August 10, 2005
Old Frontenac State Park
On the banks of the Mississippi River
Minnesota

On the road again. Three weeks in Omaha working on prints for the gallery. It’s difficult to print the old work right now. As much as I love it my heart is in the new work and I need to be out shooting it. Did get to do one enlarged print of Two Saguaros from my time in Arizona and love it. Truly enjoy the quality of the 4×5 negatives and the creamy tones. Although I still get the same feelings from the new images and see my “style” in the work the new work is so different technically and it fascinates me. There is always so much to discover in photography, both introspectively and technically Helps to keep the juices flowing.
Spent a lot of time playing with bus ideas between prints so as soon as all the work was done Monday, it was another mad dash to go see a bus again. I had seen the bus in Minnesota on my pass through with Jesse and we both loved it so now it was time for Heather to see it and do some serious thinking as I believe this is the one. She loves it as well and we spent last night and today going over it measuring designing and trying to fit our lives into her.
Discovered a few things- most interesting is that a 35 ft. flx bus and a 26 ft airstream have almost the exact same living space. All of the pervious thoughts on bus vs travel trailer proved to be true and in the end we both realize that a bus would be the ideal vehicle for us. But the actual living space issue took us both by surprise. So at the end of the day we’ve come to realize that although the bus is the ideal vehicle and would allow us much more freedom, security and allow me to create a better working/living environment the amount of cash needed to actually buy and redesign the inside of the bus to meet our needs far surpasses the funds available. Additionally we will never find a bus in this condition- new motor and transmission, clean body with relativity good paint and all the amenities we need- for this price so it stands to reason that we stop looking and continue down the road. A bit pissed that I’ve spent maybe six months on the bus kick driving all over the country looking at busses instead of wandering and have come to the conclusion that we can not afford to make that change, but then I’ve always been a slow learner.
Last night as we left the bus and went home to the Airstream I stuck the key in the door lock and the lock fell out? Last night I thought it was perhaps an omen, today I think it’s just a broken lock. Anyway just before 5pm we made the decision and headed out, hopefully the locksmith in town was still open so we could get it fixed before we hit the road. He was, but just closing to go make some house calls but he said he would come back around 7:30 tonight to fix it. We looked at each other, smiled and both knew it was time to hit the road. Thanking him we left, got to the edge of town and stopped.
Where are we going? We have no place to go…. Smiling again we turn north and headed off now only thinking about and looking for the next photograph or peaceful camp to spend the night. After all the other lock is working fine and somewhere down the road there is sure to be another locksmith.

a possible large print…

another found image from New Mexico

Henery and his root beer

and the road goes on forever and the party never ends…..