What?  I’m going to have to go to Bluff Dale, Texas to get the most important part of my most prime player.  That’s an awfully long way, but hmmm….  I could look at the colored leaves on the SkyLine Drive, Blue Ridge ParkWay and Natchez Trace on the way; eat a bunch of Texas BBQ and TexMex food while I’m buying and having the camper installed, then head for the Florida Keys to bask in the sun stopping on the Creole Trail on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana on the way.
    Ultimate freedom will be given by the camper on my new four-wheel drive pickup, which makes it the prime player for this year’s Adventure to all those trails less walked, roads less driven, places less visited, and where it’s warm.  I won’t be limited to a campsite where I have to erect a tent, when I want to camp. I’ll be able to stop anywhere and spend the night.  Memories of a hundred mile dirt road in southern Utah, that leads from the gorges, high trails, and canyons of Capital Reef National Park through the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument to Bull Frog Marina on a large no-name lake made by the Colorado River in Glen Canyon N.P., and on to Natural Bridges N.P. with magnificent views of the 11,000-foot peaked Henry Mts. along the way comes to mind. Then there’s another 50+ mile one that starts in Escalante, Utah, goes past Coyote Gulch Slot Canyons to Hole in the Wall deep in the vast No Where Land of G.S.E.N.M., where there’s no way out but the way you came in. Plus, Arches National Park north west of Moab, Utah, has campsites high on a butte (or is it a bluff or Mesa?) that overlooks miles and miles of river valley, desert and natural arches. Wow!
    The high clearance of the pickup will make it much easier to navigate the 65 miles of primitive road to Toroweep on the north rim, which is the best place to view the Grand Canyon, too. The “road” has sand pits that can swallow a small car, hills so steep you can’t see the road over the hood when climbing them, with sharp points of boulders sticking up that need to be avoided, and deep pot holes that can shred a tire. Another primitive road goes south out of St. George, Utah, to another nowhereland of Grand Canyon Parashant N.M., where the Bureau of Land & Mines people say a car can’t go. I always stopped long before I was satisfied. Now, I won’t have to stop. This area is west of Toroweep, but “you can’t get there from here.” That’s what they say; maybe I’ll find out why.
    Finding a camper has been a challenge.  There’re lots of new and used ones with all the bells and whistles of home. That’s not what I want, though. I want one with all the conveniences that the tent had. It worked fine for eleven years. I’m just got tired of setting it up and tearing it down with each move, as I meandered from Florida to Texas to Arizona to southern Utah and many places in between from January to May. The extra time given by leaving in December could help achieve my goal of visiting all the places where I’ve been wowed. I’m no John Muir or Ansel Adams, but I share the same appreciation of all things natural. Nothing beats being there and watching the natural world do its thing, whether it be a panther that silently appears in a nonsuspecting moment; a nesting hummingbird, that flits around and flies right up to my glasses to check me out; the glistening of dew drops, or watching the sun appear at dawn to start another glorious day, and getting the photo to help me remember and to share. Surely sunrise in the Keys, Key West where Kevin Poole over winters, and kayaking in Florida Bay will be included in my Adventure XII; as will camping even deeper into the back country jungle (made possible, too, by the 4WD of the pickup) than my usual 20 miles at Big Cypress in the Everglades with the flowers, butterflies, birds, panthers, bears, snakes and alligators; kayaking in St. Elena Canyon on the Rio Grande in Big Bend National Park and stuffing myself with BBQ at LaKiva; and the astounding view from Toroweep.
    I hope to also include: my 13th Everglades City Seafood Festival, see Seacret’s Jim Long at C.J.s in Marco Island, Fla., doing Spring Break in S. Padre Island, Tx. and eating all that succulent local seafood in Port Isabel on the other side of the bridge; and going amongst the ovens in El Valley Bakery in Rio Grande City, Tx. where I fill a tray with warm, aromatic, fine tasting goodies; the village of Aravaca, Az., amidst Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, where the hippies went and forgot to leave, and I see the water birds I do here on Delmarva on the fringe of the Sonora Desert; the hummingbird oasis in the cactus forest of Organ Pipes Cactus N.M.; Sedona’s red rocks on Soldiers Trail, mountain-sized sand dunes at Kelso Dunes in the Mojave Desert north of the Palms Inn ($1 PBRs & luscious food to match); feast on the Las Vegas buffets (there’s even good fried oysters!); gaze at the panoramic rainbow rocks at the Valley of Fire, Nev. State Park, be dazzled by the stalagmite-like ‘who dos’ of Bryce Canyon, Utah, and at least some of S. Utah’s nowhere places and, of course, get the photos.
    Sometimes I think I’ve fallen in the crack between reality and fantasy as I eat crabs, sip ACBs, roam warm places in the winter, and photograph families on the beach here. There’s still some good weather days to do a photo session, so give me a call (410-289-7339 & check out my websites @ PHOTOAsYouWantThem.biz and  O.C., my Adventure & more @  http://picasaweb.google.com/o.c.fotoguy2009). I hope the bubble doesn’t burst!  See you in costume at Seacrets, BJs, Buxy’s and wherever else the cider flavored ACBs carry me and maybe at a warm place this winter. Thanks for reading what I wrote this year and hope you enjoyed my photos. I’ll be back...