Hells Half Acre and Hungry Mother...

My wife was so right regarding shaving my legs daily, and going bare-legged all the time.

I now shave my legs each morning, whether they need it or not, and haven't worn pantyhose since before the trip.  Now, whenever I'm wearing my ballet flats,  it's "put them on and go."  Just like the girls.  I've gotten used to bare legs - and find that I prefer it.  She obviously likes them that way...and has me in flats more often than before.  Best of all, when we're out together and I'm in flats, occasionally she'll rub one of my bare legs and I hear "Smooth legs, hon."  So why not?   Such a simple thing is a win-win situation.

Anyone been to Hell? (Michigan, that is...)   Many folks have heard about this one, and the picture proves that occasionally in the winter, those well-renowned fires go out for a little while...

According to Wikipedia, this unusually-graphic town name has two theories of origin. The first is that a pair of German travelers stepped out of a stagecoach one sunny afternoon in the 1830s, and one said to the other, "So schön hell!" (translated as, "So beautifully bright!") Their comments were overheard by some locals and the name stuck. Soon after Michigan gained statehood, George Reeves was asked what he thought the town he helped settle should be called and replied, "I don't care, you can name it Hell for all I care." The name became official on October 13, 1841.   The second theory is tied to the "hell-like" conditions encountered by early explorers including mosquitoes, thick forest cover, and extensive wetlands.

So when was the last time that someone told you they lived in "Hell's Half Acres?"  I hear that occasionally out here on the Delmarva.   And as this picture proves, it may be right  - particularly for residents of this street.  I noticed this unusual street name a couple years ago. just outside a small town near Easton, MD! 

Unfortunately, I'm not sure where the name came from...or why the misspelling!

And lastly, located near Marion, VA you can visit:

It's a beautiful little park with a sandy beach, situated between some Virginia hills and behind a small dam...wish it were closer to where we live.  Where did its unusual name originate?

Legend has it that when Native Americans destroyed several settlements on the New River south of the park, Molly Marley and her small child were among the survivors taken to the raiders’ camp north of the park. They eventually escaped, wandering through the wilderness, surviving by eating berries. Molly finally collapsed, and her child wandered down a creek. Upon finding help, the only words the child could utter were "Hungry Mother." When the search party arrived at the foot of the mountain where Molly had collapsed, they found the child's mother dead. Today, that mountain is Molly’s Knob (3,270 feet), and the stream is Hungry Mother Creek.

More adventures later...

Mandy

Interesting...

While on our recent trip to our son's place, one of the hotels had plenty of interesting natural wonders.  The flowers were outstanding...and as you can see, there were also some monster butterflies.  This could make you want to stay there forever...simply lovely!

For our entire trip, I stayed as gender-neutral as possible.  My wife wanted me to look more like her "husband" than her "wife."   Following is one of several typical shorts outfits - all women's clothes - that I wore.  Feminine, but with more than a little hint of ambiguity.    And though she insisted I take a pair of stirrup leggings along "in case for some reason you need to dress up a bit", they never came out of the suitcase.   My ballet flats were a different story, though.  I wore them everywhere, and only had sandals on for a couple of days.

The first time I wore my flats, I started putting on my pantyhose and heard:   "No, you're not wearing pantyhose...it's too hot.  No girl would wear them unless they were going to some kind of formal event.  And you aren't."   I protested a little, and she said "keep those legs nice and smooth - they look their best bare...even if that means you need to shave them every morning.  You'll eventually get used to wearing your shoes without stockings unless you're going somewhere fancy."  

Since it wasn't worth an argument, I went along with her suggestion.  While it felt a bit strange,  I really didn't mind it.  That evening she asked how I liked wearing my shoes barefooted.  I told her it was OK.  She said she thought I'd eventually learn to love it.   And she''s probably right.

I've dressed as above countless times at home, both with and without makeup.  Back at home, more frequently than not (probably 60 - 70 percent of the time)  I've been addressed as female in those situations where folks don't know me.    However, on our trip, which included a different (and longer) route for some light sightseeing through WV, KY and IN, that definitely wasn't the case.   At motels, restaurants, and local attractions, it was much more common for me to be addressed as "Sir."

Why would that be so?  I don't look or feel any different than any other day.  My suspicion is that the difference could be religious beliefs in the heartland, in which folks adhere much more tightly to the traditional gender "binary" than the folks back east.  And yes, surprisingly even more so than on the Delmarva.  (Perhaps things are evolving for the better in my own backyard?)

