the timboucher experience

Went out this weekend with a friend of mine to explore some points of interest outside the city of Baltimore. Our first stop was Ellicott City, which is a cool little town with lots of antique shops and restaurants. According to Wikipedia:

Like Rome, Ellicott City is claimed to be built on seven hills. These hills lie southeast of the Historic District, which is on the banks of the Patapsco River. Continuing the Rome analogy, the small tributary of the Patapsco that forms the narrow valley followed by Main Street is named the Tiber River.

We actually had brunch at a place called the Tiber River Tavern, which had some amazing food. I also got a cool old sailor hat with some nautical looking embroidery on it at the gigantic antique mall there.

After that, we kicked around trying to find some cool old mills up in Harford County. We accidentally slipped into Pennsylvania a couple times, I think, but eventually found what we were looking for. Maryland geography is very pretty, with lots of hills and most of the eastern part of the state has a close link to water, with the Susquehanna River in the north flowing down into the Chesapeake Bay with about a billion tributaries and small streams in every direction. As a result, early settlers in Maryland (originally a Catholic colony) made ready use of the flowing water to power their mills.

We stopped by two of them, first the Bee Tree Mill, which we discovered had recently burned down.

Some vultures or buzzards or something (at first we thought they were giant crows) were hanging out over the ruins, but our photos of them didn’t pan out.

After that, we went over to the Amos Mill (also spelled Amoss), which looked like it wasn’t in much better shape. A support had been wedged up against the side of the building, but it looked like it was only a matter of time before that one caved in as well.

From there, we went looking for a camel which my friend claimed lived nearby. We didn’t find a camel, but we did happen across a few buffalo and some alpacas.

The buffalo lived at a place called River Valley Ranch, which is an odd little western-style, I don’t know what to call it precisely… I guess “ranch” works for now. There are a bunch of themed buildings though and it’s a whole little world unto itself. In fact, that’s pretty much how I’d describe Maryland, for better or worse: it is totally its own thing. It can be very provincial at times, but there is a lot of natural beauty and some interesting little spots to explore. I keep finding more of them all the time.

• Motorcyclin’
• Herbalism (Phytotherapy) Video
• Maryland (MD) Open Mike (Mic) Listings for May
• How To Play Elizabeth Cotten’s “Freight Train”
• Hunting