Epic Covid Roadtrip - Very Photo Heavy

[JDS]

Some really great photos and a great story but for me it is just too much, this is coming from someone who does long post. I feel it would have been more effective if you had broken it up into multiple threads, maybe combine a few states together for each thread.

That’s great feedback- this is my first (maybe only ever) long post like this, and it’s hard to tell how it’s going to read vs. how it was for me to share. If I do one of these again (I don’t know that I will) I’ll certainly use your advice.

 

[BosseBe]

That’s great feedback- this is my first (maybe only ever) long post like this, and it’s hard to tell how it’s going to read vs. how it was for me to share. If I do one of these again (I don’t know that I will) I’ll certainly use your advice.

And I must beg to differ with @Phocal, I like that you kept it in one thread. This is not a very long thread so it is easy to read.
If it had stretched over several weeks or months, breaking it up would make sense to me.
This is about your trip to get your son home as fast as possible, breaking it up would not in my opinion make it better.

 

[JDS]

Great roadtrip and thanks for sharing.

Looking at the EXIF data, you took quite the collection of lenses.

I did, grabbed the big bag since we had the space. I like forcing myself to use different lenses as they all force me to stop and think, and use what they do best. Not that it results in great photography, but that’s another matter...

 

[JDS]

What an epic journey! Glad to see that you were able to turn a challenge into an opportunity for adventure.

Would love to see map of your route.

- K

I can share my documents if you want, I used the good old AAA Triptik (now a web app) to print, after doing my planning in Google Maps. I think I can give them to you as a DM if you’re interested.

 

[RichardC]

What a great set. You are blessed with amazing spaces in the US. I don't seem to get many pictures 'during' the travelling, just 'when we get there' - probably because the wife and kids get impatient with me. I'll try harder.

A favour please? Perhaps you could cast a similar spell on the total lunatics who race up and down our (30 limit) street at 60-80mph? No fatalities of course, just maimed/disfigured a bit and cars written off

 

[agentlossing]

Wow, epic road odyssey! I am really itching to wander. I have noticed, however, that the bad drivers seem to have gotten much worse lately. It can be dangerous to be in congested areas.

 

[Web-Betty]

Great fun to read. Thank you for sharing your road trip with us. I also agree with @BosseBe about the single thread. As this was one road trip over several days, I found it to be engaging and not too much.

 

[Generationfourth]

America really is this physically spectacular- shots are SOOC, Natural setting on the camera + polarizing filters for many shots. But not exaggerated, Instagrammed, etc- it looks like this. If you have a chance to do a cross-country road trip with a teenage child, I can't recommend it highly enough!

There are all really interesting shots and the whole time I was wondering if it was Oly natural. I find it quite easy on the eyes when you are scanning through hundreds of photos. Quite often I come home from a trip with 1000+ photos to cull and go through- I take one look at the natural jpegs and decide to roll with the SOOC jpegs for 80% of the shots with minimal edits. The remaining 20% that need more work, I'm using LR's Oly Natural profile on the raws along with a preset to further align it with natural. I'm always pleased with the results and it saves me a ton of work, giving me more time to shoot!

 

[JDS]

There are all really interesting shots and the whole time I was wondering if it was Oly natural. I find it quite easy on the eyes when you are scanning through hundreds of photos. Quite often I come home from a trip with 1000+ photos to cull and go through- I take one look at the natural jpegs and decide to roll with the SOOC jpegs for 80% of the shots with minimal edits. The remaining 20% that need more work, I'm using LR's Oly Natural profile on the raws along with a preset to further align it with natural. I'm always pleased with the results and it saves me a ton of work, giving me more time to shoot!

Part of it for me is laziness, or maybe why I enjoy photography. I’m a designer with a desk job, and have thousands of hours using various Adobe & similar products. The last thing I want is to spend more time at my desk, staring at creative software on a computer screen. Photography to me is active, using my eyes and body - and treating my sensor like 35mm film. I know I could get better results, but nobody is paying me for these photos ;-)

 

[melanie.ylang]

An enjoyable trip to scroll through - I must say, that was a lot of distance covered in a short time! It fascinated me that someone might modify a rental vehicle in the way you have; I never would have thought to do it. Clever!

I have never seen rolled ice cream, but have now found out more about it (the internet is an amazing resource, where ignorance can be so easily cured).

 

[JDS]

An enjoyable trip to scroll through - I must say, that was a lot of distance covered in a short time! It fascinated me that someone might modify a rental vehicle in the way you have; I never would have thought to do it. Clever!

I have never seen rolled ice cream, but have now found out more about it (the internet is an amazing resource, where ignorance can be so easily cured).

