This one could be classified as one of my “Roadside Finds” but it was a nice old mill in a very small town in rural Nebraska that I thought was worthy of a Postcard. 😉
Postcard From Mason City, Nebraska
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Postcard From Homestead National Monument of America
National Monument commemorating the Homestead Act of 1862 with restored buildings alongside a tallgrass prairie. Interesting place!
Postcard From Cape Girardeau, Missouri
Postcard From Bowling Green, Kentucky
We’re currently in Billings, MT and enjoying our first “non-get-up-and-go” morning since we left home. It’s been 5 days of beautiful but somewhat grueling driving, done on purpose because our ultimate destination is still a few days away! We’ve seen some amazing scenery and I’ve taken (more than) a few photos, but haven’t wanted to spend my down time on the computer. So here’s a tidbit to keep the flow going. I’ll probably work on a few more soon but it’s time for breakfast! 😉
On The Road Again….
Kathy & I departed this morning for what we expect to be an 8,000 +/- mile journey to the Oregon coast, visiting Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota and Montana before making the big turn through Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada and Utah before heading back through Colorado and home. With any luck there will be a Monte sighting along the way. 😉
We’re doing a few things differently this trip than we’ve ever done before. First, and the biggest departure for us, is that we have made zero hotel reservations beyond the first night. I’ve always been an ‘anal’ planner, preferring to have all my I’s dotted and T’s crossed, weeks and sometimes months before we leave home. We wanted to make this trip as flexible as possible, and figured that we shouldn’t have trouble finding a place to sleep as long as we keep the “requirements” to a minimum.
The second departure – for me – is that this is the longest trip we’ve taken with the least amount of camera gear. I have my X-T4 and my 3 zoom lenses – the sweet 16-80, the 55-200 and the 10-24. And it is all in a shoulder bag! I have always ended up with at least one backpack, sometimes two. This time the backpack holds our computers and peripherals, but not camera gear. Nice!
So stay tuned for some “Postcards” from the road, plus some hopefully interesting photos – and stories – along the way!
Happy 104th Birthday, National Park Service!
“We must take all resources under consideration; all resources, because they relate fatefully to our life on earth, reflect certain grandeurs , and deserve not only our attention, but our reverence. Hence, while it is as essential as ever to protect the National Parks and Wilderness Areas, it is also essential that we protect the forests, the crops, the minerals, and the oceans, and it is essential that we preserve the purity of the air we breathe and the water we drink.” – Ansel Adams
You Either Have It Or You Don’t
The travel bug, that is. 😉
Over this past weekend I was telling our oldest son Scott about our plans for an upcoming road trip. He asked “why?” Meanwhile, our youngest son Kevin is at the beach for two weeks.
If you don’t experience or understand the desire to travel, you just don’t have the travel bug. Scott is a homebody and father, and chooses to stay home. Kevin is an avid traveler and cruise fan like me & Kathy. Nobody is cruising these days, so Kevin followed our lead and went to the beach for a change of scenery. In his job he has a bunch of vacation time that he needs to use by the end of the year, and the clock was ticking!
Our plans are to head to the Pacific Northwest shortly, although in addition to all the Covid stuff we are now looking at the spread of wildfires all over the west. Fortunately our plans are very flexible, and once our Subie is loaded up with a full tank of gas we can go just about anywhere!
The travel bug doesn’t wait – the clock is still ticking and we have 18 states to go to get to 50. With a little luck and a lot of driving we’ll pick up another 5.
A Little Taste of Fall?
Kathy & I woke this morning to a temperature of 68 degrees and a noticeable drop in humidity. We had our morning coffee & tea on the screened porch and almost needed our sleeves! 🙂
Kathy & I met our friend Paul for lunch today, and on the way home Kathy said that the shadows and colors on the houses looked like fall. The air is crispy clear and it does have that fall look. But we’re not fooled! This will only last a few days before the heat and humidity return. In the meantime we’ll enjoy it!
Another Form of Distancing
Much is made these days of the idea of “social distancing,” a term I abhor because there ain’t nothing “social” about it. I understand and support the idea of maintaining space, but I can’t help but wish that “they” had come up with a better term for it!
