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While checking out the quaint town of Oakland, MD just outside Deep Creek Lake I wandered into a fantastic bookstore that had great travel books and small town personal service with a smile. The store is the Book Mark’et & Antique Mezzanine. I was pleased to find this resource of backroads and byways in Maryland. The book is called Backroads & Byways of Maryland and includes all the great destinations in Maryland. The book has alot of interesting information about the history of these places, restaurants and inns. Personally I think it should be called something more like Great Destinations In Maryland because it is more about the destination spots than the Backroads and Byways. In fact I would say it isn’t about byways at all. As far as docovering new scenic roads it is no help but it is still a good resource, especially if you are new to traveling in Maryland. Click here for more information.

Diana sitting on a bench outside the Book Market & Antique Mezzanine in Oakland, Maryland

Tags: Books, Movies & Music, Deep Creek Lake & Garrett County MD by Jay Green
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The 2012 Maryland/Delaware State HOG Rally committee held it’s first meeting on site at the Wisp Resort in Deep Creek Lake during the last weekend of August. This was the weekend that Hurricane Irene terrorized the east coast and the meeting was just west of the storm’s reach. Unfortunately this kept us from riding our motorcycles to the meeting. We had a great time anyway.

Diana is serving as the Volunteer Corodinator and I am the Site Coordinator for the 2012 rally which will be in June. I arrived Friday morning to meet with the Garrett County Chamber of Commerce. After that Diana and I had lunch at the Boardwalk Cafe and then went on a mission to take pictures of the wild roads in Savage River State Forest.

We checked into our room at Wisp and walked around the facilities. Then we met up with some of the other committee members for dinner and drinks at the Honi Honi Bar on Deep Creek Lake. This is a biker friendly bar on the lake with a great view. It is part of the Uno Chicago Grill restaurant which is a popular restaurant in Deep Creek and serves way more than just Chicago style pizza.

Saturday morning the committee met for breakfast at Perkins. Then we headed over to The Fort to check out the Black Bear Tavern and the go carts and other fun activites at Smiley’s Fun Zone. Then we drove to the quaint town of Oakland to walk around town. From Oakland we went back to McHenry and grabbed lunch at the Mountain State Brewing Company known for their wood fired flatbread pizza’s. We returned to the resort to meet with our contact at Wisp. We started our meeting with a tour of the resort and then sat down to discuss official business and start planning the event. That evening we got dinner at Archie’s Barbeque. We got a little rain Saturday evening due to the hurricane battering the majority of the state.

The following morning Diana and I grabbed breakfast at DC’s Bar & Restaurant at the resort. After breakfast the committee members checked out of the resort and regrouped for a convoy to the top of the mountain. At the top of the mounatin is a man made water park that simulates the white water rapids that this region is known for. This waterpark is Adventure Sports Center International aka ASCI and I have never seen anything like it.

It was drizzling and not much going on at ASCI so after checking it out the committee members decided to take one last excursion before calling it a day. We visited the Penn Alps Restaurant & Craft Shop for lunch in Grantsville. Then we explored adjacent Spruce Forest Artisan Village which had little activity going on because it was Sunday. Usually this liitle village has several shops open where craftsman and artists create handmade gifts. The historic Casselman River Bridge is also located here. After exploring the bridge and the artisan village it was time for the committee to call it a day. We said our goodbyes and headed home.

Diana and I set out to take as many backroads home as we could and we found some very scenic roads in western Maryland. We came up a steep hill in Little Orleans, Maryland and came upon this really cool scenic overlook at Town Hill that had a Bed & Breakfast  right at the top of this amazing hill. Town Hill B&B must have been bustling back in the day when people first started traveling for leisure.

It was getting late as we traversed through Baltimore County. We found ourselves turning around a few times due to downed trees and large branches that closed small roads. It was getting dark and we were driving down through some forested roads in a heavily wooded area. Some huge trees had fallen down and dragged power lines with them. It was getting a little unnerving as this became more frequent and due to the darkness it was hard to see the downed trees until they were smack dab in front of us. When we came to one where someone cut out a slice of tree with a chainsaw just barely wide enough to clear our car we decided it was time to get on the highway. We got home safely pretty late in the evening. Once again we had ourselves a fun little adventure.

Tags: 2012 MD/DE HOG® Rally, Deep Creek Lake & Garrett County MD by Jay Green
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The Boardwalk Cafe & Lounge Welcomes Bikers! The Boardwalk Cafe & Lounge just might have the best view of Deep Creek Lake from it’s deck where you can quench your thirst with cold drinks and feast on freshly grilled burgers and sandwiches. Their unique round bar is definitely different but if it’s nice enough out to ride, then you’ll want to eat on the deck and enjoy the view of the lake. Diana and I enjoyed our lunch there and I think you’ll dig it. Definitely a good place to ride to for lunch. Put this on your list of places to visit during the 2012 Maryland/Delaware State HOG Rally in June.

Click here to check out the menu.

