National Bohemia or Natty Boh, the "Official" Beer of Baltimore

  Somewhere Between Baltimore, MD and Baton Rouge, LA

My Natty Boh and my Latino Bro!

Natty Boh!

The "Official" beer of Baltimore is National Bohemia, or at least it was.  The beer was introduced in 1885 by The National Brewing Company.  In 1953 the St. Louis Browns baseball team moved to Baltimore and became the Baltimore Orioles.  National Bohemia became the official beer of the stadium at that time and quickly gained popularity.  I first learned of Natty Boh while watching Homicide: Life in the Street.  The cast would walk into a bar and order a Natty Boh.  

A really bad image off the internet of John Waters tending bar on Homicide: Life on the Street.

Now National Bohemia is brewed by The Pabst Brewing Co. and isn't even brewed in Baltimore.  It's the same thing with Rainer Beer, started in Seattle, became a Seattle institution and is now owned by Pabst and brewed elsewhere.  I guess we can all take comfort in the fact that Anchor Steam is still the official beer of San Francisco and still brewed in San Francisco.

This blog post started when I was looking up facts about Baltimore and found a site that claimed that National Bohemia invented the 6 pack.  It seemed like a really cool fact but I wouldn't go as far as to say they invented it.  I will say that in the 1940s National Bohemia began selling 6 cans at a time because 4 wasn't enough and 8 was too many and that this might have been the first example of a 6 pack being sold in the US.  

That's my fun history post for today.  More might be coming, I don't know for sure.  I can tell you we will be in Baton Rouge November 6th with fresh new content!

Yesterday's Post

The Oyster Wars

 Somewhere Between Baltimore, MD and Baton Rouge, LA

The Oyster exhibit at the Maryland Museum of History and Culture

The Oyster Wars

We are currently on the road but it's my goal to keep fresh content coming to you by way of scheduled posts.  As we explore areas interesting bits of history pop up and I end up doing a deep dive into them and if they are interesting enough I share them with you.  

When settlers first arrived to what now is The New England area they were met by the locals already living here and oysters were one of the things that was shared.  They were plentiful, easy to harvest, and provided good nutrition.  It was a cheap and easy meal.  So easy that they quickly became the poor mans meal as we developed as a nation.  So plentiful and easy to get that people of means were tired of them but this all changed when refrigeration and quicker more efficient travel came about.  Soon oysters were being shipped all over the place and even canned and shipped even farther into the interior of the continent.  Canning, shipping, and refrigeration increased demand for the oyster so commercial oyster harvesting began.  Harvesting quickly become more efficient and oyster beds began diminishing.  This led to Maryland passing laws in 1830 stating that only Maryland State Residents could harvest Oysters in the Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River and they couldn't use dredging.  Virginia continued to allow dredging until 1879.  During this time in 186 Maryland tightened things up again and required annual permits to harvest oysters.  

In 1870, Virginia began passing legislation to regulate oyster harvesting in their waters.  In the 1880s the oyster harvesting industry exploded.  Local oyster beds were depleted which caused clashes between Maryland and Virginia oyster harvesters looking for new beds.  Armed and organized dredgers from Maryland began violating Virginia bans.  This caused Virginia to begin policing their waters hoping to curb illegal oyster farming.  Armed boats would intercept "Oyster Pirates" and with the hopes to prosecute illegal harvesters from Maryland.  On February 17, 1882, Cameron's force (The Governor of Virginia's armed fleet), consisting of the tugboat Victoria J. Peed and the freighter Louisa, engaged pirates at the mouth of the Rappahannock River. The governor's raid resulted in the successful convictions of 41 dredgers and the forfeiture of seven boats. The raid represented the high point of the governor's term.  Later attempts to capture and convict weren't as successful.  These sometimes violent conflicts continued until 1959 when the Potomac River Fisheries Commissioner ordered the fisheries police to disarm after an officer killed a Virginia waterman who was illegally dredging.  

Most of the information was taken from Wikipedia here, but there is also great information in this Covid Era presentation presented by Kate Livie and The Baltimore Museum of Industry.  If this subject is interesting to you watch the 13 minute video.  It really brings the story to life.

That's it for today.  Check back for timed posts and check back on November 6th for updates from Baton Rouge, LA.

If you missed yesterday's post you can find it here.

The City of Baltimore Flag

 Somewhere between Baltimore, MD and Baton Rouge, LA

The City of Baltimore Flag

The City of Baltimore's Flag

We learned in another post that The City of Baltimore is its own county and it's partially surrounded by Baltimore County which is a little confusing.  It's just like The City of St. Louis and St. Louis County in Missouri.

The City of Baltimore isn't in Baltimore County

Same with St. Louis MO but that's not important right now.

The City of Baltimore's Flag features The Battle Monument in the center surrounded by the Calvert family colors of black and yellow which also appear in the first and fourth quarters of the Maryland state flag taken from the shield of the Calvert-Crossland families coats-of-arms as talked about in this post.  

