CUMBERLAND, MD., is not what most people would call a bucket-list destination. Set on the banks of the Potomac River, it offers pleasant-enough diversions. A quaint, pedestrian-only strip of local businesses. A vintage steam engine that shuttles sightseers into the Allegheny Mountains.
But the Taj Mahal, this is not. Still, when I think ahead to when I’ll kick the proverbial bucket and the travel experiences I’ll remember most, it is a scorching summer afternoon in a mostly unremarkable town that rises to the surface—not the first time I glimpsed the magnificent mausoleum in Agra.