Tomorrow...

ronlane · May 28, 2013

Safe travels Steve5D. I know you are on the road now, enjoy the ride.

Steve5D · Jun 3, 2013

Thanks for the kind words, everyone!

I'm in Murdo, South Dakota right now. I'd expected to be much further along on my trip but, while in Florence, Montana my transmission decided otherwise. Four days and $2,200.00 later I was able to get back out on the road. I hadn't exactly budgeted for a new transmission but, hey, whaddya' gonna' do? I was fortunate, though. I was visiting my old bass player in Florence, so I had a place to stay. He owns a restaurant there, and he refused to charge me for food.

The silver lining is that, weather-wise, the delay caused me to miss what would've been about a week full of rain. Since leaving Portland I've hit Wallace ID, Florence MT, Little Bighorn, Devil's Tower (Wyoming), Sturgis SD, Crazy Horse Memorial and Mt. Rushmore. I've got countless photos yet to edit, and I'll get to that at some point. Here's a sampling:

Devil's Tower:

Mount Rushmore:

Crazy Horse Memorial:

A farm near Florence, Montana:

Little Bighorn Battlefield:

Wallace, Idaho:

I stayed in beautiful downtown Murdo, South Dakota last night, after about a 19 hour day. I'm going to give myself a non-photo day today. This will allow me to catch up on some driving (I still have places I need to be on particular days, so I need to play "catch up"), and I'll also be able to catch up on some editing. I'll stop tonight, somewhere east of Kansas City, and push through to Tennessee to visit some music friends in Nashville on Tuesday, and ending up in Chattanooga.

Pixmedic, I'll be arriving in St. Augustine, where I'll be living, at the end of August.

More to follow!

molested_cow · Jun 3, 2013

Woah! A transmission failure? Depending on what car you have, I might just have bought a new one instead!
Actually, a 4 day delay for transmission issue is quite lucky. The last time I checked, most transmission servicing would have taken at least a week.

deeky · Jun 3, 2013

Welcome to South Dakota! Sounds like you hit the normal places (no Wall Drug!?!?)

If I had a little more time (missed this one for some reason) I could have given you a couple other stops that people sometimes miss. Love the Hills (and the rest of the state). Have a good drive day. When you hang a right from I-90 onto I-29, give a wave.

sleist · Jun 11, 2013

Devil's Tower always makes me think of Close Encounters.
I need to get some mud and a trash can ...

Love the farm shot.
HDR in the Wallace shot is pleasantly over cooked.
That was meant as a compliment.

CherylL · Jun 11, 2013

Love the barn & mountain photo. Great colors.

Steve5D · Jun 17, 2013

Thanks for the kind words, everyone!

Thus far, I've clocked 4,430 miles onto my '99 Ford Explorer.

On the one hand, I feel like I've taken way too many pictures, and there's no way I'll ever have time to even look at them all, much less decide which ones to spend any time on. On the other hand, I feel as though I haven't shot nearly enough, and I should get off my dead ass early, every day, and get out and shoot. I've taken, roughly, 4,500 photos since leaving Portland, and I've got two more days of "me" shooting before my shooting will be for someone else.

Now that I think of it, I'm averaging better than one photo per mile!

I keep telling myself I'm going to sit down and get some stuff posted, and I will.

Really...

Steve5D · Jun 17, 2013

molested_cow said:
Woah! A transmission failure? Depending on what car you have, I might just have bought a new one instead!

Well, the money for a new transmission I had. The money for a new truck I did not!

Actually, a 4 day delay for transmission issue is quite lucky. The last time I checked, most transmission servicing would have taken at least a week.

Well, I was fortunate that the transmission died while I was visiting my old bass player. I stayed at his house (no hotel bill) and he owns a restaurant and refused to charge me for food (no dining tabs to deal with). He also knew the mechanics doing the work. They pushed me to the front of the line and cut their labor charge in half for me, simply because they knew my buddy.

So, yeah, "lucky" doesn't even begin to describe it!