Tag Archives: photography

Inscape Column – Snow Falling – PHOTOGRAPH Magazine

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Blizzard in Whistler by Jay Goodrich

The third issue of PHOTOGRAPH Magazine is now out with my latest installment of my Inscape Column – Snow Falling.

You notice it ever so slightly one morning as you take the kids to school, the dog for a walk, or during your morning run. A change. It comes in the form of cooler air, dew drops on the grass in the shadows, or even lower, longer light as that sun crests the horizon a bit later than it did yesterday. The dry browns and greens of summer begin an ever so slight change. The rims of leaves begin to see color. Reds in the east, yellows in the west. The furnace of our hot season begins to wane with every day that passes. Morning dew begins to turn to morning fog. In the beginning the sun breaks through almost instantly bathing everything in an indescribable warm glow. Then as the time progresses the fog lingers and lingers. Sunrise is shrouded in gray. Runs become colder. Kids begin to wear jackets. The dog waits for a bit before asking to head out on a walk.

Then one morning like magic, you hear a click from the living room. A quiet wisp begins to flow from heating vents. The dust that has been collecting there all summer long is backlit by the rising sun in a tornado of swirling and glowing particles. The sleeping dog’s ears rise and her eyes open to its change. Your alarm pops off. You begin to realize how much light is now gone. The sun that used to annoyingly blast you in your eyes at 5am is now rising much further south and its shadows on the walls are longer and more pronounced. The winds have returned and so has the rain. Moments after its rise the sun disappears…download the latest issue to read the rest of the current installment of my Inscape Column – Snow Falling.

Inscape Column – Fall In – PHOTOGRAPH Magazine

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Inscape Column Big Leaf Maple Portrait © Jay Goodrich

Well, the second issue of PHOTOGRAPH Magazine is now out with my latest installment of my Inscape Column – Fall In.

The noise from the seat behind me was ear drum rupturing. High pitched screaming. Kicking. Writhing. Bouncing. Smashing. Knocking. Arms flailing as if they were snakes escaping from Medusa’s head. No words. At least nothing comprehensible. I even sensed some flying mucous and saliva raining down on the back of my neck. It would have been the plane ride from hell, if I were on a plane. No, I was in a crisis of my own creation. A momentary lapse of adult sanity in order to push the limits of human existence. The 35 inch wheels of my FJ spun in sequential rotation up I-90 from Seattle – exceeding “suggested” limits as usual. We were looking for an unmarked fire road that contained, what we were told, was the best vine and big leaf maple of the season.

The monster in the back was my three-year-old daughter Jade. Like an escaped con discovered and caught by Marshals she was having nothing to do with our aforementioned idea. She wanted out of the zebra print car seat and demanded…well she didn’t really know what her demands were at this point. I knew though. And I should have known better at this point. This girl needed a nap. The kind you get in a crib. Behind bars. Once again.

As the truck motored on to higher altitudes with fellow passengers both ignoring the seemingly hour long tirade of the escaped con, the wipers pulled the loading windshield free of water. All I had to do was steer hard right or left to end the pain. Alcohol could fix this…download the latest issue to read the rest of the current installment of my Inscape Column – Fall In.

  • Mountain Biking Forest Bellingham Washington by Jay Goodrich 1

    Original RAW capture untouched.

  • Mountain Biking Forest Bellingham Washington by Jay Goodrich 2

    Mastered original.

  • Mountain Biking Forest Bellingham Washington by Jay Goodrich 3

    Mastered Black and White Favorite.

A Midday Sun Battle

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There are many that believe you can only create a superb image at the edges of the day. The reality is, that even during the long days of summer, during midday sun, you can come up with creative ways of expressing your vision. Weather and schedules don’t always collide to provide you with the best situations. Sometimes you have to make it collide. You have to make your vision come through.

This is exactly where I was last week. When Heather and I left the house, we were enshrouded in clouds. The hillsides were covered with that misty drama that I love to shoot in. This was going to be the day that I was going to be able to get mist and mountain biking in the forest near my home. We dropped the kids off at day-care and proceeded north to the trail that we decided to ride on this day. It was only fifteen miles from our house as the crow flies and as we got closer and closer, the clouds began to dissipate. Before I knew it, we were in full-blown sun. This is where the words that can insult many of you begin to come out of my mouth. My favorite begins with the letter F. It was safe to say that I was generally aggravated with my choice to go further instead of staying where I knew we could succeed. A classic concept of the “grass is always greener” illustrated right in from of my face. At this point in my life and my career, I should know better. Learning experience number 2,546,300, some review of my life may be necessary again.

