Rocks State Park, MD
Last night I slept in front of a house that sat on 20+ acres of land. There were no lights, cars or planes. It was also very overcast, adding to the darkness and the air was rather warm. I was asleep at 9:00pm and woke at 8am. I’ve used the SleepCycle app since 2013 to track my sleep. It is rare that I have a 100% sleep assessment.
Rising Sun
One issue with being so mobile is finding a restrooms. All the big box stores (McDonalds, Walmart, Costco, Target, Home Depot, etc.) have public restrooms. There are people that spend hours everyday in these stores. The stores want them to be there for the obvious reasons and that means they need to have restrooms. I’m not sure why more of these stores don’t have some type of restaurant as well. I’ve seen that target now has Starbucks in some of their stores. I was headed to the Starbuck in Rising Sun, MD. Yes, that’s the name of the town. There was no Starbucks at the location I went to, but there was a McDonalds.
Rising Sun, is a very small town of 1,700 people in Northeastern Maryland. As I entered the town, kids were walking to their bus stops at the corner of streets in town. Most of them were standing looking at their phones. Few were interacting with each other. The town reminded me very much of some small Central Pennsylvania farm towns. The streets were mostly on a grid with sidewalks. It was a quaint rural community. The political posters mentioned that “community” was important to them.
I parked behind the Town Hall in public parking and found my way to the Rise ‘N Grind Cafe.
Rising Sun: Town Hall
Rising Sun: Rise ‘N Grind Cafe
Having dealt with my bladder, I now could focus on taking care of my next need, coffee. I remembered that I had passed a coffee shop at the center of town. The shop was called The Rise ‘N Grind Cafe in Rising Sun, MD. They had fresh butter croissants made locally. I was told that they used to make them there, but it took so much effort. They were flaky, buttery and just the right crispiness on top; the real deal. I told them that these were like in Europe.
I spent a few hours at the The Rise ‘N Grind Cafe, updating the blog, researching my hike and watching people in the cafe. There was a gas fireplace, and a couch next to it. Scattered around the room were tables with two or four chairs. I took one of the larger tables at a window near the street to people watch. Shortly after I setup, a tall older man, came in and took the other large table in front of me. About 10 minutes later, three others joined him. The three were wearing t-shirts asking to support a woman as a write-in candidate for board of education. Two of the people were teachers. They stayed and discussed politics for about 90 minutes. Many people in the cafe seemed to know the taller man, coming over to hug him and give him a hard time.
Two woman, both with babies, ordered coffee and grabbed the sofa. The one baby had no hands. Their conversation was mostly around babies, vacations and family. The woman holding the baby with no hand had this look of just pure joy.
I left The Rise ‘N Grind Cafe to get gas and head for a hike. The sky was beginning to clear. The drive to Rocks State Park was beautiful. The sun was shinning, the trees were vibrant and the scenery was interesting.
I came across the following fixer upper at an intersection in a small town. There were plants growing inside the car through the floor and seats.
Fixer Upper
Rocks State Park
I took the King and Queens Seat Loop in Rocks State Park, MD, which was rated as moderate in AllTrails. The trailhead is located near the rangers office. There’s parking at the trailhead or as I did, at the ranger station 100 yards away. There’s a port-a-potty in the ranger’s parking lot.
This is a double loop trail. Starting out in either direction is up hill. Starting to the right takes you up to the rocks. There are signs warning of the dangers of the trail. According to the sign on the trail, there have been deaths and injuries on the trail. This is certainly not a place to take unsupervised children. The drop looked to be several hundred feet.
The trail in either direction leads to the smaller blue trail loop. This area used to be farmland and there are structures that are being reclaimed my nature. In the middle of the loop there are educational plaques about the natural springs and flow of water on the mountain, butterfly habitats, various plants and trees, and some history of the farming that took place there. It’s interesting to compare the tree growth on this part of the mountain with other parts. The trees are a lot less dense. One of the plaques talks about the cycle of regrowth. It that it takes 300 years for the forest to fully grow back.
Coming back off the mountain was all downhill. It felt good to let gravity do its thing. I got back to the car and made a slide of bread with peanut butter. It would be getting dark shortly. I was still hungry and had a craving for pasta. I found Basta Pasta about 30 minutes away. I ordered spaghetti with margarita sauce and it came with bread and a salad. The pasta tasted homemade.
I hadn’t booked a campsite, so I headed back to the Walmart Superstore in Fallston, MD. As I was getting the car ready around 9:30, there were driving at high speeds on the outskirts of the parking lot. The car in the front was a black Mercedes and it was being chased by a blue Nissan sporty car. They both had loud mufflers and were revving their engines. You could hear them leave the parking lot and go out on the streets. They came back three times to the Walmart parking lot. It looked like the Mercedes was trying to lose the blue Nissan. I guess it eventually worked. The Blue Nissan came back and sat in a dark part of the parking lot for 15 minutes. The whole thing lasted about 45 minutes. You could see people shaking their heads in the parking lot. Supposedly there are surveillance cameras in the parking lot so you would think they would be more careful.
Things were quiet once Walmart closed around 11:00 pm.