We got up early on Sunday morning so we could have a shot at getting to all of the remaining Lighthouses.

I wasn't sure if we could do it, but we were going to give it a try.

We left the hotel and drove down to Ft Washington Park to get to the lighthouse there. We again had little problem with the brochure directions- although there was one small mistake. It listed the wrong Exit number, but the correct Route number and other info.

We talked to the Chesapeake Chapter people there- unfortunately I did not get any names. they were not "official" Wackos, but the fit the definition of a Wacko anyway. The weather was quite cool and windy- especially down along the Potomac River.

Here's a shot of the tower which still has the military equipment and personell surrounding it that was noted in earlier posts.




I continue to have problems with my camera at times- especially bright sunny days. I've tried to adjust it and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I'm going to replace it one of these days (yes, I know I've said that before).

We left there and continued South to Piney Point our next stop. We ran into another Wacko there- Bonnebert (Joyce), although at first she did not have her Wacko Badge on.

We had a nice chat about the Reunion plans, etc and Esther and I walked over to the Lighthouse and waited our turn to climb it. We had our suspiscions confirmed about Turkey Point the previous day- Joyce, as well as some people who had been there had horror stories about it. Mud, rain, wind etc. It was a good move to have skipped it- although some people stated that at least part of the time a jeep was being used to drive folks out to the Lighthouse.

Here's a shot of Piney Point Lighthouse and Keeper's house.



We stopped to talk to Joyce again on our way out and this time she had her Wacko Badge on. We discussed the possibillity of getting back to Turkey Point and the consensus was that we might make it- but not if we continued talking. So we left.

We followed the directions over to Point Lookout where we got one of the other surprises of the Challenge. The brochure lists the cost of entering the Point Lookout State Park as $5. In reality it's $5 a person for MD residents and $6 for non-residents.

We ran into another Wacko here- RGURSKEY (Robert) and had a nice little chat with him about different things- like Lighthouses and the Reunion (sense a theme in the conversations?)

We toured the Keeper's House part of the Lighthouse which is in the midst of a restoration. It suffered some damage from last year's Hurricane also. We skipped climbing up into the Lanter Room, though. The opening looked a bit small and required contortions my body would not like.

The weather continued to be a complete change from the day before- sunny, warm, light breezes. In other word perfect weather.

Here's a shot of the Lighthouse from the water side.




We of course stopped at the Shop and purchased our souvenirs on the way out.

We left here and continued on our way to Solomons and the Calvert Museum for Drum Point and Cove Point. We took a bit of a stop for lunch on the way.

I was becoming concerned about the time factor. It was becoming increasingly unlikely that we would get back to Turkey Point on Sunday without skipping a Lighthouse somewhere along the line. I considered skipping Cove Point but decided against it because we would actually get on the grounds on this trip.

We had seen it through the fence on out only other trip and you get a false picture of it by doing that- it looks very much like Point Lookout when seen through the fence- it appears as a Lantern room perched on top of a house when in reality it's a seperate Lighthouse Tower immediately behind a Keeper's House that is very similar to Point Lookouts Keeper's House.

We followed the directions to the Lore Rd entrance of the Calvert Museum and walked through the seats set up for the Beach boys concert that was planned for Sunday night as instructed.

We went inside and ran into some old friends from Sandy Hook- Al & BJ Smith. I wasn't surprised to see them as I thought they might be there. They are members of the Cheapeake Chapter and go to events at the Calvert Museum often. We chatted a bit and he tried to guilt me into becoming a volunteer at Sandy hook again- I said I would seriously consider returning next season.

We went into the gift shop and i made my major purchase of the Challenge- the Maryland Lighthouse challenge Matched Set signed by Nancy. I agree with what's been said elsewhere- I expected some type of Commemreative Box, but the set is still nice to have.

We purchased out ticket for the Shuttle over to Cove Point. We went outside to wait for the bus.

Here's a photo of Drum Point. We did not actually go into it this time. We had done that in November 2001 and chose not to pay the Museum Fee this time around.



We had a pleasant ride over to Cove Point- the buses were running continuously and it took about 15 minutes to get there from the Calvert Museum.

Here's a shot I took in November 2001 of Cove Point.



You can see that it looks like the Lantern room is part of the Keeper's house.

Here's the reality-



Unfortunately you cannot climb Cove Point, just enter the base of it. You can walk through the Keeper's House, though. We also ran into some unofficial Wackos here and had a nice chat.

We took the bus back to the Calvert Museum and started on our way to St Michaels for Hooper Strait. I t became clear at this point that we were not going to make it back to Turkey Point on sunday unless we skipped St Michaels. We decided to keep going to St Michaels and skip Turkey Point.

We also decided to try and change our hotel reservations for the night as the room we had planned on was near to Turkey Point. We looked in the AAA book and found some motels in the Easton & St Michaels area. We decided on a Best Western in St Michaels.

We stopped there on our way to the Chesapeake Maritime Museum and they had rooms available so we took one and cancelled our other room. The Best Western wasn't a 4 star place, but it was a high 2 star motel- clean, comfortable and reasonably priced.

We continued on to the Museum and got there at a few minutes after 5 PM- the Challenge was over officially at 6 PM. We would probably not have gotten to the Shuttle area for Turkey Point by 5 PM even if we had skipped Hooper Strait. I learned afterwards that they shuttled people into the Turkey Point Lighthouse until 6:45 but we had no way of knowing that at the time.

We paid our $5 to climb the Lighthouse and entered the Museum. We had been here before (in 11-01) so we didn't need to see the rest of the Museum again- and didn't have time to really either since it closed at 6 PM.

We again met some nice unofficial Wackos who helped with directions to Turkey Point for Monday as we had decided to go there because we had never been there- even if it didn't count for the Challenge.

Here's a shot of Hooper Strait.




Dennis

Continued in Day 2 Part 2
http://www.lighthousekeepers.com/forums/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=15;t=000873

Dennis, if you read this, if you decided to repeat the Challenge again, all Site Coordinators have a list of phone numbers to each Site Coordinator at each lighthouse. Of course, Southern Maryland doesn't like the high towers, I believe, so reception isn't alway good down there.

So, anyone who reads this, and I'll put information on the Challenge for next year, when it happens next year, if you are concerned about making that last light, have the Site Coordinator call and see how long we will be there. We want people to complete it and many of the sites that are the last sites stay pass the 6pm deadline.

Joyce

Joyce,

I should have thought of that- we've done it in NJ at the Lighthouses that are the natural beginning and end ones of the Challenge.

I just didn't have this one planned out real well- of course deciding to do it at 9 AM on the first day of the Challenge might have something to do with that.

I figure all things considered getting it done a day late and one short wasn't too bad all things considered.

Dennis