As I finished kicking the dog, the ground, myself, and my bike, I finished my coffee and decided to just simply go for a ride. I may have returned with something different and I may have not. My images may have all gone into the trash. Heather reminded me that this was all okay. I completely disagreed, but I cleared my head so I could be open to what the day sent me. We agreed to ride a bunch of trails that we have never ridden before in order to see what else was available for future image making. Climb after climb in the sun and heat, I passed by opportunity upon opportunity. The light just wasn’t right. It was high-noon after all.

Just as we came to the finish of our ride, I found what I was looking for. I wasn’t really sure how great the finished product was going to be, but I spent a few minutes having Heather ride my composition numerous times. I varied my exposure and my framing slightly for each image and gave her instructions on how I wanted her to tweak her body position and at which point on the trail. The beauty of digital is that I have the chance to see what I am creating as I create it, so I know when the moment is complete. Usually, it is that last sequence. As I shot the final photograph, I was pre-visualizing it as a black and white, but I wasn’t really sure of the technique that I was going to apply to it. After some trial and error, I ended up using the over exposed highlights of the backlit maple leaves as the whites in my final conversion and then added light to my shadows. I am really happy with the results and the final image, even though it was created in midday light it represents something unique and different.

Maybe the grass, or should I say the leaves, are greener on the other side of the fence if you go beyond those standard expectations?

  • Basalt Boulders at Sunset in Lamar Valley by Jay Goodrich

    Basalt boulders are set against the setting sun in the Lamar Valley of Yellowstone National Park Wyoming.

Manipulation

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My friend and editor Chris Robinson of Outdoor Photographer Magazine did a post on manipulation a few weeks ago to which I addressed a few thoughts of my own. Here is what I had to say:

It’s kind of funny that this post has come to the surface at this moment in time. My opinion has recently changed on this discussion due to a whole slew of new clients. And here is my thinking and the thinking of many of the editors I currently work with.

If it is created in camera and the history to that single capture can be traced, the sky is the limit to how you obtained that RAW file. Filters, flash, lenses of choice, pretty much whatever you deemed you needed at that moment in time to create that photograph, is okay. The initial image should make its statement from the beginning. No crops outside of the camera. Then from a processing perspective, adjustments are allowed to make your image presentable from your view point, but nothing should be added or taken away from that original composition with the exception of dust.

Some editors are even asking that you skip using Photoshop to make adjustments altogether and only utilize Lightroom/Camera Raw. I think that this might be a little extreme, but maybe they have personally been burned too many times and they have decided that drawing the line in the sand weeds out those who try to cover their tracks.

Digital cameras are designed to produce exposure and rendering in the middle of the field to all parties. This is definitely a design decision by the manufacturers and a realistic approach to the photographic process. Not everyone wants to shoot Velvia, nor does everyone want to shoot Portra. So if someone says that they don’t process their image, they obviously don’t know what they are doing or are flat out lying.

In this discussion though, the word manipulation is going to come up. And I am finding this word miss used in the photography industry more and more these days. Manipulation reflects a change in that original capture, and not one of minor adjustment. I think the definition of manipulation is when HDRs, multiple capture merges, and adds and subtractions occur to an image. This symbolizes the “untruth” in photography to me, and it is becoming a main reason for so many people always questioning the validity of any beautiful image released to the world. The word manipulate is a very bad swear word in the world of photography and the beginners need to add it or subtract it from their vocabulary accordingly.

Now I know that there are many who would argue HDR is not manipulation. I know this because this used to be my fight. My change is simple, clients like National Geographic, Powder Magazine, Bike Magazine, Sierra Club, and Audubon, Etc., do not accept this work. Thus, in an effort to never send something that deviates from my clients’ requests, I have decided to work wholeheartedly for the in-camera response. And I have to tell you that it has made me a much better photographer because of it.

