Seeking a light
Based ona a hint from the kitchen calendar, we spent the afternoon seeking the light. A light. A lighthouse. We could have stayed local (there’s one just down the road), but we opted to put some miles on the tires and head cross-country to Point Prim.
Their open house drew a huge crowd; no way to fit them all inside, so the organizers opted for a BBQ and ice cream and live music. We arrived when the hoopla was already over, and even managed to score a parking spot right up by the newly seeded lawn.
Inside, something more to my taste (than BBQ and ice cream). An amateur radio event, with three simultaneous HF transmitters on the air, letting the world know that the Island has more than potatoes to draw in the tourists. The actual operations were in the base of the lighthouse, and after a visit with the team, I headed up the many levels of stairs. Ladders with wide steps. Getting up with a knapsack full of camera gear was a challenge, given the narrow openings, but I soon found myself in the tower.
Alas, another case of Coast Guard zealots on duty. No more Fresnel lens or traditional lamp structure. I’m starting to wonder if those that I’ve already visited were the last of their kind. Sad. The “nifty” beacons that replaced the real glass are more suited to duty on the end of marker buoy.
And with our afternoon over, we grabbed a quick sandwich supper in Montague and returned to the peace and quiet of home. No fiddle madness for us.
