Rain, etc.

August 11, 2015 Skip Hunt

Just after my initial post on this trip... my phone got damaged and was unable to keep up the postings. I did manage with an iPad when I had wifi, and the last of 5 postcards was published a couple days ago.

It was a great trip despite very wicket weather encounters.

Will be adding moments remembered, photos, video, and conversations along the way after I get caught up from being on the road for 5 weeks.

Check back in a few days or so!

UPDATE: Booked a trip to Bolivia. Flying out in a few days!

No time to fill out this blog right now, but I did manage to get the panoramas I shot during this trip, all edited and uploaded. There will be more added later, but in the meantime you can view that gallery below.

My Bolivian trip will be blogged HERE

~ Skip

Rain, Flooding, Drizzling & Cold

July 8, 2015 Skip Hunt

But I made it to Caprock Canyon State Park!

Thought about delaying one more day for better weather, but decided to go for it and get some miles covered. The storms weren't severe & I missed the worst of them. Just steady rain for about 5.5 hours of the 7.5 it took to get here.

Campsites are covered shelters so all I had to do was hang my hammock and unpack my sleeping bag. There's some kind of freak cold front in the region that had my teeth chattering some by the time I arrived. My rain gear did ok, but after a couple hours of steady rain, the water gets through some.

i spotted a fellow and his wife (Glenn & Stephanie Mueller) with a campfire and asked if I could stand by the fire for a little while to warm up. Turns out he rides too but is convalescing due to a motorcycle accident a month ago. It reminded me to try to stay extra alert.

Ended up hanging out for the evening drinking. Had nothing to eat but some crackers, so I'm nursing a bit of a hangover this morning. And I forgot to lock up my crackers, so they ended up in a raccoon's belly around 3am when I woke up to all the noshing.

Think I'll take it easy today and maybe hike a little. There's supposed to be loads of bison here but I haven't seen any yet.

Better go settle up with the park rangers then get my coffee started. It was hard to make out any landscape details through the mist yesterday evening. Now that the sun is starting to pop through, it's looking promising indeed!

Playing with the @FRICKbits Data Art iPhone app on this Trip

July 6, 2015 Skip Hunt

Abstract Skip Hunt Travel Data Art

Skip Hunt Rideabout Summer 2015 Baseline

Recently I discovered the work of Austin-based artist Laurie Frick and love it! She uses data to create art and even designed a free iPhone app called Frickbits that captures your data, for a specified span of time, then after you select the color palette to work with, it creates these abstract graphics. Pretty cool!

I've mostly been sticking around my neighborhood for the most part so far, so there's not much data for the app to use. But, I captured the last few days as a base-line, and will mix the various creations created by my data on this trip. I'm not sure how it works if you turn off GPS for awhile, as I like to do to save battery power, but we'll see.

The first one before I leave tomorrow is in this post. I'll try to add more as they evolve along the trail, so stay tuned! :)

Vicarious Travel Postcards

Also, if you haven't already climbed aboard, there's still time to get in on my Vicarious Travel Postcard project. For just $30 you get 5 custom postcards that I create from my photography on the road, along with text of the most personally resonate moments while I'm hopefully in the zone. Mailed to the address you provide anywhere in the world!

Because these cards are post data printed with the location they're sent from and the date, along with your address, they're essentially each one-of-a-kind limited editions!

There's a deadline of this Wednesday 7/8/2015, but I'll likely the gate open just a little longer until right before the first cards go out. After that, I'll have to close it down for new Vicarious travelers.

If you want in on this groovy coolness, click HERE for more info and to participate!

T-Minus 24hrs-ish before launch!

Leaving Soon, but Where to Go?

July 5, 2015 Skip Hunt

Calling this trip Rideabout Summer 2015

Heading out soon. Likely sometime within the next 3 days. I'm leaving on my Honda nc700x motorcycle from Austin, Texas and have no clue where I'm going. Just wandering for about a month I think.

No plan or route. No specific destinations I'm trying to see. Just going.

I'll likely let the weather forecasts dictate my direction somewhat since I'd rather avoid camping in the rain and wiping 18-wheeler highway sludge off my face shield.

If I see a little town in the middle of nowhere that I've never heard of before, that doesn't have any tourist attraction, but my gut intuition is telling me I ought to stay for a day or two, then that's what I'll do.

To be honest, not having a plan at all feels very awkward and it causing me a little bit of anxiety. But, I'm also a little excited about it too.

I've also set up the Vicarious Travel Postcard thing I've done on a couple previous trips that folks seem to dig. It's mostly a way to force myself to edit the best moments down to an image and minimal text than can fit on a postcard. And, a way to create something that's essentially one-of-a-kind and limited edition. They're postcards created from my images on the trip, and text to go with them. The location and time they are sent from is printed on the card. Each one is unique in this way. I couldn't even reproduce them if I wanted to, because they get deleted off the service after 3 months. If I went all the way back to the exact same location to resend the postcard to the same address, it'd still be different because the postal date stamp won't be the same.

If this sounds cool to you and you'd like to be a part of it, I've set up this page with more info and a way to purchase it. After the cost of the cards and postage, I really don't make that much off them, but I love documenting this stuff and taking others along vicariously for the ride too. If I'm lucky, I'll have enough left over to pay for some of travel costs.

There's a "Deadline" of 7/8/2015 before I close it off for more Vicarious Travelers, but I'll likely leave it open until the first card goes out. Likely within a few days of departure I think.

Click HERE for more info or to participate

I'll also add some text, images, etc. from the road on this blog.

Stay tuned!

Skip Hunt