Road Trip 2011 Calendars

Darlene — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 00:50:10 +0000

These will go like hot cakes, don’t hesitate – get yours now!

A couple years ago I did a calendar of some of my favorite images of Peru. I got to thinking, since I took over 17,000 images on our six month RV trip south – I should do the same this year! So here is the official launch of Road Trip 2011 calendar. It includes 13 fabulous images from our 26,000 km (over 16,000 miles for my American friends) in full color glossy pages in 8.5×11.
The calendars will retail for $20 plus GST, shipping is extra if needed – I just charge you what it costs me. Shipping will be added to your total if you order online here. If you pick up your calendar I’ll give you a cash refund for the shipping cost.

CALENDARS MAKE GREAT GIFTS – ORDER A FEW!

Calendars are great gifts, staff or co-workers and those hard to buy for people. The best part is even those tough to buy for guys on your list will like it because there’s cars in it! I went with a theme this year of Road Trip as that’s exactly what our journey was – one big one at that! So the images are things along the Roadside, or things that were once on the road. We even hit Route 66 a couple times so look for some cool diners and gas stations.
Here are the images that appear in the Road Trip 2011 calendar. It’s a slide show, so just click the picture to start it. Of course they are much more impressive in print but this is a good teaser.

Click to play slide show

Odell Station on Route 66

This photograph of the Odell Station on Route 66 in Illinois is one of Rob’s (my husband) favorite images. He says he has a lot of good energy around it. We were running out of light and I wanted to make it to this town to photograph this station. We got there and it was all but dark and no lights on the building. So we started photographing with our car headlights on it for any light at all. We tried using a flashlight on it and as we started running around lighting bits of the station up – the motion sensors came on and we had an “aha!” moment. So we used the lights to our advantage – each one set off in a different exposure, some of them at long at 8 minutes. Then I worked some magic in Photoshop to combine about 9 different shots into the final image you see here. Is that cool or what?

I just remember having to go to the bathroom the entire time and when you’re doing the Pee Dance 8 minutes for each exposure is a loooooong time! What you don’t see in the image is Rob running around setting off the motion sensors and then hiding behind the posts or around back of the station while the exposure finishes. Trust me, he’s in the picture a lot, but he’s always hiding out of sight.
I asked him why he likes it so much and he told me that after a great day exploring Route 66 with me, we got to this spot as the sun was just setting. It was quiet and peaceful with virtually no other cars around to interrupt us. The stars had come out, the sky was clear and the air was so very fresh. His helping me set up the shot and running around the building setting off the light sensors just allowed him to fully appreciate the place and be fully present during the making of the shot. He says he was in pure joy for a good hour.
Back to the Road Trip 2011 Calendar.

To order your Road Trip 2011 calendar please click on the Add to Cart button below to make your payment by Paypal. If you’re in Edmonton I’ll be keeping a list and you can come pick your calendar from me directly once I get them. If you require shipping and billing to the US, please use the button below for US Orders.

Canadian orders here!

USA orders here!

For orders of more than three calendars please email me with a quantity as I’ll have to get a quote on shipping. Then if you want to proceed I’ll send you a custom invoice including the freight.

Home again, home again – well a while ago actually!

Darlene — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 19:22:36 +0000

Well, this is a bit overdue but better late than never right?

As some of you may already know, we’ve actually been home in Edmonton for over a month now. Life has been a bit hectic to say the least but I wanted to do a quick update post to let you know what’s happening and when you can expect to see the rest of the trip.

Over 160 Days and 17,632 Miles On The Road

In Front of White House

Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms

Victor in Front of Stephen King's House

Niagara Falls Lady of the Mist

Where Route 66 Begins in Chicago

Al Capone's Grave Outside Chicago

103rd Floor of Chicago Sears Tower

Joliet Prison (Blues Brothers Opening Scene)

Family and Friends in Calgary

So we got back June 1st after spending 5.5 months on the road and traveling over 17,000 miles (approx. 27,300 km) in the RV and car combined. It was quite a journey to say the least. Once we got home we actually slept in the RV in our driveway for 4 more nights until we could get the house set up to live in again, and really the RV actually felt more like home at that point than our empty house. The cats, given the choice with the doors opened, chose to go hang out back in the RV on the bed mostly. We actually had to make them come in the house and not go hide in the basement somewhere. So when we tell people we (cat’s included) really felt at home in the RV, we really do mean it!

The first couple days back we set about cleaning the carpets in our bedroom, bringing up furniture from its storage area downstairs, and setting up the kitchen, bedroom and bathroom again into a somewhat usable state. After about a week it finally felt real and we were in the house full time again.

