 Today's episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Well, what do you know? I finally did it. A road trip across the United States and back just to see what it's all about, which is mostly RVs. But hold your horsepower. Let's not jump into it just yet because there's a lot to cover beforehand. One time while I was drunk at a party, my friend Tim told me about this plan he had to travel east. You might remember Tim from that Glacier National Park video. Yeah, that guy. He wanted to go as far east as the Adirondacks and then hang a randy and go all the way back home. All the while stopping in some cool cities while avoiding others, like the entire state of Indiana, which I often forget even exists. Anyway, I told Tim he better not leave for that sh** without the big dog and we should push it a little farther to Maine so that we can do coast to coast officially. Of course, at that point we were blackout drunk because what's the point of being sober at a house party? But somehow we remembered the next day and got to work planning the longest road trip of our lives. And to make it a lot harder on ourselves, we would do the whole thing on motorcycles of which I had no prior experience with. Meaning that I had to go get my motorcycles license, get a motorcycle, fix it up for the road, and then train relentlessly like I was Mulan going off to fight the Huns. Anyway, I failed the motorcycle test so many times that it kind of just felt bad for me and gave me an honorary license anyway. Because being able to turn is not really that important, I guess. But enough gibber jabber. This video is going to be long enough without my stupid commentary. Let's hit the road and just cover the rest later. Today is the day. Today is the day that I leave for Maine, basically. Today is probably going to be one of the more difficult days. We have to skirt from LA to Las Vegas across the Mojave Desert. Yeah, the weather is saying it's going to be about 115 by like 2 p.m. That is not good on a motorcycle. So we're going to try and get around that by leaving pretty early. I'm going to head down to Tim's place and we're going to leave from there. After loading all my crap on the back of the bike, it was time for the hardest part of the journey. Saying goodbye to my prized hog Baxter. Yeah, and Monica, I guess. Luckily I had secured Baxter's loyalty a couple days prior by cooking up an egg for the boy. So there Tim and I were. Barbecue sauce all over our titties or whatever. Young and ready for an adventure that would change us forever. But first we had to escape from LA, just like the Snake Plisken documentary. So we departed for Vegas with me still not knowing how to turn yet. I figured I'd just learn in sort of a trial by fire. Turns out it was literally a trial by fire as a massive heat wave was engulfing the western states and would follow us for a week. At our second gas station of the trip already, the sun was coming up and it was quite beautiful. Luckily I saw the future and knew that this might happen. So I preloaded some Cynestel 800T in the Contax T2. This shot here is really good. Probably one of the best from the trip. And we're only like an hour in at this point. So I don't know. I guess like lower your standards or something. After nearly dumping my bike whilst leaving, I finally got the hang of it as the sun peeked over the Mojave Desert. We arrived in Vegas at around 10 a.m. with more ass sweat than I've ever seen in my life. However, Tim was starting to already have some small clutch issues. No worries though. It was time to do what everyone does in Vegas. Get f***ed up at lunchtime and go to bed by 9 p.m. But first it was time to shoot this hotel hallway on one stop overexposed 800T during the daylight. A little trick I picked up from my buddy Joey, who learned it from someone else. Who probably learned it from someone else, who can't remember who they learned it from. While I don't have any footage of this, I also tried White Castle for the first time. And of course I nearly s*** myself. But I guess it was fine. Drunk me at least thought it was good enough to eat 8 cheeseburgers and a milkshake. Anyway, after paying $18 for a drink and then only winning like $2 at Lobster Mania, I had had enough. That night I shot some cool stuff around the hotel, like this big ass neon sign. Speaking of photography, what did I bring? As you can probably imagine, before the trip I started thinking long and hard about the cameras that I'd be bringing with me. After all I'd be forced to be monogamous to like two of them for about a month and a half, instead of loving all 16 of them equally. For starters, I think 35mm would be the most economical choice. I love 120mm, but I learned a valuable lesson about shooting it on Route 66. It's not cool to drop off 60 rolls of film to the unsuspecting lab technicians. If I really wanted to be economical, I could shoot half frame. But then again, I do want my photos to be good. All I knew was that I had to travel light, because obviously there isn't much room on the back of a motorcycle. About as much room as you can fit on the back of a camel, if that helps you visualize it. My buddy Tim also shoots film, except that he's ride or die for Nikon, which is a smart choice. I also like Nikon, so I figured if I brought my Nikon F2, we could swap lenses between each other and it would save some space. Plus the F2 is fully mechanical, except for the light meter, and we'll shoot one 2000th of a second if you ask it very nicely. But one camera wouldn't be enough, as it never is. And as you already know now, I also brought along the Contax T2, because it's small and the lens on it is awesome. Anyway, that night, tensions between Tim and I were at an all-time high. I literally cannot take your bulls*** right now, Tim. You didn't bring it so bad. Did you bring cordyceps? What hotels have? Some government program to get you to a good place. Yeah, but I like that. I got a little cordyceps, okay? As far as sh** parking garage photos go, I guess this one's not too bad. That morning we set forth out onto the open roads towards the Utah, unsure of how it would change us, because all we knew in that moment was that we were doing 300 miles, and it was hotter than piss out there. The kind of heat where you're chugging gallons of water and never going to the bathroom. Like I said, I've been shooting 800T one stop over in the daylight, and I think it works really well. It's a bit cooler in temperature than stocks like Portra, but I think it makes the greens look really nice oftentimes. Which is good, because we're heading to a campground that is very green. After making sure I got that cinematic shot of Tim's ass, I decided to rearrange my pack a little, as I could feel it slipping behind me on the ride. Eventually we made it up to about 9,000 feet at Fish Lake National Forest, where the elevation would fortunately help us save money on alcohol. Luckily, our other buddy Tim, not related, was waiting there for us when we arrived. With camp set up and only the finest of beer in front of us, I whipped something special out of my pants and got to work. That's right, the Contax T2. Maybe I'm high, but this aspen in this photo kind of looks like it's glowing or something. I figured for once maybe I should not load film in the direct sunlight, like usual, so I grabbed my Nikon F2 and gave it the special treatment, with some Ilford HP5 that I'd be pushing two stops. I decided to load it now because I wanted to do some long exposure nightscapes with the sky being totally clear here at my elevation. So I threw on the 17-35, opened it up to 2.8, and let it sit for about three hours towards the North Star. And it turned out f**king awesome. Anyway, that night someone must have thought the whole campground would have loved to hear their car alarm go off while everyone's asleep. Because it happened like three times. And they conveniently left first thing in the morning, before we could get over there and choke slam them to the ground. So the establishing shot, $10. We had a down day, so it was time for Tim to do some fishing, in which I told him that at the very least he would catch these hands if he didn't catch lunch, because I was pretty hungry. So yeah, obviously I also shot some Aerochrome. If you're uninitiated, Aerochrome is the street slash prison name