Early morning Antietam

V and I spent the night in a B&B in Sharpsburg, MD. This was our last night with both children away, and we chose to make a special little expedition out of it. We went first to Frederick, where we browsed the little shops in the old downtown. From there we took country roads to Sharpsburg, where we checked into the Jacob Rohrbach Inn, named for a former owner of the building who was killed by troops passing through during the battle of Antietam.

As usual, I got up early and V slept late. Breakfast at the Inn wasn't until 8 AM, so I went out for a stroll down Main St. at about 6 looking for coffee and, truth be told, a couple of geocaches in town. Main St. looks pretty much the same as it did in the 1860s. There's little commercial development, and the buildings all look to date from the early to mid 19th Century. In the early morning, with few cars around, it's easy to envision the two armies marching down these streets.

I found the two caches easily, and happened upon a gas station that was opening up. I figured that soon they'd have coffee brewing, so I continued only a little further on my walk. This took me to the Antietam Battlefield Cemetery, a sobering place to visit on July 4th with the nation at war.

On the way back I was indeed able to pick up a cup of coffee, and made it back to the B&B to find V just waking up.