Home Range Winery

I have to admit, I love Harvest Hosts. I plan stops at them on almost every trip. One night stops on the way to and from other sites are a great way to break up a trip, and so far, I’ve enjoyed all my visits. I suppose that could be because I have only picked wineries, breweries and distilleries so far but still, the hospitality of each location has made each stop unique and fun. And it’s a great way to refresh your wine and liquor cabinet (I travel in a Class B, only so much wine you can get in there).

Home Range Winery, which is in Canaan, NY, was no exception. We stopped there on a Friday on our way back from 3 weeks in VT. Fridays are good days to hit many HH stops, and that was true here too. There was live entertainment, a very good duet, pizza and of course wine. Tonks and I felt very welcome, and she was even allowed in the tasting room / bar. Very dog friendly, with their own pup there to greet you. The property is great, there’s pigs, goats, a garden and nice open grounds. Our parking spot, in the graveled parking lot, was level and quiet. All the wines I tried were good, and I particularly liked the Red Stag Baco, which is very Pinot Noir like. Here are a few other pics from our visit.

Vermont Summer 2022

Running away from the overbearing heat in NJ we headed north and spent 3 weeks in Vermont. It’s a beautiful state, and we had a very good time working, exploring and of course, camping. We camped in two parts of the state, south near Brattleboro and farther north near Quechee. We did one Harvest Hosts visit in the middle of the trip at Copper Canon Distillery in Brattleboro. I’m a big fan of the Harvest Hosts program and always work in a stop or 2 on every trip if possible. With the recent electrical system updates we tested boondocking there. Since we’re now self-sufficient it opens up a lot of options for sites. I’ll write more on the electrical system changes in another post.

Copper Canon is an excellent distillery and had several different rums and some gin to taste. They also recently released a limited small batch bourbon but sadly were sold out. I did get to taste and would definitely have bought some if it was in stock. I did enjoy the aged rum and also the maple rum (hey, it’s Vermont you have to try it).

So here are a few pics from that trip.

North Carolina Summer 2022

Sunset on Kerr Lake

The first trip of this Summer was a 3 week excursion in May - June to Virginia and North Carolina. I met up with a friend at a campground outside of Charlottesville, VA for a week, then on to a NC state park called Kerr Lake. Kerr Lake has several different campgrounds around the lake, and our site was lakefront. The area is very beautiful, with many hiking trails to keep Tonks entertained. The cover pic on the last post was taken at our campsite on the lake.

From Kerr Lake we went deeper into NC to the Sunshine Lavender Farm in Hurdle Mills, NC. The farm is owned by some friends and they let us camp in a pasture there for a few days. My older daughter Jess (the owners are the parents of her college roommate) met me there. The weekend is an annual festival called the “June Bloom”, which I had attended a few years ago (pre-pandemic). It was well attended with lots of activities including glass blowing, yoga, crafts and my favorite, mead tasting. Here are a few pics from the trip:

The Relaunch

Shot with Leica M10 Monochrom and Leica Summilux 50mm f/1.4

I’ve had a Lyfescapes photography blog for almost 10 years. The old site was on Wordpress and had gotten a little clunky, so I decided it was time for a change / upgrade. My life is somewhat different in a lot of ways at this point, so I was thinking about doing this version of the site a little differently. I have an archived version of the old site, but rather than upload that, I’m going to turn Lyfescapes into a reflection of my nomadic life + pics. I will likely pull out some of the old travel photos of course, but I mostly will be using this as a way to document our travels going forward. Look for lots of still photography, but I’m also experimenting with some video, so that will likely hit the site at some point as well.

The last 2.5+ years has been crazy for lot’s of reasons. The pandemic of course, but add the decision to move into an advisory role at G2, start a new business (Arion Research LLC) and buy a converted Mercedes Sprinter van and start travelling. I’ve had the van for over a year and a half, but my travels got pushed back 9 mos because of an accident / recovery. About 10 mos ago we started travelling part time, and subsequently making a bunch of upgrades to the van. I’ll write more on those changes in another post, but wanted to set the stage that we’re just now really getting to the point where we stay out roughly 2/3’s of the time, with NJ still as a home base for now.

I’m lucky I can work from anywhere, which makes the nomadic lifestyle much easier. This past Summer I’ve done trips to Virginia, North Carolina, several trips to the Poconos, Connecticut, and spent 3 weeks in Vermont. I’ve been mostly in commercial campgrounds this Summer, trying to work out the kinks in some of my systems. I joined Harvest Hosts as well, and am finding the “free” overnights really fun to fill in between weeks. I’ve stayed at 2 wineries and 2 distilleries so far (hmm, there seems to be a trend here). Here are a few random pics from those trips, including one of my travel companion Tonks. All shot on the Leica M10 Monochrom.

I plan to be more Active on this blog, so look for more from my trips shortly. Check out the Gallery page too, lot’s of my older stuff there.