By the time I reached St. Paul, I had driven quite a ways. Probably over 24 hrs of solo driving (spread across several days), and I had added about 1,500 mi to my odometer, through stops, detours, and unavoidable hours on the interstate.

This experience gives me the ability to say the following: Of everywhere I have driven in my life, by far, the friendliest and most courteous drivers were those in Saint Paul, Minnesota. A much needed respite after… other cities.

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Exif Data For The Selected Image
Camera Make	OLYMPUS CORPORATION
Camera Model	E-M5MarkIII
Lens Model	OLYMPUS M.17mm F1.8
Focal Length	17mm
Aperture	ƒ/4
Exposure Time	1/640s
ISO	200

My milkshake was unfinished.

The lumps wouldn’t make it up my straw.

Night had long since fallen by the time I made it to the Highland Ridge Campground.

I picked the spot (near the Eau Galle Lake in Wisconsin) because it had some nearby hiking trails, a lake, and it seemed good for birding. And, it had a few nice, tent-specific campsites. And, of course, it was well-situated for my next and final urban friend visit.

I accidentally circled the campground road twice, struggling to make out the signage specifically for the tent sites which were genuinely hard to see from the road, but easily making out the signs for each irrelevant (to me) car site.

After visiting the Indiana Dunes, my next stops were Milwaukee and Chicago. In that order.

Nonsense? Yes.

Regrettable? No.

From the famous dunes of Indiana, I drove direct to Milwaukee, where I would eat, drink, be merry, and hear some killer live music…

Good lord.

I may have finally become the sort of person who writes self-reflections and resolutions in the hopes of having a more productive, well-adjusted year in which I achieve goals. Yuck!

Unfortunately, I’m guilty as charged. So without further ado, here is… my reflection.

Hiya!

I made a music video out of footage that I shot whilst driving from Pennsylvania to Washington State.

I think it’s amongst the best songs that I’ve written. In fact, it’s one of the very, very few that can be classified as an earnest and heartfelt love song…

Here it is:

For more information on locations & travels, check out posts in the series, “Go West Young Lad”.

And continue reading for the full lyrics…

Here it is. My final blog post of 2021. And, unsurprisingly to anyone who has paid attention to my “last post of the month” for the last year, it’s a post about 52 frames.

I have now succeeded in completing 52… nay, 53 weekly photographic challenges.

I can crown myself a more experienced photographer who has tried and learned a few approaches.

Additionally I can appoint myself the role of “lazy bones” who sometimes puts in the bare minimum in order to complete an assignment. (Bet literally every teacher I’ve ever had, but particularly those from grades Kindergarten through 10 would agree…)

There are some weeks where my focus wasn’t really on photography, but there are some others with some good results. Generally the quality of the result was related to the quality of effort I put in.

Who’da thunk?