for Ektachrome infrared, which is an old, discontinued film stock that, if exposed in certain ways, kind of tricks your eye into thinking you're looking at a normal photograph that's been absolutely riddled with an inflamed STD in the form of bright red slash pink foliage. But how does this film stock even achieve this? Basically it's false color infrared. It turns anything reflecting infrared light to red. And yeah, plants are constantly reflecting that s**t. I brought it along because I was hoping to capture the American landscape in a unique way, and I couldn't think of a better crutch to lean on. I also tried shooting it with a yellow filter to get more of a pink look that's a little more in line with some of Richard Maas's work in the Congo. But worry not for the discontinuation of Ektachrome infrared. There might be hope. I've actually been personally campaigning to try and get Kodak to bring back Aerochrome, but more on that later. For now, enjoy these shots that I think look pretty cool. Anyway, after revoking Tim's man card for not catching a fish in a place that's literally called Fish Lake, we headed back defeated. One answer was my knees. My knees are still okay considering I had like a major… Eventually we decided to head down to the east end of the lake to see what that's all about. It was here that the sin is still in the T2 really busted free. Tim tried to do some more fishing because I guess he didn't want it to look like the fish outsmarted him earlier or something. So the other Tim and I did some play-by-play commentary from the shore whilst drinking some water. The next morning was time to get going. After all, we wouldn't get to Maine by sitting on our asses drinking lukewarm beer. After saying a long emotional goodbye to one of the Tims, still not sure which one, a different Tim and I headed out for our 219 mile day to Colorado. It was an incredibly beautiful route, probably one of the best days of riding I've ever done in my life. We eventually passed through Capitol Reef National Park and just had to stop. I mean, this shit is breathtaking, right? We'd love to see more of this park, but for now, unfortunately, we're just passing through. I snapped a few photos on my Nikon F2, which I conveniently placed in my tank bag for the ride instead of emergency toilet paper. By the way, for all you photo nerds out there, I was shooting with a yellow filter and the Leica R35-70mm adapted lens. Despite it being hotter than the surface of the sun, we decided to go check out Goblin Valley. It's just so far away from a lot of other stuff and we'd be passing right by it, so why the hell not, right? Was it worth it? Depends who you ask. But no, neither of us really thought so. Maybe if the lighting was different or if I was actually good at taking photos. Anyway, the ride out of there was pretty tough. It was yet again 100 degrees and we were feeling it for sure. Tim actually made us pull over because I was starting to get heat stroke out there and needed a monster energy drink or something to bounce back. Eventually we arrived at our campground for the evening covered in sweat, tears, and piss, probably. Once the sun went down, the campground was very beautiful. I snapped a few photos here and there on Cinestill, but I don't really think they're anything special. Eventually I realized the only thing that pairs well with a heatwave is a cold hard dehydration can, so I said f*** it. The only constant in the universe is change, so what's the point of making any definitive plans? Forget it if you have chopped lips. Our campground host at this spot was really really nice and she even offered us some of her peppers from her garden, which is not an innuendo. It was a very classy move on her part, so naturally we mixed it with some high-class mac and cheese. Since I personally can't handle anything spicier than mayonnaise or Flaming Hot Mountain Dew, I decided to let Tim risk his own butthole first. To make the next morning better for myself, I decided to shoot some Aerochrome before it was time to head even deeper into the chronic state. 200 miles short of 420 deeper, in fact. There isn't really much to say about the ride that day. Oh yeah, except that it was also f***ing beautiful. We went through this canyon that was incredible. If not from a man-made highway engineering standpoint, then yeah, whatever. I guess at least from a mother nature perspective. With several stops along the way, including this Sinclair gas station, which I shot the s*** out of and I love the photos, kept moving along east towards some rain that never came. In fact, it was still close to 100 degrees the whole time because f*** us, right? We eventually headed up to Grand Lake, which was at a chiller 8,500 feet in elevation, and the lake itself truly was as grand as it was lake. After not showering through three days of 95 plus degree weather, we figured, ah, what the hell? Maybe we earned a night to shower and not get woken up by car alarms. So we pulled up to a cute little romantic hotel for the night. With the sun down, I decided to finish off this roll of 800T and put something else in. These shots are fine, I guess. I got no real beef with them, but they maybe didn't quite turn out how I was hoping. Except this one, this one's good. After all was shot and done, I put in some Kodak Gold 200, my drink of choice. The next morning it was time to go, about 240 miles through Rocky Mountain National Park, which is probably one of the coolest things we did on this trip, because we got hella high, about 12,100 feet to be exact. After we got down from the summit, unfortunately it was kind of a bunch of ass into Wyoming. I guess it wasn't too bad, all things considered. It was just 100 degrees again and the planes kind of felt infinite. Clearly the heat was starting to get to us. It was just constant and we were exposed to it for long periods of time, out on these endless highways. We did arrive at Guernsey State Park, which was completely empty. I s*** you not. We did not see a single soul the entire time we were there. We were truly kings of the park. We could do whatever we wanted, but it was hotter than hell, so we kind of just sat around mostly. Speaking of accommodations, yeah, it was a yurt. Because why not stay in a yurt? Actually, here are a few reasons. Hot as balls, mosquitoes, no outlets. But hey, at least we had beer, right? Now drunk off one beer, I managed to pop off some air chrome before I switched over to the gold and my contacts T2. Is there something? I'm gonna try to use it a couple of days and then re-upload something other than Fuji. Loma purple. These shots, I guess I don't hate. Gold handled the colors well. I just don't think they fit into the narrative that I'm trying to tell. Whatever that may be. Honestly, I don't even know what that means. With the sunsetting, we decided to make our famous mac and cheese again, of which we've been subsisting off for five days now. Which is also coincidentally the last time I took a s***. I was thinking that make would make a better parking lot. The next morning we awoke on our separate bunk beds like we were nine years old and getting ready to go to the Scholastic Book Fair. But it got f***ing cold. I also heard coyotes. Oh yeah, they were going off last night. I was like, I hope Tim's prepared to defend the yurt, man. Like nightmares? Uh, no. Dick fell off? Yeah. After doing a super smooth James Bond-inspired 162-point turn along the edge of a cliff, we made breakfast and left the yurt ready for the 269 miles ahead of us. Nice. And what do you know? It would be another 90-plus degree day as we headed toward Mount Rushmore. Right at the base of the shaft of the mountain, we pulled into a gas station and I shot some more air chrome, thinking that maybe the results would at least be interesting. And it was, for sure. Though maybe more of a test photo than anything actually pushing the boundaries of creativity. Mount Rushmore was cool, I guess. It's a very American road trip thing to do. It's kind of like wiping your ass. It's optional, but like, you probably should. It was a quick and painless stop, beautiful even, but more beautiful on air chrome. In fact, this might be the most patriotic photo I've ever taken. It's the presidents in simply red, white, and blue. Something funny that I kind of forgot about air chrome