"danjlove" (danjlove) 05/29/2014 at 13:45 • Filed to: None

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I don't care for the East Coast in general, but I truly hate Maryland. I'm not going to sugar-coat this one for you. I've been assigned to Fort Meade for the last 2.5 years and will be here for the next 6 months because Army.

I won't go into why I hate Maryland but I'll tell you why I hate driving in Maryland. The drivers don't give a shit about driving. The people drive the least interesting cars they somehow manage to find. The drivers don't know the rules of the road/don't care about them. The drivers seem to only be concerned about themselves. Courtesy on the road is an afterthought.

For a long time I thought nobody in Maryland cared about cars or drove anything interesting. I eventually came to the realization, though, that interesting cars are just not made to drive in this kind of traffic. Do you really want to drive a car with drum brakes all around in stop and go traffic? Is it a good idea to drive a car that would cost a fortune to repair a dent on between people who think their next text is more important than your wellbeing? The answer is probably no. A sensible person drives a Camry here, but there are loonies hiding in the midst of the beige wave that commutes between Baltimore and DC every day.

A few months ago I discovered cars and coffee. The closest one is in Burtonsville, MD. We call it the Church of the Holy Donut. It occurs every Sunday around 8 or 10 am. The best word for it is occurs because it is unplanned and unregulated. People in their cars just show up and then congregate. It is my church.

I showed up today and the turnout was fantastic. Let me tell you about it.

I you are on oppolock you know what cars and coffee is. I'm happy to tell you that even in an area consistently ranked the worst to drive in the U.S., people still love cars.

You might have to fight waves of corollas to get here, but it is worth it. Cars with souls abound and the variety never fails to surprise.

Here is your typical classic car guy. He has his covered seat and his classic car.

He has the broom handle propping up the hood to show off his Hemi.

It says "Desoto Fire Dome Eight. Cool!

Here's your tough-looking dude in his SS. Sounds about right.

Slicked hair and polo with shades guy is not impressed with the vert-bug.

He digs the Scud' though.

A really old guy showed up with this T-bird I thought was a Cougar for a second.

This fantastic Olds wagon showed up all shiny and sexy. Reminds me of my first car, an 86 Caprice Classic wagon.

Old car guys are the best. Old people inherently talk a lot and car guys just want to talk about cars.

I usually bring my son to C&C and not my camera. His education is my priority.

Healeys just look so happy. You can look at them and not feel warmth.

Dude brought a real speedster. I was looking at it and trying to find something that would mark it as a replica but couldn't find anything. The owner was cool about it when I asked him.

This surf-hearse thing was driving around and didn't seem to park. I wanted to get a closer look at it.

My favorite part of the show was this Corvair Van. Holy hell it was just delightful. The owner seemed genuinely nice. He told me he got it from New Mexico, which explained the patina.

Flat bills and brostangs but don't hate. I have a 'stang, too.

I've been looking at Plymouth Furys online for a while now but have never seen one up close. This old fella was happy to show his off.

Aww hell look at this. Square steering wheel, push button trans, horizontal speedo, a damn record player, jewelry box dash. This car knows what I want.

One of my favorite things about C&C is you get to see these cars run and hear them. I love the sounds these old cruisers make.

Dude drove in an unrestored, 2nd owner GT500. Sure, why not?

This Ford Maverick is there just about every Sunday. I've never caught the owner but when I do I'll express my appreciation.

Datsun with a 'Vette engine, hell, why not?

Honestly this isn't surprising. A lot of the reason these cars aren't daily drove anymore is they are really old and often not particularly reliable.

This guy showed up in his wonderfully unrestored Chrysler as I was leaving. He had 4 kids with him in car seats. He told me he added rear seat belts himself because people were browbeating him.

My buddy was driving and we were followed home by some sweet old iron. He drives an 02 WRX, just like the one I used to have. About 2 years ago I was driving it in a merge lane and I checked over my shoulder before merging and the guys in front of me dead stopped. I clipped the side of the guy in front of me, totaling the car I'd owned for almost a decade. I was heartbroken, but I decided to buy something totally different and learn from the experience. I bought a 63 Karmann Ghia on ebay and drove it up to MD from Georgia.

This car taught me all I know about working on cars and taught me to appreciate interesting cars. When I got home today, I worked on it for a while and took it for a drive since it's Sunday and there wasn't much traffic.

macanamera > danjlove 05/29/2014 at 13:48

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Hey, don't be so hard on MD...

btw, did you take these pics? They are great.

spanfucker retire bitch > danjlove 05/29/2014 at 13:48

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Everytime I think there are just absolutely horrible drivers where I live, I'm reminded by stories like these that maybe it just isn't that bad here in western new york.

offroadkarter > danjlove 05/29/2014 at 13:49

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I hate maryland to, my grandmother lives down in la plata, 4 1/2 hours from me in jersey.

also, thank you for your service

danjlove > macanamera 05/29/2014 at 13:51

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Maryland isn't so bad if you head west. Thanks, I did.

danjlove > spanfucker retire bitch 05/29/2014 at 13:52

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Western New York is delightful. I lived in Syracuse for a year, which is pretty close.

macanamera > danjlove 05/29/2014 at 13:52

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Yep. I've lived right off the Potomac my whole life, and I love it here!

