photography – Page 45 – On the road with Jim

Provo Utah

We put another 250 miles on today, and we arrived at Provo, an hour and a half south of Salt Lake City. Today’s route is one of my all time favorite drives. Head north out of Kanab following US Route 89. It provides access to Zion and Bryce Canyons, and a handful of State Parks too. Traffic was light, so we had time to look at the scenery. Unfortunately, not enough time to get any shots (Besides, the light is never perfect during the day).

When asked tonight, someone said that lunch was the highlight of the day. It was pretty good. We stopped again at Big Daddy’s Deli on a side street in Richfield. Anne, Sally and I ate there on a trip to Yellowstone a few years ago. Food is still good, and I’d recommend it for lunch if you’re in the area.

Tomorrow, we will be in Idaho. However, we will be traveling on I15 and through Salt Lake City. I don’t consider it a day of oo’s and ah’s. I must admit that the Wasatch Range is a pretty backdrop for the town.

Kanab Utah

It took longer than planned, but we made it to Kanab Utah, our toughest leg of our trip. I think we misjudged the time it would take to go through Prescott. A lot of traffic and a lot of twisty roads. We left Congress a little after seven in the morning and arrived at our camping site just before 5 PM. Since Kanab is on daylight savings time, we lost an hour and the trip took ten hours averaging 45 miles an hour. That’s including potty breaks, emergency stops, and lunch.

The girls stretch their legs — Deb, Sally and Anne stretch their legs in the shade of Sally’s RV.

We only made it to the top of Yarnell hill when Sally called on the walkie-talkie that one of her tire pressures was over 100 pounds. We pulled to the side of the road and sure enough, it was. After letting enough air out to match the others, we were back on the road.

Mickie D’s hosted lunch in Flagstaff. After taking four hours to get there, we were ready for the break. After that we made really good time as the roads and weather were good.

Picture of Kanab's main street. — Located on the southern border of Utah, Kanab hosts tourists visiting the Grand Canyon, Bryce, and Zion National Parks.

Kanab is a little tourist town in southern Utah. It’s only six miles across the border from Arizona situated between the Grand Canyon, Bryce and Zion. It’s loaded with tourists and has a couple of nice restaurants. It’s most striking feature is that it is nestled under the Vermilion Cliffs and the brilliant colors they have at the end of the day.

Tomorrow we strike out for Provo. It will be a better day as the distance isn’t as great and there aren’t as many long pulls we have to climb. And to think, we only have 89 more days like this.

Michael Reichmann – RIP

This morning, as is my usual routine, I visited the blog The Online Photographer, where I read the sad news the Michael Reichmann passed away May 18^th at the age of 71. Michael was a man of many accomplishments, most significant to me; he was the creator of the Luminous Landscapes Website of which I was a regular visitor for the last thirteen years.

During my transition from film to digital photography, the Luminous Landscapes (also nicknamed LuLA) was my textbook for growing my art. Most important to me were the lessons on color management and printing techniques. I’ve integrated these ideas into my workflow and use them to this day.

My heart goes out to the Reichmann family and to his many fans that share with me this great loss.

Preparation – Apps

When I plan a trip like this one, I try to learn as much as I can about my destination. I want to know about the history, the climate, and what what’s cool about it, what makes me want to go there in the first place. I look for websites of local photographers and I look at the pictures on Google Earth. Along with all of that acquired knowledge, Queen Anne and I pack local travel guides and when we arrive, I pick up the best maps I can find. I can spend hours going over maps, mile by mile.

This Denali trip isn’t different, only this time we’ve stepped into the 21^st Century. Anne just got a smart phone and I bought a tablet, and we’ve loaded several apps to help manage our trip better.

When traveling with an RV, it’s important to plan your camp sites. That’s what AllStays does for us. At $9.99, AllStays is the most expensive application we bought. This app uses Google Maps and overlays campgrounds, dump stations, LP dealers, casinos and even Walmarts along the route. Clicking on an icon opens a dialog box showing a brief description of the item and links to the location’s Website, directions from your current location, current weather conditions, pictures, reviews and if the campground is Web savvy, it will open a page that allows you to pick out a campsite and book it. The app also shows steep downgrades, low bridges, and escape roads, so you can change your route. It’s an impressive little app well worth the price.

