Passport to adventure

by Jon Sullivan - 2022-10-31 - Status

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The original plan was to retire several years from now and roam North America taking all the photos, seeing all the things, and eating all the food.

But that plan fell apart more and more as the months passed. Years away turned into right now. Roaming changed to moving to Oregon. And things got a lot more focused. The new plan is to roadtrip all over the PNW and double down on getting more serious with my photography. And with four seasons here the Mazda 3, while brilliant in SoCal, would just be a bit limited. It's not something to take off road at all. Camping in it sounds awful. The lack of proper Android Auto would make everything harder. All wheel drive is just going to make it easier to not use foul weather as an excuse. And if the focus is roadtrips I might as well travel in style. So.... new SUV.

The new car is exactly as I hoped it would be. Saturday was the first proper test. It passed 10/10. Jon is happy.

So the Grand Plan is for adventures. Lots of adventures. All the adventures. And this is the way it works. Several backpacks are set up for varying adventures. Maps are already made. Playlists are uploaded to the phone. Water and snacks are in the fridge. Roll out of bed at 4am, make coffee and fill a thermos, grab the bags appropriate for the day, and head out the door. Then do it again and again. As with Saturday, there doesn't even need to be a plan. Just picking a dot on the adventure map when I get in the driver's seat is always an option.

It worked. New wonderful places visited. Many good photos taken. Jon is happy. This has been the insane irresponsible unlikely difficult plan for two years now. And to see it made real brought many joyful tears. Jon is so happy. And, since it was quite an expense, it's extra good to see the new car is a perfect ship for sailing off on adventures. It is better than I deserve, it really is, but I'm not complaining.

The photos were good, but not great. Lockdown and hermit issues have left me out of practice. Need to get my mojo back, which is a known known, and is easily done by just taking more photos. But...... We are going to need a bigger camera. The current Sony A7R III is by far the best camera I've ever had, but it's past time for an upgrade. And reviews for the A7R V are unanimously 5/5. I have mine pre ordered. It is a beast. A monster of a camera in a tiny body. No non-pro shooter would ever need it. Screw that, I'm getting one, and I will use the shit out of it.

So.... There it is. The adventure is here and now. The adventure is go.

In other news...... I've added several new features to the backend code here which some might not have noticed. It's in the nav menus at the top. You can see what music and playlists I'm listening to in real time. I've added direct links to some of the more popular photo albums. I've added a page with some blog posts I'm especially happy with. The header for blog posts now has a category, which I'll leverage at some point. And, most relevant here, I've added a link to the album that contains the post's photo. Since I'll be saving way more photos than posts, this will be a good way to see all the photos I'm taking. Today is a good example. Those are the "keepers" from Sat, but most of them will never make it into a blog post.

The adventure is go. Jon is happy. Excelsior!

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