If the first year or so of my vagabond life was all about hitting the road and seeing the sights, this year was all about connecting with friends and meeting new ones. I stepped out of my comfort zone twice in a big way, for a writers conference in March and an RV women-only gathering in May, and both gave me friends and laughter and connections that continued long after the weekends were over. I camped with friends more this year, from South Carolina and North Carolina to Tennesee and Indiana, and to Colorado, British Columbia, and Washington. In Pennsylvania…
Month: November 2019
Sunday Serenity: Redwood Cathedral
There are sacred spaces built by humans: the ancient ruins at Stonehenge, the majesty of Chartres Cathedral in France, the great Pyramids of Giza. And then there is Earth’s cathedral: the soaring heights of trees in forest, creating a canopy of shelter lifted skyward by massive limbs and the trunks that support them. Photographs cannot truly capture what it is like to walk among the California Redwoods, completely alone, the forest silent except for late-season birds and the sound of my footsteps meandering down the narrow dirt trail. I crane my neck up at every bend, the trees soaring so…
Closing the Loop
I made it back to Kalaloch this fall, the campground where I started my full-timing vagabonding three years ago on September 1, 2016. So much has happened in that three years that trying to write about it has kind of stopped me in my tracks. I can use my campsites then and now as a metaphor. The first campsite was tiny and dark, with my shiny new Alto 1743 tucked under a tree, in a site barely long enough to fit trailer and Subaru Outback 3.6R without jutting into the narrow road. I spent a lot of time worrying about…
Coasting Along in Oregon
The southernmost coast of Oregon, that stretch right above the border with California, is one place I hadn’t explored before so I corrected that oversight last week on a day trip through as many day use places as I could cram into one trip. I took along my Sony A7 (aka “the big camera”) with an old-school, heavy-glass, all-manual Minolta lens bolted on. The lens was my Dad’s back in the day, and it kinda sorta works with the electronics on the Sony, but I have to pay attention to the exposure and then focus carefully on each shot because…
Beauty in Barnacles
You might think barnacles aren’t much too look at, but I hope today’s post makes you change that idea. This is a series of three images, each one focusing closer on the subject of today’s post: barnacles. Yes, the lowly Arthropoda Crustacea Maxillopoda Thecostraca, the bane of sailors and harbormasters. This flat rock sits at the high tide line, which is clearly marked by the thick band of white barnacles near the sand. I loved this rock so much I hiked out the second day with a better camera to take this image. Move closer to that white band and…