Following the sun: Route 66 across America
To preface, a word of advice: Follow your dream, wherever it leads you. You'll very rarely ever regret listening to yourself, and even if disaster strikes, at least you know that you tried.
My husband and I have been on the Left for a year, and I'm finally wrapping up this project of documenting the journey. It was a terrifying process - not just the planning and breaking the news to our families, dropping our entire East Coast lives, but also capturing this lifechanging move in pictures, movies, and words. Even though I had been planning to do this for at least a good 6 months before we left I still think that this is one of the most inadequate creative jobs I've done.
I'm biased, though, as all of this material is intensely personal. I can't see it the way outsiders would, and I am both unable to communicate the things I felt and saw but don't trust that anyone would really care. Because it is, for all intents and purposes, just a family trip. Even if it's just two Gen-X adults and there were no tour guides, plane tickets, or Mickey Mouse, it was a trip. A journey.
There was so much tension, uncertainty, tiredness and heartbreak. And I've tried so hard to keep that out of the picture and out of my words, but at the end of the day the sad undertones were a huge part of what made the trip so real. No sense in painting a scene where it's not.
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The movie that didn't quite end up the way I imagined it. Amazing the amount of window crud you can accumulate when driving through salty roads and buggy cornfields. Also, Canon didn't have any flexible video tweaks or firmware upgrades at that point.
But the romance of a road trip always lies in the sleepiness of the asphalt whoosh. In my head, the journey began before dawn, we followed the sun across the sky, and headlights mimic stars as the darkness falls on our city.
Our trip began with a two-week goodbye to my parents. People I vowed to never take for granted once I hit adulthood, for living parents is always a blessing. You can love someone with all your hearts, but you just have to do some things before the door closes again.
My dog has a curious habit of dropping his food in odd places, then eating them while looking vaguely harassed:
I already posted my shots from NYC some time ago, so skipping forward a few days... Curious, quirky, and just plain weird are words to describe Ocean Grove, New Jersey. I'm a Jersey girl, born and bred. The ocean never meant more to me than walks with black-clad friends at night to see what skeeball booths happened to be open and who wouldn't kick us out.
Ocean Grove has a tent city behind their church. And there is always this miasma of "Just missed it" about this place, and nearby Asbury Park.
We grabbed handfuls of the white Atlantic sand, tucking it neatly in a cheap ziploc bag. Later, we thought, when we get to the other side, we will remember this.
All the things I missed as a teenager, and a little girl.
I'd never seen waves much bigger than this. Surfing was always something Other People did.
To me, beaches were for crowds, and heat, and garbage. If you were lucky you might find the spoils of an illegal drug deal buried beneath the sand, or get stuck by a needle and get rich the roundabout way.
My parents are not big people, and as I grow older they seem to get smaller.
And finally, it's time to be on our way. We've travelled extensively through coal country, it being one of our favorite places in the Rust Belt. But it was a gray day with crisp pre-spring freshness in the air. A mix of feelings to mirror my own.
Recording every state sign seemed like a good idea. At least one to keep me shooting, and shooting accurately:
Snow, determined to never let us forget that it existed:
In a white world, you make up your own games. Left, right, it's all the same. Up, down... Wait, up looks different!
This was actually very close to the level of detail we ever got with a map. Who needs a map? We're going west. CA is a big state. You'll probably hit it. Eventually.
T.M.I. (But boy, gas was cheap in Ohio in 2009)
Finally, somewhere west of the Appalachian mountains the land grew flat and warm and golden. The sun fell on my hands like lightflakes.
Love the light.
I have extended family in Missouri, which provided us with a day and half to stop driving and regroup. This included swapping salt and snow for dust and flies. And dropping off our loaner Jack Russell terrier (whom I dubbed The Leaky Football.)
It wasn't until Rolla, MO that I started to really feel that we were on Route 66. Americana starts here, and as much as time tries to forget it, the die hards never do.
(A little Maryland in Missouri)
Kansas for a scant 13 miles, or something. I blinked, it was gone. But I can check that off my list.
Something about Oklahoma was exciting to me. Not for the 24 hours we were there, but for the days leads up to it and the year afterwards, it continues to thrill me in it's cyclone of deceptive complexity. Something never seemed quite right, but Oklahoma was probably the most peaceful state on our trip. Like the quiet before the stom or children creeping silently outside the ogre's door.