Photography is a hard medium and artistic expression to really define. It captures reality to some extent, but it truly doesn’t go to the point of painting, nor to the point of what we witness seeing through our own eyes with everyday life. It is a sort of skewed reality. We adjust what our viewer sees from the point at which we pick a lens that is not 50mm. And even then, we can change our view point from there on what we decide to highlight in our composition. This whole discussion is an argument of grey areas, of reactionary dualities and ironies. And in as much an artistic personal expression as the medium itself. Though, I do find that standing behind the justification that it is art and I can do what ever I want, not quite as valid now.

Don’t get me wrong either. I still think HDR is cool. Merging exposures is a great way to solve light issues that were never solvable before and to those using them more power to you. I have decided to let go of it and purely create with my black box to what is standing before me in any given situation. Again, partially, because of my client base requests and partly because my life in the office has become simpler because of it.

Yes, I do process my images. I add contrast, color changes, saturation adjustments, curves, levels, dodges and burns, vignettes, highlight adjustments, shadow adjustments, global and selective tweaks. My RAW does show exactly what I was thinking, just on a much more muted palette and that is okay. It is not missing the star trails, or the tree in the corner that I just left in because I was too lazy to move the camera figuring I could crop it out later. Do I have those HDRs, merges, and Content Aware moves? Yes I do. And this is my final point, I tell those interested in using them that the image was worked that way. If they decide to use it at that point, THEY MADE THAT DECISION, not me.

What is your point of view on this topic? Let us know.

  • Skiing Out of Darkness Mount Baker Washington by Jay Goodrich

    Owen Dudley skis out of the darkness during a brief clearing in the backcountry near Mount Baker Ski Area.

That is the Sound of Inevitability

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I stood there looking at myself in the mirror. The scene unfolding was reminiscent of a Hunter S. Thompson novel. Gritty face. Bloodshot eyes. A general foggy demeanor spiraling around my hungover head. The girl that was to become my wife was lying naked in the bed behind me. It was my first commercial photo shoot, there is absolutely no reason that I should be feeling this way. I grabbed for the Advil, Alka-seltzer, and water, need water. My tongue felt like I was a cat preparing to cough up a hairball. It is safe to say there were sweaters covering my teeth. I heard the music of last night’s party still ringing in my ears. I vaguely remember some nakedness to the point of mild porn in the gondola last night with hand-held flash going off as random as a dance strobe in a techno bar, but the fog was doing its best to hide any and all of those embarrassments. Did I really take it this far? I mean, I got paid to do this to myself. This was only a wedding for god’s sake. Was this going to be the rest of my life and career?

Almost two decades later, I was in the same place. A mirror, in a bathroom, with sweaters on my teeth. In Vancouver this time, not Vail. Yes, I was shooting an assignment. This time about the Olympics and ski dirtbags. It’s good to see that many things have changed and many things have not. I am married with two kids now. My wife told me to go and have fun. This wasn’t feeling much like fun. The dirtbags woke me up off of my couch at about 2am as the whole party went nuclear. Much like the light porn I still vaguely remember from the wedding in Vail so long ago, it began with a concept, a contract, and unlimited handshaking, touring, and of course skiing. I only remember my friends prying my eyes open and asking if I was awake. The smell of spilled red wine, tequila, and beer permeated the condo. We were supposed to ski today and the snow was falling out of the sky like never before on this journey. Very similar to the brain cells that were littering the floor before me.

My life consists of writing, photographing, and family. Sometimes there is a little sleep thrown in there, but most times not. I pushed for this career, I dreamt of it, I wished for it, and there are many times that the dream of frolicking through the wild flowers without a care in the world turns into the Freddy Kruger of nightmares. Like I have always said and probably always will, lob the grenade into the room first, then head in, resurrect the broken and busted survivors to do it again on another day. Would I change my life? Sometimes there are parts that I would. Spending more time with my family so they don’t hate me so much, and trying to be a better man, I seem to be caught in the phase of always trying. I am standing on the precipice of 15 years as a professional photographer and writer and I am only truly scratching the surface of that lifestyle and occupation.

