28 Days West.
Why? Because that's what it was. 28 days.
So, for this eclectic mix of imagery (captured from New Orleans, LA to Moab, Utah and beyond), this simply seemed to be quite literally, the best fitting title for this adventure. 28 Days. West. It wasn't planned for 28 days. In fact, other than "Westward, maybe Moab", it wasn't planned on any sort of timeline or itinerary other than to "be home by Christmas" - it was currently nearing mid-November.
The timing of the departure was dependent on a few variables. The main obstacle being the completion of the FJ build, getting it worthy for the trip as delays in Covid-slowed shipments and backordered items started changing the order of things - so progress was forward, then backward. Thanksgiving in Dallas was coming shortly and the awning I ordered had arrived in Houston. If we timed this right, I could leave from Savannah, grab my son in Atlanta, high-tail it to Houston, get the awning installed (about the only thing I didn't mount myself) and get to Dallas by Thanksgiving. So that's what we did. My son would travel with me from Atlanta, have a terrible first night and stories for a lifetime in Mississippi with a tent leak/bedding mildew problem and ultimate resolution. Down to Houston through New Orleans (now one of his favorite cities), camp on the Gulfcoast beach, meet up with some cool people at Midguard Adventure for an install, then find some family between Houston and Dallas, crashing their campsite for another overnight, ultimately following them into Frisco for Thanksgiving. Whew! It worked! haha
As Thanksgiving came to a close, unfortunately, with school looming, my son flew back home with his grandmother, back to Georgia. After some rig tweaks and a couple of days awaiting delivery of some additional safety gear, etc... I pulled out of my sister's place, turned left and headed westward. And that, that was the last plan I had.
I know, grand right? To be free! Oh, what fun! Yes, yes it was. It was amazing. Everything I hoped for and more. Sometimes, too much more. I'll be honest. It was HARD AF! Let's just get that out of the way. Being the maiden voyage of the overland build, it did rather well other than a fridge wiring issue. Food storage became a problem. I also learned that a Tempur Pedic pillow will freeze at about 10 degrees. One could say a person feels the same in 10 degrees, shivering calories off. Another definite is that sometimes there is absolutely no way to get out of the wind on a frozen desert plain or plateau and it's just going to suck. Winter days are always shorter and faster than you thought, shortening shooting and daylight travel time. Only critical if you like to see where you set up camp during daylight and are trying to make up time. And, I'm always trying to make up time.
The cold was so bitter, that it actually froze my laptop as well as an external drive to the point they had to be "recovered" when I finally made it back which was mostly successful. It's calculated that over 12,000 images were captured on this adventure, but were only able to recover 9006. Devastating but you move on. Also, I learned I don't intake enough calories for what I expend when I'm focused on other things (see what I did there). I lost about 12lbs on this trip (about 1/3 lb per day?), yikes! So, with over 6300 miles driven, 16 states touched and lots of imagery to process, we've realized the "behind the scene" images are just as important as the release of the actual image series.
With that in mind, although it's done as retrospect, it was decided that with each image series release, we'd tell a little more of the story and show some behind the scenes imagery or maybe just cool shots that are fun but don't fit the series for release. You can see imagery related to the 28 Days West series here.
Thanks for letting us take you on this journey. Have questions? Reach out, maybe we have answers.
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