52 Frames: Abstract

Posted on by Annie

The last few years, I’ve participated in a group called 52 Frames, which runs a weekly photography challenge by giving us a word or concept to explore during the week, then you submit your best image to the group by Sunday night. Last week’s challenge was Abstract so I decided to have some fun with the iPhone and an app called Slow Shutter. I stood on a bridge over the Russian River and looked westward. I walked around the campground, a bit east of the bridge and found another good composition. The sunshine on the hills across from me lit…

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Vagabond Life: Having a Plan B

Posted on by Annie

I read somewhere that pilots of small planes are always on the lookout for where they could land in an emergency: a country road, an open field, or similar spots. The last few weeks, I’ve felt a bit like that, changing plans as the weather has changed (from bad to worse…) as I travel down the west coast. I thought it might make an interesting post to talk about changing things when Plan A doesn’t quite work out, so I’ll cover two situations here. Situation 1: Campsite Woes The spot looked great on the website when I was making the…

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Grateful: 2019 Edition

Posted on by Annie

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…

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Sunday Serenity: Redwood Cathedral

Posted on by Annie

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…

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Closing the Loop

Posted on by Annie

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…

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