Wynn Worlds

Vagabond photographer in an Alto trailer

Adventures

Love Letter to Site 11

Love Letter to Site 11

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There are 60 sites at Modoc Campground in South Carolina, and 59 of them have electricity. Site 11 does not. In the middle of a Southeastern summer, that would be a definite drawback. In Spring, though, it might be cold but with a good battery and a propane heater, you’d be all right. Every time I camped at Modoc, my heart wanted Site 11 but it was either too hot or someone else had reserved it before I could. Last week, I finally got it. Breeze and I went all in on Site 11 for five amazing days.

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Four Views and a Tornado Warning

Four Views and a Tornado Warning

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I was working on this post when my phone, sitting on the windowsill, made a huge rattle. Whee, tornado warning! Not what I had expected, given that the weather service had said my area was in one of the green/outlying bands for today. I threw stuff in my go-bag and took off for the bath house, the strongest structure in the campground, bar none.  An hour later, the tornado warning was called off, and all five of us in the bath house (six if you count the cat in the carrier, who could not have cared less what was going on outside) trooped back to our campsites. Just another day in the South in Springtime…

Before all that afternoon excitement, I took a walk around the closed loops to see what they were like. Much nicer, actually, than the open loop, because they’re farther away from the two-lane highway that abuts the campground and lake we’re on. I walked down by the boat launch and was captivated by the view of a sandbar with trees. The moisture in the air really softened it up and I also was using my Sol 45 lens, which ripples the edges of the image as well.

As part of the ongoing “let’s play” stuff I’m doing with my photography this year, I took one image and played with it in Adobe Lightroom to get four different moods. I’m not saying one is better than the other, they’re all good, just different.

The cover photo (look up at the top of this post) is the original view, straight out of camera (SOOC) and with just a bit of cropping to the left side. That’s view #1.

View #2 is that same image, but in black and white. I’ve got my camera set to to color RAW files and monochrome .jpg files, so it’s been fun seeing the difference between the two images the camera makes of the same scene. I edited this image a bit to make the contrast a bit better. It feels like a meditation moment to me.

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Old Gold Leaves

Old Gold Leaves

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Here in the northern forested hills of South Carolina, the leaves never fell off some of the trees last fall. Those dried out husks hung on all winter, waiting for something to happen but I’m not sure what. Now it’s the first week of Spring, and they haven’t let go yet. When the late afternoon sunlight hits them just right, they are beautiful.

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Sun Day

Sun Day

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Yesterday was technically Tuesday but after more than a solid week of greyness, it was also Sun Day. As a native Southern Californian, I grew up thinking sunshine was my birthright. I get just a bit cranky when I don’t have it for more than 4 days in a row. After 24 straight hours of rain on Monday, including thunder, lightning, wind, and a tornado that touched down 50 miles north of me, I was desperately in need of a change.

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Beach Walk

Beach Walk

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We’re in the middle of a pandemic, some of us locked down, others staying at home. Some just had a massive snowstorm, others had serious rains. We could all use a beach walk. So let’s go.

The tide is almost all the way out, so there’s plenty of sand to walk on. But the sun seems to be struggling to escape the low clouds, so we might not get that gorgeous sunrise today. That’s OK, it will come another day.

The rainstorm here yesterday stirred up the ocean a LOT so there are dozens and dozens of these sea stars on the sand. I can’t resist taking some photos of them “as is” on the sand. The surf has an artistic bent, it seems.

A lot of kelp and seaweed was uprooted by that same storm. I rarely see it on this beach but today are half a dozen chunks scattered around. I waited for the surf to gently caress this one.

And then, the BEST part of any beach walk for me, the pelicans. These three were so close I thought they might hear me calling to them. They soared on, heedless of my greeting. Pelicans are like that.

Why do I love pelicans so much? They are beautiful flyers. Just look at how close to the waves they get, and they can keep that distance for several seconds. I know they’re just doing what pelicans do, but to me, it’s always an amazing thing to watch. Seeing pelicans makes today’s beach walk that much more perfect.

