This project highlights life events starting in October after returning from our second trip of the year to southern states through to the leaving for the holidays. I took some time to continue researching a possible camera to buy after the rain damage to my Canon Rebel T6 and I was able to make a purchase to replace it with a Canon Rebel T6s. This was an upgrade and my hope will be that I will be able to learn to work with it to improve the quality of photography and video going forward.
I created the intro again using some photos of highlights and typing in a title using Motion 4 on a Macbook. I made a mistake on one of the photos so it ends up moving the opposite of what I wanted but I decided to leave it alone.
https://youtu.be/mM2fJiFp-Cw 10.04.2021 I captured the commute coming into work after our trip on Monday October 4th, 2021. There was low cloud cover over the city so I decided to capture it with my CrossTour CR-900. On my commute home, the conditions were similar so I captured some more but also included the Blue Cross Blue Shield building lit up for cancer awareness. I feel perhaps I have captured the commute a bit much so I'm going to try to cut it down to specifically unique occurrences if I can. This really wasn't one of those though.
10.10.2021 While we took Stein to get vaccinations, I took a shot of the decorations for Dia de los Muertos along the street in Little Village on Sunday October 10th, 2021.
10.11.2021 On Monday October 11th, 2021, I went to The Bad Apple to pick up some Poutine to eat on Canadian Thanksgiving. As usual, it was great!
10.13.2021 On Wednesday October 13th, 2021 there was a fire in an apartment building in the neighborhood. I decided to go out and see the commotion for a few minutes.
10.19.2021 I ordered a new camera, a Canon Rebel T6s, and it arrived on Tuesday October 19th, 2021. I decided the first thing to do with it to test it out was to shoot the moon. I wish I had watched the footage from this experiment all the way through. I found that while shooting video I could also take photos...BUT, it pauses the video while the shutter does its work (also recording the noise) before resuming the video shooting. I ended up taking photos while shooting live footage of bands at Reggies later in the week and finding this out when I edited those clips for posting. The shots I got on this night weren't particularly good. I had difficulty with the brightness of the moon and trying to adjust the exposure to be able to capture the moon's detail.
10.21.2021 On Thursday October 21st, 2021, I went out to shoot the moon some more. This time I was able to work with the settings to adjust the exposure and reduce some of the brightness allowing me to capture the detail of the moon considerably better.
10.22.2021
https://youtu.be/UrChdMfRo-U On Friday October 22nd, 2021, I created a little video to document the equipment update. There's a separate blog that goes into more detail on that. that blog was updated after the original posting. I used the last shots I got in New Orleans with the Canon Rebel T6 and the moon footage from the new Canon Rebel T6s along with some other footage from my iPhone 8 while in New Orleans along with footage shot that day showing the new equipment with audio of me explaining it a bit. If I paid more attention, I would have realized the shutter noise and pause that occurs when taking photos while filming. I also noted in this clip the purchase of an Audio-Technica AT-8024 mic after finding out that this camera has a mic input in hopes to have better sounding videos as well. I also note purchasing some extra batteries on eBay but they had not yet arrived from China...little did I know at the time how much of a problem this would be.
10.23.2021 On Saturday October 23rd, 2021, as we drove for groceries, we came up behind a car with ghosts and other decorations taped to its backside. That evening we went to Naperville, Illinois to an event called "Howlin' At The Moon" at the Naper Settlement. There were performers doing tricks with fire, vendors, bands, and food. The fire performers were interesting. There was also a costume contest won by someone dressed as Pennywise from It. The runner's up were The Golden Girls.
https://youtu.be/FSp6GKDsCEc On Sunday October 24th, 2021 we went to Reggies to see 6'10 play with Jake Blount and Sweet William in the Bananna's Comedy Shack room. It was raining quite hard as we drove there and back. I ended up parking in what may as well have been a pond! Sweet William opened the show. The band features an Ollie Mob member, Jake Book. 6'10 played second and I captured "Peach Farmer." Anastasia Robieson had joined the band for the show! Jake Blount closed the night. Apparently during the tour one of the band members had to leave due to an injury and was replaced. This is the show where I took photographs while shooting the live video footage using my Canon Rebel T6s so I added a disclaimer on the video files on YouTube regarding the video pausing and the shutter noise.
