Gayle Harper

Photographer ~ Author ~ Traveler

Nottoway

by 6 Comments

Just when I begin to think that the variety of remarkable places in which I have been invited to stay has surely about run its full gamut, Little Miss Serendipity asserts herself and says, “Not yet, girlfriend!”

I knew when I received an invitation to stay at the Nottoway Plantation that it would be spectacular. I knew that it was the largest antebellum mansion remaining in the South. But, I didn’t quite get it. Nottoway Plantation on the Louisiana Great River Road at White Castle, is a 64-room, 53,000 square foot home, completed in 1859, which seems to defy any superlatives you try to fit onto it.

When I arrived at Nottoway, preparations for a wedding were underway in the yard with the grand structure behind it. I looked around for someone who appeared to be “in charge”. My first try was a bull’s-eye  – the mother of the bride, who happily gave me permission to shoot the wedding. 

I was excited because it was a Jewish wedding, which I hadn’t seen before, and because it was beautiful late afternoon light in a gorgeous location. Also, the Rabbi explained many of the traditions as the ceremony progressed, so I learned quite a bit.

Family members hold a canopy, called a Chupah, over the couple; it’s a tradition that originated with the Biblical wedding of Abraham and Sarah and today symbolizes the new couple creating a home together. Men are required to wear the head covering called a “yarmulke” for prayer and in this case, they were all in purple to match the bride’s colors.

By the time the wedding was completed, it was dusk and Nottaway was looking jaw-dropping gorgeous. By the time it was fully dark, I found the small family cemetery in the corner of the property looking, I think, just like it should as well!

Then an amazing dinner of Eggplant Etoufee, which was a perfect combination of crispy eggplant on rice topped with crawfish etoufee and fresh asparagus all served on mashed sweet potatoes – wow! If you think I was living like royalty – you’re right!

To my amazement, I was given the Master Suite!  Here’s how it looks and here is the hand carved rosewood bed where I finally rested my bones and slept like a baby. Little Miss Serendipity had outdone herself on this day!

In the morning, I was free to shoot the interior and it was a pleasure. It is furnished with many pieces from the original inhabitants, the family of John Hampden Randolph, who came here from Virginia. The white and gold ballroom is said to be that color because Randolph wanted to “offset the beauty of his ladies”. I am quite sure it did.  In the dining room, each plate was hand painted with a unique scene and rested on a solid silver warmer. As I said, Nottoway dwarfs superlatives, but it is a look into another era and another world of almost unimaginable wealth and opulence.

It feels as if Serendipity is holding the pedal to the metal the last few days and it’s all I can do to keep up! There is much more to tell you – I’ll be back as soon as I can!

Day 60

by 16 Comments

Day 60 – two-thirds of this journey is completed! Someone asked me recently what I have learned. Yikes! There are several hundred answers I could give to that question.

On a practical level….here are some guidelines from riverroadwoman for living as a nomad.

  • Leave most of it at home! You probably need less than 1/3 of that stack of clothes. I end up wearing the same four outfits anyway. You seldom see the same people two days in a row, so no one knows what you wore yesterday! 
  • Put it back in the same place every time. Resist that “I’m in a hurry – just stick it here for now” moment – it brings frustration later.
  • Always do your “idiot check”. When you are sure you have everything packed, look once more – everywhere.  Eventually you will be glad you did.
  • (Here’s a biggie!) Turn in those hotel key cards. Save yourself from this embarrassing scenario – I went to the car for something and when I returned found that the key card wouldn’t work. I took it to the front desk and said, “This seems to have quit working”. The clerk looked at it (didn’t laugh) and handed it back with a polite, “M’am, this isn’t our hotel.”
  • Carry your own night light. When you wake up in the night, you don’t know what state you are in, much less where the bathroom is and what obstacles lay in the path.
  • Keep the little envelope with the room number. There comes a point at the end of a long day when 121 morphs into 112 in your memory.
  • Keep a box stocked with microwave soups, vacuum packed tuna, peanut butter, crackers, granola bars and fruit, napkins and plastic silverware.  Most hotels have microwaves in the room or you can always use the one in the breakfast room. It saves time and money.
  • Hang a couple of removable hooks from the window behind you for jackets. The ones for Christmas decorations have held 3 or 4 jackets without budging.
  • Two purchases from Magellan’s Travel Store that I love –  
  •  A small fold-up travel alarm with a light sensor that comes on when needed. All hotel alarms are different and it’s hard to be sure it is set right and even harder to find the right button to turn the thing off in the morning. The phone ringing with a wake-up call is a cruel and heart-stopping way to wake up!
  •  There are never enough outlets. Magellan’s has a very compact power strip that slips in the computer case.
  • Always leave a little something for the housekeepers – and put it out the night before in case you are rushed in the morning. They work very hard and are always willing to help in any way.
  • Do dawdle on the backroads – it’s the way to experience a slice of life wherever you are. But, pull over frequently. Dawdlers are a big pain in the rear to commuters.
  • Be curious and interested. Be a good listener. Be accepting of whatever is offered, but demand nothing.  
  • Leave your expectations of “how it should be” at home. Instead, be open to what is, without judging it or comparing it to anything else. Let go of the reins. Serendipity would love to be your guide – and she is far better at it than you are!