Tags: 2012 MD/DE HOG® Rally, Deep Creek Lake & Garrett County MD by Jay Green
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While Hurricane Irene set it’s sights on the east coast Diana and I headed west just outside the reach of the storm. We had planned to travel by motorcycle to Deep Creek Lake for the first 2012 Maryland/Delaware State H.O.G. Rally meeting. Unfortunately we would be returning back into the storm… so we took the rag top Mustang GT.

One of our missions on Friday August 26th was to take pictures of curvy roads that illustrate how cool the riding is in Garrett County Maryland. Most of you reading this may think this sounds whacky but others of you out there know exactly what I’m talking about. Once you start moto blogging and posting pictures from your rides you start finding some real cool ones that just happened out of luck. Then you start looking for those shots on purpose. Diana was just getting the knack of taking cool pictures while riding passenger when she stopped riding pillion. The timing has to be just right while your riding to capture a picture that shows both the entry and the exit of an S-turn. Since we had the Mustang I figured it would be really cool to put the top down and ride through Savage River State Forest and take pictures of the knarly turns. Diana was perched on the center console armed with her Canon Rebel XSI DSLR as I took the stang through the hair pin turns along Savage River Road. Diana took pictures over the top of the windshield and sometimes out the back. After about 200 boring pictures of road after road we think we got the money shot! Although we were not on bikes we were still moving and capturing the image of an S-turn was still challenging. I think this is more of an M-turn. Ladies and gentleman I present to you… IMG_2843!

The weather was great that weekend in Deep Creek Lake. We were able to drive the Mustang topless most of the time. Driving home Sunday night we encountered several downed trees in Baltimore County that forced us to abandon the backroads. It wasn’t rainy but I’m glad we had the security of four wheels when we got into the area where the roads were covered with leaves, branches, trees and downed power lines. At one point we drove through a tree that came down across the road. Someone cut a slice out of the tree with a chainsaw just wide enough for one car to fit through. It was a little unnerving to have a downed tree sneak up on us on a dark heavily forested backroad. Once we got on the highway things were smooth sailing the rest of the way home.

Check out IMG_2843 above from Savage River State Forest and tell me you don’t want to check out Savage River Road! Put it on your list of things to do… ride Savage River Road in Garrett County Maryland! Attend the 2012 Maryland/Delaware State H.O.G. Rally on June 14-17th.

Tags: 2012 MD/DE HOG® Rally, Cool Video & Pics, Deep Creek Lake & Garrett County MD by Jay Green
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The last weekend of July 2011 attracted HOG members from Delaware and Maryland to Salisbury, Maryland for the 2011 State Rally. The 2012 Maryland/Delaware State HOG Rally will be Father’s Day Weekend in Deep Creek Lake which is a resort area in Garrett County, Maryland. Diana and I took a weekend long scouting mission to check it out.

We took off on our motorcycles on a Friday evening immediately after I got off from work. We jumped on Intersate 95 South just a little ways before hopping off onto backroads taking us across Maryland to Frederick. We got into Frederick, Maryland at 9:00pm and stayed at Motel 6 for the low price of $61.03 including tax. After riding and kickstands are down for the night it’s always fun to find a restaurant that serves cold tall Yuengling draft like The Outback.

We walked back to the motel and took a few pictures at K-mart.

The next day we took off on our motorcycles again heading west. I had read about a great over look in Road Runner magazine that inspired George Washington to expand the United States westwardly. Panorama view on Rt 9 in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia is among the best views in the country.

Diana took me on a fantastic bunch of backroads into Garrett County Maryland dumping us out in Deep Creek Lake across from the Fort where we got lunch at the Black Bear Tavern. Then we took pictures of all the amusements available at the Fort shopping center in Deep Creek Lake.

After lunch at the Black Bear Tavern we headed to Swallow Falls State Park to take pictures of Maryland’s tallest waterfall: Muddy Creek Falls.

After hiking through the park and taking a bunch of pictures we got back on our motorcycles and headed to Oakland, Maryland where we stayed at the Oak-Mar Motel Restaurant. This is a nice place to stay just outside Deep Creek Lake close to the West Virginia border on Rt 219. Restaurant on site, clean rooms and affordable rates. We paid $87.69 including tax. The phone number is 301-334-3965. We got beer and pizza for dinner at the Pizza Hut down the street and called it a night.

The next morning we got up, had breakfast at the Oak-Mar Restaurant and gassed up and hit the road. We were surprised how cool it was up here in the mountains and we had to pull over to put more clothes on.  In order to get home in a timely manner we did get in some highway and man was it hot when we were cruising I-68 and I-70.

We had a great little trip and took lots of pictures. Click here to see them all.

Tags: 2012 MD/DE HOG® Rally, Deep Creek Lake & Garrett County MD, Trips & Places To Go by Jay Green
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We have been taking a lot of pictures this summer. Click here for our Gettysburg Bike Week pictures and here for our Deep Creek scouting mission pictures.

Tags: Cool Video & Pics, Deep Creek Lake & Garrett County MD by Jay Green
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