This Woman Wanders

How have all of your been fairing through this year? Are you doing well? What are you doing to care for your mental well being?

Personally, I’ve spent much of the year going stir crazy. The quarantine fatigue started early in the year for me, probably because I’m generally an out and about type person. I thrive on traveling and socializing. Having to restrict that so drastically put a damper on my spirits. I’ve been fortunate that my husband is A) an introvert nearly unphased by quarantining at home and B) able to work from home. He’s done a lot to keep my steady this year.

I’ve had a few little adventures. The first didn’t include much photography at all. One of my dear friends and I, both of us having been avoiding most everyone but our immediate family, rented an affordable AIRBNB in the middle of nowhere, Virginia. The two of us, and our dogs, spent a glorious few days surrounded by nature and quiet, and it was a perfect reset for our mental health.

A month later, in late August, another good friend of mine (you may remember her from previous adventures- Cahlean Klenke of About A Dog Photography) and I decided that we needed to have our own “Quarancation”. We picked a halfway point between her home in Minnesota and my home in Maryland, not much caring where it was as long as it was within easy distance of places to photograph, with space to stay away from other people, affordable and dog friendly.

We ended up in Wabash, Indiana. It was nearly a blind choice and we didn’t know much about the town itself, so everything that we found was a pleasant surprise.

Our AirBNB was lovely, with a large yard and easy places to walk my dogs. The neighbors were friendly, but also careful to keep a good distance away (one neighbor introduced us to all her outdoor cats from up on her porch, it was very sweet). There was a cute little downtown area only blocks away, which included an independent bookstore (Reading Room Books), a brewery (Chapman’s Brewing Company), a cafe (Modoc’s Market), and various shops (my favorite being Bellazo). And while we started our days out in nature with our cameras, during the heat of the day we were able to visit each of these places while practicing social distancing (we were sometimes the only customers).

I never thought I’d be making plans to spend time in Indiana. Its always been a place that I drive through, rather than a destination. But, after this visit, I knew I wanted to return. I kind of fell in love with Wabash and there were random connections that I discovered while there. The man working at the brewery used to live within a few miles of me on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Modoc’s Cafe was named for a circus elephant that used to winter in the area…I’d read a book about that elephant years ago and didn’t make the connection to Wabash until I saw the cafe. Beyond that, we timed our visit at a time when waterfalls (our chosen photography goal this trip) were fairly dried up, so we, of course, need to revisit all those waterfalls in the spring.

Adding to the enjoyment of photographing on this trip was that I had recently purchased an adapter that would allow me to use my late grandfather’s vintage camera lenses, originally used on his analog Canon AE1, on my digital Canon 5D Mark III.

I’ve more photographs to share in the future and hopefully a few fall outings as well.