is that it turns pale-ass white skin into like this weird yellow lemon color, like this guy. And yeah, also me. Anyway, we didn't spend much time there and we hit the road out into the Badlands where we would be camping that evening. It was regretfully at this point where I lost my trusty sunglasses that had been with me through thick with two C's and thin. My iconic Honey Maple sunglasses that defined a whole generation on this channel were gone. Okay, I'll come clean. I left them on the back of my bike while getting gas and drove off with them still there. I looked for them in the street, but someone ran them over. Can we just take a moment for those sunglasses? Okay, back to reality or computer simulation. Still unsure. It was hot as ballsack out there. No weight, hotter. So we definitely wanted to get it over with, which meant maybe speeding a little bit. Here's some real-time footage of our journey headed east. Tim asked if this place still had film for their own advertisement, but they said they didn't and that s*** in the window is old, which doesn't bode well for the gasoline we were putting in our tanks. It was hot folks, scorching even. We decided we'd had enough of Mother Nature's bullcrap and headed to a local bar for food and to cool off. Tim decided to play Imagine Dragons for some unholy reason as we ordered pizzas. Back at camp, we continued our tradition of drinking while it's 95 degrees outside, but I also grabbed my Nikon F2 and slammed a few shots out that are fine, I guess. This shot of the bike is probably the best. I mean, it's literally the definition of grainy as f***, but whatever. For this shot, I borrowed Tim's 35-200 Nikon and clearly messed something up. We also met this guy at our campsite who said he rode 700 miles that day from Oklahoma. I mean, I guess in like a cosmic sense that is possible, but like, damn dude, do you even have an ass anymore? My ass was burning and we'd been doing 200 to 300 a day. 700 is a long day even in a car. Anyway, Tim finally got back from the campsite's own bathroom fight club and it was time to call it a night. Why you always gotta catch me like this? Our campsite neighbors, Mel and Rick, were super nice and actually stopped to talk to us about our trip for a while. They were on their way towards Glacier National Park, so we wished them the best. I packed my Nikon F2 in the tank bag with some more HP5 before we left because the lighting that day wasn't exactly inspiring me to shoot color. We headed deeper into the park to see some badass landscapes, but we're cut short because it's a really small national park as we'd come to find out. Okay, small is a harsh word, adequately sized. Most people would absolutely be satisfied with it. I popped a few shots off here and there on black and white and they look cool. It's definitely a landscape for black and white, I think. At our second location, I ran out of film and had to reload, but I must have done something wrong because there was a light leak on the first frame which totally ruined it. I mean, this shot would have been heat, but some stray light which its indecisive ass can't even choose if it's a particle or a wave decided to f**k it up. Okay, so this day was a bit of a wash, mostly because we were crossing the plains of South Lakota which nobody wants to be caught dead doing, trust me. It was a 300 mile day and most of it was cross winds out the ass and yeah, 90 plus degree heat again. But someone somewhere decided to throw us a freebie and we randomly stopped at some sort of train town that was pretty cool. This is a solid shot. It's moody, it's old looking, it's a vibe. It was so hot out there that we literally stopped at a gas station for an hour because it had a beer cave refrigerator that we stood in to regain consciousness. Eventually we made it to Palisade State Park on the border of Minnesota and it was still hotter than side boob. I just wasn't really feeling the heat stroke vibes at the moment. After searching for the key for 30 minutes, eventually I found it and our tiny little house on the prairie even had air conditioning, which I promptly set to the industry standard 69 degrees. But because we had no food or I guess training to kill local wildlife, we headed into a nearby town to get provisions and alcohol. I mean, yeah, what's the point in lying? It was a long day. The cabin itself was super cute and somewhat remote. The kind of place a brutal murder would happen and the killer would totally get away with it. Luckily for us, the next day the weather would change almost permanently, which was cool for a second, but became a nightmare later on. But let's not jump ahead. Yep, it was our first rainy day as we headed into Minnesota. Seems maybe a bit abrupt to go from 95 degrees to rainy and cold, but hey, whatever. So the Leica R 35-70 has this cool macro function and I decided to try it out on this unsuspecting leaf. And I think it turned out kind of nice from a texture perspective. The 35-70 Leica R is incredibly sharp, as I am now finding out slowly. We didn't get very far before it started absolutely pissing rain on us. Nonetheless, we didn't really have much of a choice. We had to keep pushing onward to make our appointments with our ladies, so it would just have to be what it is. After gas station hopping for a minute in the rain, we decided to stop and get lunch before we finished the rest of our 230 mile day to Minneapolis. So here's where everything gets f***ed. Unfortunately, as we were leaving lunch, maybe we weighed slightly more or something. A line snapped in Tim's transmission and he was unable to put the bike into gear. So he was sidelined for a second or two. Naturally, as his companion on this trip, I said peace. Good luck, see you in Maine. Obviously, I'm kidding, I hung out until we got a clear diagnosis, which according to two separate technicians was that something snapped in the gear transmission box. It'd have to be towed and he'd have to get new parts. It was definitely an odd issue and we would have to ground ourselves for a day or two to fix it and then adjust our schedule to compensate. The nearest town with any semblance of a motorcycle shop was Mankato, Minnesota. And if you've never heard of it, I don't blame you. I went ahead and posted our s*** up at the Days Inn, which is not where they place someone's days if everything is going good in their life. So for the time being, we were stuck in Mancat Gooch or whatever this place was called. I decided to pass some of the time by shooting and I guess I don't hate some of the work I produced. The next day, it was time to figure our s*** out. Luckily, not much is going on in Mancat Gooch, so we had plenty of time. Ultimately, the issue with Tim's bike was greater than we thought and parts were on backorder from Japan. So Tim said s*** it. The road demands a sacrifice. Any whole ass bought a new bike on the spot to keep the route moving. A well-kept Honda VTX. He would just have to leave his original bike here for the winter and come pick it up next year. It was bold. Very bold. But Tim is a bold guy. Of course, we found out way later that all the bike needed was a new clutch cable because, I don't know, life's a s*** and then you die or something. Unfortunately, our little hang s*** in Mancat Gooch pushed our schedule a day behind. Pizza time. So we'd have to adjust our route and cut through to Michigan instead of up through the Upper Peninsula like we originally planned. I don't know if you've ever looked at a map of Michigan but a lot of it's surrounded by water and we weren't driving jet skis, so we'd have to improvise. With time to kill that evening, I shot Aerochrome around the area that we were staying, which actually featured an abandoned shopping center. I actually like how these shots turned out. Aerochrome definitely works best in the bright daylight. With a plan set in motion and nothing else to do because, again, Mancat Gooch, we headed down to the pool and I shot some Kodak gold because pools are kind of a photographic vibe sometimes. Like this shot. The colors are vivid. I'm not sure if the T2 missed focus or it just shot wide open at 2.8 but it's a little on the blurry side. The next morning was definitely full of hope as we prepared to leave. Jason's camera. It's too early for the s***, Tim. After eating a totally