10.25.2021 As I drove to work on Monday October 25th, 2021, Lake Michigan was churning quite aggressively with waves splashing on to Lake Shore Drive! I had never seen it like that before so I saved the footage from my CrossTour CR-900 to share in this project. I'm nor sure that it does justice to what I witnessed that day! I wish I could have taken the time to go out and shoot with my Canon Rebel T6s...somewhere safe from the water though! I learned my lesson regarding that! Somewhere on the world wide web I saw some pretty incredible photographs of the waves that day. It's out there if you seek it.
10.26.2021 On Tuesday October 26th, 2021, while passing through Wrigleyville after getting tickets for Nocturna and another show from the Metro box office, I walked by a haunted house and decided to document that.
https://youtu.be/BzuEsv1Lx8E On Friday October 29th, 2021 we drove to Joliet, Illinois for the Prison City Massacre show at The Forge with suspensions by Disgraceland Wasteland, the Last Chance Sideshow, and hosted by a Sven Ghoulie. I captured some of the costume contest as well. The band clips include Hostages, AbsentMind, Misfire, Whut?, and Skarhead. This show had to be canceled last year so it was cool to go again and see some friends we hadn't seen for quite some time. After the show, we drove to Oakbrook Terrace for Flex's birthday party in the hotel room he rented for the night. We didn't stay real long but it was cool to see some folks.
10.30.2021
https://youtu.be/AQy9aXjtKps On Saturday October 30th, 2021 the annual All Hallow's Eve Ball edition of Nocturna went on at Metro. Due to the COVID-19 resurgence, we had to show our proof of vaccination and we were requested to wear masks...in many cases that wasn't an issue at all due to the costumes! I captured a few shots while we were there including the costume contest. It was another night were it was nice to be out among people again and seeing friends despite some restriction.
10.31.2021 On Halloween day, Sunday October 31st, 2021, Elphie and I celebrated our relationship anniversary by eating at Bree Thai and driving around to see a bustling neighborhood with its decorations and children out for Trick or Treat. We did this last year as well...but this year we were able to actually eat at Bree Thai. I saved the footage from the CrossTour CR-900 of our driving which ends up being about an hour of footage after editing. Back at the house, I captured a couple clips of the decorations on the porch that Moses and Mary put up. They were handing out candy to the children and we hung out for a while with them. The majority of the additional soundtrack falls into this section. I picked some lengthy songs.
11.02.2021 On Tuesday November 2nd, 2021, I was given my COVID-19 booster shot at work. I decided to prepare that evening for the effects so I could hopefully avoid missing time from work the next day. I took some Ibuprofen and NyQuil and it seemed to work!
11.04.2021 On Thursday November 4th, 2021, while going to get some lunch, there were helicopters and a significant police presence in Uptown. There was apparently a hostage situation going on nearby. The situation was resolved without much further incident but it sure brought unnecessary excitement to the area for a bit!
11.08.2021 On Monday November 8th, 2021, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Chicago Bears played a Monday Night Football game! Steelers won! Barely, but they won! 29-27.
11.09.2021 On Tuesday November 9th, 2021, the Pittsburgh Penguins came to Chicago to play the Blackhawks at the United Center. I hoped for another Pittsburgh win over a Chicago team but it didn't work out that way. Penguins lost 3-2 in a shootout. It was nice to go to the game again even with vaccine proof requirements and masking. Maybe someday the Penguins will finally get a win in Chicago when I can see them. It has been a fairly long losing streak for the Penguins in Chicago.
https://youtu.be/0grVtwCh3F0 On Friday November 12th, 2021, I went to Reggies for the Slackers show. It was my first chance to see them. I tried some years ago in the Cleveland area but there was a power outage at the venue. Again masking was requested, specifically by the band because they wanted to be able to do the entire tour without having to cancel. They had the Green Room Rockers, The Free Coasters, and The Concrete Roots open the show. It was a pretty fun ska show overall.
https://youtu.be/0pRQjOFZeSc On Saturday November 13th, 2021, Elphie and I went to get some Christmas gifts for our families, we got some things from Pet Supplies Plus in hopes to make traveling with Stein easier, and stopped at a Food 4 Less to try to find some Mountain Dew Thrashed Apple for my mom. It is a variant exclusive to stores associated to Kroger. While there, we also found some Gingerbread Snap'd that was apparently the holiday variant for this year. We gave the Thrashed Apple variant a try and it was good. To me, it seemed to lack the usual Mountain Dew kick.
That evening we had friends playing at Uncommon Ground in Lakeview. It was, in a way, a going away party for The Castros and they were leaving us with a gift of a new tune! I believe I captured that on video. I used my Canon Rebel T6s again for this show...this time remembering to not take photos while filming. I did take photos with the camera during different songs rather than using my iPhone 8. The Uh Ohs were opening the show wearing their new Dia de los Muertos design shirts! I captured "Bootstraps." Also playing was Celia Rose. Each clip I shared included the other artists in the performance. It was a nice communal evening.
