Skip to main content

MD 33: Easton to Tilghman Island

Maryland 33 Begins

The weekend after I was in Waldorf, Maryland.  The following weekend, I returned to Maryland.  This time to the Eastern Shore and for a Curling Bonspiel at the Chesapeake Curling Club in Easton.  During some downtime between matches, I took a ride out on MD 33 and also MD 579 to check out some of the islands and peninsulas that reach into the Chesapeake.

For the entire Flickr Set - head here.

It was an amazingly blustery day - and with the passage of a cold front the night before - it made for some chilly conditions especially when you are trying to take photos from an exposed position on the Chesapeake Bay!

The wind was strong enough that the sea gulls had trouble flying into the headwind!

035

If there was one thing I will remember about Maryland 33 - and Maryland 579 as well - were all of the small rural Methodist chapels.  A lot of the chapels only have service a few times a year - with many of them still advertising their Christmas service - three weeks later.

053

A lot of these rural chapels only have services a few times a year - many of these churches will share one pastor - limiting their ability to have a weekly service.

A great example is this church in the town of Sherwood - which is located on an oxbow section of old MD 33.

058

Sherwood United Methodist Church - built in 1912.  The church's next service isn't until March 11th.  The last service was a Christmas Eve Vigil.

Finally, a trip down MD 579 and in Bozman - a beautiful Methodist Church.

Bozman United Methodist Church

As you can see, the theme of this roadtrip ended up being churches.  Unfortunately, I didn't have time to walk around the charming towns of St. Michael's or Easton.  However, this is just another example of there's plenty to find and discover when your off the main highways and interstates.



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Did Caltrans just kill the G26 cutout US Route shields?

The US Route System was formally created by the American Association of State Highway Officials during November 1926.  Through the history of the system the only state to which has elected to maintain cutout US Route shields has been California.  The G26 series cutout US Route shields have become a favorite in the road enthusiast hobby and are generally considered to be much more visually pleasing than the standard Federal Highway Administration variant.  However, the G26 shield series appears to have been killed off on January 18, 2026, when Caltrans updated their Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices.  This blog will examine the history of the US Route shield specifications in California and what is happening with the 2026 changes.  The blog cover photo is facing towards the terminus of California State Route 136 and at a G26-2 specification US Route 395 shield.  In the background Mount Whitney can be seen in the Sierra Nevada range.   ...

May 2023 Ontario Trip (Part 3 of 3)

  Over the years, I have made plenty of trips to Ontario, crisscrossing the southern, central and eastern parts of the province. Living in Upstate New York, it's pretty easy to visit our neighbor to the north, or is that our neighbor to the west? Ottawa is one of my favorite cities to visit anywhere in the world, plus I've discovered the charm of Kingston, the waterfalls of Hamilton (which is on the same Niagara Escarpment that brings us Niagara Falls), the sheer beauty of the Bruce Peninsula, and more. But I hadn't explored much of Cottage Country. So I decided to change that, and what better time to go than over Memorial Day weekend, when the daylight is long and I have an extra day to explore. On the third and final day of my trip, I started in Huntsville and made my way through Muskoka District and Haliburton County, passing by many lakes along the way. I stopped in towns such as Dorset, Haliburton and Bancroft before making a beeline down to Belleville and then over th...

Ghost Town Tuesday; Nichols, FL

A couple years ago I spent a lot of spare time exploring phosphate mining ghost towns in the Bone Valley of Polk County, Florida.  One ghost town in particular called Nichols on Polk County Route 676 west of Mulberry caught my eye due to a relative lack of documentation on ghosttowns.com. Nichols was created in 1905 during the early phosphate mining boom in the Bone Valley region.  For the time Nichols was unusual since it had company housing in the Nichols Mine site and private residences outside the gate.  Nichols is only about two miles west of Mulberry which probably made it a somewhat reasonable commute even by the wonky standards of the early 20th Century.  Most of the Bone Valley region was relatively remote which made commuting or homesteading impractical which is why there are so many ghost towns in the area.  The company housing section of Nichols was phased out and abandoned by 1950. The Nichols town site is largely abandoned and could "possibl...