And Now for Something Completely Different
About a year ago, before I was even aware of Substack, I was considering starting a blog. This blog wasn’t going to be about analog photography, it was going to be about travel. My wife and I had been on the road for a couple years at that point, living (for the most part) 30-90 days at a time in different cities and small towns all around the western US- something we are still doing today. We love this type of travel because it lets us experience all of the things these destinations have to offer before moving on to the next place. It’s a great way to really get to know a place, its people, and the surrounding area.
This whole thing was, of course, a result of the pandemic. In March of 2020, businesses and public spaces all over Los Angeles, just like the rest of the world, were more or less shut down. Thankfully, my wife and I both had jobs that we could do from home, so the pandemic didn’t disrupt our quality of life like it did for many others. Working from home like we were did present a couple challenges though. The main one is that, as you might imagine, our home in Hermosa Beach was small. Like, very small. Small enough that the only way we could actually make it work as both a home and an office was to have a dueling pianos set up with our desks in the corner of our living room. It was a great way to spend time with each other, but not a great way to have video conferences with our colleagues- especially when we had meetings scheduled at the same time.
Like many people we knew, we had always talked about one day getting a van and hitting the road. We, just like all those other people, also realized that was probably never going to happen. Then, however, some life events happened to coincide that made it seem much more feasible. For starters, I got rid of my car. Technically speaking, I got rid of it in 2019. It was a Saab 9-3 wagon, or for the Brits among you, an “estate,” and I absolutely loved it. But after almost 200,000 miles of Los Angeles traffic and trips up and down forest roads it had no business being on in the first place, it was beginning to become more of a burden than it was worth. So I sold it and got a Honda Clarity, powered by a hydrogen fuel cell. Thankfully, since this was still an “experimental” car, Honda wouldn’t actually let you buy it. They also wouldn’t even let you lease it unless you lived within a certain number of miles of a hydrogen filling station, all of which were located in either Los Angeles or San Francisco. Because it was “experimental,” the cost of registration, all of the service, the cost of the fuel, and 25,000 miles per year on a lease that was also subsidized to a point of being slightly less than what I was spending on gas for the Saab, so this was a no-brainer. The other upside was that when we decided to start traveling, it was easy for me to demonstrate that I would no longer be within the required range of fuel stations and the fine people at Honda of America took it back without issue. The other thing that happened, unfortunately, was that our cat passed away. Ellie had been a huge part of our lives for 13 years but had been dealing with digestive issues for the last couple years of her life and eventually the medications she was on became ineffective at treating her. These circumstances, combined with our companies’ work from home policies, the frustration of the dueling desks, and the lift of travel bans around the US, got us to start shopping for a van.
Actually getting the van was another story. As it turns out, we weren’t the only people for whom #vanlife was becoming a reality. The price of used Sprinters was going through the roof- partly because many of them had already been converted, and partly because there was an 18 month long waiting list to get a new one. I won’t bore you with the details (I’m pretty sure I already bored you with them in a prior post), but we ended up getting a new one without going through the waiting list. This was good because Emily had already reserved an AirBNB for us in Bozeman, MT and we were able to get the van just a couple weeks before we were due to arrive there. In that two week period, there wasn’t much we could do to turn a cargo van into a camper van, so we did what we could during the nights and two weekends we had, while also frantically moving our possessions into storage, or selling them, or giving them away, or packing them into Rubbermaid totes to take with us on the road. Needless to say, this was a very stressful time for both of us and I was more than a little worried we had been led to this point by a string of poor choices
It’s at precisely this point that I decided to start my blog. But then I didn’t do it. And each time after that when we went to a new place or had a unique experience, I decided I’d really get started on it. But then I didn’t do it. Finally, last summer, I started actually writing it and decided on a hosting platform. But then I didn’t do it. Now, with the help of Substack, I think I actually will. So many things have happened, and so much has been learned, I’m afraid if I don’t write it somewhere I’ll eventually start to forget. I’ve also slowly started to realize that this experience may be useful to others who are thinking about doing something similar, or to those who may be planning a vacation in some of the places we’ve stayed. So be on the lookout for what could be a fairly lengthy and ongoing series of posts that are centered around travel as opposed to analog photography. I’ll still be making those posts too, and the travel posts will undoubtedly be stuffed with analog photography, along with some digital(!) photos too.
As you can see from the above map, we clearly like Colorado. We’ve also stayed in Madison, IN multiple times, which is Emily’s hometown. This map also doesn’t reflect the times we spent a week or more at a time on the road, staying in our van or roadside motels as we explored New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming, Nevada, or South Dakota. Nor does it reflect the three week long trial run we made at this before we got the van, which was spent mostly around Lake Tahoe. I’ve criss-crossed the US to the tune of over 60,000 miles in the last two years and eight months- most of them with an FM2 around my neck- and I’m looking forward to sharing it.
A brave leap of faith that’s paid off, by the sound of it. I look forward to reading about your travels (almost as much as reading about film photography lol). Seriously, though, great stuff. Be safe in your onward journeys 🙂