For Sweden > offroadkarter 05/29/2014 at 13:53

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How do you feel about crab cakes?

danjlove > For Sweden 05/29/2014 at 13:58

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Maryland crab cakes are great. Also if you cross the bay bridge and get some fresh crab with old bay it's outrageously good.

spanfucker retire bitch > danjlove 05/29/2014 at 13:58

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I guess the more you live in one place, the more annoyed you get at things that people who just visit or only live there shortly don't get too pissed off about.

Like how people drive the day of the very first snowfall. I swear my blood pressure goes up with the first dusting of snow, and how everyone forgets how to drive in a weather condition that happens - literally - every single year.

Oh, and Syracuse is a nice place. I don't visit very often, but the couple times I've gone there, it's always had a nice charm about it. Smaller than Buffalo or Rochester, so it's more relaxed.

Jedidiah > danjlove 05/29/2014 at 13:59

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I like the Cadillac in the background of some of the pictures. Very cool cars.

I thought Mavericks were made by Ford, not AMC.

Caspian Kilkelly > danjlove 05/29/2014 at 14:00

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These pictures are awesome.

danjlove > Caspian Kilkelly 05/29/2014 at 14:01

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Thank you!

danjlove > Jedidiah 05/29/2014 at 14:02

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Is that big wagon a Cadillac? I thought it might be. By god you're right. I saw the word "Maverick" and just thought of AMC because they were mavericks. Thanks.

chuck07 > danjlove 05/29/2014 at 14:42

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Get out of MoCo, HoCo and PettyGangstas County and there is a lot to see and the drivers are nicer. Slower, but nicer.

If you have time:

Katie's C&C in Great Falls, VA Saturdays - get there around 7AM

Downtown Annapolis C&C - Down by the Annapolis Harbor. Sundays 9pm

There are a couple others around that some oppos go to.

O'Malley has does what he can to get people to leave Maryland. Most of the mid-20's I grew up with are moving to DC or NoVa.

The Revengel > danjlove 05/29/2014 at 15:25

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Outstanding pictures.

Maryland's got it's advantages & disadvantages . . . but to each her/his own. Me? I love it here.

But the traffic, especially when snow shows up. I-NO-RITE?

The only defense is the constantly changing mix of people. Some from warm where they have no snow, others from cold where they deal with it all the time.

Again, great pics!

Kugelblitz > danjlove 05/29/2014 at 15:50

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I could say the same things about drivers around Benning, or Gordon, or Polk. So it goes. I have never enjoyed the traffic around Meade.

There is another cluster of iron that gathers out near Olney, too. I think in the afternoons on the weekends. Since I live out that way I am usually seeing the cars headed over to Burtonsville on Sunday as I am headed out for my regular Sunday morning thing.

danjlove > Kugelblitz 05/29/2014 at 18:50

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I've dealt with Benning, Bragg and Campbell traffic and they can be bad but not nearly as bad as here. It seems like every day I drive here I have several idiots to yell at, even if they can't hear me.

sellphones2493 > danjlove 05/29/2014 at 20:52

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Born and bred in Baltimore and go to school in Connecticut. The two states are rather similar because they're both little, rich, highly-educated backyard states (CT to NYC; MD to DC).

In terms of the drivers, you'll definitely get a worse group when you head towards the DC Area, due to the fact that everyone around there is mostly a transplant; you have numerous different driving styles meshing, which isn't a good thing.

I realized that our driver's even near the Baltimore Area aren't nearly as good as I originally thought. After driving in Connecticut for 2 Years, I would always bitch about how people suck at driving there. However, once I got onto 695 in Maryland, i realized that our driver's are just as bad, but I'm just used to it.

As for Cars & Coffee, I would definitely recommend coming up to the one in Hunt Valley, MD. I'm a Hunt Valley Native, and it's pretty much known as Horse Country of Maryland (it's where all the private schools are). There's a bunch of rich guys around here who are gearheads. Unlike DC Area, Northern Baltimore County has more down to earth people who, while spending a lot on cars, and actually know a thing or two about cars, aren't condescending pricks.

Here's the link to Hunt Valley Horsepower's FB Page:
https://www.facebook.com/HuntValleyHors…

These are a few cars I see around the area on a daily basis:
Samoa Orange Audi RS7 (I'm pretty sure it may be the only one in existence)

This is my neighbor's 911 - he tracks it every Sunday. His other car: 2007 Camry LE!

This is my other neighbor's Defender (the red one):

This is my Volvo - I don't have any pictures at Hunt Valley:

Stef Schrader > danjlove 05/30/2014 at 01:46

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Well, at least they picked THE RIGHT CAR!

Stef Schrader > danjlove 05/30/2014 at 01:47

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Love this photo.

danjlove > sellphones2493 05/30/2014 at 09:08

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Nice! Yeah I went to the big meet at Hunt Valley a month or two ago, when that happened. There was some really great stuff out there. I live in Columbia so it's a little hike but that show is bigger and fancier than Burtonsville. It seemed like it attracted some idiots, though, who were hot-rodding on the way in and out.

danjlove > Stef Schrader 05/30/2014 at 09:08

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Me too, long live the long roof.