TRAVEL DAY: FELTON, DELAWARE TO THURMONT, MARYLAND.
Day 25 – Cold this morning, 40 degrees. We are heading to western Maryland today; it will be even colder. On another subject, we’ve been watching the girls do their business in the litter box for several days. All is still normal. Must’ve been a false alarm. Good!
After dumping tanks, we departed Killens Pond State Park at 10:25 a.m. Because it was a week day and there weren’t many campers, we had no wait at the dump station. We drove through Delaware and the eastern shore of Maryland, then leaving the flat lands and farms behind, we crossed over the Chesapeake Bay on the Bay Bridge, immediately encountering lots of traffic and the sprawl of Annapolis & Baltimore, MD and the Washington DC area. It was a couple of hours before the traffic got lighter and we entered the hills of western Maryland.
Once we turned off the major highways and headed north on Route 15, we began climbing towards the Catoctin Mountains and Thurmont, MD. The fall colors became brighter, the road winding through the hills. Very pretty country. Near Thurmont we turned off the 15 and entered Cunningham Falls State Park. We arrived at the Manor Area Campground at 1:05 p.m. and proceeded to our campsite, #M25. We’d never been here before and reserved this site for one night, sight unseen. M25 was isolated, in the woods, and at the base of a hill. The site was very slanted uphill. We were JUST able to park and level the RV. Rob had to put her front wheels way up on wooden blocks to level us. This is not a site we would probably choose again, but it’s only one night. If we had been staying longer and wanted to put up the screened tent, there wasn’t enough room for the tent and the RV. There were no hook-ups, which is fine, and no one was camping near us. In fact there were very few people in the campground at all. But most of the campsites were marked “Reserved” indicating a busy weekend ahead.
First we let the cats out and we had lunch. There had been no rest stops on our route so we’d delayed lunchtime. Then we unpacked. The high today was 51 degrees around Baltimore. At the campground it was 49 degrees. Very little sun all day.
After we were set up, we drove around the Manor Area campground checking out the campsites in case we wanted to make reservations another time. At least half of them were either quite uphill or downhill due to the mountainous terrain. Then we drove northwest through the State Park. The scenery was incredible! Tall, tree-covered mountains, deep gorges, fall colors, and a rocky creek with the water racing downhill. We kept climbing and climbing, the road narrow and winding, until we reached the lake and the second campground in the Park. The William Houck Camping Area had just closed for the season at the end of October. The gates were closed, so we were unable to drive through. The pamphlet we’d picked up showed it was a much larger campground than the Manor Area where we were staying. (144 campsites vs. 31 campsites.) The larger campground, William Houck campground, also had many hiking trails, several of them leading to the highest waterfall in Maryland, Cunningham Falls. There was also Hunting Creek Lake where boating, fishing, and picnicking are encouraged. We drove to the Lake and found there were so many parking spaces and picnic tables that we knew summer must be overrun with crowds. (We were glad we visited in the fall and that our campsite was in the Manor Area campground!) We stopped at the Lake and walked down the hill to get a picture. There were sandy beaches that we imagined the tourists loved in the summer. A Great Blue Heron was at the shore and as Rob approached, it turned and started walking towards him. It got really close before veering off into the water. Too bad Rob didn’t have his zoom lens with him! I thought it was actually going to come right up and ask him for food! SQUAWK. SQUAWK. GOT ANY FISH? Hee hee. We’d never seen this behavior before in a Heron. It must’ve been really accustomed to people.
When we left Killens Pond State Park in Delaware, we’d noticed the “Check Engine” light was on in the Honda. Rob spent the rest of this afternoon trying to figure out what the problem was. He made an appointment at a dealership in Indiana, not too far from the campground where we’ll be staying when visiting my daughter in Louisville, Kentucky. Between now and then (a week), we’ll be rarely driving the Honda since we’ll be traveling from one campground to another towing the Honda behind the RV.
The girls did well on the drive – we watched the video – they would be SO unhappy if they knew we were filming them. I think we won’t be doing it much longer; they seem fine. They like this campsite. It is extremely quiet (no one is here) and we are surrounded by trees. But if they were allowed outside, we’d have to warn them to be careful because there are bears and venomous snakes.
For more detailed information about Manor Area Campground at Cunningham Falls State Park,click here.
You drove right past me on RT 15! And Frederick might have more spires than Cumberland. Beautiful pics. And did you know you were camped near to Camp David? Beautiful area! xo