Category: adventure

'scene' along the way, adventure, finding my way, nature, old dogs new tricks, photography, road trip, sky, travel, weather

Another January day…

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Did I say how gray and gloomy January is?  Well, it is, until it isn’t.  The sun was out and the sky was blue yesterday, and I found myself at the Cape Cod Canal searching for the vantage point for a picture I saw online the other day.  It was a sunset sky, with the Bourne Bridge in the foreground, and the uprights of the bridge framing a view of the old railroad bridge beyond it.  It was beautiful, but I believe I turned out to be on the wrong side of the canal for that shot.  I was using Google maps and had chosen a parking spot, but they had that access blocked, so I continued to the next place to park.  Then I had to climb down a steep trail, in the wrong shoes for a hike, and I was in woods that quickly made it seem that I was in the middle of no where.  I will have to ask my hiking friend about the wisdom of hiking alone.1-11-19canal21-11-19canal3

There was another set of steps to get down to the canal access road, which I had to myself.  Well, except for the sea gulls.  And I couldn’t see either bridge once I got down there.  But I was looking for the Bourne Bridge, and I knew it was somewhere to my right, so I started walking.1-11-19canal1And walking some more until I finally saw the bridge.  And still I walked.  And the closer I got the more I realized that the railroad bridge was probably a lot further away than the photo I’d seen had made it seem, and I began to worry about the fact that I had lost track of how many of the sets of steps I had passed (I had been counting but had lost track), and how would I know which set of steps would lead me to that climb through the woods to find the car?1-11-19canal4So I turned around to go back.  Hardly a hike by some people’s standards, but I think it turned out to be about 6 miles all together.  I will try again on another sunny January day.  I have flip-flops in the car in case of a pedicure emergency, so I will also leave a pair for hiking in the car so any and all photo emergencies will be covered.  And once I remembered that I could ask Siri where the car was I wasn’t as worried about finding my way through the woods. IMG_6692.png

Turns out I wasn’t alone after all…

adventure, blessings, finding my way, friends, leap of faith, life, life goes on, moments, old dogs new tricks, photography, road trip

A new day…

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Here we are with the first day of a new year stretching out ahead of us.  None of us knows what the year will bring, maybe good and maybe bad.  But the greatest joy of this year, and this particular time of my life, is that I don’t need to know what’s ahead.  And I don’t need a plan.  I’m willing to let each day dawn like a gift, and see what the year brings.  It’s a little scary, I’ll admit it, but it’s even more exciting.  Happy New Year!

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'scene' along the way, adventure, blessings, connections, courage, family, finding my way, friends, leap of faith, life, life goes on, memories, perseverance, photography, road trip, travel

New Year’s Eve…

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New Year’s Eve.  I’ve mostly ignored it, the hoopla and poopla I mean.  Never traveled or celebrated, or even considered it a holiday really.  I congratulated myself on being sensible, and not being out on the road and chancing the elements, or the other drivers.  And I never gave a lot of thought as to what the new year actually might have in store.  Never once considered the kinds of changes that 2014 had in store for me, even for those few years afterwards.  But this year is different.  For better or worse I’ve set a path for myself that may be unpredictable, but I know I can handle the bumps in the road.  And I’m looking forward to lots of happy times.  Now that the holidays are behind us I’m planning to light up my new year with the faces of friends that I haven’t seen in a long while.  And some that I have seen but will always need to see again.  It’s gonna be a very good year…12-29wareham.jpg

'scene' along the way, a second look, adventure, finding my way, nature, perseverance, photography, road trip, sky, travel

Dowses Beach…

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My trip along the water the other day brought me to a familiar place.  Over the summer I took my sister’s grandson here for a day of fishing.  In the summer you have to pay to park, but the ranger let me slide on the parking fee when I promised to take a few pictures and leave.  There was no one to give me permission today, and not much going on but a seagull on the railing.  It was so peaceful being out and about on my own today.  And I’m loving the light here.

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'scene' along the way, a second look, adventure, family, friends, home, life goes on, memories, perseverance, photography

Traveling

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Sometimes the word traveling means exactly what you would expect.  A journey from one place to another.  A journey such as my travels for the last few days.  But that journey also led me to a journey back in time.  As I skirted the DC area the route that the GPS had me on caused me to pass by my old neighborhood in Columbia, MD, where I lived for about 30 years.  This is the lake in my former backyard.  More of a lake than the little pond in the backyard of the FL house I’ve lived in for the last 10 years.  So I stopped for pictures, not a big surprise there.  Times have changed however, and there was a sign suggesting that you not leave valuables in your car, and my car was full of them, so I only wandered a little with Ozzie, and only took a few pictures.