After the show, we took the cat shelter Elphie had made to Anastasia and Josh so that they could utilize it. As we were making this exchange, the snow began to fall. It was the first snowfall that I witnessed for the season!
https://youtu.be/xI-Idii_-lM On Thursday November 18th, 2021, Nitzer Ebb was playing at Metro. Panterah opened the night. Elphie was very interested in going so I got us tickets. It was a good show. I used my iPhone 8 to capture the footage and photos for this show.
11.21.2021 After missing a year due to the pandemic apocalypse, we were able to go to Disgrace-giving with Disgraceland Wasteland Suspensions at Wasted Youth in Romeoville, IL. It was good food and good hangs for the day. We brought White Fence Farm Chicken and Fritters...the Fritters were a big hit. They're quite good!
11.22.2021 Though I was pretty tired, after Monday Night Football on Monday November 22nd, 2021, I went out to set up my target and take some practice shots using my Excalibur Bulldog 440 Crossbow in hopes of using it for hunting season. It was dark so I used a flashlight to see the target. I set it up at about 20 yards using my range finder I had purchased. I ended up shooting through one of the bolts damaging it to the point it was unusable. I was hitting fairly consistently at least by the time I was done...I'm not sure the video shows that though.
I'm pretty happy with having been able to get this project done fairly quickly. I had finished editing the footage about a week ago (prior to a quick Easter trip) and added in the soundtrack in one evening earlier this week. the editing was really only two or three sessions of work. I hope the Holidays project goes quickly as well so I can get sort of caught up on footage and perhaps work on some other things I have in mind sooner rather than later!
Life sometimes works out in good ways despite other things not quite going according to plan or how we may want them to in the moment. For me, this COVID-19 pandemic took away quite a bit but it did allow for something that I figured would not happen for me. I was able to experience Furnace Fest XXI due to a trip to Russia in 2020 having to be canceled and the continued restrictions on travel through 2021. Elphie and I ended up planning a couple weeks of travel around Furnace Fest which resulted in knocking off five more states visited! We'd still like to make a visit to Russia whenever world conditions allow but I am very glad I attended a Furnace Fest! COVID-19 was kicking up again with a new variant called Delta which resulted in Audiofeed canceling for the second year in a row. Some of the bands canceled for Furnace Fest as well but thankfully the event was able to go on!
There is a separate blog that documents the TigerRAWk Furnace Fest XXI (2021) Experience. I will include the daily highlight videos here but the blogging was done on that post and I won't spend nearly as much time in this blog on it.
I used the subtitle of "Electric Boogaloo" due to this being the second trip to the south in 2021. I didn't call the previous trip "Southern Road Trip" however I did decide to call this one "Southern Road Trip 2" and the humor of "Electric Boogaloo" that has existed since Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo made me want to use it. No other real reason than I find it funny.
I created the promo/intro video as I have been doing for the last several trip documenting projects by taking a screenshot of the region on Google Maps then animating the trip by drawing the general route and adding a car to "drive" with the animated line. I created a title using a font that felt somewhat appropriate - "Jazz" since we visited New Orleans. I added state flags for the states we passed through and as we made stops along the way and positioned those in the top corner. I attempted once again to add some of the photos we took in such a way as to appear they are being dropped onto a table top. It didn't quite turn out as I had hoped and I mis-sized one photo so it ended up on top of the route animation. I used the song "Wanderers" by Samuel Lockridge for the promo project. The title and animations were created using Motion 4 on a MacBook.
As I've done before, I took screenshots using Google Maps of the places we visited on this trip and animated the trip route, again using Motion 4 on a MacBook. These are placed throughout the project as an added visual of the trip. All other editing and work was done using Final Cut Pro on a Mac Mini.