Look, way out there, beyond the range of my iPhone camera: two dolphins surfacing once, twice, then a third time before they dive deep and I don’t see them again. Not every day you see dolphins from this beach.

Soon enough, the cold wind drives me back to my warm trailer, where I go through my photos and empty my jacket pockets of the treasures I’ve picked up.

None of my finds are more cool than this whelk egg casing. The mama whelk fastens the egg casing to the ocean bottom using that string-like thing you see at the left end. When the tiny baby whelks, no bigger than your smallest fingernail, are ready to be born, they make holes and escape into the cold, dark waters of the big ocean.

Some of those little whelks survive to adulthood, and then they repeat the cycle, making their own egg casings to carry on the line. There’s a lesson in that somewhere. I’ll let you decide what it is for you.

For one thing leads to another.

Soon you will notice how stones shine underfoot.

Eventually tides will be the only calendar you believe in.

Mary Oliver (To Begin With, The Sweet Grass)

Review: Longwood Park, VA

Review: Longwood Park, VA

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After a one-day delay waiting out the rain deluge that swamped Virginia, I headed out on Route 58 to Longwood Park, an Army Corps of Engineers campground on the western edge of Kerr Lake/Buggs Island. I do love driving Route 58. It is mostly two lanes each direction and not much traffic between towns so it’s pretty relaxing as far as towing goes.

Longwood is a smaller park than my previous Kerr Lake fave, North Bend. It’s closer to a road, but I didn’t notice that much traffic noise. I did notice much less campground noise 🙂 And my site was just a minute’s walk down to the water, so I was able to enjoy beautiful views like this sunset.

The fall colors were starting to show up, and combined with golden hour, made for some entrancing photography sessions for me.

While we could have launched kayaks from our site, it was easier to drive a short ways to the official boat launch and use their sandy beach.

For the first time since July, I camped with other people, my friends, Steve and Karen. Not only do they have a Ridgeline (like me), they also have the same Oru Kayaks as me (the Inlet model). We had a grand time paddling one sunny afternoon, appreciating the flat calm water, and enjoying each other’s company.

All good things must end, though, and Steve and Karen headed home after a week. Me, I stayed here 13 days in total. It was a great respite from doing much of anything, to be honest. I read a lot, stared at falling leaves, listened to the rain fall on the roof, and generally relaxed.

The town of Clarksville is about 10 minutes away, which was convenient for the myriad number of errands I needed to run. And the laundry I needed to do. I was relieved to find the laundromat almost deserted, but I still wore a mask the whole time. And, nice surprise, the town offers free wifi, so I did a little surfing while my clothes were getting clean. Not many towns offer free wifi, so this was a pleasant surprise.

The only drawback to Longwood is a lack of hiking trails. This is a park meant for boaters, and almost everyone except us had boats on trailers or hardshell kayaks. I did a lot walking the three campground loops, but it did get boring after the first week.

Still, a small, quiet campground on a lake, a senior discount with the National Parks pass, and a nearby town with good supplies equals a good location for me. USACE does campgrounds right.

LONGWOOD PARK (USACE)

  • Site 44 (water/electric) was close enough to the water to see great sunsets. In cooler weather, I’d go for the non-electric loop sites 34-37. Site 35 is huge; site 36 has a little beach spot where a couple of chairs would fit nicely. Water/electric sites with good water access: 59-61. Reserve at recreation.gov.
  • Services: electric/water, one dump station, bath houses with showers and toilets. Aluminum can recycling only 🙁
  • Decent Verizon signal. Great Verizon and ATT in Clarksdale
  • Groceries: 10 minutes to the Food Lion in Clarksdale. The town has gas, CVS, hardware store, a farm market in the Dollar Store parking lot (those pies!), a laundromat (use the one on Route 15) and even a McDonalds.

And later, if I ever felt that I was getting swept away by the craziness of being in a band, well, I’d go back to Virginia.

