Day 312 - North Beach, MD

(Click any photo to enlarge.)

***Scroll down to see my offer for Red Cross donations.***

I have had MAJOR problems on this road trip to Southern Maryland, and all of them are technology related.

First, I checked into a Holiday Inn in Solomon's Island, after having done my walk today in North Beach, MD.  All went well there.  I had a great walk along the beach/boardwalk and in the town.  I even took 39 pictures.

I drove to Solomon's Island and checked into a hotel.  I fired up my laptop, inserted my camera card into the computer, and up came a disk error.  The computer wanted to scan the entire disk.  I took a chance and said no.

Once I was into Windows, everything looked fine, but nothing on my disk would transfer.  I tried several times to transfer the photos to the hard drive.  I kept getting a corrupt disk message.  I finally got frustrated, took the disk out, restarted the computer, and the same message appeared.  In hindsight, I should have let the computer do the scan, because apparently it is my laptop that is sick, and not the camera card.  In frustration, I reformatted the camera disk, losing all the photos, and proceeded to write the blog.
Here is what I had written until more problems ensued:

******************************
Southern Maryland, I am finally here.  I am sorry to have neglected this beautiful part of the state for 311 days in a row.  But truly, I have been on the road and in the air and everywhere since January (PA, TX, TN, NY) and I've covered much of Maryland, but finally, your time has come.  And there is so much to see.

I drove to the Chesapeake Beach area, and somehow I ended up in North Beach.  But the place looked very inviting, so I parked my car near the public beach area and set out to explore.


I approached the nice teenagers guarding the pier and boardwalk area, and inquired about getting a wristband, according to the signs that were posted everywhere.  {Insert nice pic of teens at pier}  They told me that a wristband was only needed if I intended to go on the sand.  Otherwise, I could walk the pier and boardwalk all I wanted.

I walked along the pier, which had numerous memorial benches along the sides.  Many of them were further decorated with flags and flowers, in addition to the plaques describing for whom they were dedicated.  At the end of the pier, which jutted out into the western shore of the Chesapeake, there were a few fisherman.  Next to the pier was an osprey platform with two adults guarding the nest.  A man walking by as I was photographing it {insert nice pic of osprey here} asked me if they were bald eagles.  I took the time to inform him otherwise.

I left the pier and walked the boardwalk, which is really quite nice.  There are numerous historic plaques along the way, giving the history of  North Beach.  Beautiful planters with numerous flowers (impatiens, rudbeckia, coneflowers, petunias, geraniums, and begonias) line the boardwalk, which also has a separate bike path paralleling the boardwalk.  {Insert beautiful boardwalk shot here.} 

I left the boardwalk at First Street, and walked more into the town.  I felt like I was the only tourist around.  Only a few people had been on the beach, and I only passed about three people on the boardwalk.  In town, I visited the Bay Museum, and then found a gift/gallery shop.  I mentioned to the clerk in the shop that I was surprised to see the town so empty on a beautiful summer day.  She said that on Friday nights, the town is hopping.  There is a farmer's market and a "cruise in" that comes to town, and you can't find a parking place for miles.  It stays that way for the weekends, too.

************************

I saved and went to dinner, and restarted the computer.  I discovered that two photos had transferred prior to my reformatting the disk, but that's it.  Here they are:

Both photos are unedited.  I managed to email them to myself, then came down to the lobby to use the business center computers.  Turns out all three of the computers are out of order, so I am now typing in the hotel manager's office.

Moral of the story?  I'm not sure.  Probably it is to always have a Plan B.  At first I thought it was to let the computer do its scan when it says there is a problem, but that did not solve the problem.  The computer still has issues.  Another moral might be not to be too impatient and reformat the card too soon.  The card was not the problem.

Thank you, Holiday Inn, for the help you gave me.  I hope the manager does not mind that I had to download a newer browser just so that this blog would work.  Perhaps she will appreciate the fact the the Internet loads MUCH faster now.

Good night all.  I'll be troubleshooting my laptop for the next few days....

Click on any photo to enlarge it.

*************************************************

Forward me by email any receipt for an online donation made to the Red Cross for disaster relief, and I will send you a 5x7 print of your choice from any of my daily photo walks or from my website.  Offer good until September 2, 2013.

Visit my web site: camscamerashots.zenfolio.com
Follow me on Twitter: @camscamerashots
Email:  cam.miller@comcast.net

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 whatever camera is easy and convenient for walking comfortably; always have a backup camera at the ready in case of mishaps (I use the Nikon Coolpix P7700)
5. no weather excuses
6. walk only where it is safe to do so