note: Days 14, 15, 16, and 17 are sparse in details because I am writing them days after they have occurred and on less than 2 hours of sleep while riding a bus from San Antonio, Texas to Monterrey, Mexico.

—

May 18 and 19, 2008

Ethan and I wake up around 9AM and already Lynn is buzzing about preparing a feast: pancakes, waffles, sausage, bacon, potatoes, and orange juice. Sean wakes up a short while later and tackles making the pancakes in various shapes such as airplanes and teradactles.

We eat, digest, lounge, laugh, talk about the events of the previous evening, and pack up to hit the road. Lynn makes a color polaroid of us that perhaps it will be on her Flick (please?). We say our goodbyes and thank everyone for being superb hosts. We had only planned to stay in San Diego 1 night but it was so great we had to stay 2.

We depart San Diego around noon and drive for 21 hours straight. Yes, 21 hours straight with only stops for gas, once to eat dinner, and once to eat a much needed breakfast that would end up destroying our stomachs.

Ethan and I take turns throughout the 1,300 plus mile journey. I drive the first leg of the trip, he drives the second leg, and we alternate the last 2 hours every 30 minutes due to exhaustion. During the night Ethan manages to avoid hitting what is either a bobcat or a coyote. Lil Jon and the East Side Boyz, and Cut Copy give us much needed energy during the final 2 hours of driving.

We arrive in San Antonio and make our way to the Greyhound station to purchase bus tickets for Monterrey, Mexico. With a couple of hours to spend before our 2:05PM departure, we walk around the downtown river front, see the Alamo, drink iced teas, bootleg wireless, and grab a sandwich at Subway.

Behind schedule, our bus finally begins to board at 2:50PM and it is a complete mess. We are the last two people allowed on board before the bus closes it’s doors.

Ethan sits next to a woman wearing a black blouse, sea blue skirt, and small, thick hoop earings. Her skin is fair, smooth, and her hair tones of gray. She looks to be in her early 50s. I sit next to an older woman, perhaps in her late 60s. She wears a floral skirt with dark greens and desert oranges, a shamrock milkshake green blouse, and the viens on her hands rise and fall like small, reversed canyons. She takes off her patchwork jacket. “Caliente?” I ask. “Si… mucho,” she responds with a smile.

We arrive in Monterrey around 11PM, meet Alejandro and his wife, Chrissie, make our way back to her parents home in the mountainside 45 minutes away. It is simply beautiful. They give us a warm welcome, we chat on top of the roof about our lives and photography, and the city of Monterrey illuminates the sky in the distance.

May 17, 2008

We wake up, eat breakfast at a local restaurant a short ways down the street, come back to the apartment, and then make our way down to a beach where months earlier there was a fatal great white shark attack.

Later in the day we eat meat, fish, and shrimp tacos that are unbelievable. In the evening we head to a hip hop show where Blackalicious and Pigeon John produce an experience of epic proportions. This was also caused by copious amounts of alcohol being graciously fed to us by Sean and Tom.

May 16, 2008

Drive to San Diego to stay with wonderful friends, Lynn and Sean, from college. We arrive in the evening, Lynn make’s a backyard fire, and we make smores. Yes.

May 15, 2007

I pack up my tent at 9AM, make oatmeal and drink orange juice for breakfast, and head down the famous Route 1 as long as I can.

In Noyo I head East along Route 20 and pick up Ethan at 2:30PM in Sacramento, We drive and meet Timothy Briner around 6PM.

With Timothy, we drive to Samuel P. Taylor State Park, toss the football around, and buy hot dogs, firewood, and beer. A couple of meat and alcohol delights later, we find great insight in Timothy’s project, Boonville USA, which he has been making for the past 9 months. Only 2 days ago did Timothy finish the project.

Soon he will meet his girlfriend in San Diego and together they will drive around the US for 1 month. Sounds like a great way to end an epic 9 month journey filled with photographic and personal exploration.

May 13, 2008

I have the great pleasure of seeing with Shawn Records this morning. Shawn serves up the coffee, busts out his projector, presents slideshows of his works “Harbor” and “At a Loss”, and even treats me to a waffle, sausage, and maple syrup sandwich. Strange, yes, but delicious. Thanks, Shawn.

