US 50, coast to coast
By: Wulf Berg.
Edition: Limited Edition
Publisher: W. Berg Press
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Suffolk, Va. (P. O. Box 6060)
Language: eng
Subjects: City and town life -- United States.; Automobile travel -- United States.; United States -- Description and travel.; United States Highway 50.
First sentence: Day One of Our Journey

Ocean City, Maryland to Easton, Maryland:		137 miles

	It is 6:00 a.m. in the morning.  The wind is blowing.  I had to get my parka out to fight the environment.  It is a little drizzly.  I will walk to the Boardwalk.  No one is here at the beach; it is deserted.  Since it is so cold, the hotels are empty.  The beach resembles a sports stadium before a ball game.  Ready and waiting.  In the month of May, the tourists will come here and this place will be humming.  I hear that on weekends there are 300,000 people in Ocean City.  It is very congested at that time.  We always come here in the spring when we have this beautiful beach to ourselves.
	Ocean City is one of the few places along the Atlantic seashore where white sand and wide beaches are available.  We have walked this beach 10-15 miles, and you can go even farther than that.  You must come to Ocean City to see it for yourself.
	We now have a hint of sunlight above the ocean.  Right above the golden strip are black clouds.  The ocean is wild this morning.  The only other living things on this beach are five sandpipers that are trying to find a crab.  It is fascinating to watch a sandpiper.  As the waves go back, the sandpiper runs after them and in the retreating water pecks for small crabs.  Then comes the next wave. The sandpiper must run for its life, not to be swallowed by the water.  He just stays a hairline in front of the wave.  As soon as the wave recedes, he turns around and runs after it and pecks out his food.  This is repeated over and over.  The sandpiper stands approximately three inches tall and has very tiny legs.  You see these huge waves coming in, and the little sandpiper risking its life with every wave.  I have never seen a sandpiper swallowed by a wave.  This morning there still are no other people on the beach.
Description: Wulf Berg takes readers along on his journey from Ocean City, Maryland, to Sacramento, California, and back. Driving along Route 50 from coast to coast, he tells the reader what towns he passes through and what should be seen there. For fellow travelers who might want to take the same trip, or part of it, he advises them where to stay and where to eat.
He and his wife, Heide, rent a van for their once in a lifetime trip. Driving from one end of the country to the other, they learn to adapt to the small space, which is occasionally used for sleeping accommodations in lieu of motels. They also discover the first-time pleasures of camping.
Berg discovers in his journey the flavor of small town life and how townspeople have a sense of community and caring that is missing in large cities. He is often surprised at the friendliness and helpfulness of the people he and his wife encounter and laments that such neighborliness is not present in all areas of the country as it is in so many places along Route 50.

Nancy Powell
Staff Writer
Ocean City Today
Notes: About the Author

I, WULF BERG, was born in Cologne, Germany. My memories of World War II are limited to a few pleasant and a few traumatic experiences. After the war, I was fortunate to live with Swedish foster parents for one year. This spared me from many hardships and built a lifelong friendship with Sweden. In 1956, I immigrated to the United States. Since military obligation was a must in those days, I soon enlisted in the US Air Force. My first assignment was to Japan despite the fact that I had volunteered for Germany. Later assignments brought me tours to Germany. It was there that I married Heide, my wife. We have two children Cornelia Grace, born in Bitburg, Germany, and Roland David born in Laredo, Texas.
In 1978, I retired from military service. I attended Christopher Newport University and received a bachelor degree in information science. For the next fifteen years, I was employed by the Norfolk Naval shipyard. During my government career, I had many opportunities to travel in America and in many foreign countries. After of my first visit to Sweden at the age of nine, I have traveled to Asia, Australia and all the countries of Europe. This has given me a great appreciation for different cultures and sceneries.

The Route50.com  website entitled "US 50 Coast to Coast" represents extracts from my book "US 50, Coast to Coast".  US 50, Coast to Coast, is a numbered Limited Edition of five hundred copies. Each book is signed by the author to preserve its value as a family collector's item.