“Housekeeping” in Colorado

In my storage unit I found my original 128K Macintosh!

Our time in Colorado has been quite productive, both on the bus and off. One of the big jobs I had to tackle in the area was the clearing out of my storage unit. When I originally moved onto my bus, I left a storage space (smaller than a one-car garage) full of stuff from my old house.

We parked in Golden, CO, which was about a 30-minute drive from Boulder, where my storage was. I've got to admit, going through all the old stuff was both tedious and entertaining. I found things like my original 128K Macintosh, a Commodore VIC 20, all the old brochures for my Photoshop seminars back in the day and a slew of old photos from family, college, etc. (Karen got a real kick out of going through the photos and I know she stole some and has them stashed somewhere!) After several days of sifting through storage, I was able to separate everything into "trash," "sell," or "keep."

Karen here! I just had to get this photo on here. It's Ben and Mini Ben! How cute!!! (And yes, this was one of the photos I stole)

We also did a lot of upgrading on the bus. For the last year or two, I've had the 17" Epson 3880 photo printer, which has been wonderful. But since I'm going to downsize busses soon, I decided to downsize my printer to the 13" wide Epson R3000, which is a bit smaller. We haven't tested it yet, but we certainly have high hopes! More to come after we take her out for a spin.

Another big change on the current bus is that Karen now has her own workstation. She's been living on the bus for about a year and a half and has been using her little laptop screen (after years of using Apple's 30" display). Now she finally has her own desk, big display, etc. In other words, she's happy. Check out more on her at her blog, ThePixelDiaries.com.

Whenever we make a big change like that, things get reorganized and moved around, so  we look for the best ways to mount and stow things. I recently came across a nice product that helps us do just that and put it into use this past week. It's called Sugru, and their motto is "Hack things better." (three geek-friendly words, right?) Sugru is a soft-touch silicone rubber that molds onto anything you want and sets permanently in 24 hours at room temperature. So far, we've used it to create "feet" for our Tobasco caddy, so it doesn't slide while in motion, and I mounted my super thin Neat scanner onto the side of Karen's desk so it's both convenient and out of the way. So far this Sugru stuff is pretty great!

That's what I've been up to. It's not so much exciting exploration, but definitely "housekeeping" things that feel good to be done with!

In addition to the progress we made on the current bus, the vintage bus has been seeing progress as well! For the latest update on that, check out the Creative Cruiser site, and the latest update HERE. 

Springtime in Colorado

After hanging out with Joe Glyda in Oklahoma, our next stop was Colorado, where we were planning on spending a few weeks. Now the problem with this drive was that between Oklahoma and Colorado… is Kansas. So let me give you a little recap of Kansas in the following iPhone photo:

Ok, well that's about it for Kansas. Next stop: Colorado Springs! 

We stayed in Cheyenne Mountain State Park, which was absolutely beautiful. The front of the bus was facing the mountains and the back was overlooking the city. When we woke up in the morning, there were often deer hanging around the bus doing their little deer thing. 

One of the great things about staying in Colorado Springs was that we were within minutes of my longtime friend and wildlife photographer, George Lepp. It's always great hanging out with George and his wonderful wife, Kathy. We went to dinner with them one night and spent some time catching up at their place as well. 

George was also gracious enough to help me out with a custom printing project I had planned. Last year, when I was in Bagan, Miranmar, I shot a 14-image panorama where I tried to encompass the sheer saturation of temples in a small area. In the end, the aspect ratio of the image came out to be 17.5-to-1…  NOT an easy image to print. We worked on it for a while though, and eventually came out with a successful print, measuring 20 feet long. (If there was no software limitation, it would have printed at 40 feet, which would have matched the length of the bus!) It's an impressive print to say the least.

Me, George and Kathy Lepp, doing a test print of my Bagan pano.

An iPhone shot of my 20-foot print from Bagan, Miranmar. 

Another fun thing we did in Colorado Springs was eat in the Airplane Restaurant. This place is exactly how it sounds, too. It's a Boeing KC-97 that has been converted into a restaurant. The waiters even don airline attendant attire. The food was decent, and it was definitely a unique way to do lunch.

The airplane restaurant in Colorado Springs

After Colorado Springs, we moved on to the quaint town of Golden. We couldn't have parked in a better place. The little RV park was right on a river and at the foothills of some beautiful Colorado mountains. You can walk from the bus to town in less than 10 minutes and there are plenty of interesting places to explore. 

More on Colorado to come…

April travels: Fort Worth to Tulsa

Here's a shot of me with George Fields' Flxible. George is the fabricator and mechanic who is working on my vintage bus.

After Photoshop World, we flew back to Fort Worth and stayed at the shop where the vintage bus is getting worked on. Upon returning, I was excited to find that much progress had been made since we left! I posted the updates on the Creative Cruiser web site right HERE.

It's been a while since I've been in the same location as my vintage bus, so we spent about a week at the shop in Texas so that I could take measurements, work details out with the great team working on the bus and make some crucial decisions regarding the systems it will have. When we finally moved on, I felt really confident that the bus was definitely in the right hands. 

Here's my bus in George's shop, getting lots of TLC. 

When we moved on, the next stop on the map was Tulsa, OK. We stopped here for two reasons: First, my friend and fellow photographer, Joe Glyda, lives in Tulsa and we were psyched to pay him a visit! Second was an exhibit going on at the Philbrook Museum of Art called "American Streamlined Design: The World of Tomorrow." Streamlined design was the follow-up to the art deco period, and it's the style I'm most interested in. When the vintage bus is complete, the interior will feature this kind of design.

Me and Joe at the Philbrook Museum. The grounds there were great!

Our day in Tulsa was a blast. I'm used to seeing Joe in the midst of Photoshop World craziness, so it was nice to have a full day of one-on-one time. We got breakfast and then headed to the Philbrook Museum. There were over 180 streamlined design items on display there, many of which would be great additions to the vintage bus, and some of which… I already have! The grounds of the museum were really surprising, in that I couldnt believe we were in Tulsa! It was a massive and beautifully arranged array of gardens and walkways. 

 Karen and I are heading into the Streamlined Design exhibit at the Philbrook. 

After the museum, Joe showed us around Tulsa a bit and he did a good job at honing in on the stuff we like to shoot. He took us to the massive Tulsa oil man! And man, is he massive! We spent a while shooting there, and I'll hopefully process the images soon. For now, though, here's Karen, sitting on his gigantic shoe. 

Here's Karen sitting on the giant oil man's shoe in Tulsa.

We had a great time touring around Tulsa and spending time with Joe.

Next stop: Colorado (but we have to drive through a lot of nothingness to get there!)