Your Best Place in the World

Definitely on my bucket list. Have you watched any of the Icelandic series on Netflix? I could listen to that language for hours.

 

Iceland was incredible. Did the Ring Road, camping in some pretty crazy conditions, with some off-roading thrown in. Then ended up at this place, by accident. Fluffy white comforter, delicious food, beautiful library, delightful Icelandic hosts. It's a hostel but it felt like the most luxurious night. Stood outside with a beer and listened to the Northern Lights howling. Pretty spectacular spot.

Heradsskolinn - Boutique Hostel Laugarvatn

 

Red River, New Mexico. Cabin in the woods, nice crisp mountain air, solitude.

Also, I need to travel more. This thread made me feel broke.

 

Blackbeard Island, Georgia. It's a barrier island off the coast, between Savannah to the north and Brunswick to the south. It lies on the Atlantic side of Sapelo Island, a bit north of St. Simon's. Blackbeard is a little five or six acre island, and it is a National Wildlife Refuge. When I was last there about the only building was the park ranger's house. We got out to the island by shrimp boat from Brunswick. It took a little channel back through the tidal wetlands and dropped us off on the pier at the Ranger's station.

There is nothing to the east except a couple of thousand miles of Atlantic Ocean, nothing breaks the power of the waves rolling in. The beach is wide and hard, with dunes of fine white powder sand, the product of millenia of waves pounding the shore with all the energy of the Atlantic. It may well be the best beach I have ever walked. Beautiful seashells unmolested at the tide line, seabirds, crabs, and whatever has washed ashore. If you walk the beach at the right time of year you'll find the tracks of the green sea turtles who come ashore at night and build their nests. We walked the beach at night and found one set of tracks coming out of the water - and none going back. Walked up and watched her lay her eggs, fill the hole and go back out to sea. Freaking amazing. I doubt I'll ever see such again.

If you go there, the odds are that you will be the only people there other than the Park Service. It's quiet and lovely, with tons of wildlife and native plants. Completely primitive. You can surf fish and go crabbing, walk the beach, tent camp. There are lakes with big bass and panfish... but few paths, and there are also snakes and gators. It is completely wild. The island has a population of Key Deer, a miniature whitetail species, and they hold a three day archery hunt in the fall to control the deer population. There are huge alligators. I saw one that easily went twelve feet. I was walking on a shell road toward the beach and in front of me there saw a log that had fallen across it. I got a little closer and realized that it was not a log, but an alligator. His head and tail both went beyond the truck tire ruts. Well beyond. On the north end of the island there are the remains of a Confederate artillery battery that guarded the approach to Savannah. On the south there is a brick crematorium, left over from when the island was used as a quarantine station in the 1800's.

There is little to offer a tourist, but if you want to see a pristine coastal island in solitude, I know of no better place. It is lovely, serene, and as near untouched as you are likely to find.

 

Have not. Which would you recommend?

 

"Trapped" is really good and will give you a feeling for winter there. Also enjoyed "Case".

 

A grocery store aisle with the full selection of Archway. Sadly there are fewer of these.

 

Cooperstown. Baseball Hall of Fame. I could spend days in there. Heck, I'd like to set up a cot and sleep over.

Plus Otsego Lake is quite nice and peaceful.

 

Unfortunately, without a proper visa, which is almost impossible to get, forget working while you visit. I had the same thought and looked into it.

 

There are so many wonderful places that I've been lucky enough to be. Where I am sitting right now, Bordeaux, France, is none too shabby. But for maximum contentment, I've narrowed it down to three, not in order of preference, but in order of how they came to me.
1. There are 30 major league ballparks. Give me a sunny afternoon, a lower deck seat somewhere between home and first, a beer, and a dog.
2. Clubhouse at Saratoga.
3. Probably my top choice. The first tee, any course on the planet.

 

One of the great favours my parents did for me was make sure I was born in the UK. That passport is huge. I think you could argue the EU passport is the best passport going. Stupid Brexit.

 

I would never give up my US passport. It was a nice idea to hang out on the coast of Scotland and pay for it with my freelance work, but life in the U.S., for me, is much preferable. My ancestors left the British Isles for a reason.