I spent some time putting together a group of photos from this summer that I think represent my time and experiences pretty well. I took thousands of photos over the past handful of warm months, which were a bit longer for me than some of my friends in Indiana.
In late April I decided to get out of town and went for an 8 week motorcycle trip through the southeast into the deep south and to the southwest. I saw friends and made new friends in Athens, Georgia, through Alabama and western Florida, stayed with some buddies in New Orleans, went to Austin, Texas, on to Tucson and Flagstaff, Arizona, Santa Fe, and back to Bloomington. I got back to town and hung out for a few weeks before heading to Oregon for a family reunion and to hang out in Portland and see my friend Joe and see the city. After a couple weeks in Bloomington I headed out again to Chicago for a folk punk festival, afterwhich I rode my bike to Madison, Wisconsin to hang out with a friend and make some new ones and then rode my bicycle back to Bloomington with one of the new friends that I made.
That's the synopsis of my summer in just a few words. I'll let the photos fill in some details.
Cuddle Punx in Athens, GA
David exploring the giant train bridge that towers over Athens
This old abandoned fire tower was in Talledega National Forest. It was fenced in with barbed wire and there were boards missing on the walk up. It was a good time.
There's a little gap here in my trip. I lost my digital camera to a freak tent flood incident while camping in Talledega National Forest in Alabama. Regrettably, I was without a camera for a good week and a half, until I had a loaner camera mailed to me in New Orleans, right before I left town, to use for the rest of the trip.
A quick self portrait on the streets of NOLA with the new digital camera
...and off I go. A series of difficulties in finding a proper camping spot in Big Thicket National Preserve in eastern Texas leads me to find a cozy spot to sleep in a field next to a Walmart near Beaumont, Texas.
The mosquitos were so bad I had to find a pile of dirt to set up my tent behind so I wouldn't be seen. Sleeping would have been an impossibility otherwise.
Austin, Texas was a great place to visit. I knew no one there when I arrived but within just a couple hours I had found some new friends who let me stay with them for a few days. Austin is a very cool town.
Western Texas is very beautiful. And very long and very straight. Plenty of opportunity for some quick self portraits while cruising 80mph on a 1982 Honda motorcycle with a leaky radiator.
The southwest is pretty awesome.
Rest area self portrait
I arrived in Tucson and was set on leaving the city to see some of the beautiful country surrounding it. I've been to Tucson a handful of times but this was the first time I actually made it out. I went on an overnight hike on Mount Lemon, which is one of the most amazing pieces of nature I've ever seen. This is a grassy meadow about 7000 feet above the desert floor.
I was joined for the rest of the trip back to Bloomington by Carrie who came down to Tucson from Western Colorado.
We watched the sunset from the top of Mount Lemon.
Free Pizza.
The floods that we rode through in Oklahoma were not the best situations to take photos. Carrie recovers as we near Bloomington.
I got back to Bloomington and did a shoot for my friends Hugh and Tiga. They are facing felony charges as a form of political repression for activism against the I-69 extension, which will and has displaced hundreds of people while destroying thousands of acres of woods and farm land and increasing urban sprawl in areas where people are plenty happy not to have it. It is being proposed in the name of commerce; making it easier to truck things from exploited workers south of the USA. You can find out more about Hugh and Tiga's charges at their website.
Things were fun in Bloomington. Hanging out with friends, shows, fires, bike rides, the usual.
But I had plans to go to Oregon for a family reunion.
The extended family all gathered from Maryland, California, Washington, and Hawaii to be at my grandfather's property in Oregon before he sold it.
My dad posed with the elk
It looked like the bees in my grandfather's bee boxes were getting ready to move, as well
at the gun store
I met a snail while on a hike on my grandfather's land
While in the region, I managed to escape from the family to go up about 4 hours to Portland to check out the city and see my friend Joe. Joe, Elly and I found a lot of dried fruit.
Emi, from Bloomington, happened to be hanging out in Southern Oregon, as well, and came up to Portland for a couple days to hang out and check out the city with me.
Joe and Elly's roommate Tobin hung out with Emi and I and showed us the northwest part of the city. Portland has lots of cool bridges.
I headed home again for a few weeks and did a headshot for an actor here in town named Jeremy. This is especially of note because this is one of the last photos I was able to take with my digital SLR before it was stolen off of my motorcycle just a few days later. I lost almost $2k worth of equipment. Lesson learned.
I headed off on my next trip - got a ride to Chicago with my friend Eric Ayotte, who was playing and screening his film festival at a festival called Southwest Folk Fest in a Chicago suburb. The fest was a good time, though I lamented no longer owning a camera. After the fest I rode my bicycle for 2 days through the rain to Madison, WI to visit a friend and see the city. Finally, I got fed up with not having a camera and went out and purchased a Canon G10.
I posted a couple photos from that trip in the last post, but here's a couple more.
Hanging out with the old tyme crew in Wisconsin you hear a lot of fiddle playing. Peter serenaded us with his fiddle skills.
Erica in the backseat
I met Chancho in Madison and we got along really well. He decided to ride back with me, which was pretty awesome, since I left on the trip not really wanting to ride back by myself, and hoping that I would find someone to keep me company. It was a pretty good trip, despite the...
...grey, wet, rainy weather. It rained 4 out of the 6 days it took to ride back to Bloomington from Madison. Northern Indiana is nothing but soy and corn fields. Riding through monocrops for 2 1/2 days straight in the rain with a flat grey sky led me to believe that I now know what purgatory is like.
Relaxing on the side of the road is one of my favorite parts of bike touring.
A red ghost runs past us as we rest in the middle of rural northern Indiana.
We couldn't find a place to hide out for the night in Fowler, Indiana, as all the trees had been replaced by corn and soy. We took to knocking on doors to ask for a spot in a backyard, and quickly found a comfortable spot for the night.
Occasionally you can find the perfect spot to sleep, though. We hid out in this prefab shed in a prefab shed lot. It was especially welcome, as I was traveling with only a thin silk sack to sleep in and it was quite chilly that night.
Of course, the clouds began to part as we neared Bloomington.
Chancho and I had pushed ourselves to get back to Bloomington in time for my friend Crystal's pontoon boat party. I was very glad we did. The sunshine and friends were great to be around after all the greyness over the past week.
Cathal was there puffing out clouds.
Benny captained the ship
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Now as the warmer months are over and I'm worn out from a busy summer I'm preparing to hunker down and weather the cold gray months to follow. Hopefully I'll make a plan to leave town for a bit during the worst of it, but I have some plans here in town that I'm trying to work towards, many of them centering around this blog and photography. I finally ordered a new dSLR today and am excited about a bunch of photo ideas I have and putting my new equipment to use.
I'll be posting a lot of new photos on here soon, for sure.
