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About Me Senior Member Old Fart BurlapZack27/Male/United States Recent Activity Deviant for 6 Years
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Trip out West

Sat Nov 14, 2009, 8:40 AM
Okay, I've put it off long enough, time for a post about my trip.

I had pretty much a fantastic time. I kind of fell in love with the desert while we were out there, and I've added AZ and NM to places I would potentially move to if I had to leave Texas.

There were parts of California that were strangely like a life-size diorama. Hill country that looked like it had been sculpted into an idea of what hills should look like, not shaped by natural forces. Gorgeous.

The Redwoods and the Sequoias were amazing. Photos never do them justice, and the forests out there are pretty magical I have to say. While there, we saw three bears, one of which had cubs with her. That's more bears in one day than we've seen in 10 years of vacations. The first time we saw a bear, we got pretty excited about it and we told a lady next to us on the trail, to share our bear with her. She said, "Oh, another bear? We've already seen a lot of those today." That's the kind of bear surplus out there. There's so many bears that it's no longer interesting. California.

One evening we were driving in a somewhat remote area of California, up in the hills, towards our next campsite, about an hour away. As we pull up to a lonely stoplight, our truck suddenly dies. Completely dead. Running fine one minute, and then nothing. 2 or 3 cars filled with helpful people came and looked at it as we waited for the towtruck and no one could make heads or tails of it. (That's one thing about folks in California, everyone we came across was super friendly, maybe even to a slightly creepy degree) The towtruck came and towed us and our trailer literally around the corner, maybe 300 yards. $200. :/

It was dark by this time so we just popped our trailer in the parking lot of a little garage in San Andreas, California. (If you read through the Wikipedia entry, there's an article about how the San Andreas Merchant Association were concerned that people would mistakenly think of the San Andreas Grand Theft Auto game and associate the name with 'urban mayhem' instead of a peaceful California town.)

And that's where we stayed, for a week, while the well-intentioned but out-of-their-league mechanics stood around scratching their heads, trying to figure out exactly what voodoo curse had killed our truck. Camped out in a town so small it doesn't have a bookstore. It was a bit of a downer, sitting around watching the last days of our vacation dwindle away, bored out of our minds. They were super-nice, and the mechanic even let us borrow his son's car to drive to get groceries. We bought a bunch of movies and I spent most of the week watching them on our laptop. (They were also nice enough to run us an extension cord from the shop so we could have electricity.)

By the time they actually figured out what was wrong, we should have been halfway home to Texas. And not only that, but it would have to be towed to another town 40 minutes away since it was beyond their scope to fix. And it would be at least 3 to 5 days to fix it after that.

We did the math, and figured out that if I was going to make it to work on time, I had to leave yesterday, so to speak. So we called around for a rental car, which in itself was pretty hard. All those little towns have rental places, but apparently only have one car at a time, and we had a hell of a time finding one. One of the garage employees gave me a ride to the closest available car (an hour away), and after dealing with the eye-rolling, sarcasm-riddled Hertz employee on staff, I was off. Side note: In case you read this, Hertz employee Chris, from Sonora, CA: I didn't appreciate your tone.

I left Thursday at around 9pm, from San Andreas, California and arrived in Denton, TX at 3pm on Saturday. Just me, my Kia Rondo, and the desert. Thankfully, the Rowdy Rondo was equipped with satellite radio, so I had some sweet musical accompaniment for my long and lonely drive. I stopped to buy a notepad exclusively to write down songs I heard while I was driving.

So long as I have some pretty country to look at and music to listen to, I can drive long periods of time and it doesn't bother me. I got maybe 8 hours of sleep in two nights, sleeping in the car both times. It was kind of an adventure, and almost made up for the week we had our wings clipped in California.

There are very few times that I think it is truly appropriate to blast Motley Crue at a high volume, and that is when you're tearing across the desert at midnight.

One night I pulled into Tucumcari to sleep for a few hours. I drove through the town around 1am, and it was an incredibly eerie experience. I saw almost no signs of human occupation in the entire town. No people walking around, no gas stations open. I didn't even see another car driving around. On a Friday night. A seemingly empty town in the high desert, with the wind as the only sound outside the car. I pulled up to a hospital, that didn't look like it had a soul inside, and slept. That close to Halloween, it was pretty spooky, and I seriously considered that I had driven into some kind of zombie apocalypse.

