Events of Tuesday, November 30, 2010

          Waking up after a blissful night of sleep in a quiet, dark Costco parking lot, we made and unmade beds, ate breakfast, had family devotion time, and got ready to hit the road, headed to Fort McHenry in Maryland. This fort was the birthplace of the National Anthem. O say can you see, by the dawns early light, a large red, white and blue banner? Whose broad stripes and bright stars . . . were so gallantly streaming! Over the star-shaped Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore, September 13 and 14, 1814. The valiant defense of the fort inspired Francis Scott Key to write The Star-Spangled Banner, but it was not adapted as our National Anthem until the 1930’s.

          We hit the visitor’s center first to pick up our Junior Ranger programs, and then headed to the Star Fort for the 10:30 Flag Talk. With Ranger Robert Stewart, we discovered the history that unfolded in and around Fort McHenry, named for James McHenry, who was George Washington’s personal physician and Secretary of War and who helped raise the funds to build the fort. We learned how to fold a flag, and then we watched a Vietnam War veteran hoist and salute the huge flag (twenty-five feet long by seventeen feet tall) similar to the one (forty-two feet wide by thirty feet tall) that inspired Francis Scott Key’s poem. Then our ranger took us into the Defender’s Room, where he showed us items which represented the daily life of a soldier at Fort McHenry. Generously extending his ranger talk to a grand tour, he then took us to the gun walk and showed us a big cannon used during the War of 1812 to defend Baltimore from the British.

          We then proceeded back to the visitor’s center and explored the exhibits there. Mistakenly, the ranger at the desk thought we were done with our Junior Ranger programs, so she checked what we had completed so far and then handed us certificates and made us say the pledge and gave us Junior Ranger pins. Feeling thoroughly embarrassed, we left quickly and headed back to the fort to explore it more. After exploring all the buildings and having a hard time deciding which point of the five-pointed star was Bastion #5, we left Fort McHenry. Back in the RV for lunch, we ate a hot meal of turkey melts, a post-Thanksgiving specialty.

          After lunch, we drove to Edgewater, Maryland to visit a Giant grocery store and then further south to Duncan’s Family Campground in Lothian, Maryland. Our first stop at the campground was the camp office, where we registered, and then the dump station. We attempted a flushing of our sewer system, to correct the meter readings. It sometimes reads that black water (toilet water) is one-third or sometimes even two-thirds full, even after we just emptied it. However, our flushing method didn’t work. It was really disgusting. We then proceeded to our campsite, leveled off, set up camp, and had a quick session of mathematics with Daddy while Mom did computer work and made dinner.

          When dinner was ready, we put away our math work and sat down to a piping hot meal of pasta, red sauce, sausage, salad, bread, butter, and candy for dessert. Afterwards, we cleaned up and planned our time in Washington, D.C. Following that brief family meeting, we headed to bed.