Never saw one of these alive before. And it could have fooled me.
Sometimes when I'm very sleepy I do the same thing: I continue to stare and blink at whatever I was looking at until something more interesting comes along. Nothing more than that. Life should be simple.
Borders are subjective, but the earth knew where Texas is, because Texas is bigger than anything. Within 5 miles of the sign, the land was no longer rolling, but flat and harsh and brittle.
Texas has a reasonably artsy tinge to it, if you know where to go. Amarillo hides a fair amount of it.
Does Route 66 have a "high" season?
Zach was always the type of dog who'd work himself into a tizzy on the idea of getting into a car. We broke him of that on one little cross-country trip. By jove! If only we'd known that sooner!
Adrian, TX, exactly halfway between Chicago and... somewhere west of it. The owners of the Midpoint Cafe were unspeakably gracious and invited us in to their closed shop to look around and have a chat.
I think I have an ex who lives in New Mexico. Other than this I know nothing about this state except they have lots of tumbleweeds and artists.
The tumbleweed was really something. They were cute and funny until you hook a bunch under your car while going 75 on the highway. Then it stops being funny.
Tucumcari, NM has one windmill to power the town.
Their main street looks like a movie set while filming is on hold.
I do believe this was someplace outside of Albuquerque. I'd hoped Mexican food would be better in New Mexico, but it was just cheaper.
All I know about Arizona is that they have an interesting geologic history, and ton of Dgrinners live there. :thumb
Stewart's, a weird-ass road stop somewhere in the middle of the Petrified Forest. Which, btw, is just a fancy name for "Really empty wasteland."
I felt so bad for the strange folks running this joint. I did get that bag of fish gravel -- er, petrified wood, just for stopping by (as advertised) but since I didn't really feel like spending $300 on a rock statue of a dinosaur I nudged Trav until he gave them $5. For the ostrich.
It was way fun!
Ostriches are huge and nasty and they smell bad. They also look like dinosaurs pretending to be showgirls, with sock puppets poking out the top.
Time to hit the road again.
Our poor colons were traumatized by a week of road food. Surely crossing through the second-to-last state meant it was time to break out the emergency backup fruit. I don't know where we acquired fresh bananas but apparently it was a momentous occasion so I took a photo of it.
Does anyone in the East ever think that there are snow-covered mountains in Arizona? Definitely not me. Flagstaff was awesome, and an unexpected surprise. We could live in Flagstaff if we didn't already have an apartment in San Francisco waiting for us.
Cabin fever sets in!
Don't tell the authorities we're getting kinda nutty or they won't let us in.
This orange saved our buttes.
Love Cali
The Oasis rest stop in the Mojave desert is perhaps the single bitterest black hole in the universe. The people there have spent so long in isolation, serving their own vicious cycle of cynicism that they've started seeing the world backwards and upside-down.
3,000 miles!
And the rest is history. CA history.
Driving up the coastal highway was a last-minute change of plan, but worth every second.
If you're lost someplace north of Cambria but not quite up to Big Sur, stop by the Ragged Point Inn for a bite. It's awesome.
The following months were both joyful and difficult, but the first step is always the scariest.
If anyone actually made it down this far I'll have to buy you a drink. :lol3 Hey thanks for letting me share this here on Dgrin! :smo
My husband and I have been on the Left for a year, and I'm finally wrapping up this project of documenting the journey. It was a terrifying process - not just the planning and breaking the news to our families, dropping our entire East Coast lives, but also capturing this lifechanging move in pictures, movies, and words. Even though I had been planning to do this for at least a good 6 months before we left I still think that this is one of the most inadequate creative jobs I've done.
I'm biased, though, as all of this material is intensely personal. I can't see it the way outsiders would, and I am both unable to communicate the things I felt and saw but don't trust that anyone would really care. Because it is, for all intents and purposes, just a family trip. Even if it's just two Gen-X adults and there were no tour guides, plane tickets, or Mickey Mouse, it was a trip. A journey.
There was so much tension, uncertainty, tiredness and heartbreak. And I've tried so hard to keep that out of the picture and out of my words, but at the end of the day the sad undertones were a huge part of what made the trip so real. No sense in painting a scene where it's not.
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The movie that didn't quite end up the way I imagined it. Amazing the amount of window crud you can accumulate when driving through salty roads and buggy cornfields. Also, Canon didn't have any flexible video tweaks or firmware upgrades at that point.
