Founders Tour Day #2 Tuesday

From your Webmaster:

Guess what I got to ride in today? The sidecar of a Russian-made Ural motorcycle! Driving was Brian Davis, one of our volunteer parkers for the week, but he happened to have the day off to actually go on the tour. Lucky for both of us!

Our first stop for coffee and donuts was at the Fort Ritchie community center. It’s quite a large facility and the locals seem to love it. Several exercise classes were going on while we were there.

After getting a much needed caffeine boost, we were off to the Agriculture Education Center and Rural Heritage Museum in Boonsboro, Maryland. If you’ve never been there before, you need to go and plan to spend the day. They have several museum buildings crammed full of exhibits including tractors, buggies, children’s toys, plows, a Conestoga wagon… you name it. There are also several 19th century buildings on the premise including a church, country store, and school house. These buildings were “rescued” over time from the surrounding areas by being torn down and then completely rebuilt at the center. Out back is the Rural Heritage Village Homestead made up of two long homes, an outdoor drying shed, windmill, and brick wood fired bread oven. Every building was open that day and had a volunteer guide to answer any questions. Some people on the tour were enjoying themselves so much that they asked if they could stay longer instead of heading out around 12:30 as the tour book recommended. Of course they could! I’m sure that the volunteers at the center appreciated that kind of enthusiasm. I know our tour planner Annette Yost was ecstatic.

Brian and I left around 1:30 to make it to our final stop for the day: Renfrew Museum & Park. The park is quite extensive and is the sight of the 200 year old Royer-Nicodemus farmstead. They too had pulled out all the stops for our arrival. Volunteers in period dress offered tours and demonstrations at the various buildings. There was even a fire burning in the summer kitchen. Check out their Facebook page to see video of some of our cars arriving at the park.