To be honest, the rolled ice cream was cool but in no way better than regular ice cream. But it looked great!

 

[JDS]

An enjoyable trip to scroll through - I must say, that was a lot of distance covered in a short time! It fascinated me that someone might modify a rental vehicle in the way you have; I never would have thought to do it. Clever!

I have never seen rolled ice cream, but have now found out more about it (the internet is an amazing resource, where ignorance can be so easily cured).

The car was a process of elimination, and an idea from a close friend. I desperately wanted to take a sports car, but that couldn't have held my son's stuff even if we could have stayed in hotels. Using my Audi wagon would mean finding campsites and pitching a tent every night, way too slow. My wife suggested renting an RV, but the driving experience, amount of fuel and cost killed that - I did lean on my radar detector in places like Nebraska and Wyoming ;-)

A modern minivan is as sexy as cargo shorts, but that Toyota was brilliant for this trip.

 

[Generationfourth]

Part of it for me is laziness, or maybe why I enjoy photography. I’m a designer with a desk job, and have thousands of hours using various Adobe & similar products. The last thing I want is to spend more time at my desk, staring at creative software on a computer screen. Photography to me is active, using my eyes and body - and treating my sensor like 35mm film. I know I could get better results, but nobody is paying me for these photos ;-)

Wow, I thought you were messing with me for a second. I am a designer as a day job as well and feel exactly how you feel about spending any more time on the computer! I spent so many years feeling like I was forced to shoot raw and edit every shot, I actually avoided photography for years at a time.

 

[Holoholo55]

Then into Wendover Utah, home of the Wendover Historic Airfield (home of the Enola Gay B-29 bomber of Hiroshima infamy if you’re into history, or the filming of “Con Air” if you’re into Nicholas Cage):



The Enola Gay Museum was closed of course, but there was a great relic of a WWII transport plane:

Uh, I'm pretty sure the actual Enola Gay is at the Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum in Virginia. Here's my son and his friend with her in 2015.

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

 

[JDS]

Uh, I'm pretty sure the actual Enola Gay is at the Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum in Virginia. Here's my son and his friend with her in 2015.

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I'm sure that's true - the hanger where the Engola Gay was prepped was there, and I think they might have had a B-29 (and a bunch of other aircraft) but it was under construction. I shot a couple photos through the window, but it was above my head - pretty useless photos.

 

[Holoholo55]

I'm sure that's true - the hanger where the Engola Gay was prepped was there, and I think they might have had a B-29 (and a bunch of other aircraft) but it was under construction. I shot a couple photos through the window, but it was above my head - pretty useless photos.

The special squadron led and trained by Col. Paul Tibbetts to drop the atomic bomb was based at Wendover. That's the connection to the Enola Gay. She and her squadron mates were there. Too bad it was closed when you were there. Great road trip photos. My family did a coast to coast road trip in 1968. Can't believe we did that!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enola_Gay

 

[JDS]

I'm sure that's true - the hanger where the Engola Gay was prepped was there, and I think they might have had a B-29 (and a bunch of other aircraft) but it was under construction. I shot a couple photos through the window, but it was above my head - pretty useless photos.

Here are the photos of the hanger, maybe it will be worth a visit someday:

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Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

 

[Harvey Melvin Richards]

Great post JDS. I haven’t traveled much in the last 18 months, so I got a vicarious thrill from your photos.

 

[Glennn]

Day 2: Eastern Nevada to Sidney Nebraska

Morning meant traveling through the hills on the Utah border, which I found harshly beautiful:

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Then into Wendover Utah, home of the Wendover Historic Airfield (home of the Enola Gay B-29 bomber of Hiroshima infamy if you’re into history, or the filming of “Con Air” if you’re into Nicholas Cage):

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The Enola Gay Museum was closed of course, but there was a great relic of a WWII transport plane:

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Plus the remains of a racetrack facility with some wonderfully patinaed cars:

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Then of course- the Bonneville Salt Flats:

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Then, I had to make tracks because lunch would be at the Utah Olympic Park in Park City, Utah. Ski jumpers are crazy, these ramps were huge:

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Enough with Utah, we have plenty more saved for the return trip. Wyoming! There’s a wonderful frontier museum at the Fort Bridger State Historic Site, which I had almost all to myself. This fort was a stop along the Pony Express, which is remarkably well remembered for a business that failed after only a few years:

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Keeping with the “Wyoming is a tough place” theme, dinner was at the Wyoming Frontier Prison Museum (don’t commit a felony in Wyoming):

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But the neighboring landscape is lovely:

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But Nebraska beckoned, and there’s an impressive Lincoln sculpture to welcome you at the border:

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Excellent. The car guy in couldn’t help but notice the 64 Malibu facing the old Lincoln.