For trip-day counting purposes, I’ve skipped over the days I was home in between halves of the trip and picked up right where I left off. Likewise, I’m ignoring the miles I drove while I was in Salt Lake City.

The second half of my trip got off to a bit of a late start, seeing as I didn’t get my truck reloaded and hit the road again until after three last Thursday…which shouldn’t really surprise anyone, how often am I on time for anything? I spent the evening driving up to Grand Teton National Park and got up the next morning to dull, gray weather. So much for the Mormon Row barn by sunrise. I was rather glad that I’d stopped in the park and spent some time there on my way up to Alaska so I at least have an idea of what the park can look like in good weather. I did go for a little run before I headed up to Yellowstone. I couldn’t figure out why the nice, flat course was kicking my butt so badly until I finished and asked a ranger what the elevation was….turned out I was running at 6600+ feet, which explained a lot and I didn’t feel nearly as out of shape once I heard that. Regardless, if I want to be running this year’s Seattle Marathon, I’ve got my work cut out for me!

My mother had been worried that since I was utterly unimpressed with Yosemite, I might not like Yellowstone. Fortunately, I found the geyser section of Yellowstone absolutely fascinating and had a field day (two, actually) shooting there. I wasn’t as impressed with the rest of the park, but the geysers, pools, springs, etc were amazing. I’m pretty pleased with some of the shots I took there. From Yellowstone I headed to Badlands National Park, where I took some photos by moonlight. It was unbelievably quiet in the park at 2am, just the occasional sound of the wind, pretty eerie really. Photographing by moonlight was an interesting experience, due to the fact that there wasn’t quite enough light for my camera to auto-focus, and definitely not enough light for me to be focusing manually. I solved the problem by attaching my flash and using its focus-assist beam to get a focus on the ground as far in front of me as I could and then turning the flash off and switching to manual focus again so the camera wouldn’t lose focus when I actually took the shot. It actually worked pretty well. I slept for a couple hours and then got up to shoot sunrise at the Pinnacle Peaks Overlook, and during the couple hours that I was sleeping, the fog had rolled in which made for some pretty interesting shots, I thought. I spent a couple more hours wandering around Badlands before starting on my way towards the Minnesota shore of the Great Lakes, spending last night at a state park campground in northeastern South Dakota. It was cheap, quiet, pretty much bug-free, and had free showers, I couldn’t have asked for a better spot to stay. I’ve got a couple more hours of driving to do tonight, but I start shooting the Great Lakes lighthouses bright and early tomorrow morning. That’s pretty much all that’s on the agenda for the next few days, lighthouses, lighthouses, and more lighthouses, with a day’s worth of Chicago cemeteries thrown in for good measure.

Oh, and I am absolutely thrilled to see that gas prices are dropping…I may make my gas budget yet!

My vacation from my vacation has come to an end, and my 4Runner is once again loaded and ready to go. It’s been lovely to be home and see everyone, sleep in my own bed, listen to my bands (Congrats to Mikey & Kaya on the arrival of their munchkin!) I even went and saw a movie in the theater for the first time in almost a year. “Little Miss Sunshine.” I loved it. My pit stop wasn’t all fun though, I spent HOURS chiseling the bugs off the front of my truck (I have definitely done my share of bug population control!) and even more time catching up on my mom’s insurance billing. Can’t complain too much about that though, seeing as it’s my only source of income at the moment. And now I’m off again. I meant to be gone a few hours ago, but it just hasn’t quite seemed to work out. Headed for Grand Teton NP today, and then Yellowstone for the next couple days, and then I’ll start working my way east. I should be posting new pictures sometime early next week if all goes well….

Thanks to everyone who gave their input. Looks like I will be entering the Zabriskie Point shot…I’ll find out in November if I place.

I’m considering entering one of my photos in Canon’s National Park Photo Contest but can’t quite decide which I like best, and it’s limited to just one entry per person. What do you guys think? Leave a comment with your vote…

Mesa Verde

Stovepipe Wells Sand Dunes, Death Valley

Zabriskie Point, Death Valley

So it’s not quite like being home for Christmas, but I am HOME, nonetheless. My bed, my bathroom, my full sized computer keyboard, it’s lovely to be back, even if it’s only for a couple days. And I think congratulations may be in order, as I have managed to drive almost 15,000 miles in the last month and a half - speeding ticket free!!! Yes, I know, many people I know have never had a single speeding ticket, but that hasn’t been the case for me, so to finish the first half of my trip without one is a pretty big deal. It’s also a bit mind boggling to think that I have just finished the first half of my trip. It was so long in the works it felt like it was never actually going to happen, and now it’s flying by, as I suspect my little vacation from my vacation will as well. I’ve got people to see, beer to drink, shows to go to, I need to find my truck under the layer of dirt and grime….So much to do and so little time! I haven’t even looked at the Grand Canyon pictures yet, and shooting at the Coral Pink Sand Dunes tonight wound up being a bust due to the rain, which did give me an excuse to come home a bit sooner. I’ll post the new pictures and update all my trivia numbers in the next couple days. In the meantime, I’m hoping I’ll be seeing quite a few of my loyal blog readers at tomorrow night’s Supersofar show at the Huka Bar! See you then!