non-depressing, healthy as s***, well-balanced breakfast, we decided to head to our new stop over a location 300 miles away, Madison, Wisconsin. Fortunately, I'd also be losing another staple of the channel, my red beanie, which I also left on the back of my bike before I took off. And say where the... Okay, enough of that. Let's get the f*** out of Mancado. After some time on the road, we stopped at a gas station slash Ace Hardware, which exists for some country-ass reason, I'm sure. Comfortable? Lightly worse. But it's kind of the same. Dude, that bike is comfy, man. As we continued onward to Madison, I can't really say it was the most beautiful ride, especially because it rained again. But eventually we slogged through the rain and made it soaking wet to our hotel for the night. Aside from when I, you know, peed in them. It would be another rainy morning, and we were heading towards the Great Lakes. I'll be the first to tell you, it sucks sitting down on a wet seat. It's like immediate cold swamp ass for the entire day, but you just have to deal with it. At this point, we were actually begging Mother Nature for a normal day of weather. It seemed like every day we rode, it was either going to be 95 plus degrees or a total rainy downpour. We just couldn't catch a break. Part of our plan to recoup this thing was to take a ferry across Lake Michigan and then ride up north to Tim's family cabin where our girlfriends Monica and Sarah would be. Thinking that the ferry ride would be a fun little detour, we were soon hit with the harsh reality of the situation. I sh** you not, because I was busy trying not to throw up everything I'd eaten in the past six years. 20 minutes into the ferry ride, people started yacking left and right. Tim and I normally don't even get seasick, but we were definitely feeling it on this demon boat ride from hell. Anyway, as the ferry ride was coming to an end, I decided to venture upstairs with my contacts T2 and observe some upper-decker action happening. Eventually, we deported in Michigan, and after gassing up, we headed due north. That night would be Tim and I's last night alone for a little bit, so we had to make the most of it and explore each other's passions for Ping Pong. Eventually, Monica, Sarah, and Tim's mom arrived and Tim and I's metaphorical passion for Ping Pong dwindled a bit. With my roll of Kodak Gold now finished, I figured it was as good a time as ever to load, even more gold. The next day was my 31st birthday, and I could definitely feel time aging the crap out of me. Between the thinning hair, the gaining six pounds every time I ate a Dorito and the laziness, I could definitely tell the end was approaching. Unfortunately for you, I decided to celebrate privately by getting blackout drunk off bourbon steak that Tim and his girlfriend made for me. And I even took out my anger of turning 31 by aggressively throwing darts at a dartboard. With all my rage now gone as a 31 and one day old, it was time for all of us to head out toward Ann Arbor and visit some family. For Monica and I, that meant we'd be seeing her brother and his girlfriend. But first, I'd have to traverse through the endless minefield of potholes Michigan has to offer. Anyway, after traveling 2,500 plus miles with no issues, I somehow managed to dump my bike while parking it in a driveway. I blame it on the kickstand for engaging far enough to turn off the engine, but not support the bike. Luckily the GoPro was in time lapse mode, so you can't really see how much of a dumbass I was. The next day would be chill as f*** until the darkroom zone Trev Lee showed up and then it got even chiller as f***. That's right, Trev came around, picked my tattered ass up, and we headed out to shoot some local gems. Mainly just Belle Isle in Detroit. It was definitely good to see a friendly face and get an evening of shooting in. I love these shots of this building on black and white. I distinctly remember telling Trev in that moment that I had just shot the heat of the month on my Nikon F2 and the 17-35 in this shot right here. I even busted out some aircrome to snap a few photos. It's interesting to me to see how different scenarios render different colors on infrared. Like, these shots turned out pinker in general versus these shots that look a bit more red-orange. Anyway, there we were. Trev and I were having the times of our lives without the need for alcohol. Oh dude, there's a bar. I shot all sorts of s*** here. Aircrome, gold, HP5, you name it. Actually that's about it, just those three. This shot looks kind of bland on gold, but aircrome gives it that extra flaming hot Mountain Dew spice that daddy wants from Kodak. More on that later. This shot on aircrome is kind of awesome to me. It's not the usual shot you would think of when shooting this stock, but the water falling off into the deep blue like that makes me really thirsty for some reason. Eventually we came across this obelisk thing, and as a general rule of thumb, I do not try to open towering obelisk doors out of fear of unleashing a terrible curse. But Trev is a fearless man. After a little more exploring, we stumbled on this bridge that was clearly not in its best shape. Being out of shape myself, the hike in was tough, but worth it as I blasted away on Kodak Gold and maybe a smidge of HP5. I don't know what compelled me to have the 17-35 on my Nikon the whole time, instead of the 35-70, but I think it was ultimately the right choice for this interior. As the evening was coming to a close, Trev drug-dealed me some Cynosil 400D. This was before it hit stores like a month later, but it still felt like we were breaking the law regardless. Anyway, after Trev drove me home that night because I said tongue was out of the question, I got back and went to sleep. Later on that day, we did a fall festival, which I was excited for because there was this huge deadly corn maze. While I thought we should burn the cheat sheet of the maze, the group I was with was less than willing to camp there overnight while we figured it out. So we went and saw some goats instead, which made Monica very tired for some reason. Since we had been bombarded with rain the past few days, I took the time to replace my rusty cheap-ass handlebar bolts with new ones, as well as tighten down some other stuff for the journey ahead. It was hard saying goodbye to Monica again the next day. I don't know if I can put it into words without getting totally sappy, but the next three weeks would be the longest we had ever gone without seeing each other. So it definitely was going to take its toll on me. But that's okay. I had Tim, I guess. After leaving our brief hiatus from the trip in Michigan, it was time to set out into the wilderness and get totally f***ed by the weather channel once again. Today was actually the day we'd be heading into Canada to go see Niagara Falls, a nearly 300 mile day, or should I say 500 kilometers? You maple syrup free healthcare f***s. Anyway, so there I was going 70 kilometers per beaver and just taking in the farmland of Canada. Eventually we made it to Niagara Falls, which is kind of a sadder and smaller version of Vegas somehow. Regardless, we went for a hike to go see the Falls, and it was everything you could possibly imagine it to be. Dreary. Nevertheless, I shot some air chrome hoping for some magic, and magic I received. It looks super cool, especially with all those people on the boat waiting to get totally pissed on. Anyway, after getting f***ed up on Canada's finest and stealing a luggage cart, we eventually realized the next day was our longest yet, and we should probably get an ounce or two of sleep. The next day was one of our most exciting. If by exciting, I mean full of rain and wishing we were dead, because we were doing 350 miles that day and camping. There was also high time we headed back into the U.S. and through upstate New York, where we began seeing the first signs of fall appearing. On the route, Tim told me he was finally getting used to that shaft, and I was like, about time, dude, until I realized he was talking about his motorcycle. Since it was raining, I thought, why not make these shots look even more depressing and shoot black and white? Which I did, and I really like them, but to be fair, I pretty much like anything pushed on HP5. We eventually arrived at the marina and met our second