The Battle Monument is an actual monument in Baltimore.  It commemorates the Battle of Baltimore with the British fleet of the Royal Navy's bombardment of Fort McHenry, the Battle of North Point, southeast of the city in Baltimore County on the Patapsco Neck peninsula, and the stand-off on the eastern siege fortifications along Loudenschlager and Potter's Hills.  It honors those who died during the month of September 12th - 14th 1814 during the War of 1812.

Respondents to a 2004 survey sponsored by the North American Vexillological Association rated the Baltimore city flag 7.46 on a 10-point scale, making it the 18th best American city flag in the 150 flag survey of American cities.  Donna and I were postulating that the Calvert Family colors were chosen because it was associated with The Union Army and not The Confederate Army but I can't find info to confirm this.

Most of the information above was taken from Wikipedia FYI.  

If you missed yesterday's post you can find it here.

On The Road Again

 Somewhere Between Baltimore, MD and Baton Rouge, LA

The gray and dark green counties are the counties we are planning on getting on this leg of the trip.  The light green counties will be picked up when we go from Orlando to Austin in January.

Heading South for the Winter

We are hitting the road again!  We have left Baltimore and are somewhere between Baltimore, MD and Baton Rouge, LA (at the time of writing this I am not sure which day it will go live so I don't really know where we are).  Our plan currently looks like this;

Camping in Lake Anna State Park, Virginia

Camping in Pocahontas State Park, Virginia

Camping in Jones Lake State Park, North Carolina

Camping in Lumber River State Park, North Carolina

Camping In Magnolia Springs State Park, Georgia

A luxurious free hotel stay in Savanah, Georgia thanks to our Hilton Honors Amex

Camping in Laura S. Walker State Park, Georgia

Camping in Gilchrist Blue Springs State Park, Florida

Camping in Manatee Springs State Park, Florida

Tru by Hilton Downtown Petersburg Florida

Camping in Oscar Scherer State Park, Florida (if it has recovered from Hurricane Ian)

Camping in Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park, Florida

Camping in O'Leno State Park, Florida

Camping in Ochlocknee River State Park, Florida

Camping in Florida Caverns State Park, Florida

Camping in Big Lagoon State Park, Florida

Getting settled in our Airbnb in Baton Rouge, Louisiana for the month of November

Now the eagle eyed reader might see that we are not camping in South Carolina at all.  That is by design.  Most of South Carolina's State Parks require a 2 night stay, even in the off season.  We aren't doing a lot of 2 night stays on this trip so we won't be staying in South Carolina on this leg of the trip.

This is a lot of camping so we may end up grabbing a hotel room somewhere in the middle of all the camping to do laundry and clean up a bit.  I have a feeling that both Hillsborough River SP and Oscar Scherer SP will still be closed so we might need to grab 3 nights there to fill the gap.  The room will be free because we are building up a ton of points on our card.  We will just need to figure out which hotel we want to stay in for these nights.

The goal is to finish Florida early next year.  We should get most of the rest of the counties on this leg of the trip and then finish up when we drive from Orlando to Austin in January.  Manatee and Sarasota Counties got hit pretty hard by Hurricane Ian so there is a chance we don't do them until later.  We don't want our hobby to get in the way of recovery.

I keep 2 separate county maps.  The top county map screenshot is my planning map.  I use it to plan trips, keep track of which counties have state parks and mark the last time I was in a county by year.  The bottom screenshot is my real county map.  I mark counties the first time we enter them by year.  This is why the same counties are different colors on the different maps.

That's it for today.  I will be sure to fill you in on the road trip when we get to Baton Rouge and have reliable internet.  I will also probably post a little bit on the road as we go when I have time.  I also have a few small posts scheduled to go live while we are on the road.  Some looking back posts, some history posts, and maybe some others. 

If you missed yesterday's Philly adventure you can find it here.

Baltimore Close Up

 Baltimore, MD

Bodymore is another Baltimore nickname with a morbid slant.

Baltimore Close Up

I am always looking for things to post about when we have a "lazy day".  I got the idea to take close up photos in cities where we are staying so I started doing this in Baltimore.  

The Heritage Trail is marked in many languages

@cheerupofficial is prolific in Baltimore 

US40 goes through the middle of Baltimore

Looks like this truck got a little too close up, twice!

That's it for this post.  The activities here are starting to slow down as we get closer to our move out date.  If you missed yesterday's post you can check it out here.

The Maryland State Flag

Baltimore, MD

The Maryland State Flag at The Maryland Center for History and Culture

The Maryland State Flag

You can visit many states and not really notice the state flag.  Yes there are different flags flying above buildings than the ones that fly above buildings in your home state but the flag isn't everywhere you look.  Not the case in Maryland.  The Maryland State Flag is EVERYWHERE.  It's on flag poles, clothing, stickers, license plates, worked into logos, and just plastered everywhere.  I have only visited one other state where the flag has been so prevalent and that is Colorado.  The Maryland State flag is very striking and doesn't blend in so it stands out but what does it mean?  How did it come about and why does it look like 4 flags with 2 different patterns just sewn together?  That is what we will explore in this post.