But the romance of a road trip always lies in the sleepiness of the asphalt whoosh. In my head, the journey began before dawn, we followed the sun across the sky, and headlights mimic stars as the darkness falls on our city.
Our trip began with a two-week goodbye to my parents. People I vowed to never take for granted once I hit adulthood, for living parents is always a blessing. You can love someone with all your hearts, but you just have to do some things before the door closes again.
My dog has a curious habit of dropping his food in odd places, then eating them while looking vaguely harassed:
I already posted my shots from NYC some time ago, so skipping forward a few days... Curious, quirky, and just plain weird are words to describe Ocean Grove, New Jersey. I'm a Jersey girl, born and bred. The ocean never meant more to me than walks with black-clad friends at night to see what skeeball booths happened to be open and who wouldn't kick us out.
Ocean Grove has a tent city behind their church. And there is always this miasma of "Just missed it" about this place, and nearby Asbury Park.
We grabbed handfuls of the white Atlantic sand, tucking it neatly in a cheap ziploc bag. Later, we thought, when we get to the other side, we will remember this.
All the things I missed as a teenager, and a little girl.
I'd never seen waves much bigger than this. Surfing was always something Other People did.
To me, beaches were for crowds, and heat, and garbage. If you were lucky you might find the spoils of an illegal drug deal buried beneath the sand, or get stuck by a needle and get rich the roundabout way.
My parents are not big people, and as I grow older they seem to get smaller.
And finally, it's time to be on our way. We've travelled extensively through coal country, it being one of our favorite places in the Rust Belt. But it was a gray day with crisp pre-spring freshness in the air. A mix of feelings to mirror my own.
Recording every state sign seemed like a good idea. At least one to keep me shooting, and shooting accurately:
Snow, determined to never let us forget that it existed:
In a white world, you make up your own games. Left, right, it's all the same. Up, down... Wait, up looks different!
This was actually very close to the level of detail we ever got with a map. Who needs a map? We're going west. CA is a big state. You'll probably hit it. Eventually.
T.M.I. (But boy, gas was cheap in Ohio in 2009)
Finally, somewhere west of the Appalachian mountains the land grew flat and warm and golden. The sun fell on my hands like lightflakes.
Love the light.
I have extended family in Missouri, which provided us with a day and half to stop driving and regroup. This included swapping salt and snow for dust and flies. And dropping off our loaner Jack Russell terrier (whom I dubbed The Leaky Football.)
It wasn't until Rolla, MO that I started to really feel that we were on Route 66. Americana starts here, and as much as time tries to forget it, the die hards never do.
(A little Maryland in Missouri)
Kansas for a scant 13 miles, or something. I blinked, it was gone. But I can check that off my list.
Something about Oklahoma was exciting to me. Not for the 24 hours we were there, but for the days leads up to it and the year afterwards, it continues to thrill me in it's cyclone of deceptive complexity. Something never seemed quite right, but Oklahoma was probably the most peaceful state on our trip. Like the quiet before the stom or children creeping silently outside the ogre's door.
Never saw one of these alive before. And it could have fooled me.
Sometimes when I'm very sleepy I do the same thing: I continue to stare and blink at whatever I was looking at until something more interesting comes along. Nothing more than that. Life should be simple.
Borders are subjective, but the earth knew where Texas is, because Texas is bigger than anything. Within 5 miles of the sign, the land was no longer rolling, but flat and harsh and brittle.
Texas has a reasonably artsy tinge to it, if you know where to go. Amarillo hides a fair amount of it.
Does Route 66 have a "high" season?
Zach was always the type of dog who'd work himself into a tizzy on the idea of getting into a car. We broke him of that on one little cross-country trip. By jove! If only we'd known that sooner!
Adrian, TX, exactly halfway between Chicago and... somewhere west of it. The owners of the Midpoint Cafe were unspeakably gracious and invited us in to their closed shop to look around and have a chat.
I think I have an ex who lives in New Mexico. Other than this I know nothing about this state except they have lots of tumbleweeds and artists.
The tumbleweed was really something. They were cute and funny until you hook a bunch under your car while going 75 on the highway. Then it stops being funny.
Tucumcari, NM has one windmill to power the town.
Their main street looks like a movie set while filming is on hold.
I do believe this was someplace outside of Albuquerque. I'd hoped Mexican food would be better in New Mexico, but it was just cheaper.
