The illustrious Tracy Green.

One of my favorite things about photography is catching people with a real smile. I get really tired of taking people’s pictures and getting the generic “I’m posing for a photo” smile. Real smiles make me giggle, mainly because it reminds me of whatever it was that I or someone did or said to get that reaction. It adds a new dimension to a photo because it is pure joy coming through the lens.

On my road trip this summer, I found myself offering to take people’s photo almost everywhere I went. It was a way for me to break the ice with people, and provide them with a great photo. Just the simple act of offsetting the couple to the left or right of frame sometimes would make them have a photo and not a snapshot. I got many types of reactions to the offer, mostly it was “great!”, but occaisonally I would get the “how much does it cost?” reaction. I only took their photos for free, but it was amusing to hear the people who suspect that their is a catch. I think in this day and age, it is pretty typical to expect a catch.

At an overlook of the Capitol Reef in Utah, I had a Russian family of about 12 pile out of a minivan while I was taking some panoramic photos . I offered to take their photo and the father immediately jumped on the offer. He was very happy. Everyone else in the car looked like they had been traveling with their family for way too long. The overlook of Capitol Reef off of I-70 is about 200 miles from nowhere.

As they went to line up for their photo, the father candidly said “If you need us to do anything, just say what you want us to do.” My eyes lit up – “Oh really? Ok, when I count to 3, everyone should jump.”

And half of them did it! The mother gave me the evil eye, but everyone else was giggling at the idea. The youngest girl in the group, probably about 8 or 9 years old, just loved it! As I jumped in the motorhome and drove away, she was still smiling the biggest toothy grin you ever saw and waved goodbye to me. I could tell that I had made a lasting memory that they would all remember of their road trip that summer.

I had regretted not taking a photo of the Russian family to go along with the story, but I figured I would find an opportunity to make more memorable photos on the road trip. Monument Valley proved to be the place that would allow me to take more fun photographs. I encountered a German father and son, who were traveling with their son’s friend. The were game to take some atypical photos, which proved very fun. They got so wrapped up in pointing at things, which is what I had asked them to do, they just kept doing it after I had taken several photos.

I then encountered a Japanese tourist who wanted to be photographed jumping off the ground in front of Monument Valley. I asked him if I could take their photo jumping as a group.  After he translated to the entire group, everyone started laughing, and kept laughing. I was given every camera that the group had and took at least one photo with eight different cameras! I asked if I could have a photo as well, and they just couldn’t stop laughing, they were having so much fun, and you can see it – this is the 9th photo of them jumping! I think they could have just kept right on jumping.

So I ask ya’ll to take a risk on your vacations and trips home this holiday season. Take a photo with a twist. Take a photo of everyone with their hands in the air, or with everyone looking down like a family huddle, or use your imagination. Post a link to the photo you take in the comments!

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Now you may wonder why I didn’t take my 50cc scooter with me on my road trip…. well lets just say it felt like deja vu! You must always check the oil in your car or motorcycle or scooter. PERIOD. I, like I did with my first car, did not check the oil. It locked up on me the day before I was supposed to leave and I was planning on taking it with me. Grrrr.

Once I got it unboxed and uncrated, I had to put on a few things: mirrors, windshield, install the battery, put in some gas, and CHECK THE OIL. Then it was good to go!

I forgot to take a picture of it all put together, so I’ll make sure I get one with me on it this weekend!

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this is not my foot.

What’s the secret to a good road trip? Keeping everything oiled up and running smooth. I’ve now gotten my generator fixed (the starter was stuck) and gotten my muscles fixed (driver’s elbow). Vicky, at Jefferson Street Day Spa in Napa (one of the best things about Napa IMHO), took care of me yesterday.

I should have gotten one from her earlier in the trip, but I couldn’t afford to fly her to wherever I happened to be. I think it was Boise, Idaho where I first realized I needed a massage after hitting the mountain bike trail pretty thouroughly. An hour and a half massage was perfect! I’m going to have to try the sauna next time, I hear that works pretty well.

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Somebody braver than I on a downhill trail at Northstar.

Last weekend I stayed at Northstar Resort in Truckee, CA. I took the dogs for a hike on Saturday, and went biking on Sunday. They were having a race on Sunday, so that was pretty cool to see. I wanted to compare Northstar to the other places I had biked on this trip. Their website said they stopped running the bikes on the chair lift on September 1, so I was pessimistic that it would still be going. It was still going – I was really thrilled to get to enjoy Northstar this summer. I had been up two years ago and the jumps and technical ‘features’ had scared me out of my gourd – I stuck to the fire roads. This year, since Tamarack had shown me the way of the fun, I totally hit every type of trail I could find – Northstar has a plethora of choices. It was really fun, but a bit more rocky than Tamarack. I definitely understand the need for the extra suspension you get from a downhill bike – am I going to buy one? No. But I will rent one this weekend at Tamarack and see what it’s like!

It came out just about what I had wanted to budget for time – 10 weeks. Although the gas could have been cheaper, it was overall a really great trip. I didn’t get to see a couple of things, because the urge to come back was a bit overpowering (tired of driving a huge beast mainly). I didn’t see Bryce Canyon National Monument, Canyonlands National Park, or do the long loop of Slick Rock Mountain Biking Trail. I’ll definitely have to go back and visit southern Utah again and catch some of the sights I missed. Maybe I’ll combine that with a trip to Roswell, NM in the spring when it is a bit cooler.

Nine States and 4,416 Miles in 10 Weeks. It would have been 10 states if I had gone to Four Corners, but that was 16 miles out of my way!

Final Mileage tallies from Road Trip 2008:

Week 10 Mileage 337
Week 9 Mileage: 767
Week 8 Mileage: 261
Week 7 Mileage: 692
Week 6 Mileage: 324
Week 5 Mileage: 438
Week 4 Mileage: 328
Week 3 Mileage: 122
Week 2 Mileage: 275
Week 1 Mileage: 872
Current Total Mileage: 4416 (approx)

Final Week’s leg of travel:

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Rough Sketch of Entire Trip:

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