Date:  September 16-18, 2005

Location:  Chestertown, MD

Host:  Williams

Our first stop was at Chesapeake City South where we parked at Engineers Cove and then boarded the “Miss Claire”, an authentic crabbing vessel for an hour’s narrated tour of the C & D canal.  We were joined by Ben & Cyndi Nolan (MGA) who had motored over from Elmer, NJ and Jim & Marie O’Brien who drove down from West Chester, PA.  It was just perfect weather as we observed watermen coming in with the day’s catch and observed numerous water fowl nesting on the buoys.  Afterwards we strolled the town and then we enjoyed a real “down the shore” lunch at the Bayard House complete with crab cakes or what ever shellfish or fish you desired.  We were seated outside under a covered patio where we could observe the ships passing by on the canal as we ate our delicious lunch.

We then continued our journey for about an hour or so on back country roads till we arrived at the Driftwood Inn in Chestertown, MD which would be our motel for the weekend.  As per usual with the DVC, we congregated at the swimming pool where we unwound from our journey with lots of liquid libations and numerous snacks.  Greg Lake and his friend Janice Wakefield arrived as we were departing for dinner at the Bay Wolf Restaurant at Rock Hall, MD.  We even had a partial police escort as we left the motel thanks to the Goelz’s aggressive urban driving technique.  It’s probably the first time that that particular policeman put on his lights and siren and had ten cars immediately pull over!  No problem as just a verbal warning was issued.  Back at the restaurant poor old Chuck took a lot of ribbing about his red light running.  Believe it or not, most of us had crab cakes for dinner!  After all , it was the featured “Red Light Special”.

Saturday morning was one of those perfect lazy end of summer days.  We went to breakfast at Ellen’s Coffee Shop & Resturant, a little local eatery replete with “Elvis” memorabilia. All of us were pleasantly surprised at both the friendliness of the wait staff and the price of the generous portions however we were a bit disappointed that they didn’t offer crab cakes for breakfast!  We knew we were in Maryland when the waitresses ended each sentence with “Hon”.  This is a cherished part of a dialect that started in Baltimore, MD and is known as “Baltimorese”.  Along with “Hon” there is “zink” for sink and “tars” for tires..  “Baltimorese” as spoken by “Baltimorons” has now “crossed over” to the Eastern Shore (does that make them Eastern Shorons!).  After breakfast, we next took a short driving tour through Chestertown and were fascinated with the attractiveness and general cleanliness of the Colonial era town.  The speed limit is always 30 MPH everywhere on the Eastern Shore.

Not one to linger too long, Barre & Eleanor had us “ducks in a row” as we headed out to Great Oaks Marina along meandering country roads.  We were given special parking privileges on the grass overlooking about a billion dollars worth of vessels of varying size and design.  We also were joined by Mike & Joellyn Williams and their kids, Justin & Brian.  We strolled about fifteen minutes around to Jellyfish Joe’s where we had a libation or two and watched boaters navigate a rather sharp ninety degree turn into the marina.  We then adjourned back to the marina where we had a slow and leisurely lunch on the veranda over looking the marina.  Don’t ask – most of us had crab cakes again! 

After lunch, all the ducks reassembled in a row and we motored on over to the Spring Cove Marina in Rock Hall, MD where we were accorded special parking privileges on the main drive.  Barre and Eleanor’s sailing vessel, “Little Brightness”, is moored there and some of the land lubbers in our group were treated to an hour’s excursion.  Meanwhile the rest of us could sit on the marina’s veranda and watch the sun slowly sinking in the cloudless sky or partake of the swimming pool.  Lots of libations and snacks were had as we celebrated a glorious driving and sailing day.   Next, dinner was at P.E. Pruitt’s Restaurant just down the street.  OK, you know the drill by now – crab cakes once again were ordered by many of us.  Jim & Marie O’Brien had arranged for us to visit at a shore home afterwards and we had a fabulous nighttime view of the bay and the lights of far away Baltimore on the other side of the Chesapeake Bay.  After a really great night time drive (complete with a beautiful full moon) back to our motel, we turned Barre & Eleanor’s room into the DVC hospitality room.  Dick Suffredini hooked his camera up to the TV and we enjoyed seeing pictures of ourselves and our MG’s during our adventures of the past two days.  Sunday morning was once again just beautiful.  We gassed up, said our goodbyes and headed home in two separate groups based on final destinations.  It was just the nicest drive back as traffic was at a minimum and the temperatures were in the high seventies under bright blue skies.  Missing in action this weekend were Jeff & Mattie Rose (stuck in Virginia Beach due to the hurricane), Roy and Sue Dougherty (daughter’s wedding jitters) and Joel & Debbie Green (lost in Cherry Hill).  Barre & Eleanor did a wonderful job of arranging the weekend complete with detailed maps, brochures of all the areas we visited and arranging for separate checks at each of the eateries we explored   The Chesapeake Bay watermen did a fabulous job of supplying restaurants with enough crabs to satisfy all of us and the weatherman did an outstanding job of once again inaccurately predicting the weather.    Lastly, those attending did one heck of a job eating all those crab cakes!