Skip I-95 for a more leisurely trip on Route 301. Photo by Famartin

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Interstate highway 95 between Wash­ington, D.C., and Richmond, Virginia, is notorious for its near-constant conges­tion. Flanked by monstrous heavy-duty trucks, white-knuckled drivers must nav­igate the notorious Occoquan bottleneck, often through construction zones.

I prefer the less ulcer-generating Route 301 from Maryland through Virginia’s Northern Neck peninsula. Stretching from Delaware to Florida, the highway passes through small towns, bucolic countryside and many historic sites.

Lincoln history

For an interesting start, begin in Wal­dorf, Maryland, at Dr. Samuel Mudd’s farm. There, the doctor treated President Abraham Lincoln’s fleeing assassin, John Wilkes Booth, and set his broken leg bone. Most of the furnishings in the 1830s farmhouse are original from 1859 to 1911, including the bed where Booth slept.

Route 301 generally tracks Booth’s at­tempted escape. You can follow Booth’s route south to Port Tobacco, Maryland, where he bought a wagon.

Much earlier, in 1608, Captain John Smith encountered the indigenous vil­lage of Potopaco here, and English set­tlers later anglicized the name. By 1729, Port Tobacco was a thriving Colonial town with a tobacco inspection station, exporting the product to England. During the Revolutionary War, “It was a happening place,” historian Alison Bode told me. “Baltimore was nothing then.”

Visitors can tour three of Port Tobac­co’s remaining 18th-century buildings: a replica of the 1727 courthouse, Stagg Hall and the restored Burch House. Stagg Hall, built in 1766, was a store sell­ing British goods, like candles, fabrics, dishes and sugar, all on display today. The Burch House, home of Henrietta and Washington Burch, a prominent Black bailiff, has a striking white exterior of milk paint.

Today’s motorists cross the Potomac River on the Harry Nice Bridge, a much easier feat than Booth’s erratic paddle in the dark of night. Confused, he ulti­mately ended up near Port Royal, Vir­ginia, at the Garrett Farm, where he died from a gunshot wound. Today, a roadside Virginia historical marker titled “Where Booth Died” stands near the former farm just south of Route 17.

In King George, Virginia, stop by the Dahlgren Heritage Museum, which showcases U.S. Navy history. There I learned about inventions conceived, pro­duced and tested at Dahlgren during the last century, like a Norden bombsight, which sat in the nose of World War II planes and calculated a bomb’s drop point.

“Engineers come up with a gizmo to solve a problem,” Mike Barker, a retired base physicist and volunteer, told me.

Off the beaten path

There’s more history at Belle Grove Plantation in King George. Built in 1791 on the Rappahannock River and the birthplace of President James Madison, the mansion is now a bed and breakfast.

The property smacks of the plantation-era Old South; 275 people were enslaved here. But its current owners have given the place an offbeat spin: tea and bingo with an Elvis impersonator and paranor­mal workshops.

Quirky Americana greets travelers in Port Royal, Virginia. A roadside dino­saur, bear and tin man looming alongside Route 301 lured me in. I explored oodles of paraphernalia in Port Royal’s three an­tique shops: the Trading Post, the Min­now Bucket and the General Store, all crammed with miscellany from multiple dealers.

At the Port Royal Museum, I absorbed more history, studying fossilized poop likely from a crocodile-like animal, as well as the more modern White House china dishware collection from multiple U.S. presidents, one of the largest of these collections anywhere. The small museum also displays Civil War weapons and Confederate money.

Home cooking

Horne’s Restaurant & Gifts at the in­tersection of routes 301 and 17 is irresist­ible. It is a 1950s throwback with a for­mica counter, stools and booths and a hodgepodge of “novelties, sundries and gifts” like Virginia peanuts, plush toys, suncatchers, rabbits’ feet, magnetic bracelets, wind chimes, coconut maca­roons, gum drops and candy cigarettes, for example.

“All the food is good. It’s real home cooking,” Karen Arnest, who lives near Hornes, told me. Another local recom­mended country-fried steak, beef liver and onions, meatloaf and the Virginian: quail with slab of country ham. “It’s a good place to sit, talk and eat,” he said. I bought some honey jalapeno bacon jam when I was there and moved on.

The 10-mile drive through the Army’s Fort A.P. Hill near Bowling Green is a peaceful stretch with only towering oaks, sycamores and pines as distractions, a good time to recoup from the stimulation of Horne’s.

Civil rights history

Next, I explored Caroline County, home to Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple who married in 1958. They were arrested and convicted of violating Virginia’s 1924 Racial Integrity Act banning interracial marriages. To stay together and avoid prison, they left Virginia but won their right to be mar­ried and return to their hometown after their historic win in the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967.

In February, three sites here associ­ated with the Lovings became part of the U.S. Civil Rights Trail: the jail, sheriff’s office and courthouse.

Caroline County proudly touts its famous “native son,” the champion thor­oughbred Triple Crown winner race­horse, Secretariat. Today fans can visit his foaling shed at The Meadow (now called The Meadow Event Park). In the visitors center, I watched videos of his three famous races under the skeleton of a Miocene baleen whale found in 1990 in the Carmel Church quarry.

Restored tavern, antiques

Take a break at one of America’s oldest taverns, Hanover Tavern in Hanover, to sip Martha Washington’s favorite libation, Cherry Bounce. Originally built in 1733 on a former stagecoach route across from the courthouse, the tavern was the center of 18th- and 19th-century social life.

Today the renovated building is a 155-seat theater and restaurant serving corn fritters, fried green tomatoes and Virginia oysters. Tavern-goers can see the cage bar, typical of those in the 18th century, de­signed to keep people from stealing liquor.

As 301 approaches Richmond, you’ll find more antique stores, including the West End Antiques Mall on Staples Mill Road with 250 booths of furniture, art and collectibles.

I ended my sojourn in Richmond, home to many excellent museums, in­cluding the free Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Valentine and the Poe Museum.

I got some rest in Richmond’s Quirk Hotel, a 1916 dry goods store with a sunny lobby of soaring arches and large windows. The hotel is convenient for ex­ploring on foot the city’s famous Broad Street, restaurants, shops and sites like the Virginia Repertory Theatre, the Mag­gie Walker statue, the Elegba Folklore Society and the Institute for Contempo­rary Art.

Snug in my Richmond hotel, I was grateful that I had avoided the headaches of Interstate 95 by taking Route 301.