I’m not much for routines, but consistency helps when living on the road. I keep my glasses on a cord when I am shooting, so I can just drop them to my chest and look through the viewfinder. That is such a habit now that if I don’t have the cord on, I chuck the glasses to the ground. It’s happened more times than I care to say. In this morning’s pre-dawn murkiness, I suddenly realized my glasses must be somewhere on the ground in the 100 yards between me and my car. When I finally found them an hour later, I had apparently stepped on them because one earpiece was about 3” higher than the other. They are resilient, though, and now seem none the worse for the experience.  

It’s not actually harder living and working on the road – just different. For these 90 days, home is wherever I am at the moment. More than a place, it’s a way of being right here, right now, by myself or with someone. It’s being open and receptive to whatever is happening. Living without placing a demand upon the moment allows the constant, quiet Joy that is our true nature to be fully experienced now  – and again now.

Thanks for traveling with me these past 60 days. I hope you are ready to see what these next 30 days have in store! It has meant a great deal to me to know that you are here with me. I love hearing your comments and treasure your feedback and support. It is a shared experience that is much richer for the sharing. It’s an incredible blessing to be able to do this journey of discovery and it could never be accomplished without all the beautiful people who are participating. Thank you.

Love, Gayle

Better Than Spinach

by 10 Comments

Popeye, the beloved spinach-guzzling sailor, was born in Chester, Illinois, in the mind of native son, Elzie Segar, who was himself born here in 1894. Popeye and Wimpy, the hamburger fiend, were reportedly based on real life Chester characters and Chester has not forgotten!  There is an annual Popeye Picnic, Popeye statue, park and murals, and a “Spinach Can Collectibles” store with more Popeyes and Olive Oyls than I ever imagined existed!

After 52 days on the road, I was in need of just the kind of super-rejuvenation that crusty old sailor got from popping his can of spinach. I was long overdue to wash my car, do laundry, catch up on emails and back up images. Plus, I was craving some “riverbank time”, to just sit, watch and listen. I found all of that in Chester.

Sandra Starr had invited me to stay with her at the Stone House B&B, perched high on a bluff overlooking the river. The beautiful setting, our conversations and the great food worked wonders (way better than a can of spinach could have done!).  Recharged, I was ready to meet the next sunrise!

A reader recently wrote to share some childhood memories of visiting her grandparents in an Iowa town on the Mississippi. Going “uptown to get the mail” with grandpa was a social event and all the old gents passing time at the post office greeted each other not with the usual comment on the weather, but with an assessment of the mood of the river that morning. She remembers hearing, “The Mississippi is always a woman, but not always a lady.” (I love that one!) Or they might say, “She’s ridin’ pretty high this mornin’”, or “She’s smooth as a baby’s bottom today.”

When I paused beside the Chester bridge to say good morning to the river, the surface was indeed “smooth as a baby’s bottom” and the soft colors of the pre-dawn light shimmered and glowed quietly. I know that if you watched a lifetime of riverside sunrises and sunsets, no two would ever be the same. I am thankful for every opportunity.

