ROAD TRIP

On the road (well, actually beside the road because the other
drivers don't take kindly when I just photograph right in the
middle on the highway itself), heading 300 km. north of Toronto
to the Madawaska Valley area of central Ontario, home of the
first Polish settlement in Canada back in the late 1850's, and
currently the place where for the past 50 years the Polish Boy
Scouts and Girl Guides have set roots for their annual summer
camps.

Where I'm headed is the place I spent my childhood and
teen summers -- scout camp - sailing the lakes and hiking the
woods in that rolling country side which is geographically
known as the Canadian Shield, unwittingly constructing fond
youthful memories which have lasted me many years, and yet
memories which with each summer, often times now have me
looking around while I'm in the city and thinking to myself,
"The lucky ones are those up north, the ones spending these
day in tents in the fresh air amongst the lakes and the
trees, the young ones who are at this moment spending memorable
hours at summer camp, the truly fortunate folks who are who
are seemingly away and away from the concrete jungle of the
city and otherwise enjoying some time in Kaszuby."

And so it is to KASZUBY that I am now traveling -- so named
after that region in Poland from which these first 14 families
of Polish settlers to Canada (the Kaszubs) came.

And for the next few days now, I will photograph the Scouts
and Guides and the surrounding landscapes (with the hope
that the gods will afford me some "good light") -- all of this
experienced not quite the same way as during my childhood
and teen years, yet most certainly now with a greater awareness
of the joy of any moments spent at summer camp and a likewise
greater awareness of the beauty of the surrounding country side...
a beauty which, in my younger years, I all too often just took
for granted.

But that comes tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day.
First, however, I have to get there. And so that's where I am now,
on the road, heading north, a number of hours of driving still
ahead of me.

C J