When traveling, I always have a hard time reconciling all of my receipts and checkbooks. The next app that I bought will help me with that. This app is called AndroMoney and it was built mostly for business travelers. In it, you to enter something that you paid for and then stick it into a bucket, like personal, business or medical expense. You can start out with a budget amount and it will show you if you are over or under your daily, monthly, or annual allotment. It has built in reports and you can export the data to Excel or another money management programs. The cost for this was a staggering $2.99. At that price I figured that I couldn’t go wrong even if I only didn’t use most of its functions.

The next app is called TripLog and is free (upgrades are available for a small fee). You all know someone that keeps a mileage logbook in their car; don’t you? That’s what this app does. Each time you stop for gas, you enter the odometer reading, the amount of gallons, the fuel price and total sale. You can also enter other auto expenses like oil changes, car washes and such. You can log each trip you make with your vehicle and categorize them as business or personal and TripLog will generate a report that you can use for filling out taxes. There is a feature that allows you to connect a Bluetooth OBDII reader. Without getting too technical, that’s the port below your steering wheel your mechanic plugs diagnostic stuff into and figures out what the check engine light means. Don’t let that scare you away, you don’t need to use it, just put the numbers in manually. It’s something intriguing to techies because it means the app will automatically start a trip when you turn on the car. I plan on using this program to track segment and overall mileages, and yes I do own an On Board Diagnostic (OBD) reader.

The next two apps that I’ve loaded are just for fun. We are big fans of Food Network and especially the show Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. We’ve tried several of the places that Guy Fieri featured on his show and we pretty much agree with his reviews (actually, if the restraint isn’t good, it won’t make the show). So the app named DDD has the show’s locations. Be still my blood clots. There are even three places in the Fairbanks area that you can bet we’ll try.

Triple D has a pretty good list, but the show was never shot in Canada. The other Food Network app not only includes the Guy Fieri shows, but includes all of the restaurants featured on the network, including the show The Best Thing I Ever Ate. This app is called TV Food Maps and does have places in Whitehorse and Dawson Creek. With all of these places to try, I’m getting antsy to get on the road.

The apps that we’ve loaded are Android devices, of course, if you own the other kind of device, there are versions for IOS that you can get at the Apple Store.

Preparation – Clothing

As a desert dweller it’s natural to ask what and how many clothes to pack when traveling above the 45^th parallel. It’s part of our local culture to watch the evening news and smugly feel sorry for the people ‘back home’ suffering through another blizzard, so my first inclination is to pack everything in my closet that has goose down. However, we’re traveling during the summer, now what do I need to pack.

With a little Internet research I came to a conclusion that the weather will be pretty much the same as a typical Arizona winter with mild days and cool evenings and an occasional wet front now and then. That means we’ll need layers that can be added or removed as needed. For me that means tee shirts, a couple different weight sweaters, a flannel shirt and a waterproof windbreaker.

Neither Queen Anne or myself are fashionistas and I doubt that her highness’ entourage will be invited to a gala at a foreign embassy, so there’s no need to pack any formal wear (as if we had any). But, I think we’ll include a couple of outfits that would be appropriate for a swanky restaurant or something.

Since we’ve limited space in Fritz (the truck) and The Ritz (trailer), we won’t be bringing our entire wardrobe. We’re planning on enough to get us through a couple of weeks at a time. We’re building in laundry days into the itinerary so that we can use up our quarters (or whatever the Canadians have) in the laundromat. And since drying takes the most time, we’ll need something to read while we wait. I suggested that Anne could take the clothes down to the creek and beat them on a rock while Fred and I fished for dinner, but that didn’t go over well.

