Welcome to Maryland!

After a nice stop at Chincoteague National Seashore, we drove the pickup back to the motor home waiting for us in the grocery store parking lot. We were back on Highway 13 heading north, and it wasn't long before we passed a state line that the motor home had never passed before. Welcome to Maryland--open for business.

Then we headed toward our second Booddocker's Welcome stay. We knew it was going to be a special location when we turned into the driveway bordered with tall pine trees. 

This is going to be our home for three days--at Buck's Way. We have 50-amp electricity and water hook-ups in the side yard beside their barn.

But the best part of our camping spot is our hosts. In the course of three days, we got to know the Bucks, and they allowed us to take a picture in front of their custom-made front door that has a carved--you guessed it--buck on it.

They greeted us like old friends, and gave us the run of their 60-acre lot. Their garden is right beside the barn where we were parked, and Luraine surprised us with just-picked blueberries. They recently purchased a motor home, and they like getting RVing advice from the boondockers that visit them. We tried to give them our best tips, but we feel like they gave us much better advice. That would include ideas for things to do (and eat) while we are visiting Maryland. For example, they told us to be sure to eat Smith Island Cake while we are here.

Made from 8 or 9 layers of very thin cake, with frosting between each layers, it is the state cake of Maryland. Originally made at a bakery in the tiny island off the Eastern shores, we managed to find this cake for sale when we visited Ocean City.

This was another piece of advice from our hosts. Visiting the beach and board walk is a must-do when staying in Maryland.

We walked the entire 2.5-mile boardwalk during our visit. We found all sorts of places to eat, things to buy, and rides to ride.

We also found curiosities like this record-breaking tiger shark. It took 3.5 hours to land this 1,210 pound shark off the waters of Ocean City.

We spent a little time in the sand, but this is a crowded beach. From the pier we could look down to see that this is a popular place to be.

Businesses know that this is a good place to advertise, and planes fly over the beach streaming banners with company names and logos. We appreciated this public service advertisement, "time to reapply your sunscreen."

While people were playing in the sand, someone has been working in the sand. We liked this sand sculpture close to the boardwalk.

Our hosts also suggested that we eat Maryland's most popular sea food--crab. Her favorite dish is Crab Imperial at a local restaurant in Salisbury. We followed her advice exactly, pairing the crab with a side of succotash and a baked potato and roll. It looks like a very monotone brown meal, but we liked her crab dish a lot.

They also told us that we needed to try Thrasher french fries. Available on the boardwalk, this is a special family recipe. We met our host's Mother, and she told us the secret because her family made them the same way. They use only Idaho potatoes, and they are only fried in very hot peanut oil--three times. That way the oil is very hot and doesn't allow the cooling oil to soak into the strips of potatoes. The other thing that makes them a uniquely Maryland dish, is that they are served with vinegar--not ketchup.

We noticed that the famous Idaho potato was parked by the boardwalk. We found out that they were supporting the Thrasher family and their french fry business in Maryland.

They also suggested that we visit the zoo in their town of Salisbury. Only a few miles from our camping spot, this is a nice little zoo.

Our bird picture of the day is not like anything we usually see at the bird feeders.

And the price was right for this visit to the zoo--it was free!

Our favorite display was of the Andes bears. Father bear was swimming in the pool.

But we were sad to find out that Mother and the two baby bears were resting in the back. Denisa sure wanted to see those little bears, so we actually made a second trip to the zoo on another day. Still no babies! So we walked to the outside of the park and peeked in the back. That's when we got to see them! Not a great picture, but we were persistent.

Our host's last advice of a truly Maryland food to try was scrapple. We took them out for breakfast before going to church with them on Sunday. We ordered the blueberry pancakes, eggs and scrapple. We're a little glad that we didn't read what scrapple is made from before we ate it.

We have a great place to stay and we're enjoying our time eating and seeing things that are new to us. We're feeling very welcomed to Maryland!