All I know about Arizona is that they have an interesting geologic history, and ton of Dgrinners live there. :thumb
Stewart's, a weird-ass road stop somewhere in the middle of the Petrified Forest. Which, btw, is just a fancy name for "Really empty wasteland."
I felt so bad for the strange folks running this joint. I did get that bag of fish gravel -- er, petrified wood, just for stopping by (as advertised) but since I didn't really feel like spending $300 on a rock statue of a dinosaur I nudged Trav until he gave them $5. For the ostrich.
It was way fun!
Ostriches are huge and nasty and they smell bad. They also look like dinosaurs pretending to be showgirls, with sock puppets poking out the top.
Time to hit the road again.
Our poor colons were traumatized by a week of road food. Surely crossing through the second-to-last state meant it was time to break out the emergency backup fruit. I don't know where we acquired fresh bananas but apparently it was a momentous occasion so I took a photo of it.
Does anyone in the East ever think that there are snow-covered mountains in Arizona? Definitely not me. Flagstaff was awesome, and an unexpected surprise. We could live in Flagstaff if we didn't already have an apartment in San Francisco waiting for us.
Cabin fever sets in!
Don't tell the authorities we're getting kinda nutty or they won't let us in.
This orange saved our buttes.
Love Cali
The Oasis rest stop in the Mojave desert is perhaps the single bitterest black hole in the universe. The people there have spent so long in isolation, serving their own vicious cycle of cynicism that they've started seeing the world backwards and upside-down.
3,000 miles!
And the rest is history. CA history.
Driving up the coastal highway was a last-minute change of plan, but worth every second.
If you're lost someplace north of Cambria but not quite up to Big Sur, stop by the Ragged Point Inn for a bite. It's awesome.
The following months were both joyful and difficult, but the first step is always the scariest.
If anyone actually made it down this far I'll have to buy you a drink. :lol3 Hey thanks for letting me share this here on Dgrin! :smo
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Comments
immensely enjoyed the ride along with you..................
Thanks
Jane B.
I have always loved the cross country road trip. Done it a few times myself (once solo, Albuquerque to Boston in 2 days - I don't recommend that), but I've never documented it. You captured it beautifully.
Just for the record, when you say:
I must file a grievance. I lived there for 9 years, and not only is it better (assuming you know where to go), but it's tremendously different from Mexican food you get in Texas, Arizona, or California (or anywhere else I've been, for that matter). I consider New Mexican food to be a genre all unto itself, and it's what I miss the most from there (other than my friends and family who are still there). So perhaps if you were looking for better and comparing it to what you know as Mexican food from elsewhere, then maybe you were just at the wrong joint with the wrong expectations.
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thanks for looking, guys! I owe a round of beverages
Jane oops yes we did stop for a couple of days in Chicago, largely to see our good friend gluwater and also to get the right start to Route 66. I was working this whole trip (which I obviously didn't document) and Chicago was entirely spent on my laptop and then sleeping, so there are no photos!
Illinois is a really cool state. There's miles of beautiful gold cornfields, and then all of a sudden there is Chicago.
Photos that don't suck / 365 / Film & Lomography
Uhhhh, no one was supposed to notice that
Photos that don't suck / 365 / Film & Lomography
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I think you missed my part of the state though. I am in Centralia. Route 51 and 161 cross in the middle of town. Another way to find us is you can be in the city limits and in any of 4 counties (mostly Marion and Clinton but some in Jefferson & Washington) even though population is between 14 & 15,000. That is about 80 miles east of the St. Louis Galariea (sp?) shopping center.
We did the same thing 4 years ago, from Indiana to Vegas - and "intended" on doing something just like this - ended up just "wanting to get there" and didn't stop for amazing photo opps (like the giant cross)... we regret it to this day.
We're planning, next year, to drive "home" and spend 6 to 8 days for the 4 day (normally) trip, take our time and do this type of photoshoot.
Anyway, great shots and congrats on the move!
Canon 7d
2 Canon 40d
70-200 f2.8L IS, 50mm f1.4, 50mm f1.8, 28mm f1.8, Tamron 17-55 f2.8, ProOptic 8mm Fisheye
And a bunch of other stuff
As a native Californian I can assure you had they known, it would have only helped your case. There's a reason why it's called "The Granola State."
Very nice work on the video, the photos, and the story. I enjoyed them all.