I say goodbye both Shawn and Kim, and make my way South on I-5 unsure of where I will sleep. I pull into a motel parking lot and pay a small price for a decent bed, shower, place to change my film, download audio and video, and write; all I need wrapped up in one place.

The day is productive and worthwhile, and I am exhausted.

May 8, 2008

I am finally up to speed with my journaling. Days 4, 5, 6, and 7 were written from short-term memory and mine is not the best as a few of my close friends can attest.

The last few days have been a great whirlwind full of driving, seeing the photographers and sights, and taking the occasional personal photograph or two (nudes, obviously).

I find the longer I wait to write about our travels, the more necessary specifics I seem to not remember. And a large portion of travel writing is all about the latter; the descriptions, the odd sights, the random words exchange in the car.

We have covered a vast distance in the past 3 days: Ann Arbor, Michigan to the Badlands, South Dakota. This morning we packed up our campsite and made our way back into the town of Wall to visit Wall Drug. The experience cannot be described with words.

T-rex at Wall Drug.

The Badlands.

Right now we’re driving along I-90 through the western portion of South Dakota, specifically the town of Spearfish. I raise my head from the 15″ screen of my PowerBook G4 and run my eyes all around the landscape that surrounds.

There is still snow here and strangely enough, I welcome it. Ethan and I currently live in Tenants Harbor, Maine, and all of our snow melted during the previous month before our departure.

We are now in Wyoming. The day started off quite overcast and windy while in the Badlands and has since changed over to quite overcast, windy, and foggy; an added driving bonus.

A foggy Wyoming #1.

A foggy Wyoming #2.

The overcast, foggy day has now cleared and we’re surrounded by cumulous clouds and blue skies. The clouds seem so large and low-hanging that I feel as if I can reach up and move hands around inside of them. They are, of course, a few thousand feet above my head and because of this will not be a reality. Ethan is 6 feet 7 inches and has long arms by default but even he cannot reach the clouds. True story.. just do not tell him I told you.

A beautiful Wyoming.

We are cruising through Wyoming and it is simply stunning. Cliche for a reason, the landscape stretches for miles and we are in awe. Low on gas and nearing empty, we pass Crazy Woman Creek. “Her water runs low but her banks rise high. She must rage at times,” I tell Ethan. “Like all crazy women,” he replies. I laugh and realize the only care we have while on the road is making sure there is gas in the tank to propel us forward.

We barely make it to the gas station. Ethan fills his car with 13.455 gallons of gasoline; his tank only holds 13.5 gallons. We rejoice and laugh more. A celebration is in order. We both eat a chocolate chip cookie and rejoice.

Moments ago we finished our first major mountain pass drive at 8:04PM MST from Ranchester to Burgess Junction, both in Wyoming. It was everything you are imagining right now.

It is now after 1AM MST and I am writing this from our room at the Passage Bar and Motel maybe 5 or 10 miles West of Burgess Junction. Originally, we had planned on camping but there is still quite a lot of snow at this elevation (approx. 8,000 feet) and we decided it would be best to forgo that option and instead sleep in a room due to the cold temperatures.

The room was offered to us for $95 and I asked, “How cold is the temperature going to get tonight?” implying that we would sleep in our tent if not too cold, and the guy behind the desk was kind enough to offer it to us at $75; still more than we would have liked to pay but well-worth it for safety reasons. Plus, there’s satellite internet and we’re literally in the middle of nowhere.

May 6, 2008

This morning we departed Chicago and headed out to the suburbs of the city to meet with Tealia Ellis Ritter. We arrived at Tealia’s beautiful home around 1PM and walked down to her equally beautiful studio in her backyard. Like all of the photographers we have visited so far, Tealia was really wonderful to speak with and our interview with her will be making it’s way to our website later on this summer.

Sign up for our newsletter to be notified when this highly anticipated content will be released.

Ethan Jones, Tealia Ellis Ritter, myself.

We left Tealia’s around 3 or 4PM and drove to Milwaukee where we met up with Sonja Thomsen. I want to say how fortunate Ethan and I are to be meeting with such friendly, insightful, and all-around-amazing people, Sonja included.

