The Drive Begins

Today we start our drive cross-country! We’ll go from Anderson, SC to Nashville, TN where we’ll stay with a high school friend for the night. From there, on to St. Louis, MO and then continuing towards Oregon.

View and add to our route here, and again I’d certainly love to hear more feedback on what we should see and eat along the way. We’ll do our best to post daily photos of the journey, and of course, we’ll be tweeting along the way, hashtag #SC2OR.

On the top of the front page of the blog, a real-time Google Latitude map will track our progress.

Hot Air Balloon!

Last weekend we took a hot air balloon ride; my first ever. It’s such an incredible experience, and I really recommend you take one if you have the opportunity. Early morning is of course best, for the light and the cooler temperatures. Unfortunately our day was somewhat hazy, although it was still a fantastic experience.

I’ll do a story on it later with more pictures (there are some really fun ones of everybody setting up the balloon and filling it!); for now just these two photos will have to do. The first is probably my favorite from the journey, and it’s likely not the view you’d expect to see!

Hot Air Ballooning in Anderson, SC @ June 2011 | Canon EOS 5D Mk II & 24-70mm ƒ/2.8L @ ISO 160, ƒ/6.3, 1/80

Pointing straight down can give an interesting view of the world. To really achieve the effect, I think you have to really point straight down; the slightest angle skews the view. From a balloon, that usually means that part of the basket will be in the shot. For this shot above though I was able to zoom just past the basket and catch the reflection of the balloon in the marsh below.

The second is obviously just the trees alone, and I love the contrast and peculiar perspective.

Trees From Above @ June 2011 | Canon EOS 5D Mk II & 24-70mm ƒ/2.8L @ ISO 160, ƒ/6.3, 1/80