All in Travel

Getting back in the saddle

Getting back in the saddle

regina beach
Writing, Travel

Any day on two wheels is a good day, though I haven’t been on a bike in too many months. Before I was diagnosed with relapsing remitting MS last April I was an avid long-distance cycle tourer. I peddled Boston to Maine and Milan to Split. 

A 500km trip through the Cotswolds and Wye Valley left me with impossibly numb, weak hands. And this left me unable to button a shirt or pinch open a clothes pin for several weeks. I wrote it off as cyclist’s palsy, but my neurologist says it was my first major relapse. I was most at home in the saddle of my bicycle, but MS has made me unsteady and unable to balance on a bike. 

The Library of Things

The Library of Things

regina beach
Writing, Travel

I am from the “heart of it all,” where single family homes are islands surrounded by oceans of grass. Where garages full of tools—park the car on the drive—hide away the lawn mower, smelling of gasoline and fresh-cut clippings. A wall of plastic tubs: Christmas lights, extension cords, boxes of rope, camping gear in rusacks too big to be practical and too sentimental to throw out. Bags of fertilizer and empty flower pots live beside bits and bobs saved “just in case,” because “you never know.” It’s easy to become a packrat when you’re not forced to make the ongoing decision about what to keep and what to chuck away. 

Here Comes The ...

Here Comes The ...

regina beach
Writing, Travel

I bought the carved wooden cane from Dagfields Crafts and Antiques in Nantwich. It was fancier than my everyday mobility aid, and I walked down the aisle with it. My wedding day was hot, with blue skies. I stood at the top of a flight of 23 steps down to the arbor my brother crafted, Lake Erie beyond. My father took the cane in his right hand, my arm in his left. Most of our guests hadn’t seen me in my new, less-able body. Smiling, radiant, in white lace, attempting to look natural, I silently recited, “don’t trip, don’t trip.”

The Moose Hunt

The Moose Hunt

regina beach
Writing, Travel

In Aroostook County, moose season comes around in September and goes on its merry way in October. Each hunter gets to fell one animal — if they have a moose tag. The chances are better if you opt for a cow, but most applicants want the antlers — a 6-foot trophy only produced by the bulls.

The Longest Day of the Year

The Longest Day of the Year

regina beach
Writing, Travel

It seemed improbable on this rainy Summer Solstice that we’d even be able to get close enough to see it, as all gatherings at Stonehenge were cancelled due to coronavirus. With a bit of madness that comes with three months of feeling stir-crazy, and since I’d never seen the henge in person, we went anyway.

Puerto de La Cruz

Puerto de La Cruz

regina beach
Travel, Writing

Bleary eyed from lack of sleep and still not quite believing I was actually traveling internationally again after such a prolonged lockdown, the first glimpses of La Gomera, the second-smallest of the main islands came into view out of my window. With puffy clouds covering the hills, it looked on first glance like the island was covered in snow.

Uprooted

Uprooted

regina beach
Travel, Writing, Podcast, Food

I followed my heart to Bristol, England after two years of long-distance dating and nuptials at the Chicago courthouse in December. My spouse visa arrived in my passport at the end of February, before anyone knew how strange 2020 would be.

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