I had just begun the trip in the summer of 1987. I spent a week exploring North America’s inland seas. It was my first visit to Lake Superior, the most northern and wildest of the five Great Lakes. I had been compelled to travel there for years before my bank account allowed me to go. A great many firsts and grand adventures would come of this week. When listing all of the moments of inspiration and challenge, the most unforgettable was the photograph of a ship’s officer in a hardcover book, left back at a mall in Escanaba, Michigan.
I’m a bit stingy when I first begin a trip. I prefer not to start spending until I reach my destination. I chose that logic, or perhaps denial, as the reason to put the book back on the shelf. ‘I had a hotel to get to’, I justified, ‘if I arrive too late I might lose the room’. And so the book and officer photo remained at the mall, as I pressed on to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.

The few days there were filled with rollicking good times. I visited Canada for the first time and, in spite of my car being strip-searched, came to love it there. I met massive cargo ships from a variety of countries and walked beneath an active lighthouse. I also honored the memories of the Edmund Fitzgerald’s lost souls; all 29 were gone in a flash. Lake Superior had swallowed the 729-ft / 222-m ship in a massive storm.
 
Through the hilarity and seriousness of that half week, I kept thinking about that photo. I didn’t need another book on lighthouses, but that officer was unshakable. ‘I knew him…why did I know him?’ I re-routed my trip to pass through Escanaba on my way to the next destination. I hoped that the single copy was still on the shelf. It seemed ridiculous to buy a book just for a pair of photographs, but I felt that they were the visible fraction of a shrouded mountain. My inner voice nagged, prodded and shoved to own it.
 

At the time I thought it tremendous good luck to find the book still there. Before coming to my logical senses I purchased it and took off for the next hotel. Looking back upon that afternoon I suspect that there was a reason why that book didn’t sell before I got there. I also suspect that the reason was in the photograph.