Crain Memorial is one of Maryland's two welcome centers in which the restrooms are within the same structure as the information lobby. The design of the Bay Country Welcome Center in Centreville on the Eastern Shore is identical to Crain Memorial. Located in Queen Anne's County, Bay Country, by coincidence, is also situated on U.S. 301 – 15 miles north of U.S. 50.

An open breezeway separates the restrooms from the lobby. As a result, the percentage of travelers who use the restroom and then go into the actual visitor center is higher – about 50 percent, Clay says – than other welcome centers.

Clay tells you she's originally from Baltimore. She came to Waldorf in 1986 when her husband was transferred there for his job. After several years in Charles County, she saw a newspaper ad for a position at the welcome center and figured it would be a good fit – she likes working with the public and traveling. ("Now I know how to do it right," she says.) In Baltimore, she had worked for 10 years at the Enoch Pratt Free Library – "at all of the branches," she says – and for 10 years at J.C. Penney.

The center employs three counselors – Clay, Scott Crane and Mary Lewis – along with a maintenance staff. Volunteers also work at the center. Gayle Kimmel, 81, who worked at the center for 17 years until she retired a year ago, is one of the volunteers. "Now she (Kimmel) can come in when she feels like it," Clay says.

Crane is also from Baltimore. He moved to Charles County in 1994, he says, when he was working for Pitney Bowes in Washington, D.C. He has been at the center for nearly two years. Lewis has worked there for about 10 years.

Crane (who was not hired solely on the basis of his name, you learn) says the four most popular destinations for travelers coming through the center are: Annapolis/Anne Arundel County; Garrett County; Ocean City; and Baltimore City. Garrett's appeal, he says, is Deep Creek Lake.

Destination Maryland in demand
Those travelers interested in Garrett County are sometimes "getting information for their next trip," Clays says to you. Or, it's because they "like to dream" about the allure of a lake resort in the mountains.

The center orders 10 cases a month, or 360 copies, of Destination Maryland (an annually produced travel guide for the entire state) each month, Clay says. Crane adds that the Maryland Calendar of Events (a month-by-month descriptive listing of events throughout Maryland) is also in demand at the center.

Bicycle maps, fishing guides, golf guides, and bay and river guides are hot items during the summer season, Crane says, before he goes over to a traveler. You see him return a few minutes later and ask Clay where the visitor can find a "Maryland, you are beautiful scarf." She tells him to suggest the gift shop at St. Clement's Island Museum.

"A lot of people come in and want souvenirs," Clay says. "We get requests for post cards and (collectable) thimbles." They want Maryland items, she adds, and "there's mostly D.C. stuff in the stores."

Clay tells you about another type of visitor. "We're surrounded by military bases," she says. She lists Patuxent Naval Station, Andrews Air Force Base and two naval research centers – Indian Head and Dahlgren (Va.) –as places that the center gives brochures to.

She then opens up a Maryland Civil Trails brochure in front of you. It highlights the doomed escape route of John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Abraham Lincoln. Booth navigated his way through Charles County after fatally shooting the president at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C.

Pointing to Charles County's western peninsula, she references several celebrated natives: Thomas Stone, John Hanson and Matthew Henson. She discusses them. Stone was one of the four Marylanders who signed the Declaration of Independence. Hanson was the president of the U.S. Continental Congress, which made him, in some views, the nation's first president.

Henson was the African-American explorer who was actually the first to step foot on the North Pole, she says. Henson worked with Admiral Robert Peary who led the expedition. Evidently, Perry was either ill or hurt, she explains, so Henson went ahead the day the explorers approached their destination at the top of the globe.

And, near Port Tobacco, she says, is St. Ignatius Catholic Church – the oldest continuously active parish in the United States. Father Andrew White established the church in 1641. White was one of the first English settlers who sailed up the Chesapeake and arrived at St. Clement's Island aboard the Ark and the Dove in 1634. The newcomers were the founders of Maryland.

"People like these kind of facts," Clay says to you, adding that she picked up numerous historical tidbits while moonlighting as a tour conductor aboard a trolley car that Charles County unveiled last summer.

Repeat business
Clay also mentions that Crain Memorial attracts a high percentage of repeat business. Among this group of travelers are New Englanders who prefer to take 301 South on their way to Florida. A wave of them will come through the center in April, she says, and a second wave will pass through in October.

During football season, Clay says a more enthusiastic group of travelers – Washington Redskins fans from Virginia and farther south – will arrive at the center early on Sundays en route to tailgating parties at Redskins home games in Landover.

Right now, it's St. Patrick's Day season at Crain Memorial. This, of course, follows Valentine's Day season when hearts and red and white candies were conspicuous at the center. You wouldn't expect less.

In May, Tourism Week will be spotlighted. Clay talks about the annual open house she hosts during that week. "We have a terrific Tourism Day," she says. She invites 25-30 Southern Maryland restaurants, hotels and attractions to set up tables at the center.

Maryland's 375th anniversary is also prominent at Crain Memorial. Clay has showcased St. Mary's County among the displays at the center. She also has stocked a publication that offers discounts and savings for travelers who patronize a variety of merchants and attractions in St. Mary's County.

"I work with the three DMOs," Clay says of her ties with the tri-county region. She is also a member of the Southern Maryland Tourism and Travel Committee, and several other area tourism groups. You realize that Clay likely knows as much about what to do in Southern Maryland as anyone.

The rain outside has started again. As you leave the center, Clay hands you a green sheet with a well-known Irish blessing for travelers. Indeed, the rain does fall softly.

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