The music tracks I selected throughout for the additional soundtrack were chosen because they were artists from the region or songs about the region. I tried to keep the songs matched up with the footage with the subject or artist in mind along with the location. In one instance, "Down In Tennessee" by Black Swift, I split the song up so that I could have "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd playing as we entered into Alabama. I put the rest of "Down In Tennessee" in where we are visiting the State Capitol ruins in Tuscaloosa. I wanted to use the rest of the song and this was an open spot. Other than that small part kind of getting out of place, I feel I did well fitting the music in regionally as appropriate. Also, special thanks to Ricky Puckett for allowing me to use an unreleased song of his that he recently completed in this project.
https://youtu.be/GuHHgqtATRQ 09.22.2021 We left Chicago in the morning on Wednesday September 22nd, 2021. After getting out of the Chicago area, our first stop was in Hobart, IN to pick up some gummies at Albanese. Elphie searched for some Halloween candy to give to her nieces and nephews when we visit during the holidays but the stock was a bit short. From there, we drove south through Indiana, passing the windmills and enduring construction as we drove around Indianapolis to Louisville, KY. It was a rainy drive and the air conditioning kept going out which we needed for defogging the windows. This was a bit of a nuisance.
We got to Louisville, crossing over the Ohio River with what we found to be a toll but there was no toll booth...nothing was sent to me to pay so I never did. Our hope was to visit the Cave Hill Cemetery and see the graves of Colonel Sanders and Muhammad Ali but we got there just as it was closing This was due, in part, to the time zone change. We did account for it but figured we might be cutting it close. Traffic and construction didn't help. We took a picture and video from the outside. The Eastern Cemetery was nearby. It was also on Atlas Obscura (along with the Colonel Sanders and Muhammad Ali graves and several others from the Cave Hill Cemetery) so we drove in there and followed the road to the end. The Eastern Cemetery is now abandoned. Apparently there were times in which graves were re-used.
After the cemetery visits, we went to St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church to try to see the Shrine of Saints Magnus and Bonosa. The skeletal remains of the saints are encased in glass in the altars of the church. We arrived as a mass was beginning. We didn't want to be inconsiderate of the service or disrupt in any way so we moved to the side less occupied and sat down. we could see one of the saints from where we sat. We hung around for a few minutes. The building was pretty incredible with all its religious art so we captured some of that on video along with some of the service. As we left, I asked the security guard which we we should leave so as to not set off alarms. It had appeared that the main doors had been locked. He seemed perplexed we weren't sticking around for the mass.
Our next stop, interestingly enough, was The Witches' Tree. It's mangled tree that is believed to have been cursed by witches. There's more to the story in the link. People leave decorations on it to appease the witches.
At this point, we decided to go to Mark's Feed Store for dinner and try the Bar-B-Que sauces. I had been there before with my old college roommate Chas but it was Elphie's first time there. I didn't recall how the Bar-B-Que sauces were so it was nice to try it again.
After dinner, we headed south to Nashville. We were staying with Natalie and Andrew. It was nice to catch up with them. We arrived way before Elphie had estimated. Turns out we were pretty much where those tornadoes came through last spring! There was some damage around but not much to see anymore.
09.23.2022
After a nice night of rest, we left in the morning heading back north a bit to visit Hendersonville to see the graves of Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash. Marnee met us there and then took us by the remains of the Cash lake house. It burned during renovations attempted by Barry Gibb. Marnee told of living in the neighborhood as well as across the lake and taking the boat by the property. I decided before leaving Hendersonville that I wanted to see the House of Cash as well since it was nearby and not really out of the way. It seems to have been turned into office space.
We headed south toward Birmingham, circling around Nashville. We entered Alabama, my 37th state visited. We should have stopped at the rest area and welcome center with the rocket but we kept going. There were also other interesting things about the space program listed on Atlas Obscura in the Huntsville area but we didn't feel we had time to check them out. We stopped in Decatur, AL at Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Que and tried the white bar-b-que sauce. It was an award winning sauce they said. So was the red sauce. We decided to get baked potatoes. It was an Atlas Obscura thing. To me, it seemed like ranch dressing. I tried it but used the red sauce more.
We arrived in Birmingham around sunset and got checked in and unloaded at our hotel, Kings Inn. It was pretty cheap and wasn't the nicest of places we've stayed but it was doable for the weekend. We decided to drive around and check out a couple Atlas Obscura sites while getting an idea of the area and where food would be for Elphie while I attended Furnace Fest. We drove over to the Sloss Furnaces first. Sloss Furnaces is a national landmark that once produced pig iron. It was where Furnace Fest would be held. Some final preparations were going on inside for the festival and we got a couple shots from outside the gates. We drove to the Vulcan Statue next...we drove right by it without seeing it somehow. We tried to park and walk over to it but there was a fee. We decided to try to find another viewing option that would be free and eventually did just below it in a parking lot. Vulcan is the god of fire and the statue was created in honor of the steel and iron industry. It's the largest cast metal statue created in the United States of America. Finally, we drove across town to the African Village in America. It was in a neighborhood and appeared to be various types of sculptures made from scrap filling a couple different properties by an artist named Joe Minter who was inspired by God to tell the story of Africans in America. There were several cats wandering around while we visited. Since it was night, I'm sure we missed a lot of what was there...we didn't really feel comfortable entering the property at that time. After this I drove Elphie back to the hotel while I attended some of the pre-festival events. Elphie found a broadcast of Forrest Gump!
