Day 80 - A Smudgy Point of Rocks

Historic Train Station

Durn and drat and darn!  I'd write something a little stronger, but this is a family-approved blog.  Apparently, I had a big smudge on my little lens and I didn't know it until I popped the photos into the computer to take a look.  My camera's little lens retracts, so I rarely ever see the front of it, and sure enough, I just turned it on to check, and there it was.  A smudge right smack dab in the center of the lens.  The kind of smudge you might put on a lens if you touched it after eating greasy potato chips.  I have no idea how it got there, but I learned to do a lens check now before I use the camera.  However, 79 consecutive days of no smudges is pretty good, considering how smudgy the lens on my DSLR can get.

Perfect mail box design for Point of Rocks

And, to top it all off, today I drove to Point of Rocks, a place I have been "saving" to go on my walk.  Ah well...I'll forge ahead anyway.  The pics just won't be up to par.

Point of Rocks sits on the Potomac River overlooking Virginia.  It is on the "scenic route" my father used to love to take when we would go to visit my great aunt in Leesburg.

MARC at Point of Rocks

It is a transporation hub of historic sorts.  It has the "most photographed train station in America," according to the Ruritan's website.  I have included a smudgy version of the depot here for you.  It also has the C&O Canal with a park and trails, which will be the scene of a walk another day.  A bridge crosses the Potomac into Virginia, carrying busy Rt. 15, which is the way many Frederick area residents get to Northern Virginia.  Here is some of the history of Point of Rocks, from Wikipedia.

I got to Point of Rocks around 2:30, and as I usually do when I get to an unfamiliar place, I drove all around it and through it, looking for a good place to park and deciding if the place was big enough to split into two or more walks.  Point of Rocks looked small enough for one walk, so I parked at a public park up one of the hills and then walked down to the depot.

Point of Rocks had some huge trees!
You can see the smudge
right in the center of the tree.

As I was walking down the hill, I heard a freight train whistle as it was approaching Point of Rocks.  It occurred to me that the residents here must be so used to the train whistles that they are just one of the rhythms of their lives.  Also, when a train was not approaching, there was always a soft hum to be heard in the air, either from the flow of the Potomac over the rocks or from the flow of traffic on Rt. 15, or probably a combination of both.

The Inner Glow

When I got to the station, a MARC train full of commuters was just arriving.  At least a hundred people got off and moved in a stream to the parking lot.  As the train pulled out of the station, a new stream of cars began pulling out of the parking lot.

I'll go back to Point of Rocks another day, probably on a weekend morning in the winter, when there are fewer people and cars around, to see if I can get a better shot of the "most photographed train station in America."



Hurricane Sandy Relief:  Donate to the Red Cross, and I will mail you a 5 x 7 print from any of the photos I have posted on my blog OR any photo on my website.

Forward to me via email a receipt for donating to the Red Cross.  Tell me whether the photo is from the blog or the website, and Include its title along with a mailing address.  The name on the receipt to the Red Cross must match the name of the mailing recipient.  Send the receipt and the photo request to camscamerashots@gmail.com.

Click on any photo to enlarge it.

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Cam's rules for the Daily Photo Walk:

1. walk every day
2. the walk must be in addition to any other planned activity for the day
3. post a photo every day
4. use my Nikon P7100 (it is a very convenient size and weight)
5. no weather excuses
6. walk only where it is safe to do so