But that little walk brought back so many memories.  Memories of walking around the lake with my kids.  It was 1.86 miles around, according to a painted on hash mark and notation on the bike path.  We walked with the kids, and a succession of dogs, four that I can think of.  Time passed and my son and his friend would take our inflatable raft out into the lake, and come back soaking wet, insisting that it just tipped over.  I saw them out there one day when I had the dog out however, and they were. falling off on purpose.  I was glad he was able to have those adventures, that was my attitude at the time, but by today’s standards I should probably be arrested.

Then there came the day that my son came home asking my permission to go ride his bike off a ramp and fly through the air into the lake.  “It’s supervised,” he insisted, “There are adults there.”  I said no, but it only took me a minute to decide that he probably wan’t going to be able to resist, and what the heck was going on anyhow?  So I put the dog on the leash as my excuse to go check on him, and sure enough, there were kids flying through the air with their bikes and landing in the water.  There was an adult there to retrieve the bikes, and everyone had matching tee shirts on.  And no, he didn’t get to do it.

One day at the end of the summer my son proudly brought me to se the tree house that he and a friend had built.  All built with scavenged wood from the construction in the neighborhood, or so he assured me.  When we got there I saw little short pieces of wood that created a stair of sorts up a VERY tall tree.  And the platform up there was small, and downright scary looking.  He was probably 14 or so, an awkward time in a kid’s life, and all along I was happy that he was happy and busy all that summer.  Now I was prepared to worry about all the potential disasters associated with it, but the condo association eventually got wind of it and tore it down.  I was relieved to not have to be the bad guy in that situation.

Eventually grandchildren came along, and we walked to the playground when they were little.  Even they got old enough for adventures.  Kara was walking on the rocks around the lake, which was man-made and in a planned community, and when her foot slipped between two rocks she disturbed a bee’s nest, and I could hear the screaming as she and her brother and a neighbor kid came running home.  Kara got the worst of it as I shampoo’d lots and lots of bees out of her scalp.  Why do I mostly remember the mis-adventures?

I lived in that house longer than I lived in my home town in Massachusetts, longer than I lived in New England.  And yet home, to me, is still New England.  I moved away from that neighborhood with all it’s fond memories, and never looked back.  I lived in lots of places in my life, Indiana, and California, and that house in Maryland.  But I never called a place ‘home’ in the same sense that New England was home to me.  And I’m so happy to be here right now…12-16Elkhorn212-16Elkhorn312-16Elkhorn4

adventure, family, finding my way, friends, fun, leap of faith, life goes on, old dogs new tricks, perseverance, photography, road trip

Serius, seriously…

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It seems like I’ve been on the cusp of heading north again for a very long time now. One box at a time, packed in one house and unloaded and put away at the other. Probably not the most efficient way to do things but it has cut down on the number of boxes I’ve needed.  It has seemed endless, but we are nearly ready to go, and it’s only six months since last time.  It had been two years before that and I was so homesick.  It was a wonderful visit, which explains why I turned my life upside down and decided to become a snowbird, with the mother of all road trips ahead of me.

My only complaint about that last trip was my frustration with the radio.  I’ve never bought music in any form, the radio was fine with me.  But on that trip I had a hard time finding a radio station, and I’d lose the station in no time flat.  And Ozzie isn’t much of a conversationalist so it was annoying.  Even after I got home it seemed like the stations I listen to play a little music (always the same play list) between obnoxious car commercials (“It’s HUGE”), and competing clinics that treat erectile disfunction.  But frustration with the radio is a thing of the past for me because I now have Serius XM radio, something I’d never been interested in before.  And it came complete with a nice comfy car, with lots of room for Ozzie and me, plus all the stuff we would like to tote with us.  Like cameras and dog toys.  I’m not great at traveling light, and Ozzie, well, he IS the elephant in the room, so more room for him.  I knew what car I wanted, but I was ‘just looking’ when I went into the dealership to see what they had.  Not the first dealership I’d been in to either, but somehow they shoo’d me out the door, sending me home with the new car and called it an ‘extended test drive’.  “Drive the car”, they said, “It’ll help you move,” they said.  It proved to be a good strategy because yes, I went back and bought the car.  One step closer…