In any case, this is just one person's observation, based on experiences at one point in time.   It may or may not be representative in other places or at other times....but it was very interesting.

More later,

Mandy

More Unusual Town Names...

Following a newfound habit of spotting towns with unusual names, some were noted from a recent trip to our son's place in Tennessee.  Our route took us to southern Indiana and then on to TN.  Enroute, a couple of names found their way into my camera's memory card...

No, it isn't an antacid

The following info came from the town's website:

On what was once a large farm, Gassaway,  WV,  the “little city built upon a West Virginia Hill”, was incorporated in 1905.  The town was named in honor of the former United States Senator and one time vice-presidential candidate, Henry Gassaway Davis,

The town grew quickly due to the newly formed Coal & Coke Railroad.  Located in the center of the state, Gassaway was midway between the two terminal points of Elkins and Charleston. Gassaway housed the railroad’s shops which employed many of the town folk.  Known as the travelers place to stop, the Gassaway Hotel was a favorite.   A once booming railroad town with a depot, two hotels, a bank, schools, churches, shops, armory, and hospital, Gassaway is still a town rich in tradition and history.

Disclaimer: as of the 2010 Census, population was listed as 908...and sadly, we didn't actually leave the interstate to drive through town.

Once we headed south, we came across the town of Santa Claus, IN.  This is one which both my wife and I recall hearing about previously.  And here we were, with a chance to visit.  How could we pass up that opportunity?

From Wikipedia:  The town was established in 1854 and known as Santa Fe (pronounced "fee"). In 1856, when the town was working to establish a post office, the United States Postal Service refused their first application as there was already a Santa Fe established with the USPS. Several town meetings were held, during which the name Santa Claus was selected.   It has the world's only post office to bear the name of Santa Claus. Because of this popular name, the post office receives thousands of letters to Santa from all over the world each year.

With residential and civic development, including a holiday-themed amusement park (open all year)  the size of the town has been increasing, from about 931 in 1980 to about 2479 in 2015.

When driving on trips out of your area, you never know what you'll find...

Stay tuned,

Mandy

Spooky...

In my post about the Ma and Pa, I mentioned an incident about a person my wife and I know, who "may" have been present at my hotel, and who "may" have seen - or recognized - Mandy on her weekend out.   Subsequent events seemingly have provided a perfect response, should it ever be needed.

A person who is a part of a group we all (my wife and I, as well as the party at the motel) belong to, sent some documents for me to review recently.  In them, I was identified as being present and commenting g at a certain event in the past.  But at the time of that event, we were actually at another event, and it can be proven.  I notified him of the error and he will have me removed from those records.  But he truly thought he remembered me speaking there..and would have sworn on a stack of bibles that I was present.  His comment was "You must have been there at least in spirit...this is spooky."

Those events brought to mind an incident at work about 10-12 years ago, about which I had forgotten.

I worked for a company with offices near a commuter rail station (very convenient for many, but not necessary for me.)   I drove into work early one morning, from our house 12 miles south of there.  Meanwhile, one of our employees and her hubby boarded an early train at the station near their house, about 30 miles north of the office.  When she got off the train and into the office, she was surprised to see me there already...and wearing pants and a top.  She told me that both she and her hubby had seen me (wearing a stylish dress and killer heels) board their train two cars back from them, about an hour previously.  But they both walked through the train and couldn't find me on board.  Though her hubby stayed on the train all the way to the end of the line, after she deboarded at our station, she waited on the platform till it left for me to get off.   "I" never did...in a dress and heels, or otherwise!

I showed her my car in the parking lot, with its "only warm" engine proving I had been there for a while, and offered to let her look through it for any women's clothes, which she declined to do.  (As one of the religious types, I guess she didn't want to risk knowing for sure, in case I really did wear dresses.  Little did she know.)   

And she never did figure out who, or what, they saw boarding the train...since it obviously wasn't me.  (And it truly wasn't.)  A woman who looks vaguely like me at a distance?  (I had long hair even that far back.)  A spirit?  Where did it come from?  Where did it go?  Why?  Coincidental?  Mystical?  Supernatural?  That was never solved, and we'll never know the answers.

So this wasn't the first time....but from the looks of things, undoubtedly won't be the last!  And in this particular case, given my attire at the motel, it could provide some great cover, since at least two of the parties know each other and can corroborate it... 

But I agree...the whole concept (well, other than the actual incident on Mandy's weekend) really is spooky!!

More later...