Many ask me how I do it? They want the remedy to fix their dreams, hopes, and career paths. My advice is always-Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you cannot do something. Envision it and go after full-tilt, like you were running from that brown bear and your life depended on it. The results will be shocking, almost to the point of perfection, if you stay away from the psychotic episodes. I have brought my entire personal life to my career and vice versa. I live the dream and the nightmare, every day. It is safe to say that tomorrow I will drop another monster backcountry line full of cold smoke powder and on Sunday will be shooting another hotel for Hilton. It’s all about living in balance with the world, nature, family, and concepts. Some days it’s as perfect as three feet of consolidated, bonded, trackless powder and other times that it is as rotten as a freezing trend after ten inches of rain. It is safe to say that tomorrow, I will fix the hand grenades of today and the cycle will continue. Inevitably.

Tree Whore

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Burned Koa Trees on Mauna Kea Hawaii by Jay Goodrich

There are millions of fetishes out there. Sexual. Professional. Libational. Nutritional. We humans all have our weaknesses. Hell, I even heard of woman who is obsessed with drinking gasoline. Gasoline? Every day is a learning experience I guess. My first encounter with a tree was when I was about five. We had this slanted maple in the front yard of my parents house that just begged to be climbed. It was an early spring day at age five that I climbed that sucker for the first time. I remember it so vividly, blue hooded sweatshirt, jeans, white Nikes with a red stripe. I remember the knees scraping along the bark as I squatted my way up that thing. Lime green budding leaves of spring. Blue skies with high puffy clouds. A brisk breeze in the air. Maybe my obsession started there? Are there any kids that don’t love to climb trees? I think it is a right of passage. Those trees got bigger and bigger as we got older and evolved into other trials. I went to bikes, then to skis, then to rock, and then full circle again.

Deep Snow at Mount Baker Ski Area by Jay Goodrich

For the last twenty years of my life, one of my main obsessions has been photography. I have lived it, breathed it, fretted over it, cried over it, and fought it exclusively every day. I can tell you that if you can visualize it, visualize anything, you can make it happen. Think about the placebo. P.O.S. The power of suggestion. Maybe that is where our fetishes come from, a place we cannot stop turning deep in the folds of our gray matter. A reality we just need to taste. Day in and day out. “It’s like acid in your veins.” Maybe. Those freakin’ trees of my youth have become somewhat of a fetish of my adulthood. If I have a camera anywhere near me, I am going to shoot the shit out some poor tree somewhere in the world. I spent days working trees in China, an afternoon in a backyard quiver in Hawaii, weeks of bristlecones and pinyons in Colorado, and now the firs and maples of the Pacific Northwest. I can smell those twisted and gnarled formations of Big Sur the second I exit the plane in San Fran-like a bloodhound on an escaped con.

Foggy Winter Forest Washington by Jay Goodrich

It is safe to say that trees do it for me. I am a whore for them. What is it? Their lines. Shapes. Trees are sexy. You can spend hours on just one seeking a literal composition or breaking it down to the most abstract of forms. Broken lines, smooth lines, crooked lines, disrupted lines, burnt lines, dead lines, living lines, limitless. I can’t stop nor would I ever want too. Maybe some day, somewhere I will be able to put them to rest, but for now the obsession continues. I can’t wait to see what I will find out there in the forest tomorrow, or the next day, week or month. I know they will be there sitting waiting for me to train my eye on them, not with hatchet or saw, but with a black box full of technology. My friends are now getting into it too. Whenever we are out shooting they point out what they think might make a good composition and inevitably they are fueling the fire. A bonfire now with gallons of gasoline thrown on it.

Cactus and Pinyon Single Track Mountain Biking by Jay Goodrich

In a way maybe the need for those trees is my way of exploring a little environmentalism? They do create the oxygen we need to breathe and they need our CO2. We are destroying them by ten-fold on a minute by minute basis. And in turn we will probably destroy ourselves. Plant the trees. Save the trees. If for no one else then a self-proclaimed professional photographer, writer and tree whore. Ok. I need to go have a cigarette. I hope that was as good for you as it was for me. If you need to find me, I have a date with some wood, out in the woods.

Koa Tree Wind Hawaii Volcano by Jay Goodrich

In the End What Will You be Known For?

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Kids Destroy Photographic Print by photographer Jay Goodrich

I have witnessed some major changes in photography throughout my career. I remember the days when you had no choice but to get the shot in the camera. If you missed, that was it, the scene was history. You took a chance every day that you set out on an assignment or a project with the film that you chose, the lenses that you carried, and all of the miscellaneous gear that you brought to accompany your specific mission. Now you have more options than ever. You have choices. “A little bit of variety.”–Natural Born Killers. You can create black and white images after the fact. You can process images as if they were shot with a Lomo camera. Even cross process or bleach bypass an image with a click of your mouse.