Maryland had no official flag until 1904.  By The Civil War the most common flag flown for Maryland was the state seal on a blue background.

BORING!

The two parts of Maryland's flag bear the arms of the Calvert family and Crossland family. Calvert was the family name of the Lords Baltimore who founded Maryland, and their colors of gold and black appear in the first and fourth quarters of the flag. Crossland was the family of the mother of George Calvert, first Lord Baltimore. The red and white Crossland colors, with a cross bottony (the cross with the shape on each end), appear in the second and third quarters.

Maryland was a divided state during the Civil War.  Even though it was a slave state, it chose not to secede.  Marylanders fighting for The Union Army carried banners with the Calvert Colors (The Black and Yellow Checkered pattern on the flag today).  Marylanders fighting for The Confederate Army carried The Red and White Crossland Arms Flag representing secession colors.  In the 1880s the current Maryland flag began to appear in public taking the Calvert and Crossland colors and merging them into one flag representing unity amongst Marylanders.

Today you can buy the flag on a wide range of things.  

That's it for today.  If you missed yesterday's post you can find it here.

Row Housing in Baltimore

 Baltimore, MD

Row Housing Everywhere

In the past, when we had traveled to a place that is very different than where we came from, we usually got on a plane and then when we got off the plane we were in that vastly different area.  When you drive across the country things change gradually so when you get to a new place it feels a little different than the place you were just in.  Baltimore was like that for us.  We drove into Baltimore and it was another big city for us with a lot of brick buildings.  Our friend Tony visited us last week and one of his first comments about the area was, "Wow, look at all of the row housing!  Cool!"  He was right, after a quick google search I found that Baltimore has more Row Housing than any other city in the US (according to this site).  

A Brief History of Baltimore's Row Housing

Baltimore was one of the earlier cities that grew during the 1700s when white migrants came to help populate the British Territory.  Baltimore was founded in 1729 and as Baltimore grew larger and more densely populated houses started being built that resembled the dense housing in England.  Those houses were row houses, houses built of brick in a long row with no space between them.  Pigtown, the area we are staying in, has Federal Era Row Houses characterized by two-and-a-half stories with pitched roofs rather than flat roofs.  These houses also worked well with the "Ground Rent" system that is fairly unique to Baltimore.  Ground rent is a periodic monetary payment by a tenant to a ground leaseholder who owns the property or “ground” underneath a home. Specific terms and conditions are contingent on the actual language of the ground lease, but such leases often require payment from the lessee (homeowner) of between $50-150 per year, commonly paid in semi-annual installments (site).  People buying homes today need to check to see if the home is on a ground lease or if the ground is owned by the homeowner.

Today there are quite a few types of row houses.  Different neighborhoods have different styles of row housing.  It's one of the things that helps make the neighborhoods in Baltimore feel unique.  If you want to dive deep into this subject this site has great info.

That's it for today.  We mostly took the day off to prep for travel.  If you missed yesterday's post you can find it here.

Back to The Avenue, Pinball, Nachos, Beer, and Football Festivities

 Baltimore, MD

The best way to wait for a bus is at a brewery right with the stop just outside the door.

The Avenue

Today we returned to The Avenue AKA Hampden Avenue AKA The Hipster Area to go to a Mexican Restaurant, Holy Frijoles, with 18 pinball machines.  When we got there we went right to the machines but someone was servicing some of them and working on the change machine so we decided to get a snack and a drink before we played.

Their logo is really cool

They have both new and older machines

I had more Natty Boh today.  The tap system wasn't working and Natty Boh cans were only $3

We also shared a nachos.  They were the best nachos I have had in a long time.

Once we saw the guy that was working on the machines behind the bar we knew it was time to go check out the pinball machines

I played a few games of Elvira because there were free games on it

Same thing with Terminator 2: Judgement Day

We also got to play Munsters Premium.  

We ended by playing Godzilla Premium which is awesome.  

The bus that we took to The Avenue only runs every hour on Sundays so we ended up killing some time at Nepenthe Brewing.  There was just enough time for a quick pint.

After our bus ride back we decided to walk Raven's Walk because it was packed with fans and festivities.  It's a night game tonight.  The game starts at 8:20 but people started "getting ready" for the game very early in the evening. 

We didn't leave much room for Donna in the photo.

When I put on football gear my head gets tiny.

The walk was so much fun that we decided to get Francis and walk around the stadium to see all of the goings ons.  We ended up getting dinner at Checkerspot Brewing which is right in the middle of all of the action.

It's always a lot of fun being out and a about during big sporting events.  Everyone is having a great time and Football really gets the economy going.  There are about 8 home games a year and that means that 8 away teams play here and their fans flock the area and spend tons of money on hotels, tickets, food, and drink.  We have been here for 3 home games and it is really apparent.  The Ravens even did us a favor by winning their last game while we are here.  Next Sunday we hit the road and begin our 3 week trip to Baton Rouge LA.

It was a fun day.  If you missed yesterday's post you can find it here.  We went to a neighborhood festival and saw a pig race.