The Return of the Rambler

The Rambler is back. After taking a break for the last few months the River Valley Rambler has returned from retirement. It made sense to end the Rambler at the time because most of the content in the column concerned outdoor activities. At the same time I was launching a new column, blog and podcast called Doing Stuff Outdoors so I decided to focus exclusively on outdoors content. It's worked very well. The Doing Stuff Outdoors program and blog is now heard and read by people all over the world. I invite you to check it out at doingstuffoutdoors.com.

But the demise of the Rambler column limited my ability to write about the local River Valley area. Sure there are plenty of outdoor related topics to write about in this region but there are also many other interesting and important things going on. I felt constrained restricting the column to only outdoor content. At the time of the change the River Valley Rambler blog reverted to postings of previous columns from years past. I was surprised to find that quite a few people still checked into the site regularly at RiverValleyRambler.com. Something else happened that encouraged me to bring back the rambler column in this paper and in a new and expanded web site. The popular Bay Info web-page dealing with community events and news shut down at the beginning of the year leaving this area without a regular web presence. At the same time people were telling me they missed the old River Valley Rambler. We're also heading into an exciting and busy period for Grand Bay-Westfield and the surrounding area. Development seems to be happening everywhere and there's a municipal election coming in the spring. The time is ripe for the return of the Rambler along with a redesigned web-site. The Doing Stuff Outdoors column will remain as a source of information about outdoor activities and will alternate with the Rambler column in this paper. But the exciting and interesting content is what I hope will develop online.

I'd like the new RiverValleyRambler.com site to fill some of the gap left by the closing of Bay Info. It has provided a valuable service to the community and I thank the producers of Bay Info for their efforts. RiverValleyRambler.com will continue mainly as a blog providing readers with a collection of thoughts, comments, reflections and ramblings about life in the River Valley area of New Brunswick. It will also contain posts of some of the old columns that have proved popular with some readers. I will endeavor to post new content and photos as often as possible. This is new material in addition to the regular column you'll find published in this paper. But for that to be successful I will need your help. I'd like to fill the site with useful and interesting information and stories about life in this community. That's where you come in.

If you have a story suggestion send it to me. If you've written a story about a person or an event happening in the area send that along as well. If you have birthday or anniversary wishes to pass on or community news of any kind send that too. I'm looking for all sorts of local content. If you have some great photos of the area, old or recent, send them too and we'll find a place for them on the Rambler site. If you know of something interesting going on in the community let me know about it and we'll pass the information along. In addition to photos and text, I'm planning to include video and specialized audio content on the site as well.

More than anything else I'd like the River Valley Rambler to become a place you visit on a regular basis to find out more about your community. I'd like you to be able to go to it often and always find something interesting, entertaining and useful there. But for this to work I'll need your input. I can't do it all myself.

The River Valley Rambler has a new email address. Send your stories, suggestions, community events and photos to rivervalleyrambler@inbox.com and check out the new site at RiverValleyRambler.com.