Murph of the trip, but our journey was not complete yet. From here, we hopped on some canoes and headed out into the wild open sea with lightning all around us. Okay, it was a lake and there wasn't any lightning, but we still fell out there intertwined with nature. We felt like real men, rugged and ready to make camp on a remote island to survive the harsh environment that awaited us. Until we were told the site we were going to was a Girl Scouts camp, which kind of took the steam out of it a little for us. We had the whole island to ourselves. No man, woman, beaster, Girl Scout dared brave these conditions today. Thinking of quitting drinking. I shot a couple of compositions pretty early on here on HP5, and I really like them. I couldn't tell you why though. Maybe the lighting? With the rain still coming down the next morning, we decided to explore the little island we were on in the middle of this lake. And now looking back at the footage and finding some abandoned campgrounds, it definitely reminds me of that game The Forest, except without the deformed cannibal mutants. Or I don't know, maybe they were there somewhere. Regardless of Timmy or just cannibalism in general, I think this candid shot of Tim on Kodak Gold is pretty good. With no alcohol left to speak of, we panicked and made an emergency run into town for some more groceries. Back on land, Tim couldn't stop thinking about the fish that got away, so he said, f*** it. No fish is going to make me look like a lily-livered son of a bitch, and he grabbed his fishing rod and headed out into the sea. And when Tim returned eventually, he was never the same. Hey, if you catch a largemouth bass, be sure to keep it. I need it for things. Yo, we're in upstate New York. It's so quiet here. The rain is supposed to clear up here tonight. Tomorrow we're heading to Portland, Maine. Get our first glimpse of the Atlantic Ocean. I'm pretty excited, assuming our motorcycles haven't been, haven't rusted out at this point. And then we just start heading back. That'll be the halfway point. This camera's heavy. With Tim out on the lake doing whatever fishermen do, singing sea shanties or some sh**, I grabbed my cameras and popped off a few shots here and there. I do like how the aircromb turned out, even if there wasn't any direct sunlight peeking through. Despite everything in the vicinity being totally waterlogged, including our own asses, somehow Tim was able to get a fire going. This fire was all me. I will admit, staring out into the complete darkness behind our camp toward the center of the island was very eerie, knowing we were utterly alone out there. I thought they'd be consumer spicy, like Taco Bell spicy. Hey, that's pretty hot, man. No, it's not. It was so silent you could hear drops of distant rain, birds flying through the trees. And because the outhouse was right there, each other dropping massive meat logs. The next day, the rain finally ceased on us, which was just absolutely perfect timing, because we were leaving. I wonder why? Because you were really close to making love to a volleyball? Yeah, it's probably an extreme cut if cast away. Yeah, it's like a 17 hour film with all the stuff they cut out. Yeah, so this shot of the canoes, and frankly all the footage here too, was super diffused thanks to the humidity in the area, which definitely evened out all 4,600 wrinkles on my face nicely, but made this shot super glowy. While I do think the shot turned out kind of cool, I do wish the glow was muted a bit more. Anyway, it's time to leave Murph and the Marina behind to finally reach Maine on another 300 mile day. But things got off to a really good start when we pulled over to a gas station for fuel, and then found out it was abandoned. Naturally, it was time to shoot. I whipped out some air chrome and went to town. And I think these shots are some of the best from the trip, especially this one. That I totally ripped off from Tim. On the way to Maine, we took a lot of back roads through New Hampshire and Vermont. And it seemed like every time we came to a stoplight, Tim and I would just look at each other and say, do you see that? It was so beautiful. I would totally uproot my life in LA to come live here permanently. But then I would picture Baxter's sad face and realize, oh yeah, my son needs me. And yeah, Monica, I guess. Eventually we made it to Portland, but it was dark and cold. So we said, ah, tomorrow we can see the Atlantic Ocean, which ended up being a whole thing in itself. Oh, that was a long, last 30 minutes, dude. It was a slog, man. At last, it was time for us to flip a U-Banger and then hang a Randy all the way home. This was it. We had made it. It was all going to be downhill from here, except that today would be literally the hardest day of the trip, at least for me. See, it all started many years ago when I was born. As I grew into a man, I became obsessed with travel and adventure, which led me to here, Maine, in the middle of September on a motorcycle, in the middle of a hurricane. Yep, that morning I was informed by Tim that Hurricane Fiona was passing through the area, like the Shrek character, except less hot, according to Tim. Anyway, the rain was pretty immediate and it would only get worse, but we were determined to see the Atlantic Ocean. After all, we had come a long way. It took us a moment for it all to sink in, but here we were, LA to Maine on two wheels. It had been quite a journey already, and it was also far from over. To welcome us on the start of our 313-mile return voyage was Fiona, ready with buckets of rain, hail, erratic crosswind, and low visibility. Turns out it's actually pretty easy to identify rain versus hail. Just keep your eyes out for when the rain starts to hurt a hell of a lot more, and bam, that's hail. Somewhere in New York, some folks at a gas station kindly let us hang out in their shop for a minute until the storm died down a little bit. Though perhaps it was just a decoy lull in the storm, and Fiona once again shat everything she had in our direction. At this other gas station, I learned a valuable lesson. If a guy with no front teeth comes up to you and starts telling you about his days on the Honda motorcycle, you shut up and listen closely, because you're about to hear some real s***. While it was cool getting lots of love from all the cars that drove past us, it was just so cold, and I was soaked through to the point where I couldn't stop shaking. I tried all the classic tricks, warming up your hands on the exhaust, jumping jacks, butt chugging coffee, but nothing seemed to work. I'm pretty sure I was in the early stages of hypothermia, but I s*** you not. 15 minutes down the road from here, it all cleared up and was sunny. That evening we arrived at our campground and did everything we could to decompress as we were back in upstate New York. I couldn't even bring myself to shoot anything that evening. Okay, well, shoot anything good. That morning I realized my roll of Kodak Gold 200 was spent, so I decided to get downright freaky in the T2 with some retro chrome. Possibly my favorite film stock these days. With a short day of only 161 miles ahead of us toward Atlantic City, we cruised through New Jersey and found an aesthetically pleasing diner to grab some breakfast. You know, once we went through like 115 toll booths. So everyone s*** on New Jersey is like the armpit of America for some reason. I gotta say cruising through, we met some of the nicest people we'd meet all trip. The drivers on the other hand are a completely different story altogether that we don't need to get into. I also have to give credit where it's due. Literally every gas station we visited across America was out of stock on the flaming hot mountain daddies. That was until we reached this random spot in New Jersey because of course New Jersey would have it. Eventually we arrived at the Showboat Hotel in Atlantic City where we'd be staying. Which we found out was actually a family-friendly hotel that featured arcade games instead of gambling. Hi, is there a laundry in the hotel? Okay, thank you. So we didn't do any gambling that night. Ha, just kidding. Two minutes later our buddy Zach joined us to get totally blitzed on the Atlantic City boardwalk. Sometimes I get the feeling that retro-chrome captures the moment better than our actual eyeballs. Admittedly