Dave Grohl

Snapshots from the Blue Ridge

Snapshots from the Blue Ridge

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When I was growing up, the phrase “Blue Ridge Mountains” somehow sounded magical to me. Now that I’ve wandered up and down the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Blue Ridge Mountains, it still makes me smile to see that phrase on a sign. Maybe it’s my personal version of the Magic Kingdom.

Today’s post, then, features images I’ve taken this summer that didn’t make it into any earlier post.

This type of fence is all over the mountains and I haven’t met one yet that I didn’t want to take a picture of. The more weathered the wood, the better. And the lushness of the hillside, even in late August, is definitely magical to someone like me, who grew up with dried brown hillsides and desert landscapes.

I sent this photo to my horse-loving friend, Sue, and then felt it deserved a wider audience. Those horses sure have the life, out in the warm sun on a beautiful day.

When I pulled off the Parkway to visit friends in southern Virginia a few weeks ago, it was haying season. I had fun taking way too many photos of hay bales in the late afternoon sun. In the end this tractor sitting in the field was the one I liked best.

Across from the small post office in Roan Mountain, Tennessee, this old store building stands. Long deserted, it has much lonely company in small towns up and down the parkway. The pandemic has hit those towns hard. I worry what will survive.

One of the places closing down is the old hardware store in Floyd, Virginia. We checked out the remaining goods on offer, but it was this rack of rakes and shovels outside that caught my eye.

Small towns and two-lane roads are the heart of the Blue Ridge Parkway. I’ve been lucky to have spent the last three years driving and exploring it. Despite the economic challenges this area faces, I still think it’s a magical stretch of America.

It is probably a pity that every citizen of each state cannot visit all the others, to see the differences, to learn what we have in common, and come back with a richer, fuller understanding of America – in all its beauty, in all its dignity, in all its strength, in support of moral principles.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Far From Home: Trier, Germany

Far From Home: Trier, Germany

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How, you might ask, did I end up in the city of Trier, Germany one day in July of 2016? Well, I was in Luxembourg, my afternoon was free, and Trier was a 45-minute drive. The novelty of driving less than an hour to get to a completely different country was part of the attraction, too. I grew up in LA, where you can drive for an hour and you’re still in LA!

Trier is in the Moselle wine-making region, so the drive was beautiful: rolling hills covered with trees or grapes on both sides of the road. Before too long, I was on the outskirts of Trier. Another person might have scouted the city for tourist things to do, but not me. I just parked the car and started walking.

It was market day! What a great introduction to a new city. It seemed like the whole population was out in the sunshine, enjoying the day. Coffee shops were doing great business and window shopping the small shops lining the square was another popular activity. I checked out the goods on offer, but since I was getting on a plane the next day with an already stuffed suitcase, I didn’t buy anything.

When the crowds got to be a bit too much, I wandered off down a side street or two, fascinated by the architecture as well as the variety of shops, from antique to tourist postcards and everything in between. Most of the shopkeepers spoke enough English I could chat with them a bit (let’s be honest, my German is non-existent, sorry, Sina!)

I’m always looking for cathedrals when I’m in Europe. When I spotted that tall steeple, I changed course and headed in that direction, admiring the buildings and the curving streets along the way. Those winding roads, though, meant it was a 15 minute “where the heck did it go?” excursion rather than the “looks like it’s right there” five minutes I thought it would be. Lesson learned, city streets can be confusing without a map or a data plan on your phone!

The Cathedral of Trier is actually the oldest church in Germany. Part of the nave was made of Roman brick in the early 4th century, and a bit of that is visible from outside the building. The cathedral been added on to repeatedly since then, giving it quite a mix of styles. Not too often do you see squarish Romanesque naves with Gothic vaulting. I wandered around for quite a while, looking at all the stonework. And the organ pipe installation was pretty darned interesting too (on the left side below).

I headed back out into the sunshine and caught the other end of the open-air market winding down. A few stops and photos later, I retrieved my rental car and headed back to Luxembourg. Rather than being tired after two weeks of working in Europe, I was energized by an afternoon spent in another country, exploring the charms of a new city.