I went to Iron City to catch Norma Jean and Remembering Never. I missed the earlier bands. I ran into Bryan Gray while there! After this, I went to Saturn for the Emo Night after party. I hoped to find some other friends while out but I did not find any of them. I returned to the Kings Inn and cleared my phone of all the photos and video so that I had as much space as I would need (hopefully) for a full day at Furnace Fest.
I walked to and from Furnace Fest along 2nd Avenue on Friday September 24th, 2021. Along the way I saw a sign that read "We love Fridays like Kanye loves Kanye" and though it was funny. I noticed it the next day as well so apparently it wasn't only a Friday sign. Along the return trip I saw a plaque in the ground claiming it to be the Heaviest Corner On Earth. I found I had gotten a cut on my leg somehow during the day.
https://youtu.be/_6oue8BamN8 09.25.2021 I walked to and from Furnace Fest again on Saturday September 25th, 2021. As I left, after giving a group room to climb over the treacherous stairs that they used, their friend flashed them and incidentally me as well. I slightly changed my route back to check for any other food options for Elphie.
https://youtu.be/zxYFHXXal2k 09.26.2021 On Sunday September 26th, 2021, I was offered a ride in an Uber by some Furnace Fest neighbors in the Kings Inn. I accepted and also got a ride home that evening by Jonathan Magee, who I met a few weeks earlier at the Electric Jesus screening at Wilson Abbey in Chicago during what was supposed to be Audiofeed weekend. It was nice to not walk. I really enjoyed the festival overall. I even scored on the festival exclusive vinyl each day from UnoriginalVinyl! I'm glad I was able to go and experience it. They announced Furnace Fest would be back next year so this being the one chance turned out not to be true.
On Monday September 27th, 2021, we packed up and headed out of Birmingham, stopping at a Piggly Wiggly on our way out. I noticed on our video as I was editing that we passed by Thomas Jefferson Tower and its Zeppelin Mooring Mass. We drove to Tuscaloosa and stopped at Capitol Park where the remains of the old state capitol are now a park. It was interesting to see and walk around. It didn't seem the building could be particularly big based on the foundation.
We left Alabama and crossed into Mississippi, my 38th state! We stopped shortly after crossing the state line at the Simmons - Wright Company Store in Toomsuba. It is an old timey type general store. Elphie decided to buy some fudge there but it was pretty stale. I got gas nearby in another old store...I had to go in to pay. As we continued, we decided to stop at a Ward's for burgers. Ward's was a local to Mississippi burger joint. The burger was decent. They also had their own "homemade" root beer which I also tried. It was also pretty good.
We continued into Louisiana, my 39th state, crossing over a long bridge over Lake Pontchartrain. We made a quick stop at the Fisherman's Castle on the Irish Bayou. Here we also saw some boats that appeared to have been damaged and run aground likely due to the Hurricane Ida and other damaged buildings. As we drove into New Orleans, we could see roof damage from the hurricane. We arrived at the Balcony Guest House around 6:00pm. We found this spot to stay through booking.com and it turned out to be pretty incredible. We were complimentary upgraded as well! We had a living room, small kitchen along with the bed room and bathroom. The building had sustained some storm damage during the hurricane that had recently been fixed. Elphie did a little tour video of the space we got to stay in and we decided to take advantage of the discount offered for Silk Road, a restaurant on the ground floor. We noticed a lot of street cats around...perhaps they are of the same family as the cats of Jackson Square. We were fairly close to this park but we didn't end up going through it. Back in our room, I decided to try to take a couple moon shots and city shots from the balcony using my Canon Rebel T6. I also decided to try out the hot tub but the water didn't stay warm long enough to fill very high and when it did get high enough for the jets, they shot water all over the bathroom! It also didn't drain very fast and seemed that the toilet also didn't flush quite right. I reported the plumbing issues so that they could fix them for the next guests. Overall, we were very happy with our stay!