And now more than ever before, photographers are discussing, to the point of arguing, over the most minute technical limitations of every new piece of equipment that is being released. They tout those creating with iPhones. Complain about autofocus. Freak out over diffraction. Complain about noise levels in digital sensors. The list could take up this whole post. Does owning a brand new Canon 1DX make you a better photographer than me? Or Ansel Adams? Art Wolfe? Frans Lanting? Or any other pro out there? Or any other photographer out there? I recently read an interesting post by Trey Ratcliff discussing why he is not even interested in the brand new Nikon D4. Did you become a photographer to spend thousands upon thousands on equipment? Or is photography a true enlightenment for you? A creative passion? Is there a voice in your head that makes you see the world and create a picture because of what you see?

I say it often, and to many people, over and over again–simplify and free you mind. I cannot tell you how many images I have created with my iPhone that I truly love. In the same thought, I tend to use a specific tool for a specific task. I don’t create an HDR image because that is what the competition or trends are doing. Nor do I shoot with the most expensive Canon equipment for the same. In fact I am currently in the process of lightening up all of my all of my gear. I just purchased a thirteen inch Mac Book Air to replace my seventeen inch Mac Book Pro. I am switching many of my f2.8 aperture lenses to lighter f4 ones. Freeing my mind so my soul will follow. And I have to tell you it is an enlightening experience.

In the end do you want to be known for blowing your kid’s college education on camera bodies and lenses? Or do you want to be known for capturing a brief, fleeting moment in time that speaks to someone else’s soul? I will choose the latter every single time. And if you take all of my cameras away. Smash all of the computers. Burn all of the paper. Destroy all of the forests. I will keep those visuals I have seen through out my life, to myself and share those experiences through the campfire with only those closest to me. My life will always be complete. Now the biggest question is–will yours?

E-books on Time and Processing Techniques – Great Gifts for Any Photographer

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I am friends with many professional photographers. Some of them are really famous, while others like myself, are in the process of making names for themselves. The amazing thing that transcends all of them is the fact that none of them believe they know it all and at the same time they are all willing to share the aspects of knowledge that they specialize in. I can actually say that I do not have a friend in the photography world that hasn’t inspired me at one point or another.

I have been traveling for a ridiculous amount of time. Pretty much non-stop since September. While this allows me very little time in the office it does afford me some time on airplanes and in hotels. Instead of sitting there and losing my mind, I tend to work my butt off. One of my missions is always to learn more and figure out how to implement what I have learned into my professional career and business. On a recent Alaska Air flight I managed to read two great e-books by two of my well respected friends and photographers.

Creative Processing Techniques in Nature Photography Cover

The first book is Creative Processing Techniques in Nature Photography by Guy Tal. As some of you might have read from a previous post, Guy’s first book was a personal favorite of mine explaining concepts and ideas that I didn’t even understand in a clear and concise way. Creative Processing Techniques continues Guy’s search for excellence. His images and writings connect the very place in which he lives to the very being of his existence. I understand why he is so successful at what he does because his surroundings give him the driving force and inspiration to do so.

Creative Processing Techniques not only explains how computer image processing works, but it dives into the often forgotten why. Guy defines why he uses one technique over another and suggests that you the reader define your personal goals for your images prior to even opening a photograph in Lightroom or Photoshop. Every chapter is followed by an exercise that will help you understand what was previously written about on your own. He also includes an extensive overview of how Photoshop works and how it is an integral part of his image making process. He walks you through using Curves, Saturation, and Layers. This book is packed full of explanations and techniques that not only the beginner, but the seasoned pro can benefit from, and like his previous book, I learned something–a new way to blend two different exposure valued images.

Photographing the 4th Dimension--Time Cover

The second book is by Jim Goldstein entitled Photographing the 4th Dimension–Time. Jim is one of the most intelligent people that I know. He not only understands the creative side of photography, but he truly grasps the technical side as well. I guess that is why I email him every time I need advice on social media and the way the web works in regards to photography. I was in California during my travels this fall and made some time one evening to have dinner with Jim in San Francisco. During dinner he told me about the book he was working on. It was one of those situations where my jaw dropped and the straw to my margarita fell out of my mouth. Now why didn’t I think of that great idea? Because Jay, you are a dumbass.

