Monday 13 December 2010

Thousand Mile Photos

My regular readers will know that while I was on my tour, I stopped at every thousand miles point on my journey and took a photo looking forward. Most of the time, this meant just stopping, grabbing my point and shoot camera, jumping off my bike and taking a quick picture at the side of the road. I posted each of these, but this morning I collected them together to look at them all. Here they are....

29th June 2010. 1,000 mile point, near Ellsworth, in Maine....





















7th July 2010. 2,000 mile point, in Charlestown, Rhode Island....





















14th July 2010. 3,000 mile point, near Jeffersonville, in Vermont....





















21st July 2010. 4,000 mile point, at Little Erie Beach in Angola, New York....





















28th July 2010. 5,000 mile point, in central Milwaukee, Wisconsin....





















3rd August 2010. 6,000 mile point, near Pipestone, Minnesota....





















8th August 2010. 7,000 mile point, near Oelrichs, South Dakota....





















14th August 2010. 8,000 mile point, in Gillette, Wyoming....



























18th August 2010. 9,000 mile point, near the Beartooth Pass, Wyoming....





















27th August 2010. 10,000 mile point, near Mirror Lake, Utah....

















3rd September 2010. 11,000 mile point, at Grand Lake, Colorado....





















13th September 2010. 12,000 mile point, near Wetmore, Colorado....





















20th September 2010. 13,000 mile point, Dolores, Colorado....





















25th September 2010. 14,000 miles point, Clifton, Arizona....





















3rd October 2010. 15,000 mile point, Route 66 near Kingman, Arizona....





















12th October 2010. 16,000 miles point, near Sedona, Arizona....





















15th October 2010. 17,000 miles point, near Moab, Utah....





















21st October 2010. 18,000 miles point, near Gunlock, Utah....





















27th October 2010. 19,000 miles point, in Yosemite, California....




















4th November 2010. 20,000 miles point, near San Simeon, California....



















11th November 2010.  21,000 miles point in the Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, California....

16 comments:

Axel said...

Still checking your blog :) impressive collection, some pictures and roads look very similar, like 6 and 7.000, shows how big but still uniform the USA can be. 1,000 miles in the UK or Europe, and you are on a different planet.
And on 8,000 - where is the Leading Ladies?

Chris said...

great to see the progression! thanks for posting these again.

redlegsrides said...

Gary, nice photo series, kind of like seeing your route in 1K mile increments.....

How's life treating you in the UK?

dom


Redleg's Rides

Colorado Motorcycle Travel Examiner

Mr. Motorcycle said...

It's amazing how much the wcenery changes every 1000 miles. What a cook idea taking thos pictures and posting them in order.

SonjaM said...

Nice collection, and interesting to see how the landscape changes, with the bike being the only constant in it. Also, curious how adjustment to the 'old life' works for you.

Bluekat said...

It's fun to see your ride from this perspective. Interesting to see where the odometer had you stopping each time another thousand rolled over.

Arkansas Patti said...

Love the diverstity of the landscape in each shot.well most shots. What a great idea. Just those snippets make me want to definitely see Colorado and California. Thanks.
Hope your bike made it home safely.

Mike said...

Very nice photos of those milestones, Gary. It's interesting to see the landscaped at each point and it really puts a perspective on the scope of the trip. Thank you!

GF said...

Nice idea to show the progress, beautiful photos. I'm curious, how many pictures, good/bad did you end up taking?

FLHX_Dave said...

This must be the "special features" or "director's cut" section of your tour!

My vote goes to Oct 12th, 16,000 Sedona, AZ for best 1k pict.

You know what sucks Gary? You got the bug now and there ain't much keeping you sane from here on out. My bug was in submission, but you have reactivated it....THANKS ALOT!!!

Eve said...

Although Gunlock Az is my favorite photographically, my two real favs are the one with you and Jackie and the one where The Ladies are parked on the left side of the road!! hahahaha! Great post Gary!

BeemerGirl said...

Fabulous! The distance is just incredible. I'll bet those images bring back wonderful memories when you view them. I certainly enjoy seeing them...wishing I were there too. :)

Gary France said...

Axel – I agree, some are very similar and some different. On 8,000 miles I was on a narrow slip road leading to an Interstate so I didn’t want to hang around. I took the picture when still sitting on the bike.

Chris – You are most welcome!

Charlie6 – Life back here is good. I have got over the shock of the end of the tour and now trying to catch up with all the things that need to be done because I was away for so long.

Mr Motorcycle – The individual pictures themselves are not great, but shown in a series like this seems to give them something else. I think it is the fact of the progression that is appealing, not the pictures themselves.

Sonja – Adjusting back was difficult initially. It went like this. Week 1, it was hard to remember to drive and the left and I didn’t like the cold. In week 2, I was feeling very lethargic and didn’t do much. In week 3, I realised I had a lot of things to catch up and started to do them. In week 4, I have started to think about the next trip!

bluekat – I agree, it is fun to look at it like this. I might put these pictures in the book in a special chapter just showing this progression.

Patti – Sadly my bike is still in California. LA customs do things differently than NY customs and that has lead to confusion and delays.

Mike – I agree about the perspective. Seeing the pictures together like this brings a new dimension to those pictures. It brings scale I think.

George – Good question. I took just over 20,000 pictures. Many of these were bracketed, so I think in the order of 12,000 were unique pictures. Of those I am guessing I would be happy or very happy with less than 1,000.

Dave – For most of these pictures I just stopped as close as I could to the thousand mile mark, walked back a few paces and took a snap. Most of the pictures are therefore not terrific individually, but the whole is definitely greater than the sum of the parts. You are right and I have got the bug. My mind has already turned to the next trip....

Eve – Thanks. The one where I am parked on the left was on a one-way road. I wasn’t drifting back too early to the British way of riding!

Lori – You are 100% right - each of them brings back great memories for me and the distance adds the sense of scale.

Oz said...

Great photos. I love it. I think it is a great way of documenting your trip. Thanks for sharing them in one post.

Maybe you can post other "groups" of photos - national parks, bloggers you met, etc.

jay said...

great collection ... nice pictures.. nice blog....

Gary France said...

Oz – Thanks. Ever since getting the idea riding along one day, I had planned to put them all on one post and I am pleased with the way it came out. Thanks for the suggestion of the other groups of pictures. Maybe I will do that, but I am still catching up with all the things that needed doing when I was away, so time is short at the moment!

Jay – Thanks very much. I am glad you enjoy it.