Want to know more about Trier? Check it out on Wikipedia (link)

More about Trier Cathedral on Wikipedia (link)

One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things. 

Henry Miller

Far From Home: Luxembourg Dining

Far From Home: Luxembourg Dining

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The first time I flew into Luxembourgh, on a tiny prop plane from Dublin, another employee suggested a dinner for the five of us who had just met. A day later, I received an email inviting us to an Italian restaurant two nights hence.

We all met in our hotel lobby on the appointed evening, then walked down the winding streets to a small whitewashed house on the Alzette River. We had arrived at Mosconi.

Restaurant Mosconi is the white house on the far right.

When my co-worker said “Italian restaurant,” I had not expected Michelin one-star dining! It was a magical evening. The food was a series of small, incredibly delicious delights. The chef provided amuse-boche (link to what that is) to keep us entertained between courses, the wine was excellent, and the service (our own waiter!) was flawless. As we wandered back to our hotel a few hours later, completely satiated, I thought the Michelin-rated restaurant would be a once in a life time experience.

I was wrong. A few years later, I mentioned to a Luxembourg coworker with how much I had enjoyed dining at Mosconi. His eyes lit up! Oh, he said, we must try another one. You must have something to compare it to! And that’s how I found myself at ma langue sourit the next afternoon.

This time, I knew to take my time and fully appreciate the experience. We arrived at 1PM and didn’t make our exit until 4:30PM, and that only because I had a rental car to return and a plane to catch. This time, I remembered to take pictures, so I could later recall everything about this amazing afternoon.

First, the wine. I think we had two bottles of it over the course of the meal. My coworker grew up in the local wine country, so I let him select the bottle. It was fun listening to him and the waiter debating the merits of the wines on offer, in a mix of German, French, and Luxembourghish. The wine was silky smooth and quite delicious!

This multilingual conversation continued throughout the afternoon as we ordered various dishes, with both host and waiter working hard to translate into English for my benefit.

I have no idea what was actually *in* the starter I ordered but it was a complete delight to my taste buds. So many different, delicate flavors. And that frothy, light brown sauce? As the plate was set before me, the waiter gently poured it out around the food, ending with a small flourish. No idea what *that* was but I had to suppress the urge to lick the platter when I was done!

As the waiter went through the main courses, the one with risotto caught my interest. I love a good risotto and it had to be excellent at a Michelin-rated place, no? The problem was that despite the English menu, I couldn’t figure out what the other ingredient was. Four languages and about 10 minutes of discussion later, I still didn’t know, but I ordered the selection anyways, figuring the risotto alone would be worth it.

When it arrived, the mysterious word became quite clear: octopus. Hmm. Never had it before. And I may never have it again because I became completely spoiled by how tender and juicy this one was. Oh, my! I ate so slowly, trying to make it last forever: a tiny bite of octopus, a few grains of risotto, then a sip of wine. By this point, I had lost all track of time. Thank goodness I had set my phone to alarm me at 4:00 so that we had a good 30 minutes to make our exit.

I did forget to take a photo of the sparking wine we had with the amazing dessert plate. Oh, my, everything on this jet-black platter was bite-size and completely delicious. From sour to sweet, bitter to salty, this small selection had every single taste bud covered.

See that caramel square in the middle of the bottom row? My host generously let me have it since there was only one. I literally did not speak for five solid minutes, letting it melt slowly on my tongue. I can still remember how impossibly creamy and slightly salty it was. Best. Caramel. Ever.

The name “ma langue sourit” translates to “my tongue smiles” in English. The story goes that the chef’s daughter said that after eating something he had given her. I had to agree: my tongue was still smiling as I fell asleep that night.

I think fine dining is dying out everywhere… but I think there will be – and there has to always be – room for at least a small number of really fine, old-school fine-dining restaurants.

Anthony Bourdain

Read more about Mosconi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosconi_(restaurant)

Read more about ma langue sourit:  Michelin Guide (Note: It holds two stars as of 2019, but it had only one at the time of my visit in 2015.)

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