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[OM] (OT?) Back From Southwest Trip

Subject: [OM] (OT?) Back From Southwest Trip
From: Johnny Johnson <jjohnso4@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 25 May 2006 22:22:52 -0400
Hi folks,

Got back yesterday from the trip to the Southwest.  Drove ~6400 miles 
over 31 days through parts of thirteen states but about half of the 
miles were spent driving around in Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New 
Mexico.  Among other things we visited six state parks, five national 
monuments and eight national parks.

The primary kit that I planned to use consisted of a Canon body plus 
six prime lenses (Olympus and Contax) ranging in focal length from 
24mm to 200mm.  The gear fit nicely in a Canon backpack and I had 
used it for several months here in Georgia on short day hikes and the 
combo had performed nicely.  But thank goodness I also included, in a 
separate pack, two zoom lenses to cover the same range.  The local 
hikes had been on typical north Georgia trails to waterfalls 
primarily.  I'd only stop to take pictures two or three times each 
hike and there was always a nice place to lay the backpack while I 
sorted out which lens I wanted to use for the shots.  The first hike 
on the southwest trip was in completely different conditions - lots 
of dust, lots of sand, lots of wind stirring up the dust and sand and 
no place to lay the pack down except in the dust and sand.  Plus, the 
scenery was so different to me that I was constantly wanting to stop 
and take pictures which meant laying the pack down in the dust and 
sand to swap lenses.  Did I mention how much dust and sand that was 
blowing around while I tried to do that?  Anyway, I decided that less 
lens swapping would be better so the first night I exchanged the 
primes for the zooms and stayed with the zooms for the balance of the 
trip.  As a side note - the Canon body performed perfectly the whole 
trip - the mode dial didn't mysteriously change position once (just 
as it hasn't in the past nine months) and I was wasn't plagued by a 
sore right thumb from holding the camera.  ;-)  I did have one mishap 
though.  When I opened the hatch at the Petrified Forest visitor 
center the backpack came rolling out and fell about 30" to the 
pavement before I could catch it.  Luckily the only damage that I've 
found so far is a crack in the hood for the 24-70mm zoom.

A few comments/observations:

The part of the southwest that we visited is mostly on the Colorado 
Plateau and, as such, is high desert and they don't get many good 
rains there.  It's dry, dusty and sandy.  Sure is some fantastic 
scenery though.

The best state roads were in Arizona - wide, smooth, straight.  The 
best Interstate was I-40 in Tennessee.

I saw more Frenchmen (and women) in a month than I did on a week long 
visit to France.  I guess the weak dollar makes it very inexpensive 
to visit here and lots of Europeans were doing it.

I saw lots of guys wearing what looked like "pedal pushers".  I 
wonder if that's a European thing or maybe a California thing?  You 
sure don't see guys wearing anything like that around here.

The least we paid for gas was $2.659 per gallon in Tennessee.  The 
most we paid for gas was $3.259 per gallon at the Desert View service 
center in the Grand Canyon national park.  Just outside the south 
entrance the price was $3.359.

I believe that the majority of Hummers sold in the US must be to 
Californians and a goodly portion of them were visiting Sodona at the 
same time we were.  Please don't ask what I was doing in Sodona.

Some of my favorite moments were hiking in out of the way places like 
the Wire Pass wash and driving the unimproved roads like Buckhorn 
Wash and Cottonwood Wash - beautiful views and little to no people.

Some of my worst moments were at Zion, Bryce, and the south rim of 
the Grand Canyon - loads of tour buses and lots of people that 
haven't learned how to lock their car doors with the remote without 
pushing the button twice and causing the car horn to beep!  I'd like 
to string up the engineer (or marketing guy) that thought that was a 
desirable feature to add.

If I'm ever out that way again I'll spend more time seeing less 
places.  Being there just one or two nights doesn't do a lot of them justice.

Thanks for listening - I'm off to look for a bag that will hold a 
body and five or six primes and that will also allow access without 
laying it down.

Oh yeah, also thanks again to all those that suggested eating 
places.  I didn't get a chance to try any of them though.  I did try 
to find the place in Tuba City that I believe Winsor suggested but 
didn't have any luck.  Maybe it has closed down.

Later,
Johnny

__________________________
Johnny Johnson
Cleveland, GA
mailto:jjohnso4@xxxxxxxxxx  


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