Photographing the 4th Dimension not only explains the techniques in a simple vocabulary, but it explains how the human perception of time works. The how-to for star trails, time-lapse, and a technique that I have never even heard of–Cinemagraphs are covered with great detail. Cinemagraphs are a way of using Photoshop to illustrate a motion sequence within a still photograph. Really cool. Jim’s book also gave me a script for a technique that I am currently using to create star trails. This is going to help me speed up the process of creating those images ten fold now. The last two pages of the book include a folding field checklist that you can print and take with you to make sure you remember everything while you are out in the wilds at night. Yet again, life made easier by reading.

I am hoping that you have yet to purchase a holiday gift for yourself or someone you know because both of these e-books will keep your bank account full while giving you the knowledge to take your photography skills to the next level. Again, beginner through pro there is something here for each and every one of us to utilize.

Well, what are you waiting for…begin downloading.

  • Autumn Northwest Forest Mountain Biking by Jay Goodrich

    Single speed gearing and wheel with big leaf maples in Anacortes, Washington.

Vomit Incorporated – The Return of an Old Friend

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Reset the clock to fifteen years ago. I was upwardly mobile in the architecture and construction industry. I had money. I had toys, many toys. And I was in the process of purchasing a racing machine. The goal was one of the simplest ideas and yet one of the most difficult to complete. Create the lightest mountain bike possible with the least amount of money expended and make damn sure it had class, style, and a bit of flair that would have other riders asking themselves, “What the fuck was that?” The project came together with an overwhelming success. I purchased a hand made, custom sized frame from Independent Fabrication. This was an employee-owned, start-up company in Somerville, Mass. A company full of bike builders that were left high and dry by their now estranged boss Chris Chance, who was the founder of another bike company that went by the name of Fat City Cycles.

The frame was steel and tipped the scales at less than four pounds. The completed bike only weighed 21 pounds. It rode like the wind. And was my favorite bike to date. I raced it, road it, and cared for it like it was one of my first children. It was a relationship of obsession. It made it through three 24 Hours of Moab races before it succumb to complete and total devastation. In the bike’s defense, the final Moab race was like none other. It was a Mother Nature experiment gone wrong, really wrong. The desert was angry that day my friends like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli. The skies dumped ten inches of rain in what seemed like minutes. It turned the microscopic sandstone dust particles into a brake, bearing, and bicycle destroyer. You could literally swim to the finish line after the final turn in the race course. My wonderful machine lost its life that day. Frozen, rusted, and abused beyond repair. Well, almost, another plan came together.

A year later the IF was resurrected. New paint, and a new purpose in life. A self-imposed torture machine. You see, instead of returning her into the lightweight 24 speed racer that she was, I opted to convert her into the power of one. A single speed mountain bike. And now she was even lighter, stronger, and faster than before. Now if you have ever tried to ride a single speed mountain bike, you will know that it isn’t the initial experience leaves you asking for a…better one. Actually it is torture. You ride and ride hard. My resurrected steed quickly got the name of “The Vomit Comet”. There were very few rides during its initial season that didn’t contain a vomit session from yours truly. This actually went on for a few years. Eventually I got stronger and stronger and learned how to ride some of the hardest rides in the Vail Valley with only one speed.

I quickly began educating myself on how not only to ride a single speed, but how to cheat with it as well. See, you may be limited during your ride, but the key was always figuring out what gearing you needed before getting out on that trail. You didn’t want to walk, but you didn’t want to scorch up the steepest sections with ease either. It was the ultimate balancing act. Then one day during a typical two hour ride, the sound of inevitability chimed. I over-torked my rear wheel, put a huge flat spot in it, partially because of a bad wheel build, (not by me) bringing the trusty machine to a halt. Major surgery was the only way to fix her. She was hung up for a while as I began adding miles to a brand new bike this one had many speeds and a lot of suspension. Then we moved from Colorado to Washington. And now we come to present day.

