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Chesapeake Float ~ Deal Island

Deal Island Skipjack in Wenona Harbor 

 

It’s only 10 miles from Crisfield to Deal by water, but it will take most of an hour to drive there. The edges of the shore are deeply frayed. Water and land trade places back and forth so often it’s hard to tell which is which. To get around the ingresses of water, you have to go miles inland all the way to 13, make a short jog north, then one turn and head back out again. On the way, you cross over broad expanses of beautiful open marshes, places not quite land and not quite water.

 

 

 

The place names here have a curious history of their own. On the way to Deal Island is Dames Quarter, where we’ll launch later today. The original name was Damned Quarter or Quarter of the Damned. Deal Island, not far beyond, was originally Devil’s Island. The grim names allude to a time when they were havens for some very rough characters who preyed on shipping up and down the Bay. Appropriately enough, the only thing separating The Devil from The Damned is a place called Chance.

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Spring

Robin Eggs

 

Terri repainted the porch ceiling. In the South, it’s traditional to do that with Sky Blue paint, always. The theory I heard is wasps won’t build nests in the sky. Coincidence or causation, the porch remains wasp free.

There are, however, always birds. House wrens, mockingbirds, cardinals, and robins all flock to the front porch, and the wisteria that shades it.

A robin built a nest too close to the door, and abandoned it to all the coming and going.

A good color for eggs. No wasps in the bird nest, either.

 

 

 

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Epic Road Trip ~ the Full Time Lapse

direct youtube link

music links:

Finally had a chance to pull this together. It’s pretty cool to see the whole thing – 3000 miles and four days of driving compressed into about 21 minutes. Any faster and everything becomes a blur. Any slower and it starts to feel like doing the drive all over again. If your web connection will support it, you’ll definitely want to watch it large in HD. Go to the Youtube Link if you have to.

It’s a big country, with much to see. The camera rig and software used to record the trip preserved each frame as a full resolution photo on the iPhone – over 21,000 of them. Many, many individually are simply stunning. Those will fly by like the others, flashing on the screen for 1/12 of a second.

It’s amazing how sensitive memory is to vision. Almost four months later all but the most generic late night road images still bring back immediate recall of that part of the trip. Played at speed in sequence, some significant events go by so fast they are all but invisible – the train wreck, for instance. Others – the ground blizzard in Wyoming, the dust storm in Oregon with tumbleweeds darting across the road – are more prolonged, but far more brief and beautiful than treacherous. The smooth animation belies hours of white knuckle driving endured in real time.

I confess to cheating a bit. To have mercy on less engaged viewers, the long, grey, monotonous drive through winter-dismal Missouri has been accelerated by 400%. Trust me, this is a good thing. Sorry, Missouri. Most of the night driving has been sped up, as well. Otherwise, it’s all here.

Enjoy.

 

 

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Epic Road Trip ~ Hood River

 The Columbia River Gorge

 

Emily is up before dawn. The car, she’s relieved, is intact, but she’s out in the rain in pajamas feeding the parking meter. This so we don’t get ticketed or towed before breakfast. And we do want breakfast. And coffee.

 

 

 

 

 

One last leg, just a couple of hours driving, backtracking a bit up the Columbia to Hood River, will finish the trip. We’ve been in Oregon less than 24 hours, and by end of this day she needs to get moved in and somewhat settled, because at 1pm tomorrow she has a staff meeting for the new job.

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Epic Road Trip ~ Oregon Dust Storm Video

dust storm in eastern Oregon

 

direct youtube video link

Music by Matthew Mayfield – The Devil Within – The Fire EP

 

 

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Epic Road Trip ~ On to Portland

 into the Columbia River Valley

 

So, let’s review:

  • We left Virginia in warm sunshine.
  • Had snow in the Blue Ridge and the Alleghenies.
  • Passed a toxic waste spill contaminating a river in West Virginia.
  • Polar Vortex deep freeze and broken pipes in St. Louis.
  • Snow storm in Missouri.
  • Winds near hurricane force and Ground Blizzard in Wyoming.
  • Train wreck in Utah.
  • Rainbows and more snow in Idaho.

If you’ve been following along for the past several months, and have been keeping count, you realize this all just in three days. We left at noon on the 8th. It’s now the afternoon of the 11th. By the end of this day we’ll be in Portland.

We still have a long way to go. We need to cross all of Oregon.

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Epic Road Trip ~ into Oregon

 Oregon, finally.

 

Suddenly we’re in Oregon.

It’s the high country, and there’s snow everywhere. The air smells like onions. No wonder. It’s the Ore-Ida plant. Ore-Ida (for Oregon and Idaho) is based at the border in the town of Ontario, and the largest producer of frozen potatoes and onions in the US at 600 million pounds a year.

We take a few selfies, send some promised texts and photos to friends and family, then we’re on the road again. We still have a full day of driving ahead of us.

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