Road Reading

When you are the passenger, you need something to occupy you for the long stretches of time between home and the first and last lights on a route. I am a voracious reader, and I have had many diverse reading materials aboard.

A sampling of some of the books that have been aboard the Rover on our expeditions:

• QE2 by Ronald Warwick. The official history of the world's greatest ocean liner. I had a moment of glory going up to Selkirk at the beginning of the Seaway Trail trip in which I was able to talk about my favourite ship for an hour straight, and my dad was actually listening and participating.
• R is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton. I'm a huge Grafton fan, and have read the entire alphabet series, alphabetically. I was able to take the Advanced Reading Copy of the latest one to New York with me, enjoying it along the way.
• A Pilgrim Returns to Cape Cod, by Edward Rowe Snow, updated by Jeremy D'Entremont. Well, what else do you expect me to read on the Cape? A great book, by the way, like anything Snow.

And of course, there's our indispensible lighthouse guides:

• America's Atlantic Coast Lighthouses: A Traveler's Guide by Kenneth Kochel. Known to us just as "Kochel", it is our East Coast Bible.
• A Traveler's Guide to 100 Eastern Great Lakes Lighthouses, A Traveler's Guide to 116 Western Great Lakes Lighthouses, A Traveler's Guide to 116 Michigan Lighthouses by the Penrose family. Whichever one we are using, we call "Penrose". The Great Lakes stronghold.

Reading is just another part of the lighthouse experience. Like music, I can always remember a certain trip with the books we read. A simple glance at QE2 on my table takes me back to the Thruway...I'm going to go look at it now.