Eastern Shore Ride Day 2 - Tilghman Island to Cambridge.

 Today I rode 20 miles the other direction on the dead end road to Tilghman Island, with 15 or 20 more detours to the ends of other dead end roads. Because scenery.

 And filling in squares in Veloviewer, that's why.

I came up on this huge estate at the end of one of these roads. It appears to be a hunting lodge (presumably for ducks) and a shooting range.

I went by another huge estate south of St. Michaels. There was a McLaren supercar pulling out of the long lane that leads back to the mansion.

There are tiny old towns at the crossroads when you are off the main roads. Here is the post office in Wittman, MD, population 315. 

All of this land is at very, very low elevation. It won't take much sea level rise to wipe it all away.

I had a pizza at a place in St. Michaels recommended by Mary. It was a Wine Bar.

I shared my concerns about sweaty bike riding me degrading the wine bars in St. Michaels, and Mary informed me that this wine bar has an enclosed patio in the back, where they allow dogs. "It Will Be OK".

This wine bar has "Detroit Style" pizza. Here is my chef's special, with fresh mozzarella, prosciutto and arugula, with balsamic vinegar drizzled on it. It was very tasty.

It seems my bike riding buddy Jim has had a thing for Detroit style pizza lately, so I showed him this pizza. He was aghast.

He says real Detroit style pizza is cooked in steel pans that once held nuts and bolts on the assembly line in a GM plant. And does not involve arugula in any way, shape, or form.

Today's ride was 73 miles of wandering around. No wind, temperatures in the 40s. I only had to ride 6 miles to get to Cambridge, which included the horrible, terrifying Choptank River Bridge. Which is the only way to cross the Choptank River, of course.

Here I am at the end of it, grateful to have survived.

This bridge is nearly two miles long, with debris all over the shoulder and heavy high speed traffic right next to me the whole way.

But now I've met up with Jim, in our fine room at the Holiday Inn Express.

Which is right next door to a very old school and very deserted Chinese restaurant. Like all old school Chinese restaurants, it has tropical drinks. I had Mai Tais.

There was traffic backed up down the highway for chicken fingers at the new Zaxby's next door though. What is wrong with people?

Here's the Strava track: https://www.strava.com/activities/16518895252

Eastern Shore Ride Day 1 - Kent Island to Tilghman Island

 My friend Jim and I are going to ride around the Eastern Shore this week. He's going to be in Cambridge for his job on Friday, and we are starting from there. 

I decided to ride to Cambridge from the end of the Bay Bridge, and visit my friends Jim and Mary in Tilghman Island. So today. Debra drove me across the bridge and dropped me off at the Valero in Stevensville,  and I rode to Tilghman. 

I rode 70 miles. Temperatures were in the 40s, It's totally flat, and there was a tailwind much of the way. I meandered around a lot exploring, which meant I only had to ride on the shoulder of US 50 for about 7 miles.

Tilghman Island is pretty remote. It's at the end of a 20 mile road, mostly through nothing. Here I am at the end of the road.



I confess I was befuddled about why Jim and Mary would choose to move to a remote island in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay, with the plan to eventually retire there. I had this vision of them living amongst corn fields and chicken houses. Turns out Tilghman Island is not like that, and it's actually pretty cool. It's basically a resort town for recreational boaters. They have a sailboat.

Historically, Tilghman was the home of watermen. (For folks not from Maryland, a "waterman" makes his living by harvesting seafood from the bay). Watermen have lived on the islands in the bay for centuries, they have a unique culture, and an unintelligible accent. According to Jim, Tilghman once had a much larger population, and had an oyster cannery. Which is now the clubhouse at their yacht club.

The waterman days are pretty much over. Maryland had a very unique approach to regulate the oyster harvest from overfishing. Basically the idea was to make harvesting oysters a complete pain in the butt by requiring that oyster harvesting could only be performed using a wooden sailing ship called a "skipjack". Only watermen are going to do this, because that's how they have harvested oysters since time immemorial. Tilghman was the home of the skipjack fleet. Nonetheless, the oyster population collapsed in the 1990s due to pollution. Jim says there are still a couple skipjacks in Tilghman, and if you want you can pay money to go work on one for a day. Which he did.

Jim sends this additional information about watermen and skipjacks:
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One correction regarding waterman and oystering. It is still a big business here and there are a lot of watermen and boats that go out every morning. They are allowed to harvest the oysters using dredge equipment from power boats, but they have lower quotas. They can (and do sometimes) still use the remaining skipjacks, which are allowed a larger quota. The oyster population has been increasing as of late, but nowhere near what it was back in the day. Here are three skipjacks rafted up at Sandy Point (L-R: Rosie Parks, Thomas Clyde and Rebecca T. Ruark; the last two are based in Tilghman):


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So Tilghman is a quaint small town, with lots of stuff going on all summer, and perfect if you own a sailboat. It's blissfully dark and quiet at night. This may actually be worth living 35 miles from the supermarket. 

To get to Tilghman Island, you have to go through the very fancy town of St. Michaels. There are many shops and restaurants there. There are at least three wine bars. I stopped for lunch at the Carpenter Street Saloon, and had a delicious shaved prime rib sandwich. I figured a "Saloon" would be more likely to tolerate a sweaty guy who rode in on a bike than a "wine bar".

Wandering around on back roads to get to Tilghman Island was really great, although it made the ride take much longer than necessary. This is not the land of chicken houses. It's mostly pine woods, with some farms and estates apparently about duck hunting. It's really beautiful.

Here's the Strava track: 

https://www.strava.com/activities/16508985730