I’ve always wanted to drive up Mt. Washington in New Hampshire. At 6288 feet, it’s the tallest mountain in the Northeast and the road up can be a white-knuckle ride at times. Just my style! I was here five years ago doing an ambulance photo shoot but the day I was going to drive the mountain, it was raining and zero visibility so I didn’t get to do it. I did, however spend the better part of a day with…
On August 18, I crossed the border from Canada to Calais, Maine and headed to the only lighthouse in the state that I still had on my wish list but had never made it this far north before. West Quoddy Head Lighthouse overlooks the Bay of Fundy and has the designation as being the easternmost point in the U.S. so you might be wondering why it’s named “West” Quoddy. It turns out, there’s an “East” Quoddy Lighthouse out in the…
I’m writing this post as we’re approaching the Christmas holiday season and I’m reminded of my experience while hiking on Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. On a couple of my hikes I was delighted to pass by pine trees that emitted a wonderful scent that brought me back to my youth when my parents always had a fresh cut Christmas tree. I would walk by a tree in the woods and have to stop for a moment, close my eyes and…
Being of Scottish descent, I’ve always wanted to visit Scotland but I doubt I’ll ever get there so I figured Nova Scotia was the next best thing. And I was right. I spent three days on the road, staying overnight at Walmarts and traveling from Quebec through New Brunswick and the mainland of Nova Scotia to get to Cape Breton. Cape Breton is the northern portion of the province and the northern-most portion of that is where I spent most…
My travels this summer have taken me mostly to places without Internet connections so I apologize for being behind in my blog posts. I still don’t have any connections at my current campsite but I’ve been able to take my laptop to the rec center and use the office WiFi. When I left Florida in July, I had a photography workshop booked in Quebec. I had just enough time for a weekend visit in New Jersey, staying at Turkey Swamp…
I traveled to Palm Beach County, Florida to establish new residency. I have a lot of family there and particularly, my youngest sister Barbara who lives with our 93-year-old father and is willing to get my mail at their house. There’s also no state income tax in Florida, which I see as a big plus when I start withdrawing money from my retirement account. My 401k contributions were not taxed when I earned them and if I don’t have to…
After my visit to Boone and Blowing Rock, North Carolina, I moved on to the Great Smoky Mountains that straddle the border of North Carolina and Tennessee. I stayed on the North Carolina side the entire time but hope to visit the Tennessee side at another time. I stayed three nights in River Valley Campground on the Cherokee Indian Reservation, just outside of the National Park. This was a wonderful campground with beautifully shaded pull-through sites. Mine was just a…
There was about five weeks between when I moved out of the house and my last day of work so I needed a place to go. The motorhome when to my contractor’s house while he built a custom computer desk and the cats and I went to my friend Claire’s house. She has a mother-daughter room with private entrance that worked out perfectly to bridge my housing gap. Friday, May 26, 2017 was my last day of work and four…
In June of 2015, I began planning my retirement and a dramatic new lifestyle of living full time in a motorhome so I could travel the country. With that came the decision to sell my home of 33 years and all its contents—a daunting task under any circumstance. At least I was doing it on my own terms and self-imposed deadline. I had an epiphany one day when I thought about how much I was spending on the mortgage, property…
By Lindsay Reed I began planning this adventure in June 2015 while I was reading Charles Kuralt’s America. My boss had given it to me because the cover photo was one of my favorite Maine lighthouses—Pemaquid Point—and I remembered enjoying the travel segments he did on CBS back in the early 70s. I’ve always loved to travel and road trips had become regular events in recent years as I explored my passion for photographing lighthouses all over the country. I…