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Monday, August 08, 2011

Whites Ferry Landing

First here one a link to read about it: http://www.howderfamily.com/travel/maryland/whites_ferry.html

And then there is nostalgia, which old people like me think about ( I am age 63 and have been there a lot). My nostalgia includes bike trips down the C&O canal towpath, back when it was pretty rough to me, a 10th grader on an Explorer Post trip (did it twice, like 184.5 miles). I learned a lot, including ideas like tow path trance that even came in handy decades later in Saudi Arabia. Even back then I learned other things that also helped me later.

Even more recently than the 1960's, back in the mid 1980's, I met a fellow who had paddled by canoe with his brother the whole way from the South Platte River (near Denver as I recall), unto the Missouri River where they learned to dodge river barges that sucked up the river when they were paddling, and then onto the Mississippi River and down to New Orleans. Well, I was impressed, and we shared stories, and it was all around Whites Ferry Landing. Back then I was leading a Scout Troop from Harpers Ferry down to Georgetown. They were pretty much in canoes.

Even back then (in the 1960's it was roughly about 100 years from the USA Civil War). I even learned the names of Battles, depending on one's heritage. Simply said the northern tradition is to name about a creek, like Antietam, and the southern tradition is to name it after the local town, like Sharpsburg. Even I went to local commercial museums back then to find out there were still body parts being uncovered (then called preserved or petrified). I was grossed out, but that is just my personality. So we biked back to the campground about 5 miles away, and the rest of trip to D.C. proceeded later.

So what is my point? Mostly it is remind all that other Americans have been around, too.

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