That’s what we decided to do yesterday, and in spite of a general light cloud cover, everything was very pretty. Where did we go? You can trace our steps. We went up Connecticut Avenue, around Chevy Chase Circle, and then went up 185 to 495 to 270 to 70 to Alt 40 to 34 across the Potomac and back again, but rather than coming back on 70, 270, 495 and 185, we picked up 28, 112 and 190.

The highlights included our lunch at The Main Cup in Middletown, a spot with two large dining rooms and a large outdoors section that, at 12:15 on a Saturday was crowded enough that we had to wait for a table. The food was very good (Edie’s avacado toast with two poached eggs and a side salad for $14 was the best) and we would go back the next time we are in Middletown.

Middletown is a very interesting old town of about 4,000 that is not on, but not far from, the Interstate, but you won’t get there by accident. Its history is well displayed by signage, and its largest church, Zion Lutheran, built in the 1850s, served as a hospital for Union soldiers wounded at Antietam.

It was a Union town in the war, but was occupied by Confederate troops for a while during the Gettysburg campaign.

You can get ice cream there, too.

And if you don’t like their ice cream, you can just go right across the street.

We left Middletown, continued on through Boonsboro, another town worth a stop, past Sharpsburg and the Antietam battlefield and historic cemetery, and crossed the Potomac into Shepherdstown WV.

We have been to Shepherdstown innumerable times. A very pleasant, historic city, up river from Harpers Ferry, with a university and a swath of tourist oriented shops and restaurants.

This time was different. It was the day (not that we knew) of the annual Fairy Festival. This meant that Shepherdstown was filled with people dressed in fairy costumes. Long skirts, gossamer wings, painted faces, canes that looked more like staffs, glitter and so forth. Yes, mainly groups of women in their 20s, but also groups of women in their 70s, as well as a few men. And craft booths selling things to the fairy market. I couldn’t believe anyone was buying such stuff, or even that anyone made any of it, but there it was.

I don’t know why, but I didn’t take any fairy pictures, but I did take a photo of a woman wearing a Caps jersey who went to the festival with her pet owl. That seemed a bit weird, too.

We did notice the political signs in front yards along the way, and found them pretty well evenly divided. Of course, Maryland is blue and West Virginia red, even if the Shepherdstown vote will strongly favor Harris.

One house outside of Middletown is worth looking at. It was a house festooned with Trump signs and signs warning of open borders and the dangers of socialism. It was also highly decorated for Halloween. But look:

There is a dartboard of Kamala Harris at the front door, and the window above…….a flag of Israel.  As Cole Porter said, “The world has gone mad today, black’s white today, day’s night today”.