09.28.2021 On Tuesday September 28th, 2021, we decided to explore New Orleans by foot. There was a threat of rain and it was pretty humid but we went anyway. Elphie made an itinerary and walked toward a large group of cemeteries. We took Royal Street to Esplanade Avenue. There was a lot of debris, mostly from trees all along the roads. As we walked, I dropped my water bottle I had brought to use during Furnace Fest. It cracked open so I drank as much as I could while it spilled out then threw it away. The first cemetery we stopped at was called St. Louis Cemetery #3. There was a mansion right next to it called the Luling Mansion but I don't think we noticed it. It was another Atlas Obscura site we could have marked off. We crossed over to the City Park where we found the Singing Oak. There's a bunch of wind chimes hanging in the tree. As we walked along the City Park, passing a number of large oak trees, we went by some tracks that I think were part of the New Orleans Train Garden. We continued to walk and found the Holt Cemetery next just before the gates were to be closed. It's known to flood during heavy rains and is a potter's field cemetery for the poor folks. After getting lunch at Subway, we walked by a bunch of cemeteries: Masonic Temple Cemetery #2, St. Patrick Cemetery #2 and #3 (we would pass #1 later), St. Joseph Cemeteries, Greenwood Cemetery, and Metairie Cemetery. we went into Greenwood Cemetery and Metairie Cemetery for a few minutes. We saw the Moriarty Monument in Metaire Cemetery which used to be a horse racing track. The Moriarty Monument was built to honor the wife of a business man and to show up those who had shunned him.
From here, we began to head back south toward New Orleans and our lodging. We made a stop at the Cypress Grove Cemetery. This one I think was the most interesting, though relatively small. It appeared to still show significant damage from Hurricane Katrina. Some of the mausoleums were partially collapsed giving a view inside. In researching for this blog, I learned it was built to honor volunteer firefighters.
While we were here, it began to rain and rain hard. It caused my Canon Rebel T6 to stop functioning because I stupidly continued to film without anything to cover or protect it. I was able to salvage the footage, thankfully. When I got back to the Balcony Guest House, I took the card out and battery, took the lens off and let it sit in hopes to dry out the inside and perhaps revive the camera. I was able to pull the files off of the card using Elphie's computer.
As we walked, I continued to film using my iPhone 8...I was foolish and determined to get the footage I wanted! I hoped the case would be able to protect the phone. I captured a shot of the Odd Fellows Rest as well as the Hurricane Katrina Memorial which seemed to be part of the Charity Hospital Cemetery. Next to it was St. Patricks Cemetery #1 then we came up to the Mortuary Haunted House. We continued to walk down Canal Street, dodging large puddles and being teased by the rain seemingly slowing down only to pick up again. I was soaked all the way through. We assumed that the Holt Cemetery we visited earlier had likely flooded as the information we read indicated. We arrived at Mandina's Restaurant to eat dinner. It was suggested by our friend Sid. Some of the menu wasn't available but we both got decent dinners I think. I got fried shrimp and Elphie got grilled shrimp. I sort of felt bad due to the fact I was soaked and sitting there making everything wet, ha!
By this time, Elphie and developed some nasty blisters due to the rain and her sandals. I threw what I had been wearing into the dryer and salvaged the video footage from my Canon Rebel T6...opening it up as much as I could hoping to dry it out and salvage the camera. I jumped on social media to see if anyone might have any thoughts on how to salvage my camera...most responses did not give a good outlook. Since we were on the road the next day and it continued to rain, we got rested up.
On Wednesday September 29th, 2021, we headed out in the morning. Our final destination would be in the Tyler, Texas area. Before we finished packing up, I checked my Canon Rebel T6 to see if it might work. It did turn but when I put the card in, it would not function. I packed it up and hoped maybe this was a good sign but had my doubts on its recovery. As we left New Orleans, we passed the Super Dome and I was able to get a shot out of the window as we drove by with my iPhone 8. We made a quick stop at a grocery store to get some food for the next few days on the road. It appeared the building had some storm damage. As we drove north and west from New Orleans, we saw what appeared to be an alligator lying belly up on the side of the interstate. We also noticed a lot of the trees appeared bent down and many toppled, likely due to Hurricane Ida. We encountered some intense rain as we drove. We stopped for gas then took another stop later at a rest area...the sky was clearing at this point.
We continued to Shreveport where we made plans to stop at Whataburger and meet an online friend, Chris. I shared with him my thoughts on the Furnace Fest experience as he is a fan of the music that was prominent at the festival. This was my first time trying Whataburger and I didn't find it to be anything special. I would say I preferred In-N-Out to Whataburger in what seems to be a battle between the loyalists of those brands. It was a nice opportunity to fellowship with Chris and get a break from the drive.
