Travelers

One person was taken to the hospital after an accident involving two tractor-railers in the parking lot of the Pilot Travel Center on Greencastle Pike on Tuesday afternoon, Trooper Charles Faith of the Maryland State Police said. The accident has not affected traffic on Greencastle Pike. A tractor-trailer turning into a parking spot collided with the front of a tractor-trailer already in a parking spot, Faith said. The driver of the tractor-trailer that was hit was taken to Meritus Medical Center, Faith said.

Grace Academy's Kim Hay and her AP human geography class attended the American Foreign Policy Conference presented by the Baltimore Council on Foreign Affairs on Feb 3. Students from Maryland secondary schools were briefed on topics such as the global economy, the Arab awakening and China's global reach by experts from the U.S. State Department. The students gained insight into the world economy and its effect on the economy of the U.S., as well as possible short- and long-term effects and resolutions.

Charles Town native Martha Manuel was with four friends Friday night as they made their way in the dark from the third level to the lifeboats to escape the stricken Italian cruise liner Costa Concordia off Tuscany, her father said Monday. On Tuesday, Italian media said five more bodies have been found aboard the ship, raising the official death toll to 11. Before the latest find, 29 people, including two Americans, from the cruise ship were still missing. Manuel, 29, is the daughter of Dale and Anne Manuel.

Three years ago, artist, photographer and author Lee Scott began building a world, he said. Nestled in his Greencastle, Pa. basement, his world was small, scaled to a fraction of actual size. Extending in an L-shape, its surface was an expanse of rising, hand-crafted landscapes, waterfalls, rocks and lakes. Miniature buildings, bridges and more than 400 vehicles - cars and trucks - peppered the display that was traversed by  model trains. And when it was brought to life with numerous buttons and switches, the air bore a slight but pungent odor of a hot transformer punctuated by the rhythmic chug and whoosh of the circling trains.

Like all 20 of Washington County's volunteer fire companies, Western Enterprise Fire Co. receives tens of thousands of dollars a year in public funding. Unlike the rest, however, the volunteer fire company in the big brick building in Hagerstown's West End has enough money to go to conventions every year, to subsidize at least one tour bus trip, to pay a nonprofit group to run its gaming operation, to pay three of its top officers, and to contribute to neighborhood charities. How the volunteer-owned Western Enterprise does all that while staying debt-free and earning more than $25,000 on its cash and investments last year while most other local fire companies struggle financially, isn't easy to explain.

It took a blast-proof miner's lamp, at least two plane flights and two road trips, a crate, a bucket and bungee cords to bring the Peace Light to Hagerstown. For Mike Mittel, the Boy Scouts official who drove the light from Reedsville, Pa., to Hagerstown this week, bringing the light to Hagerstown "means a lot to me, knowing that there is something tangible that we have from the nativity of the birthplace of Jesus," he said Thursday. The Peace Light originated with a flame that for more than 1,000 years was kept lit in the grotto in Bethlehem, Israel, where Jesus is said to have been born, and serves as a physical reminder of the reason for the Christmas season, according to a news release from the Mason-Dixon Council of Boy Scouts of America.

The rain that drenched the Tri-State area earlier this week was expected to move out of the region and offer smooth sailing for the Thanksgiving holiday. Trina Heiser, a weather technician with the National Weather Service, said the worst motorists could expect was isolated showers Wednesday night. “The rain is done now,” she said. “I don't know how it's going to bother traveling.” Heiser said the forecast calls for sunny skies from Thanksgiving Day until Sunday, when there will be a 40 percent chance of rain in the evening.

Members of Hagerstown Council No. 311 of United Commercial Travelers of America recently presented a check for $1,000 to Washington County Special Olympics.

The Kiwanis Club of Hagerstown begins its 37th season of the Travelogue Series with "Hawaii, the Pacific Paradise" on Wednesday, Oct. 19. The program, at South Hagerstown High School auditorium, begins at 7:30 p.m. Presenter John Wilson will lead the program through the islands of Oahu, Maui, Hawaii, Kauai, Molokai and Lanai. The series is a community-service project of the Kiwanis Club. Season tickets for the six-program series cost $30 for adults and $12 for students. Single admission tickets are sold at the door on show nights.

A fire Wednesday morning totally destroyed a travel trailer and two sheds in River Bend RV Park along the Potomac River in Berkeley County, Hedgesville Volunteer Fire Department Chief Mike Nichols said. An addition to the trailer also was destroyed and two nearby trailers and an outbuilding in the RV park at 3247 Vineyard Road also received heat and fire damage, Nichols said. No one was injured. The owners, whom Nichols said were from Frederick, Md., were not there when the fire started.