Mandy

The "Ma and Pa..."

This is the second and final installment about my "Mandy weekend."

Because of traffic issues on the Bay Bridge, I stayed overnight in the area rather than drive home and  back the next day.  At my motel, there were a couple of groups being hosted.   Sunday morning,  I went down for breakfast, dressed as in the picture below.  The place was very crowded...and there were a lot of folks sitting/standing around talking.  I scanned the folks in the lobby as I walked through.

Nobody was paying any attention to me, but I noticed a man sitting with a woman and looking the other way, who bore more than a passing resemblance to a friend of ours from Ohio.  We were about 450 miles (more or less) from his house to where we were staying.  They seemed to be talking with others in the group, as if they were acquainted.  The woman did not bear any resemblance to his SO, so it probably wasn't "who it looked like", but I got breakfast and disappeared in a hurry, just in case.   He happened by coincidentally just in time to see me check out, and drive away.  He didn't appear to pay any attention to me...and with no kids himself,  I really wouldn't think his interests are in in group travel with kids...   We'll see the couple over the holidays or in January, so if it was "who he resembled," either the topic may come up then...or he'll have forgotten about it, which is more likely.   Maybe I should be concerned, but I'm not.

Have you heard of the Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad?  Back in the day, it connected Baltimore MD with York PA, over a curving and tortuous 77 mile route.  Since 1992 the  MD and PA Railroad Preservation Society has owned the village of Muddy Creek Forks, which contains many original buildings including the old general store.  The hamlet now is  center stage for all the Society's railroad equipment.

 Mandy at Muddy Creek Forks

Begun as narrow gauge, and with numerous rail companies formed after 1867,  it took until 1889 for through train service to finally begin on this rail line.  The Maryland & Pennsylvania itself was established in 1901 by the merger of the Baltimore & Lehigh Railway with the York Southern, and conversion to standard gauge.  It hauled furniture from Red Lion, slate from Delta, and milk from local farms, along with countless rural residents to their jobs in the city.  This was despite the fact that its "fast" passenger trains took four hours to travel those 77 miles.  Today, via I-83, you can drive the 53 road miles in a bit under an hour if traffic is light.  Is it any wonder the railroad didn't survive?

Loss of a US Mail contract doomed passenger service.  The last passenger train was discontinued in 1954.  The Maryland division from Whiteford south was abandoned in 1958, but the Pennsylvania portion survived into the 1980's.   At that time, the preservation society stepped in to preserve a piece of this little  railroad.  Hence the Muddy Creek Forks historic site, with 3.6 miles of original trackage, exists today.  (Though only a portion of it is operable.)

The "Train."

And a fun little railroad it is...while an original Ma & Pa diesel (#82) has been returned to the property, there is also some other old equipment.  Train rides are provided on track equipment (motorcars joined together into a little train.)  All the better to get a good look at this old, historic property.

 The sharp curves and deep cuts on the property...

Can you imagine regular locomotives with modern equipment traversing these deep cuts and sharp "S" curves?   It would be a great railroad for a dedicated model railroader to create in miniature!

My visit there was much the same as at the other railroad...while no gender-specific greetings were used, all the proper 'assistances' that a gentleman would give a lady were provided...including on two occasions, a male crew member offering his hand as I got on and off the equipment.  Nobody stared my way.  I'll never know if I was "clocked."   It simply doesn't matter.   I had a wonderful visit...and a fabulous weekend.

Now, Mandy goes back into her suitcase...

More adventures later!

Mandy

Just a quickie today...

A quickie, with no pictures...sorry!

During my wife's absence, my cousin and her hubby came to visit for a couple days.  I was dressed in shorts and a women's tee top, with my ballet flats.  Nothing was said about my outfit, and I took them out for a seafood dinner (what else do you have on the Delmarva?)  Waitstaff didn't use any gender-specific forms of address for any of us.  That was surprising, as they both are very definitely identifiable as their birth gender.  Me, not so much...

We had lunch with mom at the nursing home on their second day...it was fairly uneventful.  She sort-of remembers them, but just barely,  even though they visited her last time they were in town, a year ago.  I was wearing my typical shorts and top outfit, and one of the staffers who doesn't see me often commented "Wow, nice legs hon."  Not sure of two things: whether my cousin heard her comment, or whether it was truly a compliment.  But I'll be optimistic and presume that the answers are "No" to the first, and "Yes" to the second...

More later...

Mandy

Ladiesburg?