Doug
My B&W Photos
Motorcycles in B&W
Marjohn
Images of Him Photography
Every one of these imo are fantastic <img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6029383/emoji/clap.gif" border="0" alt="" >
Educate yourself like you'll live forever and live like you'll die tomorrow.
Ed
Thanks! Yes I am a big Lomo fan, and I did have my Diana F+ and my Supersampler with me, but to my knowledge I don't think I used them. <img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6029383/emoji/headscratch.gif" border="0" alt="" >
Especially these days when you can just buy a Diana lens for your 5D, it makes it sort of cost ineffective to keep processing 120 film (and finding that out of 12 shots, maybe one came out) <img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6029383/emoji/lol3.gif" border="0" alt="" >
Actually, that is just a good kick in the pants to start using them again. Thank you!
Photos that don't suck / 365 / Film & Lomography
Hey Ed, it's no real secret. It's just something that we decided we had to do (to the chagrin of our families). Both of us grew up in and never lived away from the Mid-Atlantic and we've been in love with SF for a while. That year everything just fell into place: my job, his job, and a good friend of ours who owned an apartment in SF was looking to rent it out.
All the stars aligned so we decided to go for it.
Even though I miss my friends and family so much, I never regret a single moment of the last year.
Photos that don't suck / 365 / Film & Lomography
A little off topic but has California been as you expected it to be? Any surprises or special insights? I moved from CA to AZ about 30 years ago but still miss so much about living in CA.
Doug
My B&W Photos
Motorcycles in B&W
I hope I don't incite any riots, so I'll just preface that everything I say here is purely personal opinion!
We lived in SF proper for most of the year. And during that time it was rough at times, but so great. We're fairly open-minded people and we were in the Castro, and it was awesome to be within walking distance to everything, and right on top of a MUNI line when it wasn't. And we had off-street parking. There are festivals and street fairs and great restaurants and cool stores everywhere you look. But I was astounded at how expensive it is, and how high the taxes are. There was a lot of that mixing good and bad. Like how wonderful it was to be someplace where being outdoorsy and athletic is pretty much a given, but that also meant that everywhere you go was going to be mobbed with people (I hate crowds.)
Politically, I don't mind. I try not to get wrapped up in politics, but as I said we're open-minded so considering the rest of CA, we're in the right place. We lived close to DC for the last 10+ years and it was very cool to see the other side of the mirror, so to speak. DC and SF: I can't imagine too many other places in the US that hot on protests! But change happens, and even if you're unpolitical it's exciting to see.
CA also has a lot of, um, rules. If you abide by them you need to check the billion signs posted outside every beach or park.
We've moved down to the Silicon Valley recently and it's like a different world. Mostly it's quiet and perfectly landscaped and very proper. And I'm not afraid to ride my bike for fear of being stranded on the wrong end of a crazy hill. But dang it's only April and already it's getting boiling hot. I love the crazy, cold ten-degree range of weather on the peninsula!
So in short: Yeah I'd say it was as we expected. Even the taxes.
Photos that don't suck / 365 / Film & Lomography
Doug
My B&W Photos
Motorcycles in B&W
edit: I just saw the video. *clap clap clap*
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Thank you.
He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman.
He who works with his hands and his head and his heartis an artist.”
There was a shot of a dry brown field that was focused in the middle, was that shot with something like a lensbaby or was it done in post?
So, after that first roadtrip have you wanted to go on another?:D
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Hey Anton and welcome!
I've never used a lensbaby but I was trying something with the tilt-shift lens that time (specifically, trying to get a select focus going while shooting video). I think most photographers are familiar with the TS lens getting that type of look for miniaturization. Not really my cup of tea but you get the idea!
Oh yes after going on a real, honest-to-goodness road trip I'm always itching for more. We frequently drive around the state of CA since it's big enough to go 8 hours in any one direction without crossing a border, but while the landscape is definitely varied, it's still not quite the same.
Since you're from ADV, I'll just mention that long before we thought about moving cross-country I thought we'd do it on the bike. I was going to pack really light and call the project "Two Bodies, One Lens." (But my butt is glad we didn't
Photos that don't suck / 365 / Film & Lomography
You two should do it next time you visit DC
Learn Motorcycle Travel Photography! www.motojournalism.com
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Virginia
"A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you, the less you know." Diane Arbus
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But dangit, makes me miss you somethin' fierce. :cry