That’s our packing strategy for now; it will be interesting to see how well it pans out. For all we know, we might wind up in Freddy Meyers, shopping for snow parkas or extra underwear. Only time will tell.

Preparation – Tires

I need to get Fritz (our truck) ready for the trip. Although our Casita trailer weighs about half of what Fritz’s capacity is, it’s a long way to Alaska and back; over a third of the way around the planet. I’d like to prevent troubles before they start.

My newsletter readers already know our gang doesn’t have much luck with tires. <Knock wood> . . . we’ve not had any such trouble this year but it’s not wise to thumb your nose at Lady Luck. Last week, when I had my favorite tire store examine mine, they said that there was enough tread to make the trip but it would be better if I got new ones. After a week of pondering, I’ve decided to follow their advice and spring for new tires.

Fritz came with a set of Michelin run-flats and I’ve replaced those with a second set. When you lose air in a run-flat tire, you’re supposed to be able to drive up to fifty miles on the damaged tire. Theoretically, that will get you to a repair shop. Fortunately, I’ve never had to and don’t want to test that theory. Because Fritz came with this type of tire, he doesn’t have a spare.

I’ve always liked Michelins, but these don’t seem to hold a balance well. Sometimes they’ll roll down the road nice and smooth and other times, there’s bouncing at all four corners. So, I did a little research yesterday and I’m considering trying a set of Bridgestones. I have had a chance to have a set of Bridgestones on Betty, our other car, and I liked how they felt on the highway. The price is almost identical, I’m just hoping for a better ride.

I also want to have a spare for this trip even though there’s no place to put it without giving up luggage space. Fritz has one of those buttons that you push if you’re in trouble and someone comes to rescue you. Looking at the map, I wonder if there’s even cell phone coverage on some of those roads. Believe me, I’ve had plenty of experience changing tires and I’d rather have something I could change than wait for tow truck. While I’m at it, I might as well pick up a matching spare for Ritz, the Casita. So today I have to scour eBay to find a couple of wheels for the rigs.

On to Denali

This Web Site has been evolving since I first published it in 2003, and this month I’m adding more content by starting a blog. The intent of these notes is to keep you informed of what shenanigans we’re up to while we’re out on the road.

As most of my newsletter readers know already, we’ve been planning an Alaska trip for the last year and a half. Our close friends are joining Queen Anne and I in a caravan to photograph the Great Mountain; Denali. The caravan consists of Fred and Deb’s pickup pulling their Casita trailer ‘lil Bit, Sally’s class B motor home named Baby, and our SUV pulling The Ritz; our Casita trailer. The scheduled route will cover over 9,000 miles and take us three months to travel. None of us have taken such a journey before . . . but then, we’ve never been retired until now. We’re all excited, and a bit apprehensive.

The trip is now in it’s final planning stages and we leave the first of June. My intent for this blog is to report on our journey. I hope to share the places we visit, the people we meet, the highs and the challenges we encounter. I plan on using this platform to show pictures, reviews and thoughts we collect along the way. This will be a less formal presentation, so I won’t be using it to show my art. Instead we’ll hang our snapshots. It’s my hope that posts will be frequent . . . if not daily, perhaps at least weekly.

A second advantage of using a blog format is that you can participate with your comments. Perhaps you’ve made this trip already and you’d like to recommend a place to visit, a restaurant to try or something to avoid. I’d like to hear your recommendations. If you have a question that we can answer, use the comment feature to ask any of us. Your participation is the reason for blogging, so any comments you make will encourage us.

If you already follow someone’s blog, you already know how, but for those of you that are uninitiated there are two ways to follow this blog. First, you can visit this page via the link my Web Page daily or on a regular basis. A second method is to use one of the RSS links in the right column and subscribe. The ‘Entrees RSS’ link will alert you when a new post is made and the ‘Comment RSS’ link does the same when new comments are added.

With that background, this months priorities are packing and preparation. Have you been to Alaska during summer? What clothing should we pack? What haven’t we thought to bring? What troubles will we have crossing the boarder? Tell us.