Sonja, Ethan, and I piled into her maroon VW Jetta and down to her studio in a warehouse nearby. It was pretty sweet. One day I hope to have a space like Tealia and Sonja have. It seems welcoming to be able to divide home life and work life into two different spaces. Our interview with Sonja started off slightly awkward, mainly because Ethan and I were feeling a little sluggish, but ended on a hilarious note with us dancing around her studio. Sonja said that the only way we could video tape the interview was if we did a dance at the end, and, well, we did.

Sonja Thomsen in her studio.

After our interview, Sonja treated us (thank you) to dinner at Lou Lou’s Dinner (do I have the name right, Sonja?) and it hit the spot. Ethan and Sonja had pitas and I had a not-so-traditional steak and cheese sandwich. We all had sweet local beers. You may be thinking that a steak and cheese sandwich is a dangerous thing to be ordering in Milwaukee, and if by dangerous you mean dangerously delicious, you are 100% correct.

Side note: I should to start taking snaps of our food so you can experience some of the deliciousness.

That night we drove for awhile; maybe till 10PM or so. We stopped at a Best Western right around this time but the room was $80/night (too expensive for our month-long budget) and their WiFi was busted so we kept on truckin’.

Ten or twenty miles later we pulled off the interstate and into the Country Squire Inn parking lot. I have no idea what town or city this was in.

The main office was locked with a sign that said something to the extent of… “If you would like to rent a room, please go to our restaurant and bar next door and ask.”

We did just that. For $53 and some change we had a clean room, two full beds, and a warm shower. Plus, the woman at the bar that gave us our room key was friendly enough; always a plus when paying for a motel room inside of a bar; a first for both Ethan and I.

May 5, 2008

Last night we made our way into Warren Dune State Park around 10PM, set up shop at campsite #41, made a meal consisting of pasta elbows with Ragu for dinner and cinnamon apple sauce for dessert, said goodnight to the raccoons looking for scraps nearby, and crawled into our sleeping bags. The nighttime temps were mild; clear and perhaps high 40s or so.

The following morning we explored the beaches and dunes of Warren Dunes State. Both were equally beautiful. Although I have not ever been to Cancun, the Bahamas, or tropical places of that nature (minus Costa Rica and Panama), I believe it may be quite like being on the beaches of Warren Dunes State Park. The water was deep shades of blues and greens, and the surrounding area was peaceful and almost empty as we visited prior to the busy tourist summer season.

Warren Dunes State Park.

We departed Warren Dunes State Park and hit the interstate to Chicago, and made our way to downtown Chicago around 4PM where we visited the shiny Bean, a dope camera shop where Ethan purchased film, and a fountain with kids playing. It was here where I made my first bird-in-flight photograph of the trip.

Ethan and I at the Bean.

Spring at the fountain.

Seagull, building.

Around 7PM we caught up with where we would be sleeping at Mark and KC’s apartment, both college-friends of Ethan’s. We dropped our bags off and made our way over a deep-dish pizza place (whose name I am forgetting at the moment) where we met up with Sara, Mark’s girl and former RIT grad. One slide of pepperoni, a second of sausage and mushroom, and a Corona were everything we needed for a good-nights rest. Big thanks to Mark and KC for giving us a place to sleep.

May 5, 2008

“Nothing so liberalizes a man and expands the kindly instincts that nature put in him as travel and contact with many kinds of people.”

Mark Twain

Ethan, Campsite #41, Mazda Protege

Wista, Dunes, Self

Dunes, Lake Michigan, Blue Sky

I am recording more video than I know what to do with and it’s being made with a Canon G9 and a Gorilla Pod (many thanks to two folks for making these two items a reality).

I am running into a problem, though. Many of the files are in excess of 2-4gb each.

I need a way to compress them before dropping them into iMovieHD because right now it simply takes more time than I have while on the road.

Any suggestions? I would like to get this content onto the blog but need a fix!

We came across this billboard during our first (but quick) traffic jam of the trip, specifically along I-94 West between Ann Arbor, Michigan and Sawyer, Michigan.