With my wife recently visiting her sister who lives in mid-America, Mandy was finally able to step out of the suitcase,  to play with trains...real ones...for a while.  

One Saturday, my destination was the Walkersville Southern, a small, but very nice little tourist line operating over former Pennsylvania Railroad rails, between end-of-track at Route 26 north of Frederick to Walkersville, over the washed out (in Hurricane Agnes - 1972) - and repaired by the State in 1996, Monocacy River Bridge.  Before abandonment, the PRR used to go all the way into Frederick to service local industries and interchange with the B&O.  This included some street running.  But that service is long gone, although the rails remain visible in places.  Development has seriously encroached, Route 26 is too busy for the State to put the grade crossing back, and the industries, like the PRR, are long gone.  

The WS has several small diesels (as in GE 44 tonners and the like) plus a few smaller "critters." And a small group of former Long Island Railroad passenger coaches reside there, plus two open air flatcars with roofs in case of rain.  But there are no resident steam engines.

Being early, I had a chance to walk around and check out the equipment before train time.  And even had a chance to do a selfie by one of them.  They tell me that the rusty car way behind me was a former "subscription" car, where you paid your regular fare, plus a subscription fee to ride in it.  And if you didn't "know someone" who was "a subscriber" you didn't get to buy a subscription.  Interesting.  I don't think that practice has survived the passage of time...   It's being restored, so someday it may be possible to step back in time and ride it again.

By the way, don't look closely at the journal box on the middle axle beside me in the picture.  It's a bit askew, obviously due to a small derailment.  Guess they'll have to fix that before they use it again...

When I bought my ticket, the late teen male ticket clerk didn't use any gender-specific greeting for me.  Interesting...did he clock me?   I sat there waiting for train time, contemplating that as other women bought tickets.   But - surprise...he didn't address any of them as "Ma'am," or for that matter, by any female terms.  The even more interesting thing was that he didn't use "Sir" to address the men.  I wonder if that's the way of the future?  Don't greet people as the gender they appear to be, that way you can't ever guess wrong.   There's a certain strange allure to that line of thought...

While on board one of the two open air cars, (it was far too hot to sit in the open-window, un-air conditioned coaches and not long before boarding, my car's thermometer read a toasty 100 degrees),  folks had to pass by me in order to get to a bench seat.  (Coincidence, or intentional?  You KNOW that answer!)  The patrons were of all ages...seniors, middle age, teens and the 6 to 12 age group.  As people passed by, I watched to see if they paid any attention to this heavyset girl in a skirt, blouse and sandals, who was wearing sunglasses (don't you just love sunglasses?)   

And the correct answer was...nobody paid me any mind.  I heard "excuse me" numerous times, with "Ma'am" added a few times by the older folks. but nobody did any obvious double-takes or lengthy stares at me.   Everyone was too excited about their train ride to worry about anyone else's issues.  Even the kids...   

It was a nice little excursion.   But afterwards, it was time to move on...

Mandy likes to visit places with unusual names...remember my visit to Accident, MD - from a previous post?  After leaving Walkersville, I did some rural exploring.   Yes, Virginia, there really is a place named Detour, Maryland.  

It was relatively easy to find, as Detour Road pointed me in the right direction.   But I was having trouble finding the next town - with another unusual name.  After driving around for fifteen minutes, I finally had to stop (in Detour) at the only open store on a Saturday...a general store.    The two ladies there not only addressed me as female, they gave me directions to Ladiesburg.   Don't you just love the name?

According to the following blog  (http://blog.evankalish.com/2011/12/behind-bbc-ladiesburg-md.html),  the official local story has it that the first eight residents of the town included seven women and only one man. Hence, Ladiesburg!  There used to be a railroad station, general store and Post Office.  All are empty or gone now, leaving just a random group of houses.   I wonder how many gentlemen live in Ladiesburg?

Since both of these little villages have been around for a long while, they should have been on my GPS.  But they weren't!   Too small, I guess.  And there's not much left except the novelty of the names, to attract visitors.  In Ladiesburg, there's not even a store to buy a bottle of pop...(soft drink, soda pop or Diet Coke, whatever you call it in your locale!)  How times have changed...

Yours truly in Ladiesburg...

Perhaps one day soon, I'll visit Secretary, or maybe Crapo.

A little-known factoid...this day was the longest I've ever worn clip earrings...from 9 AM to about 7 PM.  Lets just say that pierced earrings would have been a whole lot more comfortable.  But that's not likely to happen any time soon!

Stay tuned for more...

Mandy