Way back in April, I went for a drive, got completely and utterly lost in the Maryland countryside and ended up in Sharpsburg. (For those of you who are not big on American history, Sharpsburg is the site of a major Civil War battle also known as the Battle of Antietam.) Since I was there, I decided to take advantage of the National Park Service facilities and have a look around. At one point in the park, visitors have the opportunity to climb a tower that offers a nice view of the battlefield and the surrounding countryside. It was a relatively dreary spring day, the park was quiet, and it had been misting off and on all afternoon, so as I stood up in that tower and looked out at the history around me, I had the good fortune of being the only human within eyesight of the structure. Depending on where in the tower you happened to be standing, you could look out and see absolutely nothing that told you that anything of any historical significance ever took place. No houses, no stone monuments, no cannons. Just rolling hills and South Mountain.
Now, you're probably wondering what in the world this has to do with the above picture. Well, as I was looking out over misty Maryland countryside, I was able to hear the mooing of several bovine who were milling around in some nearby farmland. These bovine were not visible from the tower, but it was a really euphoric experience to stand there in the tower and listen to the gentle mooing sounds. In a time when suburban development and McMansions are sprawling all over the place (at least in my neck of the woods), speed limits are always ignored (even by me, I admit it), and it's virtually impossible to go anywhere and see pure, unadulterated countryside, it was an amazing experience just to be the only human around, standing there in the rain and listening to the cows. What an amazing natural high.
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