Country Roads

We didn't head into West Virginia, but Evelin and I did take a bit of a drive today. We started off needing to check how long it would take (approximately) to get from her office to the OB/GYN so that we could be prepared for the visit on Tuesday. Then it was out to Rockville to pick up more Lovenox from the pharmacy. (We go to the pharmacy up in Rockville because it's in the same building as our fertility clinic -- <happy dance>the one we were discharged from</happy dance> -- and they tend to have all the fertility drugs in stock at any given point. Plus they're really nice people and not a giant chain.

Once those tasks were done, we headed north. My original plan was for us to take a short hike up Wolf Rock in Catoctin Mountain Park. Normally it's a 1.5 to 8 mile hike, depending upon which trail you use, but there's also a parking area for rock climbers near the outcropping, so I figured it'd be an easy scramble up to take in the view without tiring Evelin out.

However, just past Frederick, I glanced over at the clogs Evelin was wearing and quickly figured out we weren't going hiking. Other thoughts were Catoctin Wildlife Preserve and Zoo, which was closed for the season, and just to keep on driving. So that's what we did.

We went up Route 77 through Catoctin Mountain Park and ended up in Smithsburg. A few years ago, we ended up buying a lot of apples from an orchard there, but we took a much more roundabout route to get there, mostly because we'd been looking for a pick-your-own apple place in West Virginia, missed it, and kept on driving across the Potomac into Maryland.

From Smithsburg, we turned and headed up toward Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, and then turned back to the east to head toward Gettysburg. We realized that we'd driven along some of the same routes looking for Adams County Winery.

As we came in toward Gettysburg, we stopped at Weikert's Egg Farm to get a dozen "Eggs from Free Walking Hens." ($1.50 for a dozen large brown eggs: Not bad.)

As we were driving into Gettysburg and trying to decide if we wanted to do Civil War stuff or just to keep enjoying the drive, I realized one selfish reason I'd like to have a little kid: The Land of Little Horses. I think I'd feel a little less silly asking for two adult admissions to a place like that if I could at least pretend that my 3-, 4-, or 5-year-old was the one who wanted to go.... (We decided to wait a little while before visiting The Land of Little Horses ...)

At about that time, it was nearing noon and Evelin realized she was getting a bit peckish. We stopped at the first place we saw in Gettysburg, The Historic Farnsworth House Tavern, which was okay. There wasn't much vegetarian on the menu, but they made me a cheese sandwich, and the hot cider really hit the spot.

We then headed back south, driving along the edge of the battlefield, and passing through Taneytown and Westminster. As we were passing Westminster, my ice-cream radar kicked in. Two or three years ago, Evelin and I went to the Maryland Wine Festival. It was a fairly hot autumn day, and on the bus back to the parking lot (there wasn't enough parking at the fairgrounds, so they used buses to shuttle people to/from the offsite parking), we noticed Hoffman's Home Made Ice Cream.

It was very good ice cream, so, when I thought I recognized the road, we took the turn and there it was. Evelin had black cherry with chocolate jimmies; I had mint chocolate chip in a sugar cone.