We had a great time this weekend. We left on Saturday around 3:15, and to our surprise we got to our destination in about an hour. This was much earlier than we’d planned, so we stopped off at a Halloween store in a nearby shopping center. We left at about 4:45, and we got to :JB:’s house within five minutes, so we sat outside in the car. I saw somebody peek through the window of the house and realized we’d been spotted - sure enough, :JB: came out through the front door and waved.

I should pause here to mention who :JB: is and the role he played in my life. For more than 25 years, he taught English at Wilde Lake High School, which I attended from 1993 to 1997. He was my English teacher when I was in ninth grade, and introduced me to the wonders of science fiction - even if I did struggle through reading Brave New World! He had a more important role than that of teacher, though: :JB: was also my advisor. A 20-minute “class” similar to homeroom in many schools, advisory period was where the pledge was recited (he never insisted we say it, but did require us to be respectful), attendance was taken, and other housekeeping duties were performed. But as the name suggests, teachers were also counselors for students - more plentiful than guidance counselors (the school had three when I was there) and better able to get to know each individual student. I was lucky enough to have :JB: as my advisor all four years of high school, and I have stayed in distant touch with him since graduation. Last year, he and his wife were involved in a serious accident while on vacation in Canada. An 18-wheeler struck their motorcycle, leaving them both with injuries too severe to continue their trip - in fact they had to spend several weeks in a hospital before they could even return home to Maryland. There is a lawsuit pending because the crash was the truck driver’s fault, and a few months ago :JB: contacted me to ask for help. He remembered that I type very quickly (95-100wpm on average), and wanted to know if I would be willing to type up the handwritten journal he kept after the accident so it could be used as evidence in the case.

We got business out of the way quickly, with :JB: showing me what he wanted done with the journal. It filled an entire legal-size notebook, and :JB: has very small handwriting that can be difficult to decipher! After that was done, we chatted while they finished getting dinner ready. When we finally sat down to eat, we had a lovely salad, homemade bread (I have got to get a bread machine), and spinach-mushroom quiche with vegetarian sausage bits. It was absolutely wonderful, and I usually hate mushrooms! :JB: made drinks for us that were some combination of ginger ale, whisky, and bitters - I’m not sure what else was in there, but it was good! We chatted a bit more and then drifted away from the table. :JB: showed me the secrets of his marvelous 125-gallon fishtank, which includes dozens of fish and live growing plants, while his wife chatted with A about ceramics and pottery. (Mrs. :JB: was a potter before the accident, but her hands were damaged so she doesn’t do much anymore.) They also took us on a tour of the house, which is filled with fantastic art - much of it given to :JB: by his former students at Wilde Lake! The house has an especially impressive collection of cat art, from figurines to wall hangings. Mrs. :JB:’s marble sculptures are also throughout the house, and the dishes we ate from were her own creation. In the basement, we got to see the buttons they now create for Lee Andersen’s fashions, and they gave us a couple of cat ornaments they had made before the accident. Back upstairs, we had yummy cookies before saying goodbye. It was so great to see them again and I hope we can see them again soon.

I was a bit nervous driving along in the dark, because parts of Carroll County are so rural it’s pitch black! I was afraid I’d taken a wrong turn near my old college, but I spotted Baugher’s and realized I was on the right track. I followed Route 31 all the way to New Windsor, and after missing a right turn I looped back around and got onto the correct road. It was so dark we couldn’t even see any house numbers, but we finally spotted the Yellow Turtle Inn and pulled into the small parking lot. There was a note on the door saying the innkeeper had gone to the market (which seemed strange given that we got there around 9:30pm), and that our room was ready. We went inside and found our room easily; it was the only one on the ground floor and we knew from online pictures that the walls were painted teal. We delighted in all the interesting things to look at - books, paintings, trinkets, knick-knacks - and didn’t mind too much that the bed was only a full. It made for a much cozier sleeping experience than we’re used to, but we always start out the night spooning anyway so it wasn’t too bad. I read :JB:’s journal a bit and then fell asleep.

I woke up after it was light outside and put my nightgown on to see if the coffee and doughnuts had been put out yet. When I didn’t find anything or hear anyone, I went back to our room and peered at my cell phone to check the time. I was surprised to see that it was only 7:00, and I got back into bed! We woke up again around 9:30, and I went to the dining room to get orange juice and muffins. We considered taking a bath before brunch, but it was a little too cold - fall is coming, but the innkeeper hadn’t turned on the heat yet - and we decided against it. I finished reading The Making of the Trek Conventions instead, and around 10:00 we heard other visitors chatting in the dining room so we got food ourselves. There was a lovely peach cobbler, among other things, but it seemed like I would be having a light breakfast. We ate back in our room, and I decided afterward that I was sleepy again! We slept until noon, and then got our things together to leave. We said goodbye to the innkeeper and got to meet her dog, Emily, as well as one of the cats (Marshmallow) who was happy to have us pet her. We looked around the three-acre property a little bit before leaving, and saw one of the other cats, Tuxedo, carrying a mouse. We got to pet the third cat as well, but she decided she didn’t like us and swiped at me.

The SERRV shop was probably within walking distance of the Inn, but as we weren’t planning to return we drove over there. I was disappointed to find that it was closed on Sundays, especially because I could see sale signs through the window! We got back into the car and drove over to the only college I feel I can really claim. Once known as Western Maryland College, it is now called McDaniel College but there are still plenty of cars in the parking lots with WMC stickers. As we walked into Decker College Center, I saw a girl wearing a WMC shirt, and I announced that if the bookstore was open and had old shirts available, I was going to get one. My girlfriend made me promise that I’d get rid of my old WMC t-shirt too (it has a small stain on it) but to my dismay the bookstore wasn’t open. The Pub wouldn’t open for another 20 minutes, so we went upstairs and sat in Ensor Lounge for a while. I was delighted to see that the piano was still there - I remember a number of nights spent on that bench with a friend who was taking piano lessons. I picked up a few pieces of junk papers from the information desk, but I couldn’t really figure out what else to do there. I might have been able to access the library, but what would I do inside? The last time I visited, many of my friends were still there and I was able to get a tour around the new buildings and chat with them. To my great dismay, there’s nothing left for me at WMC.

I didn’t find many memories triggered as we made our way along Westminster’s Main Street. (There’s the main drag, which is Route 140, but there’s also Main Street, which is a much older part of town.) I did catch a glimpse of my old dorm through the trees, and I was happy to pass Johansson’s and the Fat Cat Café, but that was about all I could see while driving. I called my parents to get a better fix on the location of the ice cream place I remembered, and they directed me onto Washington Road just in time, where I got to see Maggie’s as I drove by (it’s a wireless hotspot now!). I got peanut butter ripple ice cream at Hoffman’s, and my girlfriend got raspberry ice cream. I was very tempted to get the pumpkin ice cream, and I wanted to bring a pint home, but my girlfriend pointed out that it would melt on the way back! We ate our cones in the car and then got back on the road, taking Route 97 south toward Washington. We cruised along for quite some time, but in Howard County my girlfriend said “we just passed a used bookstore, and it was open” so we turned around! We ended up spending about $65 on books before tearing ourselves away. The rest of the trip home was completely uneventful, and even traffic on the beltway wasn’t too bad.

We had a very nice weekend, and it was great to take a lazy Sunday for the drive home.