Kathy & I were having a conversation recently where – one of our frequent subjects – we talked about the fact that there is way too much information available these days – that there is a big difference between information and facts. And she mentioned that there needs to be some term for the idea of maintaining “virtual distancing” from all the crap that circulates in the media and on the Internet.
Social Distancing, of course, means that my chances of getting cooties from someone decreases dramatically if they are outside my imaginary 6-foot personal space. By a similar token, if some virtual boogieman – real or imagined – is outside my zone of relevance, it’s importance to me means very little. We as a society pay way too much attention to people, voices and noise that have little or no direct influence on us. Because it is out there we feel some sense of obligation, and we never take the time to think about whether or not it is useful, helpful or relevant.
Case in point: our upcoming presidential election. We now know who the candidates are for each respective party. I now know who I’m going to vote for. Until I get my ballot in the mail, I don’t need to follow every analysis and every story relating to who vs. who or what vs. what or he said/she said. And you can be assured there will be plenty of it – it’s been going on for months and will really get started today (although I would love to see a head to head debate between Ms. Harris and Trumpty Dumpty, which of course will never happen). Send me my ballot and let me vote. Beyond that I have no influence, I have no emotional investment. I’ll do my civic duty as a responsible citizen and live with the results when I read them the next day.
I’m liking the concept of Virtual Distancing even more than Social Distancing. Social Distancing is pretty easy – stay away from people! Virtual distancing isn’t any harder, as long as we pay attention to who and what is trying to get our attention. While the most effective form of distancing means staying completely away from people, their ideas and their opinions, that just isn’t practical. But just like we cast a wary eye on that person behind us in line at the grocery store, we need to approach our media consumption with the same level of caution and skepticism. And turn it off when it makes sense to do so.
A Recalibration of Compromises
Kirk Tuck recently used this phrase in regards to making choices between camera options, specifically about different lenses. The full quote follows:
The “science” of optical design can not have changed a tremendous amount in four or five years so you have to understand that the “new versus old” shift is largely a recalibration of compromises. Buy the new one and watch your left biceps atrophy. Buy the old one and suffer the dreaded effects of manual portage. Suffer the ruinous added weight of the original for the extra 1% of quality in the corners or choose the lightweight version and forever wonder how much optical magic they had to remove to get the lens corpulence under control.
It occurred to me, however, that the concept applies in a much broader context, especially in recent months.
Every decision we make requires some effort to balance the options, to compromise. Do I want the camera with the big sensor that is huge, heavy and requires a large suitcase to cart around, or am I better off with the compact camera with a smaller sensor, small but excellent lenses and “good enough” image quality? We want to travel – we love to fly but not not any time soon. We have spent a lot of time on cruise ships but won’t for a while. Our trip to the beach worked out really well – just like living at home but with better scenery. 😉
We love to eat our but have limited our restaurant outings. We’ve gotten even better at preparing simple but delicious meals at home – much to the delight of the bathroom scale!
Kathy and I are currently in the process of planning a road trip to the Pacific Northwest. The places we’re planning to visit are the places where we’re less likely to encounter big crowds. As crazy as it sounds, we’ll probably drive within a few miles of Yellowstone or Glacier National Parks, but have no intention of stopping. First, crowds are not our thing. We probably would be doing pretty much the same thing even without all the Coronacrisis hoopla. But second is that we don’t want to have to deal with the logistics of large crowds. Third is that when we do go to those parks we want to be able to spend several days or even a couple of weeks there. That isn’t the plan for this time.
Our recent drive to Ohio and Wisconsin taught us that we can eat, sleep, pee and get gas just about anywhere. Sometimes it requires a little compromise on location or timing, but it can get done. Ultimately, once we solve that basic equation we can go just about anywhere!
People ask us why we don’t buy an RV. For some people it’s the perfect solution. For us, we like knowing that when we get to the motel, tired after or driving or exploring all day, we don’t need to spend another hour setting up camp. I can have cocktails made within minutes after arrival! And the next morning, we grab a cup of coffee, drop the keys at the front desk and get on our way again. Neither option is right or wrong, just different ways to calibrate the compromises.
None of our choices are either/or or yes/no. We need to consider what we can do instead We have to look at the options and recalibrate our compromises. Our priorities, if you will. It can be hard, particularly for those of us who don’t care for change. But the effort is worth it, because there are still plenty of things to do once we have worked out the details.