Overall, the drive was a great opportunity to think, clear my head, and just appreciate how beautiful the world is. Probably one of the most magical things I can remember is pulling off the side of the road in the wee hours to stretch my legs. There were no other cars on the highway so it was deathly still, just the sound of the Rondo's engine and my own footsteps. And up in the sky, I could see more stars than I believed were possible.

Overall, I drove 1,700 miles in around 36 hours. You can see my route here.
Not everything went as planned, but it was still a great trip and it was what I needed.

Oh, and my parents did eventually make it out of California. About a week after I left.


Features.



  • Mood: dA Love
  • Listening to: 'Feel It All Around' - Washed Out
  • Watching: Vanishing Point
  • Drinking: watar

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Devious Info

  • Current Residence: Denton, TX
  • Interests: Photography, film, videogames, tennis, cartoons, monuments, sweet tea
  • Favourite movie: The Royal Tenenbaums, Amelie, Eternal Sunshine, Raising Arizona
  • Favourite band or musician: Menomena, The Mars Volta, Ester Drang, Ben Folds, Led Zeppelin...the list goes on.
  • Favourite artist: Wes Anderson, Terry Gilliam, Michel Gondry, and the Coen Brothers
  • Favourite photographer: Henri Cartier Bresson and Storm Thorgerson
  • Operating System: Heart and Lungs
  • Favourite cartoon character: Courage the Cowardly Dog
  • Personal Quote: Nothing hugs like Huggins.
  • Tools of the Trade: Canon 30D, 300D, 17-55 f/2.8, 50mm f/1.4, 10-22mm f/3.5-4, Olympus XA

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Comments


:iconzzoha:
its been a long time since i commented here, but i faved again some of your works;P so...yes i'm still deeply in love with your photos! someone here said that they are relaxed(not constrained, elegant - that would be 'translation' from my language)every time i watch any of them i have the feeling i know why you made it.
regards^v^

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>shshoking!<
:iconzzoha:
it doesn't sound half that good as i wanted it(-_-';)ehhh...sorry

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>shshoking!<
:iconagent-86:
new photos are great as ever
although much less shopping carts
:iconburlapzack:
Thanks man! It was a very pleasant surprise. :)

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Everyone deserves love and respect.
:iconphlezk:
lol finally a response =P
:iconburlapzack:
Sorry man, I'm notoriously slow on DeviantArt. ;)

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Everyone deserves love and respect.
:iconphlezk:
not sure if you can tell, but this was "photo of the week"
I got it in my email along with the JGEG Mag stuff. Can screenshot if you want =P

I knew it was yours instantly, haha.
:iconladysparra:
Okay, so obviously I just faved a whole bunch of your pictures. They're awesome! Your whole gallery has a very relaxed, "it's all good", fun kind of feel to it. Brilliant work here sir! I applaud thee. :clap: :clap: :worship:

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I'm Retsu Unohana in DA's BLEACH Crew!! [link]

This means I am seemingly harmless, but terrifying at the same time :D
:iconburlapzack:
Thanks! :D
I try to keep things fun, life's too short. :)

--
Everyone deserves love and respect.
:iconinessentialstuff:
Your image "Mirrored Eye" has been featured here. :nod:

Cool stuff. :camera:



Cheers. :ahoy:

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Photoblog
Wedding Photography Blog
Spokane Photography
:iconjack22:
Thanks, friend.
:iconyayb:
i absolutely luv your pics

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the expected's just the beginning. the unexpected is what changes our lives.

indiephotographyclub~
:iconcalivinguy:
I'm not sure why you favorited "Bi-Polist", Zack.

But thanks? So... how's Texas?
:iconthebjoernsons:
Thank you very much for the fave :peace: :shamrock:!

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It's gogo, not cry cry - so go to my gallery ~thebjoernsons :)
:iconyuppy64:
How's it going Burlap? Update your journal with recent happenings plz,
Your features are always the best too.

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Ha
:iconjelly1982:
omg. . thanx for the fav :)
:hug:
;)

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jellybelly
:iconcrimmmson:
haha thankyou :)

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We hold our own by keeping our hearts cold.

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