It was the day before Easter, April 3, 2010. Bob and I did some local traveling and had a great time. We started our day with a big breakfast of omelets, toast, grapefruit, sausages, coffee and tea-- made at our favorite place--Donna and Bob's. (ie--our house)
After packing a nice picnic lunch of sub sandwiches, chips, grapes and carrot sticks, we head out on our adventure.
We went first to the farmers' market in Charlotte Hall, MD. We strolled past all the vendors, stopping once in a while to examine something that caught our eye. After seeing all the little shops, we stopped at the fruit and vegetable stands and filled our rolling cart with bananas, huge green grapes, lettuce and green beans.
Satisfied with our purchases, we got back in the car and headed to Gilbert Run State Park. We had never been there before and were pleasantly surprised. Its a very nice park with ample picnic sites, hiking trails, a nice big lake, paddle boats, and fairly clean bathrooms.
After lunch we again got back in the car and drove to the Dr. Samuel Mudd house. Dr. Mudd was the doctor who set the broken leg of John Wilkes Booth, president Lincoln's killer. Dr. Mudd was accused of being an accomplice of Booth and was sentenced to life in prison. As you pull up to the house you are greeted by soldiers in period uniforms sitting around their camp. Bob and I were greeted by one of the Yankee soldiers and he took us to the exhibit that showed what a soldier camp would have looked like. It was very interesting.
While he was in prison the prison doctor contracted yellow fever and died. The prison officials asked Dr. Mudd if he could treat the sick--there was an epidemic of yellow fever. He agreed to help and because of that, he was released from prison after serving 3 years.
Right after Dr. Mudd was arrested and taken off, the soldiers held Mrs. Mudd and their 4 children prisoner in the bedroom the children used. They set their horses free, tore through all of their food, took their meat and in general, treated Mrs. Mudd and her children badly. They stayed at the house for 12 days and only left when they got word that a young soldier killed Booth in Virginia.
The house in Charles County is the original house of Dr. Mudd and his wife and most of the furniture is original. It still belongs to the Mudd family. There was also a game table and some other pieces that Dr. Mudd made while in prison. He sold them to the guards to have money to send to his wife. The museum eventually was able to buy the pieces.
After the tour, Bob got to fire one of the period rifles. The volunteer staff were all very knowledgeable and seem to really enjoy working there.
One of Dr. Mudd's great grandsons is the caretaker of the estate and one of his great granddaughters works in the gift shop.
It is a very interesting stop and well worth the $5 entrance fee. Check the website--their hours are very limited--open on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
After leaving the Mudd house we drove through the country for a little bit, going up and down roads we have never gone down before. It was a lot of fun to discover areas of the county we hadn't been to before. While on our tour, we saw some HUGE houses.
The last leg of our trip was to stop at Lowe's on the way home. We bought an open pit fireplace for our other patio. We have 2 patios and love to sit out by a bonfire. We have a fireplace on the lower patio and now we have one on the upper patio.
After a nice dinner, we went out to the upper patio to enjoy our new fireplace and to watch the stars. A perfect end to our perfect day in the country.