We headed west into Texas and got to see the sun set ahead of us. We eventually arrived in the Tyler, Texas area after dark. We were staying with a friend of Elphie's named Michael. He sent some directions down some dirt roads. He met us part way driving an ATV and guided us to the house through the rough terrain of the road. Some of it had been washed out during rain storms. It was another nice visit with a friend and getting to catch up. Before we went to bed for the night.
09.30.2021
On Thursday September 30th, 2021, we got up and Michael had made us a nice breakfast. As we prepared to leave, I was checking the oil (it's an issue with my car) and the dipstick broke off.. I had added some oil as needed but wasn't certain where the level was. We headed out after checking the internet to see how bad the situation could be and felt confident we'd probably be ok. We didn't drive too far, just outside Dallas before we stopped again to visit the Tudor's for a bit. They had just gone to the Dropick Murphys and Rancid show the night before and their kids were quite excited about the swag that they had come back with. What chatted for a while but didn't have a lot of time to stay.
As we continued the drive, we went into Dallas to see a Giant Bowler Hat. It was originally meant to help advertise for the hat company but after the store closed it got relocated to this lot. Down the road a block or so was a Giant Umbrella apparently meant to accompany it. We made our way out of Dallas north toward Oklahoma. Of course at an RV dealer there were a couple huge flags...one for Texas and the other for the U.S.A. It began to rain again as we neared the Oklahoma state line. We captured the state signs since it another new state for me...number 40. We continued to drive in the rain toward Oklahoma City. We booked a hotel room in Midwest City. As we drove we crossed a hilly area that seemed like it might be a bit interesting. As we got out of the rain the low clouds moved in strange ways. We arrived at our hotel and relaxed a few moments before Ricky Puckett came by to take us out and about.
It was nice to see Ricky and catch up for a while. He obliged us by taking us to an Autozone to get a new dipsick. He actually took us to three and an O'Reilly's because they weren't in stock! After that, he took us to S And B's Burger Joint. It was a rocknroll themed restaurant and the burgers were great! We didn't really have any thoughts on other things to do so I suggested perhaps going to the Oklahoma City National Memorial. I guess you could say it became a bit of a theme for our trips to visit spots where disasters had occurred (had we gone to Tulsa I would have liked to visit where the Tulsa Massacre had occurred). Ricky took us there and along the way stopped at Hurt's Donut and got us a dozen! They were pretty good donuts!
He showed us a few other landmarks along the way. The Oklahoma City National Memorial has the times 9:01 and 9:03 on the entrances to the memorial grounds. We parked on the 9:03 side and entered by that way as well. The times are the minute before and after the explosion. Across the street is a sculpture tiled Jesus Wept which we checked out first. It was installed on the site of the rectory which had to be demolished due to the damage sustained by St. Joseph's Old Cathedral. There is a fence as well where people left notes and other items in remembrance in the days after and it remains still and continues to have items left on it. We walked around inside the memorial park seeing the 168 chairs for the victims, the outside of the museum next door which had the scars from the explosion, and the survivor tree which was the only thing to remain from before in that area. I was glad to have been able to visit. I remember the day it happened.
We rode back to the hotel with Ricky. He stopped by a grocery store for us to get a few more things for the rest of the trip. It was good to catch up with Ricky as it has been quite a long time. Hope we see him again soon!
10.01.2021
On Friday October 1st, 2021, we checked out of our hotel, I threw away the old dipstick and put the new one in and made sure everything was good for the long drive then headed east toward Arkansas. As we left the Oklahoma City area, we passed airplanes on what looked to be a military base. We also passed an area that looked as though a wildfire had possibly gone through.
We crossed into Arkansas and I guess this time it counts as a visit so that was my 41st state visited! I think our original plan was to go into Fort Smith but we decided instead to go to a town called Alma. We stopped for gas then found a park with a Popeye Statue from Atlas Obscura. This statue is due to the claim that Alma is the spinach capital of the world. We were able to meet up with TD and Veronica Benton - White Collar Sideshow and have a few moments to catch up. Apparently their day was full of catching up with people! They were headed to see TD's sun and had just left visiting with Levi The Poet. Thankfully they were able to fit us in! We had planned to see them at Audiofeed but they came down with illness right before their tour and canceled the dates then Audiofeed canceled as well due to COVID-19 concerns. Thankfully it did work out to meet up!
