The eastern end of the Transpeninsular Line
The Middle Point of the Transpeninsular Line and one end of the Mason-Dixon Line.
Traveling Companion: Some random stranger
Vehicle: John's 2002 Hyundai Elantra and whatever vehicle the random stranger used to get to the Maryland beach
Pictures courtesy of John May.
John and I could not find someone to go with us, and since we had already been to the highest point in North Carolina together in his car, we had to be creative on this trip. This trip had another purpose, to pick up more counties that we had not yet been to. I was gone for about 30 hours and added 32 new counties (or Virginia indepentdent cities). John had been to a few of them before, and so he didn't add quite as many, but he certainly got several new ones, including all of Delaware.
We left on Friday night and drove across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel to get out onto the Delmarva Peninsula, but we stopped to camp at the southern tip of it at Kiptopeke State Park. After about an hour of ukulele playing by headlamp, we called it a night so we could get up bright and early for a busy day of low pointing, boundary hunting, and county adding.
First, we briefly went over to the beach on the Chesapeake and discovered these rusting ships which appear to have been sunk to create an artificial break water. Then we headed north into Maryland, where after picking up two counties, we came to Ocean City, MD, where we parked and scratched our heads about how to get me across the state line to the with a group that wasn't John and I and in a vehicle that wasn't John's Hyundai.
Speaking of the Marlyand-Delaware state line, this southern edge of Delaware that we were next to, is half of the Transpeninsular Line. In Fenwick Island, next to the lighthouse is a monument marking the eastern end of this Line. The Middle Point of the line marks the southwestern corner of Delaware as well as one end of the Mason-Dixon Line, which extend northward dividing Maryland from Delaware before hanging a left to divide Maryland from Pennsylvania.
The eastern end of the Transpeninsular Line |
The Middle Point of the Transpeninsular Line and one end of the Mason-Dixon Line. |
So we walked along the Maryland side of the Transpeninsular Line scheming. Then when nothing better presented itself, we set upon this. We would sit on the beach on the Maryland side of the border and wait for one thing that people are likely to do on the beach: walk northward. It took longer than I would have hoped, but eventually I spied a woman walking our way. John positioned himself to capture it on (the digital analog of) film. As the woman approached the border, I nonchalantly walked towards her, and the two us crossed the border into Delaware. We smiled at each other, and then we parted--she continuing further up the beach and I stopping to better commune with the low point.
Me and the woman I went to the lowest point in Delaware with.
With the lowpointing out of the way, we headed down Delaware and Maryland State Roads 54, which crisscrosses the Transpeninsular Line, including through the town of Delmar, where the people have different license plates the people across the street.
The rest of the day was spent winding our way through Maryland, Delaware, back into Maryland, and then Virginia to add new counties. For me, I got the two Delaware counties that was missing, plus twelve Maryland counties,