At the crack of dawn if I roll over in bed and twist my neck just the right way, I can see the sunrise from our bedroom window. It’s quite the view.  Frederick County – our new extended neighborhood – has views galore and we’re determined to see them all, including the covered bridges.

A Chilly October Morning

This morning I slept long past dawn. When I rolled over and looked out the window I saw Dakota lazily munching grass and sporting a thick green blanket to ward off the chill of the morning.  Dakota is our neighbor, along with his pals goat 1 and goat 2. Thinking it would be best to just snuggle under the warmth of the comforter, I turned my back to the view and snoozed a while longer.

A cold morning. It seems as if we skipped fall this year and went from hellacious hot and humid to holy crap it’s too early to be this cold.  I know we were busy moving, but did we blink and miss it?

After forcing ourselves to throw back the comforter and face the chilly October morning, we pulled on our sweaters, turned our backs on the unpacked boxes and went out to see what we could find.

The Covered Bridges of Frederick County

Channeling Francesca and Robert, we found ourselves exploring the back roads and covered bridges of Frederick County.

The Utica Mills Covered Bridge – Originally built in 1850

Fishing Creek flows under the Utica Mills Covered Bridge

Emma Jean’s General Store

Meandering along the back roads we slowly wound our way through tiny country towns. We stopped at Emma Jean’s General Store, which was really more of a hodgepodge collection of odds and ends, but a sweet lovely lady shared a bit of history about the store and gave me two pieces of rock hard bubble gum.  It chewed up pretty well.

Loy’s Station Covered Bridge – originally built about 1860

Owens Creek flows under the Loy’s Station Covered Bridge

The Roddy Road Covered Bridge

As we found our way to our 3rd bridge, we vowed next time to throw jackets in the car whether or not we thought we’d need them.  Because you know, we needed them.

The Roddy Road Covered Bridge was originally built by the Roddy family about 1856

Owen’s Creek flows under the Roddy Road Covered Bridge

The Other Camp David

That’s the great thing about nesting in a new place, there’s so much “new” to explore.  Little did we know – until after the fact – that as we drove through the hills wrapped in fall colors, we happened upon Trout Run, often called the other Camp David.  We’d never heard of the mountain compound but it sure is a beautiful spot and it has quite the history.

Sneaking a pic of the Trout Run compound – see the rock house on the left?

We Might Have Fun Trying

But I digress.  There are 212 bridges of various assorted sizes and design in Frederick County.  I’m not certain we’ll find all of the other 209, but we might have fun trying!

And, if you’d like to learn more about what went on behind the scenes of Francesca, Robert and The Bridges of Madison County…

 

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