We parted ways and we headed north through Wal*Mart country apparently then crossed into Missouri. We stopped in Joplin, MO and visited with "Sister E" and ate some more Bar-B-Que at Big R's. It was good and filling. We didn't have room for the pie dessert! It was good to catch up with "Sister E" and in my case to meet her in real life.
After Joplin, MO, we headed toward Springfield, MO. We found the World's Largest Fork. It took a minute because it was in a back lot behind the address and not in street view. We also found Leong's Asian Diner. We had planned to eat there but we were too full. The store apparently dealt with racism in the past and is known for its Springfield cashew chicken.
As we left Springfield, MO, we saw a sign for Uranus. It's a pun filled tourist attraction including a fudge store! We passed it later but we didn't stop. We went through a rain storm and encountered a rainbow on the other side as the sun was setting. Our next stop was the Former World's Largest Rocking Chair in Cuba, MO. It is anchored so it doesn't rock. It was among the many things along Route 66 to give folks something to stop for. We arrived well after dark so it was a bit hard to capture on video.
After this stop, we headed for St. Louis, MO where we would be staying until Sunday. The air conditioning began to act up again during the final stretch. I hoped it would work fine again when we hit the road for Chicago on Sunday. We stayed with the Adams family. Another Audiofeed connection! We hung out with them for a while before getting some sleep.
On Saturday October 2nd, 2021, we ate a nice breakfast prepared by Kaylynn and then headed to the City Museum for the day. It was fun! There are a lot of slides in the building and odd places to climb into including some outdoor areas. We saw a rainbow outside the building and I captured it from two different windows on the corner of the building. After, we drove to the Gateway Arch. The steel was forged in my home town! We also saw the Old St. Louis County Courthouse. It was a fun day.
10.03.2021
On Sunday October 3rd, 2021 we headed home. We drove along I-55 from St. Louis to Chicago. We had to stop at the Wal*Mart before leaving because I couldn't find the SD card to put in the CrossTour CR-900. I had brought it in to remove the footage from the previous drive and somehow seemed to have misplaced it. Camera wise, it was a bit of a trying trip. (I ended up finding the SD card after getting home as I went to the car to leave for work Monday morning. It had apparently fell from wherever I had it as we unloaded.) I got a new SD card and we headed out of St. Louis passing Busch Stadium and the Gateway Arch on our way. We crossed the Mississippi River into Illinois and stopped for a moment not far down the road to see the Cahokia Mound in Collinsville, IL. It is the largest "prehistoric earthwork" in North America. We didn't stay long.
The air conditioning continued to act up throughout the day and essentially stopped working at all by the end of the day. After getting back home, I installed new air filters both in the engine area and for the cabin. I also replaced the relay switch and it seems to have fixed the problem.
We continued to Springfield, IL where we saw the Proud Raven Totem Pole near the State Capitol building. It's topped with an Abraham Lincoln. As we drove into Springfield I noticed a Pink Elephant. In Livingston, IL, which we passed further south there's a Pink Elephant advertising a flea market and I wonder if this might be for the same purpose?
We left Springfield, IL, passing by the State Capitol building and continued northeast. We encountered some more rain and another rainbow. As we entered Lincoln, IL, we passed a train. Thankfully, the train didn't cross the road we were on so we didn't have to wait. We visited the Railsplitter Covered Wagon. It has Abraham Lincoln driving the wagon while reading a book.
We left Lincoln, IL and decided to stop at Wally's in Pontiac, IL for dinner. It seemed like a large truck stop that might have options we could enjoy. I got a pulled pork sandwich.
We went to Gardner, IL next to see the Two Cell Jail. It had apparently been actually an operating jail at one time. It had a little diner car next to it. This was the last thing we would visit on this trip. the recording that was playing there stated something about vagrants and hobos were often the folks who had to endure being locked up in the jail.
We continued home as the sunset happened behind us. I got gas one more time in Joliet, IL then encountered a traffic jam as we approached Chicago. It turned out there was an accident. When we got home, Stein greeted us with excitement since we'd been gone so long. We unpacked and after I watched an episode of The Walking Dead, we relaxed and rested after the many miles we traveled.
I ended up replacing the Canon Rebel T6 with a Canon Rebel T6s. I am happy with the upgrade (wrote a little blog on that). The Canon Rebel T6 will turn on with the batteries I have but still would not function when an SD card was inserted. I do wonder if there could be other ways to use it so I think I might keep it for that reason and perhaps experiment with it when I have time.
So despite the issues with the air conditioning, the oil dipstick, the camera, and the broken water bottle, it was a good trip.
