Altitude 347.15 ft
Buchanan, VA
86°F (feels 91°F) Sunny (wind 2.5 mph)
View from my backyard in a hammock. Very peaceful and refreshing. There’s a little waterfall on the right if you look closely. Am in base of Blue Ridge mountains and close to Appalachian trail which I walked a bit of for kicks.
Altitude 298.116 ft
Bassett, VA
79°F (feels 80°F) Cloudy (wind 3.9 mph)
…on Philpott lake in Virginia near Blue Ridge mountains. Another packed Corps of Engineers campground; will be nice to hit a quiet national forest up next.
Altitude 316.546 ft
Wilkesboro, NC
77°F (feels 79°F) Mostly Cloudy (wind 5.1 mph)
A nice respite for hot showers and electricity to charge everything up including me travel sore body. Summer rains make it nice and cool up here.
Altitude 135.204 ft
, SC
86°F (feels 87°F) Cloudy (wind 1.9 mph)
…in Sumter National Forest. New journey on way to Nova Scotia, Canada or bust!
For my curious followers, I’m following @kev@qrk.one’s footsteps and merging my Fediverse account into Micro.blog for simplicity’s sake at @ray@alongtheray.social. Thanks Kev!
You may have noticed I haven’t been traveling as much these past few months. While crossing the desert in Arizona last year, a thought popped into my mind — my dad is getting on in his years as he reaches his mid-80s and I ought to be around him more while he’s still here. Same for mom and the inescapable fading of her memory.
I have the rest of my life to wander all I want and I’ll still take side trips like I did to the Carolinas recently. The key is not to have regrets later — that I could have been around more.
A consequence of being in one place more is I’ve been diving hard and fast into being on the computer all the time to get things done and shore up my businesses & side projects.
Big mistake. Despite being in as good physical shape as I’ve been in years and feeling great, my body crashed hard and the fatigue came roaring back.
A lesson I’ll take to heart and heed because the last couple of times I ignored the groans of my body as it fried over the computer, I fell into major illnesses (Ménière’s disease over a decade ago and Lyme disease a few years ago).
When long-distance family came for a rare visit, I was unable to spend not even an hour with them because my eyes were still too fried from the computer to be able to lip-read much without keeling over.
That really bothered me because it was a missed opportunity to spend more cherished time with them.
It was then I realized it was the long tail of the Universe reinforcing that it’s time to make changes and I ain’t no spring chicken anymore.
Just as well, too. The past few years I’ve been feeling this quiet itch to move back into the analog way of life—where I deal and create with tangible forms.
Like writing more by pen & paper (which I now adore), satisfying the urge to do more art in all forms—painting, Linotype printing, hand-making books & zines, etc. A bit of woodwork here and there… all of which would meld into a big part of things I create & do with my hands.
These are journeys of a different kind — alchemy — as I move into the next phase of my life: One where I honor my body, heart and creative passions at long last.
I’ll be sharing these ideas & project creations here as I fumble along this new path.
And rest assured, I’ll always be forever wandering.
Much love,
Ray
Learning to paint with fountain pen ink: 
What a beautiful website, words ’n all - Turtle Shell
There is this tree overhanging just below where I sit. The sun brightens its leaves so that they glow.
I reach over and gently caress a leaf, slowly running fingers across it.
I feel warmth from above and let out an exhale of feeling good.
The wind kicks in with exhale and Beloved says “You see? We’re all connected.”
penned @ San Felasco North
Greenery all around. A yellow butterfly darts in and around tall grasses. A bird swoops through and over. Dragonflies zip, hover, and zip. Bees — they dance from flower to flower.
I’m overwhelmed at witnessing such abundance in this tiny slice of earth.
This… this is reality, naturally. The way it was long before we were here. And if Earth wills it, it’ll be here long after.
Are we so arrogant to think Earth needs us?
No. In fact, through its machinations and the errors of our ways, it is slowly eradicating our presence.
In its own good time, we will no longer exist (or have spaced on) and our beautiful Earth will have unfurled her beauty ten-fold without us in the way.
It will be truly glorious times and none of us to witness it.
Que sera, sera.
Between intense quick trail riding on the bike and working on various things to outfit my car for camping/overlanding (and rescuing a fallen tree from being chopped up by cranking it away and off a picnic table), I’ve been sweating a lot. It’s a good sign. I miss and enjoy exerting hard enough to make the sweat come. It means I’m gaining my strength back so I can be more physically active and therefore it leads to better health.
I call it chasing the fatigue away.
It seems to be working, for the most part so far. Yay.
Often I’m the only one sitting in the fields of San Felasco preserve watching the sun fade under the trees. It’s such a beautiful sight with hue colored clouds dazzling over the tops of trees and darkening greens below.
I get folks have dinners to eat, families to care for, etc. But why not adjust schedules so they (and their children) can enjoy nature’s beauties rather than going indoors just when she’s getting started?
Regardless - communing with nature is why I prefer to live in a camper so that my living room is outdoors with the sunset as my wall and the stars my roof.
penned @ San Felasco North
Ray
An alien from a different plane wandering the universe in a tiny camper
Along the Ray
Somewhere on a river...
North American continent usually