Our Trip Up the East Coast

To give you a quick update on the rest of the trip since our last post, here’s a summary. After leaving New Orleans we spent a week in Orlando (well Kissimmee), a week in Savannah, Georgia, and headed up the east coast stopping in North Carolina, Washington DC, Philadelphia, New York City, Cape Cod Maine, into the Canadian maritimes, and finally west to Quebec for my photography convention.

While in Virginia, Rob did a road trip out to see Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms. He’s the farmer from Michael Pollan’s book “The Omnivores Dilemma” and from the movies Food Inc and Fresh. The farmer we buy our eggs and chickens from here in Edmonton is a student of Joel’s and uses the same farming practices. Rob had Polyface Farms on his “Must see” list before we even left. When he got to the farm, they were building a new store and Joel was there cutting his own trees to create lumber for it. Rob was able to shake his hand and share with him how important the work was that he was doing.

In Bangor Maine, we parked the RV in front of Stephen King’s house and took a photo. Our car, towed behind us, was blocking the entrance to his house. Someone leaving the house honked at us as they maneuvered their car around ours. Whoops.

After convention we spent a few days in Montreal and then headed back into the US to avoid the ridiculously high gas prices in QC and ON. We had been paying about $2.65 per gallon in the States and in QC it was $1.35 a liter which works out to about $5.40 a gallon, yikes! You can see our entire trip log map for a good overview of our adventure.

Our Drive Home From Quebec

We also both wanted to see upstate NY and I wanted to visit the birthplace of Kodak, Eastman Kodak house in Rochester, NY.

Rob had never been to Niagra Falls, so while parked in Rochester, we drove our toad to the US side first where we took the Lady of the Mist boat ride. Then crossed the US/Canada border to see the falls from the Canadian side. After a few hours there, we drove up to the wine region where we visited 5 wineries before having supper in St Catherines (sushi).

We were lucky to make it back across the border to our RV when the border crossing guard simply could not figure out how we were driving back to our RV which was already in the US. He could not fathom how we drove 2 vehicles around the country and Rob had to explain gently that we towed our car behind us. It was a very unusual exchange of words and we had to be careful about how we described our situation.

From there we started our final journey west and eventually north, stopping in Chicago where we went up the Sears tower to the 103rd floor, saw the start marker of Route 66, had Chicago style deep dish pizza and toured the art gallery. Rob took a day to himself to visit some Blues Brothers filming locations, and Al Capone stuff including his grave site.

After Chicago, we made our way through Millwaukee and North Dakota where we actually saw nothing (there’s a story there but you’ll have to wait for it) and Unity Saskatchewan and Calgary, AB – both of the last stops to visit some of our older family members Rob’s uncles (in their late 80s) and my Grammy also late 80s.

Most of the stops along this journey were short 3-4 days with the exception of Florida and Savannah which were a week each. So we did a lot of moving, and a lot of touring and seeing new places. It got really grueling and tiring after a while and I think eventually we were both glad to be in one place for an extended time. We both even enjoyed the fact we have more than one room we can each go escape to, or friends to go visit for coffee or lunch and have some time apart for a while after having been together basically 24/7 the whole trip. A little separation was nice as we settled back into our life here.

[Rob's note: Imagine getting married and then living in a small little box for 6 months guys.]

So, you can expect to see posts sporadically quite honestly. My sister has had a new baby and I’ve got art shows to get ready for this summer, and as well we are attempting to do a house renovation and finish our unfinished basement into a rental suite. Yes we are nuts! So we haven’t forgotten about our readers and fans and will get it all caught up eventually, just be patient with us please!

[Rob's Note: we're also preparing for our next adventure, living in Peru for 2 months with a hike up to Macchu Pichu and then a month in Ecuador where we will visit the Galpagos Islands too]

Stats

Miles Traveled: 17,632
Oil Changes: Three. One in Texas, one in New Brunswick and one for the car in North Carolina.
Miles Per Gallon: lowest was 6.25 and best was 7.75 miles per gallon.
Best Fuel Price: $2.39 a gallon in Texas
Worst Fuel Price: ~$4.60 a gallon in New Brunswick
Fuel Anomaly: Paid $3.99 a gallon in Death Valley in the car, but only got $10 worth so we could get out of the valley.
Total Fuel Cost: Approx $4,000 in fuel.
Most States in a Day: 5, from New Jersey to Cape Cod
Border Crossings: Crossed the Canada/US border 6 times and the US/Mexico border once. Twice for Rob.
Interesting Facts: Crossed two of the worlds longest bridges, across Lake Ponchatrain in Louisiana and the Confederation Bridge in PEI Canada.

Photo Credits and Note: All the pictures on this page except for the last one were taken either on Rob’s Blackberry Bold, or our pocket camera.

More Stats and interesting facts to follow in a post on it’s own

Young Snowbirds » Miscellaneous