the only thing that we were truly interested in that evening was getting our asses to the Rainforest Cafe. Where the humid and chaotic ambiance supersedes the need for good food. Anyway, back at the hotel, like a pro, Zach took a power nap and then woke up ready to f**k up the arcade. Leaving Atlantic City, not knowing how many days we spent there was troubling, but then we soon realized we're in that part of the country where there were waffle houses and all was forgotten. I'd never been to a waffle house before and I gotta say, not bad. Especially one shot on Aerochrome. Eventually we made it to Charlottesville, Virginia which was more or less a stopover city for us but that didn't mean that I didn't shoot some absolute heat while I was there. Like this shot of Tim. Mid-Shard or something. That morning we got an early start as we had our longest day of the trip ahead of us to Mount Mitchell, North Carolina. About 363 miles. I managed to pop off this shot first thing in the morning on HP5. And I love it. Being able to faintly see the sunrise light in the background is the selling point. The ride that morning was just absolutely beautiful. Between the sunrise, the fog, whatever. It was just a quiet and peaceful one. After that, there wasn't much to talk about. We hopped from one sheet to another which I guess is a thing out there. I don't really get the hype, but whatever. I was in a good mood. No rain, no hurricanes, just good weather. Which I then realized only gave me anxiety for the fear that a storm was just around the corner. And I was kind of right. We headed up the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina. The sights became more beautiful by the second until we reached our campground for the night, which turned ugly. I mean, it was a pretty campground. It's just that there were stairs involved. Mount Mitchell is apparently the highest peak east of the Mississippi and we were camping smack dab on top of it, which was cool in theory until you realize it's hella windy and just has tons of cloud cover. I mean, look at this s***. This is not sped up at all. This is legitimately real time. As our old friend Rain started to come down, I took solace in the fact that I still had some error chrome. And you know what? I like these shots a lot, especially this one. It's got good foreground and background action with infrared trees stretching out into the distance. It looks like a campground on a distant planet or something. Unfortunately, because of the elevation, the olive oil exploded in my saddlebag and mixed with the Nutella. And yeah, let me tell you, mixing olive oil and Nutella is not the same as mixing peanut butter and chocolate. The shot of Tim on retrochrome pretty aptly summarizes how we were feeling at this point with bigger, heavier and more dense clouds starting to move in. Somehow, against all odds, Tim was actually able to get a fire going for five minutes. And then the cloud said, s***, no bitch, get that weak ass bullcrap out of here. And yeah, it started outright s***ing rain all over us in a torrential downpour for the ages. I figured at this point there were two options for how Tim and I were gonna die. Blown off the top of the mountain, and not in the fun way, or through some crazy, mountaintop worldwide apocalyptic flood situation. Anyway, the next morning arrived a century later, which tends to happen when you're up all night worrying about dying. Somehow, our motorcycles survived the night too, except that Tim's battery was dead at the top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere. I also took the moment to scrub all the crap off my chain which was admittedly long overdue. After getting Tim's battery back on track and waking up all of our campground neighbors in the process, we hit the road down the mountain for an easy 30 mile day to Asheville. That night in Asheville, I shot these two photos on retrochrome, and I think they're fantastic. I'm half surprised, as per usual, that T2 was able to capture enough light. The next day was the day that we'd be crossing through the great, smoky mountains and doing Tail of the Dragon, which sounds like a hardcore psychedelic drug from Lord of the Rings, but it's actually an 11 mile route with 318 curves that's pretty popular with motorcyclists. And yeah, Priuses, because there's a few of those too. After scraping my boot on the ground, apexing with more G-Force than the frame of the bike could support, I somehow made it out alive. At this point, I was feeling confident that I could finally make a turn on the motorcycle. The dragon eventually led us out on some backcountry roads that I thoroughly enjoyed riding on. We even found a gas station eventually, and I shot some Aerochrome. It certainly made our 300 mile crossing to Nashville a lot more interesting. Eventually, we made it to Nashville, and it was fine, I guess. Probably would have been more exciting if we were in a bachelorette party, but whatever. After we ate, the light in the room was killer, so I took some shots on retrochrome and killed the roll. This shot of Tim is absolutely awesome. The light itself is attention-grabbing, and I like how it's so blown out that the subject still remains anonymous, except that you know it's Tim because I told you earlier. This shot is pretty great too. I don't know why I like it so much, maybe because it establishes space really well, i.e. the space of a sad hotel room by the highway. Anyway, that was all of the retrochrome. After that, I threw in some Vision 3 250D in the Contax T2, but made a dumb mistake. There was no DX code on the film cartridge, which the Contax T2 relies on, so it defaulted to do 100 ISO. Luckily with my big evolved 8 brain, I set the exposure compensation to 1 stop under, which would get us in the ballpark within about a third of a stop. Was it ideal? No, but it would work for now. Focus. Focus. I never needed anything more in my life. Oh, there it is. The wiener mobile. 250D is actually quite unique because it's actually a cinema film that's been respooled for 35mm photographic purposes. 250D is an ECN2 process film, so it would need to be specially developed. Well, fish takes s***. You're trying to understand the whole concept of your thought process right now. Do you think that all rivers are s*** rivers? I don't know. What's the smart answer? The smart answer would have been not saying anything. You didn't think you liked corn, AJ. I don't like corn. You like corn! The next day was relatively easy again. We had about 220 miles to go to Memphis, and we'd be staying with Tim's brother in a more countryside area outside of the city. Along the route, it was time to flex some 250D. Okay, well, not really. This shot sucks, but it gets better, I promise. At the gas station there, Tim said, let's get some crystal. And I was like, yeah, I guess I'm down, but turns out he actually meant this burger spot. Eventually, we arrived just outside of Memphis and crashed pretty hard. Not like our bikes, but we were super tired. It was probably whatever was in those quote burgers end quote. The next morning it was time to party in Memphis or whatever they do there. I don't know. This shot is great. It sincerely reminds me of an Edward Hopper painting, except that it's void of any humans positioned in a way that evokes the longing for something better, which seems to be a running theme of his. That and apparently post-nut clarity. Yeah, I got all of your DMs. You guys can stop sending me that now. At the end of the day, we decided to go to base pro shops, because I guess Memphis has a giant pyramid that's more or less a cultural icon in that area. I will say at sunset though, the 250D really shined, blooming all these colors into this fresh, orange, red, warm blend that can't be beat. After all was said and done, it was nice to have a down day, especially because we somehow messed up and booked a 360 mile day to somewhere in Missouri. Being fresh out of icy hot and not wanting our asses to burn even more, we reconstructed the route and had our stopover take us to Springfield, Missouri. Unfortunately, either way, we would have to pass through Arkansas, which was my own worst fear, and apparently Tim's too, as we shrugged to each other, trusting that daddy Google Maps knew where to gently guide us. I honestly expected this shot to turn out way better. I