In stark contrast to the high bluffs and hills on the Illinois shore, the land on the Missouri side is flat and low in this area. The last lock and dam on the river was at Granite City, Illinois, near St. Louis.  Most towns south of that point have built levees and floodwalls to protect against flooding. In some places, it is possible to drive out on top of the levees and it’s one of my favorite places to be.  Sometimes they are steep and narrow and turning around can require a 10 or 12-point turn, but they offer great vantage points for fields of rich bottom land and backwater bayous.

 The Mississippi constantly changes, creating new channels, land locking some towns and moving toward others.  Its power is incontrovertible and it will periodically remind us of its supremacy.  Mark Twain once said, “The Mississippi River will always have its own way; no engineering skill can persuade it to do otherwise…”   That power can be heard and felt when you sit quietly beside it. Sometimes it is deep in a whisper and sometimes it seems to roar inside your head, but always it puts things in perspective and washes trivial concerns away.  The next time you cross a bridge over the Mississippi, look for a road that will take you to its banks and when you find it, sit and be open to what she has to say to you. It is a gift you will treasure.                               Peace,     Gayle

A Total Diversion

by Leave a Comment

Back in June my husband and I were invited to be guests aboard the Island Spirit for a 9-day cruise through the Inland Passage of Alaska. Immediately following that, I began the non-stop whirlwind preparations for this 90-day journey you and I are on now. There was not one spare minute available to process those images or write about that truly awesome experience. But I will once I am home again. For now, I just want to say that if you have any thought of traveling to Alaska’s legendary Inland Passage, this is the way to do it! 

Capt. Jeff will do absolutely anything within the bounds of safety to see that you have a fabulous adventure. He drives the 128’ boat like it was a VW bug and puts it into magnificent fjords where other boats only dream of going. There is a capacity of just 32 passengers and a relaxed, casual atmosphere – and the food is awesome! I can only say wonderful things about the entire experience.

Their website www.smallalaskaship.com includes a video produced by the videographer who was on the same cruise with us – it’s a great way to see what this is all about. (I’m the one without a face – there is always a camera in front of it. But, you can hear me squealing loud and clear when the whale was feeding, blowing and dancing about 50’ from the boat.)

It’s a long way from the Mississippi to Alaska, but I seem to know a lot of people who dream of traveling to that stunning, pristine land. If you are one of them, check this out, you can’t go wrong with Captain Jeff!        Gayle

Welcome!

by 2 Comments

Mississippi River at Davenport, IA

Could you use a road trip? Well, hop in! I’m Gayle Harper, a travel photographer and writer working on a book about life along the Mississippi Great River Road. Click on the page About the Great River Road  if you’d like to read about this National Scenic Byway. On August 24, I will begin a 90-day road trip covering the entire length of the GRR from its headwaters in Minnesota to its mouth at the Gulf of Mexico. Why 90 days? According to the National Park Service, a raindrop entering the Mississippi at its headwaters would take approximately that long to complete the entire journey to the Gulf. I’ll be wandering the GRR, keeping pace with my imaginary raindrop, visiting river towns and cities and rural communities. There will be time spent with hundreds of interesting people who will share their stories and their lives with us (I know this because it happens every time I have traveled any piece of the GRR).  I’ll take thousands of photographs to capture every aspect of this experience, and many will be shared with you here.

 The Mississippi River itself changes from a small wilderness stream to a majestic mile-wide current of power and finally to the point where it disappears as a separate entity and becomes one with the sea. Cultures, terrain, accents and lifestyles all change as we travel south. What seems to be consistent throughout all the changes, however, is a certain quality of authenticity and vibrancy to life along the Mississippi. It is this quality that draws me to this project and that I hope to share with you here.

 Click on the page About This Journey if you’d like to read how life has delivered me to this point of loading the car and heading north, or just jump in with me and come along!  You can sign up to be notified by email when a new post appears – just click on the box to the right or use the RSS feed if you like. I’ll post again in a few days and share some moments from previous GRR trips to give you a taste of the adventure ahead. You can just click and relax – I’m doing all the packing!            Gayle