Roadtrippin’

“To move, to breathe, to fly, to float,
To gain all while you give –
To roam the roads of lands remote,
To travel is to live.”

― Hans Christian Andersen

Like Another Planet

We hop in the car, zoom down the highway for twenty minutes, then turn off of the paved road. Dirt crunches under the tires of our Crosstrek, behind us a huge cloud of dust. We bounce around in our seats as Neil steers toward the pinnacles, dodging rocks poking out of the ground. Twenty more minutes pass. I look down at my hands, suddenly in large white gloves, my body in a loose white suit, fans whirring, the weight of a helmet on my head, gold visor tinting the view. I hear a voice through some static babble in my ear. We are about to land on another planet.

Winter View in Lone Pine, CA

The air is cold, a strong breeze blows hair across my face. I try to grasp the view, both mentally and with my camera. I take in the beige brush and boulders that look like summer against the winter white snow peaks in the distance. I just stand there, almost paralyzed by the view. The way the light carves out each rock, the fog lingers in the mountains. It’s almost impossible to really wrap my head around the scale and scenery I get to witness. It feels surreal. Eventually I lift the camera and look through the viewfinder. Inside the little rectangle, with the familiar light meter and dark peripherie, the view suddenly seems easier to absorb.