mean, it's fine, I guess, but it's missing something, and I can't quite place it. Missouri was cool, which might be the only time anyone's ever muttered that statement. But it was at this gas station, I realized that my license plate lost a bolt and was starting to fall off. Anyway, it wasn't anything an unnecessarily long screw couldn't fix. We eventually arrived at our stopover town, Springfield, Missouri, and stayed at a hotel that was at least 95% empty and definitely gave us some haunted vibes. The floor also looked like slabs of meat, which was kind of hot. We didn't really know much about Springfield, so we decided the best course of action was to get f***ed up at a cracker barrel and see what 65-year-olds are hyped about. I will say, the light in Springfield that evening was absolutely killer. Still nursing my 250D, I shot some incredible photos of the hotel, like this one. Yo, artsy with it? You know what? Just say what you want to say, which is I deserve best cinematographer of the year, okay? As we headed out that morning, we were filled with hope and ambition as we were en route to Kansas City, one of our favorite places that we visited on this trip. And yeah, the 166 miles wasn't going to burn a hole in our asses, you know, besides the one that's supposed to be there. But first and foremost, Waffle House, where I just had to order the blue waffle. After a short ride, we made it to Casey, but our honeymoon suite wasn't ready, so we headed down the street to get a beer or 12. Anyway, after winning several billion dollars and not losing any money at all whatsoever, we decided it was time for the meat sweats. After all, Kansas City is known for barbecue. Is that big nut sack energy? Did you want to get some beer or something? If you want to, yeah. I don't know, I feel like it's a tradition at this point. Alcoholism? I mean, technically anything's walkable. Whilst out on a beer run, I snapped this shot super quickly and I don't know what to make of it. I guess it looks pretty cinematic. After waking the next day from some crazy barbecue meat dream visions of the future, we took a moment to enjoy our down day in Casey. I also shot this first thing in the morning and I love it. I feel like it tells a story, a story of Tim not wanting to eat his soggy hotel egg breakfast. Eventually, we went a little stir crazy and got out to shoot an abandoned high school in the area and I knew the 17 to 35 would be the right tool for the job. This place was super cool, creepy at times, but awesome. I love a lot of these shots. I mentioned it in a different video, but I really feel like pushing HP5 two stops kind of darkens the shadows at the point where it kind of hides all the graffiti and other bulls*** that's present at places like this. I really like this wide shot. Between the bloom from the lens, the symmetry and the silhouette of the wall frames, I think it's one of the best I shot there and I could feel it in the moment I took it. It was just one of those rare ones where you already know. Later on, it was time for more barbecue because we certainly wouldn't regret eating barbecue two days in a row. This one came as a recommendation from the meat master himself, Caleb. After grossing out everyone around us by straight up sucking the meat off the platter, we decided to head downtown to a rooftop bar. The view was beautiful and the ambiance was nice too until our guide here started sandblasting the s*** out of a nearby building. I mean, I guess it's a cool little detail in the photo. Back at the hotel, I decided to load more 250D. I mean, sin is still 400D. Unfortunately, the roll kind of ganked up the camera a bit and it made a weird noise, so I have to keep an eye on that. But hopefully, it'll make it a little interesting by shooting some air chrome today. Hopefully, Kansas is as green as they say it is because we're going to be seeing a lot of it. This shot on air chrome is awesome. It's definitely one of my favorites from the trip. It's just simple and yet abstract enough to work well. I would also have to say that the lighting was good. After cruising for what felt like an eternity, we stopped at the gas station in the literal middle of nowhere where I shot some more air chrome. I like this shot a lot, but I wish the sign wasn't so blown out. If you squint and look closely, it says something about lunch. Eventually, we made it to Dodge City, which back in the old western days had a reputation being quite sketchy. And I'd say that the place hasn't changed much since then. We stayed at this convention center or hotel that I'll probably come back in a year or two to shoot, you know, when it's actually fully abandoned. It was pretty much a ghost town in there, except for this couple screaming at each other in the hallway. So if that's the kind of vibe you're into, then look no further, I guess. The Contax T2 was, unfortunately, still having issues with the Cinna Steel 400D, so I rewound it back into the cartridge and hot swapped in some Kodak Gold instead. Anyway, we decided we had enough of that city and it was time to get the f*** out of Dodge. So we left at early as s*** o'clock because we had 355 miles to go that day to the great sand dunes of Colorado. The sunrise that morning over the plains was absolutely stunning, with its timeless, yet booming orange and pink pastel colors that I shot on black and white. En route, I was reminded of how flat Kansas actually is, flatter than a pancake, if you ask some people, which made me want pancakes. It was another long day of riding, but after mastering turning, I figured I'd start working my way up to learn how to ghost ride the motorcycle. Step one, no hands. Step two, throw yourself off the bike while maintaining perfect balance and watch it fly off into the sunset. And step three, call AAA. Anyway, it was time to camp for the first time in over a week and conveniently, it was also the first time in over a week, it would absolutely dump rain. What a f***ing coincidence. At our campsite, we met up with Brendan. You might also remember him from the Glacier National Park video. I'll see you guys later. That's all I needed. Well, Brendan was a true homie and saw two road-worn losers right there in front of him, so he brought snacks and dinner for the night. Of course, no good deed goes unpaid and since we had no money on us, well, I'll let you fill in the details. We decided now was as good a time as any to head down to the dunes, so we packed only what we needed to survive and made our way over. Hurry up and take a dump. The dunes were super cool to see in person, but I also had to wonder how a giant litter box is just out here in the middle of nowhere. After running up that hill, like Kate Bush always wanted and totally nailing it, we somehow lost Brendan amongst the dunes. This shot of the deer is pretty good, especially when you punch it and realize it looks like a nightmarish omen. As Brendan was slapping his meat around again, we huddled around the campfire and talked to our camp neighbor for a little bit, who told us she saw a nine-foot sasquatch in the Yukon one time. A different neighbor also gave us some homemade banana bread that was absolutely killer as well. I think because there was a hint of cinnamon in it, but I'll never truly know, and I think the mystery made it taste better. After talking, I found out that this neighbor also used to shoot infrared film and currently shoots a like a cue, so we were kind of on the same page. I just pretended like I didn't hear him when he said he didn't like the 500 series hassies. That morning I shot some air chrome of the gang around the fire and I turned them into lemons again, almost kind of like one of those old psychedelic album covers. After all was packed up, we headed out as a cute little threesome towards Albuquerque, something like 233 miles. Through we stopped at a restaurant to try out some famous New Mexico green chilies, which was so spicy it nearly killed me. Eventually we arrived at Brendan's place and dried off a bit before yet again pissing ourselves playing phasmophobia. Dude! Well that new scene too at the birthday party where somebody's like opening a camp corner and you see the alien like step out and they get it like clear as an egg. The next morning our egg daddy was taking care of us by making some egg and jalapeno burritos. Jalapenos