Halloween at Eastern State Penitentiary in Philly

So what can I say?  It was fun.  I screamed a lot.  I admired the efforts of the staff, both in their costumes, their ability to scare us yet taking good measure instantaneously of how far to go (how scary to be) with the customers like this old lady and my old man, and how wonderful the "art work" was with the lighting, spray painting, and however they made (or purchased) the other decorations.  Also, the dancing was pretty good and fun.  

It was fun.  It was worth it.  We got into the area early, found a decent place to park within a couple blocks of the Penitentiary and had a nice, leisurely dinner sitting up at the bar at the Urban Tavern which had good food, good drink and a great bar tender.  

The rain pretty much held off until we were on our way home.  A good day.  

Walking Big Stone Beach

We try to get in good runs, bicycle rides or long walks each day or at least several times a week.  The walks might be in a city, in a state park or natural area or on a beach.  This walk was on Big Stone Beach, one of our favorite of the quiet, non-touristy "dirty" beaches in the area.  

Looking into the sunset from Big Stone Beach.

River Dancer in Lewes, Delaware

We took new friends out in the River Dancer to float the Lewes/Rehobeth Canal.  It's the first time we tied up at a restaurant to eat.  There aren't all that many places to do that on the Delaware side of the Delmarva Peninsula, not like the Patapsco or Magothy Rivers off the Chesapeake.  

Docked at the Wheelhouse Restaurant in Lewes, Delaware.

River Dancing on the Choptank

We put our 22 foot C-Dory, the River Dancer, into the Choptank River in Cambridge, Maryland, and floated it up to Denton, Maryland, and back.  It's a good size, beautiful river and one that I have always loved ever since reading Michener's historic novel Chesapeake which covers the era 1583 to 1978.  I credit his novel to my love of the Chesapeake region.  

The Choptank is the largest of the Chesapeake's Eastern Shore Rivers.  The Tuckahoe River, Harris Creek, Broad Creek and the Tred Avon River all flow into it.  The Choptank is 68 miles long.  We didn't take the River Dancer west from Cambridge towards the Chesapeake and Tilghman Island or out to Crook Point as it was getting darker and we wanted to get trailered.  Also, we'd had our Omicron booster shots that morning and I could feel just a tad of the ugh setting in as the day wore on.  As with many women, I seem to have more of a reaction to the covid boosters than Dave does. 

The river was important for shipping in the early days of white habitation in the area as well as a major seafood source for commercial fishing.  Today it suffers from too much nitrogen and phosphorus in upriver, and is brackish and impacted with whatever is in the Chesapeake Bay towards the mouth of the Choptank.  The Riverkeeper was trying to do swims across the Choptank each year as a way to draw attention to the water quality and in 2018 it had to be cancelled because of too much bacteria making it unsafe for human contact.  There had been a lot of heavy rains within the days leading up to the date of the swim so it had washed everything down into the river from all the settlements and farms.  

Train bridge west of Denton in the Choptank.  I believe this is called a pony plate girder bridge or drawbridge which swivels sideways instead of splitting upwards. It's been abandoned for years. It's called the Denton Railroad Drawbridge, the Queen Anne Railroad Bridge and the Baltimore and Eastern Railroad Bridge, among others. 

There is a mix of forested and marshland areas along the Choptank as well as mansions, farm houses and farm fields. Above, someone's deck/pier. 

Denton, where steamboats used to stop.  Amazing.  

During the 1850's steamboats traversed the Choptank River from Denton, Maryland, out into the Chesapeake and north to the Patapsco and Baltimore.  It was important to the underground railroad too, and in Denton a captured Underground Railroad agent was put on a steamboat to be tried in Cambridge, Maryland.  He spent 40 some years in prison and the African Americans captured were returned to slavery.  The Choptank was a huge impediment for people trying to escape slavery.  It was deep and wide.  

Road bridge over the Choptank in Denton.

Dilapidated warehouse/dock building in Denton.

John Dickinson Plantation

We visited the John Dickinson Plantation which I've been meaning to do for a year now ever since I read about the African American burial ground being found last year, shortly after we moved to the Mid Atlantic.  We were busy getting settled so we didn't visit and time got away from me.

I've read some about the plantation and knew it dated back to before the American Revolution, much further than many others in this country.  Dickinson is known as the "Penman of the Revolution" but that doesn't sit all that well with me in that it's indicative of the culture of white male supremacy. It makes the plantation all about him and not the African American slaves he owned or his wife or the type of structure or the geographic locale.  But yes.  I get it that being a primary writer involving events that led up to the Revolution is a big deal.  I get it.  I am just venting in part due to the Trump era focus on "Might is Right" and lies told often enough become true for many people and outrageous lying has become commonplace among many of his followers.  They want to get back to the time where white men reigned unquestioningly in this country defining freedom and liberty for themselves and not others.  I was actually surprised that there wasn't a tour bus of Trump followers there wearing their garb and taking notes.  Kind of.  

The African American burial ground was found just over a year ago, March 9 2021 but is not available for the public to walk towards.  The entire path to it is not accessible.  It was found through archeological research and is thought to hold the remains of many human beings, maybe 400.   That's a lot of lives, a lot of people's ancestors lying in ground unmarked and forgotten for years, maybe as far back as the 1720's. The state is currently working with community members on how to go forward.  The land the burial ground was found on was acquired by the state in 2000.  

The plantation faces this view, towards the St. Jones River which used to be much wider and deeper and capable of supporting boats.  The rivers were to the inhabitants of the day what roads are to us now. But the St. Jones has been straightened and no longer follows the course or provides a view (to see approaching ships) along the front of the house. 

The plantation house was know as Poplar Hall and the main house was built in 1739 through 1740.

John Dickinson grew up there and lived there off and on.  He was born in 1732 and died in 1808.

The house was raided and significantly damaged in 1781 by the Brits and in 1884 a fire wiped out most everything but the bricks. Dickinson really only lived in the house a handful of years total - 1776-77 and 1781-82. I believe he lived in Wilmington, Delaware and Philly the rest of the time and is buried there though his father is buried not far from the main house, easy to see as it was done with obvious pomp and circumstance befitting a wealthy white man.

Ironically, Dickinson didn't vote in favor of the Declaration of Independence though he supported it. He thought the Colonists weren't ready to declare independence and didn't have foreign support lined up. He thought that civil disobedience would help alter British thinking and laws.  Dickinson was a Quaker though he made exceptions to allow for his wealthy lifestyle and slave holdings and joined the Continental Army. 

Dickinson wrote essays anonymously entitled "Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania" which were printed throughout the Colonies and credited in large part with uniting the white Colonists against Britain. Only Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" is given more weight. Dickinson's persona in his "letters" was as an intelligent farmer of modest means, calm, thoughtful, reasonable and moral. He was actually a wealthy Philadelphia lawyer and large landowner. In his essays he wrote convincingly of Britain's constitutional flaws and questionable legalities regarding aspects of their rule over the colonies. Dickinson explains away his detailed knowledge of laws and politics by saying he spends time reading in his own small home library.  Not all that believable to me but it was very effective in it's day.  And I guess a lot of "fake news" and psychological operations in today's times are also effective in accomplishing goals.  History is fascinating.  I wonder how current times will be framed in history 20-30 years from now?

After we left Dickinson Plantation we went to Bowers Beach for a walk.  Access to South Bowers Beach is now blocked off as private property.  Bummer. That is where we found a rusty old narrow single bed springs that we drug home with us last winter.