Road Trips @ MindSay 
Having refueled on some modern poison, we evaluated our present position and planned the next and final leg of our adventure. It was here that we really began to see some breathtaking views of the fall color in the western North Carolina mountains! We didn’t get to spend NEARLY enough time on the Parkway either, nor travel it as far as we’d have liked, but the views were stunning along the entire route!
As for my photography, I bow the knee in worship to the great god of camera raw format. It was bad enough that I took off without remembering my tripod or monopod, but adding insult to injury, I noticed that in the excitement of the day, I had been shooting in full program mode ALL DAY. What a total IDIOT. Photographer’s tip of the day: NEVER use full program mode with a DSLR! And make that a DOUBLE never when using any sort of filter over your lens! In spite of my stupidity, my camera raw images saved the day and I was actually able to salvage at least SOME of the pics.
Armed with cameras slung over every shoulder, memory cards and memory sticks and tripods and monopods, we head out into the surrounding wilderness in search of robust fall color and quaint rural scenery. This year, I have a new gadget in my arsenal of equipment, a polarizing filter! As most anyone who’s ever shot fall color knows, having the right light is essential for the best captures. The problem is, the typical work schedule, the weather and the turning of the leaves do not always work together toward the desired end. And if your leaf hunt happens to be on a very sunny day, your hosed as far as getting good color – UNLESS, you have the handy dandy polarizing filter!
In the past, our leaf hunt itinerary consisted basically, of simply (and LITERALLY!) getting lost in the rural countryside in ours and surrounding counties. This year however, I wanted to venture a little farther, and considered that it might be wise to attempt to follow, at least somewhat, a planned itinerary, so that I don’t find myself wandering around the back roads and backwoods of Appalachia sometime Sunday evening, a single woman with 2 bi-racial grandchildren trying to find their way back home. I’m not quite up for a Deliverance style adventure.
Hence, I swung by my favorite addictive fix, Barnes & Noble, and picked up a map and a tour book, Touring the Western North Carolina Backroads, by Carolyn Sakowski. It features 21 specific tour routes that bypass the typical tourist routes and instead, focuses on unspoiled landscapes and pastoral scenery. The tours are all well under 85 miles round trip, and the book includes some interesting history and local stories about each region.
I could not afford a birthday party or expensive presents for Kendall this year, so this will be our way of celebrating his birthday, which was today – just him, his sister and me in search of adventure in the NC mountains. I’m so excited with anticipation, I’m worried I won’t be able to get to sleep!
Thus, I bid thee farewell for a day or so, whilst I collect what I’m HOPING will be my bestus fall color pics EVER! I must be off to clean off memory media and charge batteries!
I’ll be back…
Blogging...
What's really the big deal about it? What is it about spilling your guts online that makes one feel accepted? Maybe it's a deep pathological human need for attention. I have to admit it is nice to check a blog that has more than one reply... *Hint Hint*
Well on to more interesting things. A couple of friends and I are planning to go on a road trip soon. An idea was being bounced around that more than sparked my interest. The ultimate road trip: Travel to every single state in the US (not including Hawaii and Alaska). That would take all summer but it would be awesome. But for now we were just thinking of something like camping or maybe six flags...we're cheap! Any ideas?
And now for something completely different...
Not having a car sucks! I'm almost 17 and I'm still carless. It doesn't really bother me that much other than buming a ride off of my boyfriend everyday. I know his car practically makes gas (Honda's are wonderful machines...lol) but still a little independence wouldn't hurt any. I swear if I'm 18 and still carless I'm going to cut a hole in the bottom of my old blazer and Flitstone my butt to school every day.
My sister is getting married...in my grandmother's backyard no less. It's really great...I mean I'm really happy for her. I'm not in the wedding...not a bridesmaid...I'm not even handing out the rice to throw at the newlyweds. Is it bad that I'm angry???
Ugh anyways I guess that's it for me...
It was a different kind of time there. I'm not saying it wasn't fun, at times, but it also wasn't easy. I can't imagine what it would have been like for her alone. No one else to talk to, no one to overhear the constant slights and critisisms...it'd be enough to drive someone batty. Now all that I had heard makes sense. I shake my head at it all.
Now I cring at the thought of calling home, or my grandpa, because the first words out of their mouths are Do you have a job yet? I know they're only asking how things are going, but I'd rather they stop asking and let me furnish the information. Then I don't feel like a failure. It feels like I've applied to so many places...and sending out my cover letter is fun, in a strange way, but I've gotten little to show for it. A couple of confermation e-mails. Two interveiws...that's probably more than others have gotten. I just feel useless being without a job. But, back to the papers. No use in setting here, writing about feeling useless, when I could be doing something about it.
The lyrics are from a song i heard in the car on the drive from New Orleans to Houston. I am now in Houston, in Moody Towers, where I will be living for the next 5 weeks. It's gonna basically be the busiest, hardest 5 weeks of my life, as i have been told numerous times. But for now i feel good, to finally be here and have my room all unpacked and to be set.
Right now i am in the computer lab because my awesome computer, which i shipped last Saturday, is scheduled for delivery tomorrow. Boo on that. Anyway, i am tired, it's been a really long weekend, week, and month and i have to be up in 6 hours so this is gonna have to be it.
Later y'all.