Bird In The Hand To Greenbelt Park

Bird In The Hand, Penn.  "Dry Camping" in the parking lot

9/16/10

Spent our first night at an AOL campground in ElisabethTown last night.  We were pleasantly surprised.  It was all neat and clean.  That day we went to RV  Show in Hershey billed as the largest show in the US.  It was the largest on planet Earth.

We did not make it very far that night.  Only a couple of hours drive to Amish Country, Lancaster County Penn.  We went to a smorgasbord in a town called Bird In The Hand.

Amish rod with turn signals and rear view mirrors.

It was raining and late already when we finished dinner so we just stayed parked in the bus loading area and spent the night “dry” camping - no hook ups, water, power, sewer.  All night empty tour buses and a few semi trucks kept pulling in and out but we slept well.  The next morning there were a lot of single horse drawn Amish carriages rolling by their clopping hoofs a contrast to the hissing of rubber tired vehicles.  Everyone gave way to them and they moved soothly about.  The men in their straw hats all seemed to be smiling, the women prim and stone faced.  A  van towing a UHaul trailer pulled into the parking lot and spilled out its contents of young Amish adults.  It’s hard to tell their ages since they all are dressed the same, though the men all had beards.  They ebulliently bounced around ducking the light sprinkles.  One bearded lad drove a scooter chair out of the UHaul  around the van and back in to the trailer.

9/17/10

 We left Bird in the Hand and headed into town to get our propane tanks re certified and filled with propane and stopped by York where Harley Davidsons are made.  Tried to take the tour but missed the time so we went to Brown's Country Farms instead - best, sweetest apple cider.  The pastries were good but not as good as Helen's Bakery in Cape Breton NS.  

We made it in just a few hours to Greenbelt Campgrounds just outside DC.  in Maryland.  Here it is also dry camping.  We hope to use this spot as a point from which to foray outwards.  The DC monuments, The Museum of History, Annapolis, and what ever else we can do.

Today, instead we dealt with the first problem with the truck.  The Power steering pulley went out as I was easing to the ranger Station to get some payment envelopes.  It was down, it could not be driven.  the ranger and I found a repair station within a mile of the park and called a tow truck.  They said they would work on it in the morning so there was nothing left for us to do but chill out in these woods and learn to live without water,electric or sewer hook ups.  this meant no 110 outlets for all the electronic stuff and only 12V for lights.  The propane worked the ref, hw heater and the stove so all was not exactly primitive.  The trade off for all those amenities? peace and quiet amongst the oak trees.  It made for a deep  sleep.

9/18/10

Picked up the truck at mid day. Mid day usually means not enough time to do much in the afternoon so it’s hang out time.  It’s getting dark earlier now around 8:00PM

It’s a good day to be in the woods.  The 1100 acre Greenbelt National Park is right in the middle of DC, Baltimore and Annapolis.  Its a quiet secret.  Its an urban park surrounded o  three sides by freeways and on the fourth by dense residential.  From deep within its center, during the commuter hours you can hear the hum of the traffic and  the occasional siren.  But during most of the day and the nights it is difficult to imagine the world beyond.  The Park roads gently curve with the topography and the woods are mostly tall narrow oak trees.

Today we treated ourselves after picking up the truck to hanging out at REI then back to camp in the mid afternoon.  All the huge RVs had left and only a few tents remained. For a moment the park felt empty and quiet.

With a brimming shot of apple brandy from the Ironworks Distillery in Lunenburg and the last chapter of James Burke’s latest book where all would find some resolution or prelude to prologue I sat at the picnic table beneath the blue awning of the Airstream beneath the oak leafed canopy.

I savored the time to finish the last chapter of one of my favorite authors and let myself feel quiet.  

Quiet is not always the absence of noise for there was plenty of noise around albeit of a woodland nature.  Sitting still, my elbows on the table, my chin in my hands, I let my eyes drift about while my head stayed almost motionless.  The better to see the movements slowly increase in presence of squirrels, robins, crows going about their business oblivious to me.  I might as well be just another tree.  In the canopy above to my left a red crested pecker began tapping for grubs,  squirrels dashed about the underbrush picking up acorns and birds swung back and forth from ground to branch.  There was a lot happening and I had nothing to do with it.  I just watched.  This is a kind of quiet that we as humans cannot sit still for for very long.  We are such an impatient lot.  And if there is any chance of interacting with some kind of civilization within a mile of where we sit in a matter of minutes our stillness will break and we will soon be drawn to other affairs.  

This is why finding true quiet is so hard.  We have to remove ourselves physically so apart from society’s trappings and complications to have any chance of quiet of any quality.  There is the inward travel of meditation and zen that can take place in any crowd but somehow they feel forced and manufactured and ignoring of one’s surroundings.  We can not all travel to actual places of nature for quiet. So we need to stop what we are doing if the opportunity presents itself and watch the squirrels so purposely yet without stress or panic prepare for fall.  One will see that even they stop occasionally to savor an acorn or two just for the moments pleasure, almost indolent in their relishing of the nut.  As I will try to be before finishing that last chapter.

Home for 7 days dry camping.  Greenbelt National Park MD.