Traverse City Adventure: Four days - two days of steady rain, two days of politics

15 AUGUST 2017 • DAYS THREE AND FOUR OF OUR TRAVERSE CITY ODYSSEY

Counting today's 48.33 miles, we've tallied 168.66 miles so far in this Traverse City, Michigan odyssey. Of the four days riding, we've had two days of steady rain and two days of off and on sunshine. We've camped two days, spent one night with friends in Annapolis, and tonight we're in tall cotton in the Bavarian Inn overlooking the Potomac River in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. Time to get the mud off the bikes, wash out our clothes, charge up all the devices and get some work done before heading out again on Wednesday.

Lots of politics so far; American politics.

Two days back, in a Subway at a Seven -11 near Wye Mills on Delmarva, I watched a subtle but telling 21st-century dynamic. I was standing in line to buy chips and a Gator Aid to go with the cheesesteak sandwich Becky bought. The man behind the counter making the sandwiches looked Muslim to me: turban on his head, thin beard. Maybe Arab but not Muslim. I'm no expert, but that's how it appeared.

He was stone-faced, doing his job efficiently without a lot of chatter. The man in front of me wore a black T-shirt with Arabic letters and English letters. He was placing his order and stood no further than four feet across the counter from the employee.

The English words on the T-shirt said something to the effect of: “Stay at least 10 meters away from me or I will shoot you.” I'm guessing the Arabic words said the same. Maybe the man was a soldier or someone who served in some capacity in Iraq or Afghanistan and the T-shirt was part of survival strategy. I don't know. But I do know I wondered what both men were thinking as they stood facing one another.

America in the 21st century.

Two days later, about 35 miles west of Washington DC on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal towpath trail, we rolled into White’s Ferry for a breakfast stop. The first thing that caught my eye was a tall, bronze Civil War statue on the grassy lawn across from the store.  It hadn’t been there four years ago when we passed through White’s Ferry when we bicycled across the country.

Surrounded by gray-painted plywood, the statue looked to be a work in progress.  An inscription chiseled into the granite base said it had been placed by the Daughters of the Confederacy in 1913. It mentioned heroes of Montgomery County, Maryland and referred to the thin grey line.  I’ve heard references to the thin blue line many times - referring to law enforcement officers who stand between anarchy and order in a nation of laws. And recently I’ve seen many people flying the black and white stars and stripes with a blue stripe in their midst signifying support for law enforcement. But I’d never heard of Confederate soldiers referred to as the thin grey line and didn’t realize the term went back as far as 1913 or before.

I asked the man working the breakfast counter about the statue.

“I never noticed that before.”

“It’s only been there two weeks,” he said.

“Where was it before?”

“In Rockville.  I guess they didn’t want it anymore.  The owner here decided he’d take it and put it on his land.”

Rockville is in the easterly part of Montgomery County, near DC. The statue has gone from public property to private property. Clearly the city of Rockville, more than 100 years after the statue was placed, are no longer interested in celebrating the fallen soldiers of the Confederacy.

This all happened within days of the tragic events in Charlottesville, Virginia.  I heard that the removal of a statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee instigated the White Nationalist rally there that turned violent and deadly.

The Rockville statue now stands on a bluff of private land looking southward across the Potomac River toward Virginia.  Freedom of speech and freedom of expression are one thing on private property.  Bicycling across the Delmarva Peninsula last Saturday, I saw a handful of Confederate flags on people’s property.  But none on any publicly owned property.

I noticed too that the statue was facing an incoming ferry.  The name of the ferry is the Jubal Early.  Early was a Confederate general. I didn’t get a chance to talk to the owner of the ferry and the private road it serves so I don’t know his mind. I do know there’s a lot of history at the ferry which dates back to the 1700s.

It all made for an interesting backdrop to my breakfast of sausage and eggs, home fries and an avocado.  I thought the avocado was a nice touch.  

You never know what you’re going to encounter pedaling westward toward Michigan.