are cool and all but it's kind of like the cops showing up to a house party. Everybody out, you know what I mean? Regardless between Tim and I, there was still beef in the air. The whole trip Tim was talking big sh** about how he's faster than me and I just couldn't let that bullsh** it slide. Go! While Tim probably would have kicked my ass, he did lose on a technicality but that won't stop me from telling everyone I smoked his clown shoe wearing ass. It was also here in New Mexico that we came up with the name for my bike Rusty because we'd seen so much rain that the aftermarket bolts on the bike were rusting over. Oh well, gonna have to do a major clean and overhaul of old Rusty when I get home anyway. Brendan took us to the balloon festival that evening but it got rained out even though there wasn't any rain because I guess the rain was just following our asses everywhere. That's okay though, we saw them from afar the next morning. Sadly that would be our last morning in Albuquerque as it was time to head west about 207 miles. About halfway through the ride we started seeing this literal black hole rain in front of us. While simultaneously both apathetic and scared sh** us, we put on our rain suits again for the impending piss storm. As if things weren't bad enough to make things worse, I soon found a nail in my tire. At my lowest for the trip and just feeling defeated, we stopped by several tire shops hoping to get a patch and eventually my boy Chris at Speedway Power Sports took time out of his busy schedule and hooked it up for me. We can also plug it as well. Just my own experience, I've had good luck with them. It would be a band-aid over the issue but hopefully it would get me back to LA where I would need to replace my tires anyway. It was time to stupidly put this half destroyed and plugged up tire to the test with some muddy dirt trails that Google Maps somehow classifies as a road. Eventually we made it to our campsite for the night an off-grid tent Airbnb thing on this ranch in the middle of nowhere. That was a ride. That was kind of cool. That was sketchy. This tent was super cool and we caught it at a good time with the sun going down and a beautiful rainbow in the distance. But the more we stayed there, the more weird it got. For starters, there was this guy who operated the ranch and he lived with like six women. Now, I don't want to assume but I've seen a couple of cult documentaries and like, yeah. That and I don't really trust anyone that uses a one wheel. It was Tim and I's final night together alone and we had to make it special so I ate some ravioli, dutch oven the whole tent and fell asleep by 8 p.m. Later on that night, the neighboring plot of land must have gotten in some really heated argument because Tim could hear them arguing about how they wanted to kill each other and literally threatening to kill all of us at the ranch too. Naturally, I slept through all of it because I'm an asshole but I think Tim was just glad to be alive the next morning. Upon waking up, we were half surprised to find everyone had hightailed it out of there and we were alone. So naturally, we GTFO'd the f*** out of there as fast as possible that morning and headed out into the rain. Yeah, it was raining again because why the f*** not at this point? The road out of there was definitely more muddy than before but the rebel handled it like a champ though I'd be lying if it didn't make me think about getting an african twin in the future. That day, we had about 200 miles to go to Tempe, Arizona to face our final boss, our friend Sean. Upon arrival, I just had to shoot some air chrome of the neighborhood. It was too sunny and green to pass up. Anyway, after pounding some shots down, we headed over to Oktoberfest and hopped on the Gravitron to get the puke and rally phase of tonight's drinking out of the way. The rumors were true. Today was in fact the day. Not only was I violently hung over but we were about to get f***ed by a different force of nature. California gas prices. That's right, we were heading back into California to meet up with our ladies and Caleb. After slogging it through the desert into Joshua Tree, we finally arrived at our campground for the evening. Where Sarah was already waiting for Tim to arrive. But more importantly, she was waiting for me to arrive to hand me a cold hard desert brewski. Hey, good to see you. No more alone time, Tim. Eventually, Monica, Caleb, and the light of my life Baxter arrived and the party could officially begin, even though Baxter betrayed me and liked Tim and Sarah better. It was really good to see everyone again after such a long trip, about six weeks in total. You can also make the argument that I like manure too because everything's made with cow s***. But more importantly, Caleb and I had some film to shoot I still had some HP-5 and my Nikon F2 to kill off, which I did, but I don't really love the shots. I've been to Joshua Tree officially a billion times now and can never seem to get photos I'm happy with there. The next morning, Baxter was exhausted from partying all night, but we had to hit the road. Tim and I still had about 130 miles to complete our trip and our asses weren't getting any less flat. Now battle-worn and unshowered for like three days, Caleb shot a couple of images of us and our bikes to commemorate the near end of the trip. The kind of shot I'll print out and get framed one day. Eventually that was that. Tim and I parted ways and I distinctly remember it feeling like black and white slow motion with the graduation song playing in my head for some reason. The truth is, it was a difficult trip, but for as many lows as there were, there were also incredibly high highs. The roads out there are just absolutely beautiful and we met so many characters along the way, a lot of which aren't even in the video. I think my favorite places is definitely had to be camping on the island in upstate New York or maybe Kansas City or Albuquerque. But speaking of favorites, before I wrap up this video, I'd like to quickly thank my favorite website building tool, Squarespace, for sponsoring this video. Squarespace is an all-in-one website building platform that allows you to create the coolest website you possibly can. With all the tools you might ever need at your disposable bill of website, I found the only limiting factor to be my own imagination. If you're a photographer like me, it's a good idea to have a place online to display your work for potential clients or even just to show your family and friends what you've been up to. I personally have been using Squarespace for the past four years to host my own photography portfolio and it's been a very straightforward process for someone like me who's simply started from the ground up, which is incredibly easy to do because Squarespace offers hundreds of professionally designed template options ready for you to build off of and make your own. With an intuitive user interface that allows you to construct to your heart's desire, Squarespace makes it easy to put your personal touch on your website. And if you're running to any hiccups, Squarespace offers 24x7 award-winning customer support. So what are you waiting for? If you're ready to build a website, you can start a free trial today at squarespace.com slash grainydays. And if you use the code grainydays at checkout, you can get 10% off your first purchase. It's worth mentioning that I've actually cleaned up the bike since I got back and all rusty is running better than ever. This was a trip that I'll probably never get to do again, but it's also a trip that I'll never forget. I learned a lot about myself and about gas prices, but I think my biggest achievement out of this whole thing is only dropping my bike once and kind of on a technicality. Perhaps overall, the truly biggest accomplishment for us on this trip was that Tim and I can still look one another in the eyes because we never had to see each other naked. And yeah, finally, if you watched all the way to the end of this video, congratulations. I shall reward your patience and perseverance with a little insider tip. All the aircrumb that you saw in this video is not actually air a chrome, is actually a cheap and fake copycat recipe that is in its final stages of testing, which makes the sound way more legit than it actually is.