozens of fantastic places to eat, more than I've ever seen in such a small place. On the yellow brick High Street with the water at your back, Snapper's is off on a side street to the left beside a crab-picking place. Turn at the Bed-and-Breakfast. Eating on the deck or drinking at the outside Tiki Bar is another form of heaven. I could live on their frozen margaritas and fried clam strips.

If you miss the side street, continue on toward Christ Church on your right. Go a block past the church and take a left on Race Street. On the left in the first block is Popular Bistro, and on the left in the second block is Leaky Pete's. Just before a parking lot on the right is Jimmie & Sook's Raw Bar and Grill, and across the street is Canvasback. Back on Highway 50 heading to Ocean City, you'll find the Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay Resort and the famous Cambridge Diner. Come to Cambridge for a week and discover the other hundred awesome places to eat and drink. This is just a start.

Okay, if you are ready for some more sightseeing, let's go. On Highway 50 at the intersection of Walmart and the Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay Resort, also known as Maryland 16, follow the signs to the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. Now, I love old houses, boats, churches, food, and drink, but I really, really, really love Blackwater! Eagles, ospreys, herons, egrets, swans, geese, ducks, and 28,000 acres of God's Best Watery Land just turn me on! I go every week and twice on Sunday. In fact, I would go even if I had never spotted the migrating Bigfoot of the Bird World, an American White Pelican which has a wingspan of up to 10 feet. Then I saw a huge turtle pulling itself through the mud toward water. Then....you get the idea. What an awesome place! On the drive and biking trail, watch for the sign warning you about endangered squirrels. Really!

Leaving Blackwater, watch for the future Harriet Tubman Center. There's already a Harriet Tubman Museum & Educational Center on Race Street in downtown Cambridge, and her birthplace is just east of Blackwater. Harriet Tubman helped free over 300 slaves via the Underground Railroad.

East of Blackwater are two of my favorite places. The Old Trinity Church, built around 1675, is the oldest Episcopal Church in continuous use in the United States, according to local brochures. Beyond Old Trinity Church on Highway 16 is Taylors Island and the Taylors Island Family Campground. The friendly folks and the wild domestic bunny rabbits will make you want to learn to catch rockfish and ride around in golfcarts and never leave.

Whew! What a first visit to God's Country! Next time, we'll try to figure out how somebody could cause a river crossing to be named Suicide Bridge when it's only a couple of feet above the water. It'll be painless, I promise. We'll eat so many famous crab balls we won't really care.