Baltimore Bound

In case you’re all wondering...we managed to locate the source of The Appalachian Trail. But that’s not what we’re going to be talking about today.

See? The pioneers labelled it so we could find it again.

We are in Maryland, and have been since Friday. But we had all of Saturday to drive two hours for a Sunday morning pickup, so....we did the tourist thing, and drove into downtown Baltimore for the afternoon on Saturday. 

You have to drive through a tunnel to get there

Note the yellow sign

Did you know that it actually goes UNDERNEATH the harbor?
Hope it doesn't spring a leak!

We came into the downtown area by the port, and there was a Celebrity Cruise Lines ships there. 

Wonder what celebrities are on THIS cruise? I can think of better
places to go than Baltimore

Saw this cool mural on the wall of an overpass

Baltimore’s got museums...

This was only one of several that we saw

Glimpsed this one also as we drove past...

NOT a museum!

Cool downtown skyline

The first time I heard "Camden Yards",  I thought it sounded like
a race track. But it's where the Baltimore Orioles play.
I suppose you sports fanatics knew that already.

We had to circle all the way through the downtown/harbor area to scope out where we would be able to park the truck.

There's that cruise ship again.

And the second half of the mural.

This little guy greeted me as I stepped down from the truck

His name was Milo. I think he liked me.

We walked a couple blocks to this place

American Visionary Art Museum

So that Mr. Trucker could get quarters for the parking meter(s).

We looked around a little, and you could EASILY spend an entire day there. Check it out online: www.avam.org. Here are just a few teasers

You're not allowed to take pictures INSIDE, as I found out when
the docents came running over and scolded me (so I didn't get a
picture of the big ball sculpture made entirely out of bras).
But they called me "miss", so I almost thanked them.

Here's Mr. Trucker, plugging three of the four meters we took up!

Man, that's a LOT of quarters! Sure hope it's worth it.

From the truck, we walked to the harbor area, past these condos that are built on piers out over the water

I bet THESE cost a pretty penny!

Baltimore has a beautiful downtown/harbor area! 

I think that's the Sydney Opera House over there.

In this picture, Mr. Trucker's saying to me: "Does my beard
look ok?" He's so vain!

It was a relatively fine day...in the 40’s with no precipitation, and the sun even broke through once in a while. I hear they were having a major snowstorm back in the midwest, hee hee!

These dogs were so patient, waiting for their master or mistress to get done shopping/eating.

"We never get to have any fun".

Here’s the USS Constellation, which you can tour (we didn't).

www.historicships.org/constellation.html

Mr. Trucker with his new friends... 

A submarine that you can also tour (we didn't).

Here’s Mr. T in front of the USS Constellation. He toured it last year when he was here on a delivery

"Cheese!"

You know what they say: "There's one in every port."
(Hard Rock Cafe and Barnes & Noble)

Working Coast Guard Cutter. I think Mr. T. said you can tour this also (although we didn't).

"Look at me"

By this time, we were ready for lunch, and what do you eat when you're in a harbor town? Seafood, of course!  We went to Phillip’s Seafood Buffet, where (I thought) the sign said the Lunch Buffett was $16.99. "Not bad", we thought. Mr. Trucker tried a little bit of everything

Personally, I've always thought crab legs were highly overrated.
All that work for such a tiny bit of meat.

No honey! You're not supposed to eat the shell! That's what
the tin bucket is for.

When the bill came, we just about had a heart attack. It was $52.98. Mr. Trucker went back out to look at the sign, which really said: “$16.99 Weekday Lunch”, and “$24.99 Dinner and Weekends”. Oops! My bad! Mr. Trucker definitely ate $24.99 worth of food, but I’m not sure if I did...although considering that it WAS seafood...maybe I did. As we walked away down the pier, Mr. Trucker said for that kind of money, he should have pocketed more than two packages of Saltine crackers, which he used to win some more new friends...

Poetry in motion

They're practically eating right out of his hand.

As we headed back to the truck, I finally tried out the Panorama feature on my camera. Cool, no?

Bye bye, Baltimore!

And the best part of all...We still had time left on the meters and NO parking ticket! 

Days like these are the reason I’m doing what I’m doing...