Photography – Tracie D. Jessop

Surf City, NC

surf city was stop #3, week 4. Honestly, it really was my favorite stop on the trip. I’m not sure what in particular drew me here, may8it was just my first beach spot and I knew I had to be by the ocean. The spot was absolutely perfect for both work and play. It was silent all day long. And evening time was also peaceful, just a bit busier. The camping spot was perfect in all the ways. Location and view, a few short term neighbors on the weekends but during the week I had a whole corner area to myself. At night along the marsh you could see little crabs reaching out of their holes LOL

I was also literally FIVE minutes from the beach and 24 hour pier. I was able to get in morning walks on the beach before work and spend the entire evening eating and walking the beach. There were tons of food options right at the beach.

I arrived Saturday afternoon, as I will at each new spot along my trip, Saturday is travel day for my life on this trip and this bronze challenges with each one. It also meant exhaustion but pushing forward anyways. If I had it to do over with the choice, I’d have stayed in each spot for 2 weeks. But that’s a budgeting of time and resources with much more plan and forethought, which wasn’t available to me when I set out.

anyways, on that Sunday, I was able to drive in to Wilmington and meet my aunt Saralyn (very affectionately to my, my Mitzie) she is, to me, the big sister I always wanted :). We had not seen each other in way too many years, and this was why I added this stop to my trip in the first place! We had the most wonderful time catching up and I am SO thankful we had this time together. She showed me all of the wonderful things about Wilmington too, we had such a wonderful walk through downtown and checking out (and cooling off) in the shops 🙂 And we got matching ankle bracelets to commemorate our visit ????

(spoiler alert) honestly, if Surf City wasn’t such a drive from Memphis, this would have been where we landed come October ????????????????

ok. Trying to think of meals I ate on this leg. Pizza, there was a great pizza spot right along the road up to the pier. I ate here twice during my week and loved it. The at Oswald great, a mix of local regulars and tourists, the beer was a good local craft selection (a must for a pizza joint imho) and a fast, right sized, crispy crusted custom. Fast pizza and beers so I can get to the beach for good beach time before dark!

the 24 hour pier was my wide awake at midnight crazy dream. I had to resist multiple times from spending money on sea fishing gear, which in hindsight, would have been a better investment than I thought.

Dreaming by the river . . .or on it

1 year ago By traciedjessop

If you know me, then you know I LOVE to be out on the water, out in nature, soaking up all the beautiful if life. I also love taking my dogs out on the water too. Gabby, who passed last year, absolutely loved floating and would float on the float in our pool, she was the reason I got the sit-on-top.

here’s a few old shots of our adventures…

She sure loved to just float in that pool ??

I am so thankful to have discovered this river and this recreational addiction! I love being on the water, in nature and soaking up the beautiful sunshine ☀️

San Juan Island

1 year ago By traciedjessop

Molly and Monument Valley

7 years ago By traciedjessop

My husband, bless his heart. I know he must love me as he indulges me in my spontaneous and crazy adventures, and usually those adventures involve some sort of picture I want to get, which usually involves some sort of road trip or long hike. On Friday I dropped on him that I was really itching to see Monument Valley and I also really wanted to take our sweet 5 year old Doberman on a road trip. So two days later we were packing up the truck and heading out for a very long day trip!

14 hours in the car just to see this place (6 there, 6 back and 2 around the valley sightseeing); It was so worth the drive.

Our sweet dog Molly hasn’t taken such a road trip and everything about the day yesterday was big and new for her, she did amazing! She only growled at one person, who quite frankly, probably needed to be growled at J it took a bit of trickery to get her to more than an arm’s length from either of us to get her pictures. Most of the time outside of the truck she was leaning into one of us pretty hard.

This scene is probably the most recognized scene from this area, used in many movies and most famously, Forrest Gump. We had arrived in the valley and driven around a bit, taking the scenic dirt road and Greg decided he wanted to head north a bit. On our way north we also decided we needed to be sure to see “Forrest Gump Road”.

So Me: Hmmm, I better look this up on the map and be sure we don’t miss that. Greg: yeah, driving… ho hum; Me: hmm, looks like there’s actually a road called “Gump Road” but hmmm, it should be right here, as I’m looking up in my rear view and simultaneously, Greg and I both are looking, hmm, isn’t that it… hahaha yes, we were on the road, the view was just behind us. J duh. We had a good laugh at ourselves.

Its such a beautiful area, I certainly did not get to spend the kind of time I wanted here nor did I get to catch it in its best light or view points for this trip, but just to get to see this place and take it in was an awesome experience and our little adventures are always fun and just good for the soul.

We look forward to getting back over there next spring when Greg is healed and we can camp and hike and spend time capturing this place during all hours of the day and night!

Band of Horses

7 years ago By traciedjessop

I finally got a chance during my staycation, over the week of July 4^th to go kayak the Salt River. Kayaking has recently become one of my hobbies. I love being able to get to nature and unwind and enjoy the beauty!

My awesome husband crawled out of bed at the crack of dawn with me in order to shuttle me up to the put-in point, which is only about 20 minutes from the house! We left my car at the bottom so I could drive myself home and not worry about meeting a time, but we expected it to take about 2-2.5 hours, based on someone else’s advice.