I’ve slacked off on the weekly updates in favor of a more ad hoc approach this year. Now feels like a good time to catch people up on where I’ve been… Mid-February I pulled out of Gainesville and went a whole 30 miles to Gold Branch State Park, which is about halfway between Gainesville and the coast. After been stationary for 2.5 months, I treated this as a shakedown cruise, struggling to remember hitching up then unhitching and setting up camp. tl;dr is that I figured it all out. I made it to the coast on my next stop, a…
Tuesday Trees: SC Redux
I’ve been in South Carolina for a month and in the South for six, and still the live oaks fascinate me. There really is nothing like them. I used to think redwoods were my favorite but these live oaks, well, they’re growing on me. On the far end of the beach, past the point where the dogs can go is the place where the plovers nest and where this remnant of a tree stands its ground. Last winter, this tree was covered with shells and small tokens that people had left over time, many of them mementos of people special…
Tuesday Trees: South Carolina
One of my photography projects this year is focusing on trees, and so here’s some of the trees of coastal South Carolina. Live oaks can be strange and wonderful and I’m mesmerized by the shapes they take. This hiking trail isn’t far from the beach, as you might guess by the sandy ground. All the trees on the left side along this part of the trail are slanted to the right, but I’ve no idea why. The image below is the same trees as the first shot, a few days later. The lighting and shadows make the trail a sort…
1000 Days of Vagabond Life
When I remember the very nervous and pretty clueless me that picked up that Alto 1743 trailer one thousand days ago from the Safari Condo showroom in Quebec, I really feel for her. I had never towed anything before, and despite much advice to try it first with a rental trailer or something from U-Haul, I didn’t do that. I was committed to this “full-timing in a trailer” thing, and I figured if I tried another trailer and it sucked, then I would lose my nerve entirely and I didn’t have a Plan B for that possibility. I’d work out…
The Shape of Trees
I pulled into the Hunting Island campground and made camp so quickly that it’s only the next morning I realized I didn’t put on the hitch lock, tuck away the electronics, or even fill up the water tank. Why the rush? After two hurricanes along this stretch of coast last fall, I was anxious to see if my favorite tree was still standing. I fairly flew down the beach, straining my eyes against the bright sun, hoping against hope it had withstood the onslaught of both Florence and Michael. Then, suddenly, there it was. The beach was thoroughly chewed up…




