False sense of security

Day 250
​Baltimore MD

Rain, rain, go away. Come again another day. The rain didn't listen to my cultural chant and stuck us a big middle finger on this Mother's Day. The Jeep got packed up with two full baskets of laundry and we headed south down the road. Three miles from the park we found a well reviewed Lavandera. Why a lavandera? Because three miles down the road turns out to be a little piece of Latin America in the DC suburbs. Katie and I walk into largest laundromat we have been too and it is PACKED full of people. People of Latin decent. We throw our clothes in and get a few weird looks. There must not be a lot of white people who come to this joint. Outside the rain continues to fall and we spend the time sitting in the Jeep. Katie works on one of her many unfinished books and I type away at the blog.

The rainy day will be spent driving to Baltimore and checking out the downtown. This was a good idea for a couple of reasons. One: We don't have much to see and most of it is drive by stuff anyways. Two: Baltimore has got a reputation of being a city you don't want to walk around as a tourist. Downtown harbor turned out to be neither of those things. A walk friendly awesome harbor awaits.

The water treatment plant in the center picture is from the turn of the century. Eli turns us left and we follow the canal towards the inner bay. At this point our walk is being totally decided by the man in black. He says where we go and what we will see. Good call my old man. Good call.

The smokestaks in the background are the old power plant, now a barnes and noble

Standing in the harbor around the corner was the USCGC Taney. Fifty years of service that spread from being involved in Pearl Harbor to catching drug smugglers in the Pacific in the 1980's. Once retired in 1986 she was brought here to pier 4 in Baltimore to serve as a memorial and museum. Lets keep rolling shall we.

The seven foot knoll lighthouse was built in 1855 and guided ships into Baltimore Harbor until 1949 when it fell into a state of disrepair. It remained out at sea until 1988 when a large derrick went about the work of removing it from it's rock shoal and bringing it to shore. Baltimore felt a debt of gratitude was owed and placed it on the end of Pier 5 to live out the remainder of it's life as a national historic landmark.

Looking out into the harbor it is easy to understand why this city has been here for so long. Business and manufacturing plants would have flourished during a time when the only means to receive and ship large goods required ships. A booming metropolis that was at it's peak during the industrial revolution. Now the heyday of heavy iron works has passed and the building have become condos and storefronts. As far as we can tell the city has done one heck of a job keeping the harbor area a beautiful testament to those hard working times with well maintained brick building and streets.

Walking back to Shirley through little Italy feels like a time capsule. The buildings appear the way they would have in the late 1800's complete with time period correct advertising. Yes, I know this Kohler ad is a modern one. That's not the point. The point is that the people of the city have kept that feeling alive. This place has got some flavor. Why does it get such a bad rap? We pile into the Jeep and set the GPS for home. I select a different route than we came in and start heading out of downtown and into the city where people live. 

We made it less than 6 blocks. A light switch of reality flicked on. At the first stop light was a group of kids no older than 13 standing around smoking. Across the street was graffiti and a razor wire fence around a business. Not barbed wire, concertina wire that would make a person bleed to death in a matter of minutes I think we will turn left and aim for the highway. Let's not forget this city had 309 homicides in 2018 and over 50% of those were gunshot wounds to the head. Block after block of boarded up windows with wandering homeless line the streets. Barbed wire fences and derelict buildings are the sight out of the window. Take us home Shirley... with your doors locked.