There she hung in the garage next to the other five bikes. Cob webs gathering. Covered in dirt from all over the country. Colorado. Utah. California. Two days ago the doctor (that’s me) decided to see what could be done. Surprisingly, with some spoke loosening, a bit of pushing, hammering, truing, ball scratching, lube, and some air she awoke like Frankenstein. Still with a minor limp, but one that could be worked with for now. “What is thy bidding my master?” “How ‘bout a ride?” Day two and counting. My body is completely sore and tortured, again. She is loving the Pacific Northwest. This bike was created by East Coast woods riders. It is nimble and accelerates like a top-fuel dragster. And yes, she still owns the name, “The Vomit Comet”. Yesterday was a homemade quesadilla, strawberries, and a handful of chocolate chips. Today was bow-tie pasta with mushroom marinara and some animal crackers.

The beauty of riding a machine like this is that it makes me feel, other than sick, like my favorite t-shirt from Patagonia–Live Simply. No shifting. Brakes that barely work. Top fuel acceleration. And precision handling for the woods of the Northwest. Living Simply and loving it! I was going to have eggs for breakfast tomorrow, but figured that wasn’t the smartest idea. Day three is about to happen.

The Road Trip

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The Truck Stop in Green River, UT by Jay Goodrich

I am sitting here reliving my youth. It’s the same damn nightmare I remember, just different. I am driving on Interstate 84 finally headed home from a two-week long trip to Colorado. And, I am in fact twitching like a patient in a mental rehabilitation center. Is that the politically correct way to say that? If not, Lord I apologize.

Do you remember that nightmare? I don’t think there is an adult in their mid-forties that didn’t have the same nightmare as I did. A dark green metallic station wagon, simulated wood grain side panels with dark green metallic vinyl upholstery. Windows sealed tight. Air conditioning off. Dad chain smoking Parliaments and on enough coffee to kill a small horse. Mom reading a book or taking care of the whining kids in the back. Kids almost in tears to the point of twitching themselves. Those kids were me and my sister. My father trying to break the land speed record that he apparently held from last year’s trip to Yellowstone, Yosemite, or Disney Land. It doesn’t matter. I remember the chatter on the CB radio. And the whip antenna on the back chrome bumper of the green machine. “We’ve gotta Kojak with a Kodak at mile marker twenty five.” “Breaker one nine, breaker one nine.” The CB was the size of a large toaster. The car had an eight track with some kind of country-western crap playing over and over. Finally, at the breakdown point, my sister asks, “Are we there yet?”

Campfire Movement by Jay Goodrich

These road trips were a right of passage for most kids my age. I remember writing of them often when I returned to the school year, as did most of my friends. This was our little part of history. We stayed in hotels, motels, parks, campgrounds, and even in the metallic green monster itself. We snuck sips of Budweiser from our dad’s beers when they weren’t looking. Sometimes too many sips. We peed on trees far and wide. Ate hot dogs, hamburgers, and beans. Tons of beans. Then of course there were the s’mores. Hershey’s, marshmallow, and graham crackers. Not to mention the snacks that were full of sugar along the way. A bribe, to keep our mouths shut. Didn’t they realize the sugar was the cause of all of their problems?

Heather Goodrich Dropping into "Flushed Away" by Jay Goodrich

Am I hitting a chord within your soul yet? Enter 2011. Road trip rights handed over from our parents to Heather and me now . I am thinking of that line in the Matrix Revolutions, Morpheus looks at his ex-girlfriend Naomi as she asks him to dance, “Some things never change.” Then they hear her current boyfriend call her name, and he finishes with, “And some things do change.” Yes we have traded the green machine in for a Toyota Matrix on this trip, sometimes we take the FJ. We don’t smoke, we do try to break our personal records, knowing all too well that it will only be possible if we actually break the speed limits in larger quantities than previously. I truly now know why you try to break those records though. Because the faster you get there, the faster you get out of the car and away from the screaming kids. Heather does read. I can actually type on the laptop thanks to learning to fly an airplane in IFR conditions-that motion sickness thing kind of goes away. We both drink tons of coffee. We both drive. And we both argue with the kids and each other. The car gets trashed. The kids freak out. Although not as much as I did. Maybe it’s all the movies on the iPhones and soon coming iPads.

Jade Goodrich Giving Mark Kogelmann some Attitude by Jay Goodrich

Is it worth it? Well as an adult, if you actually take the time to look around while traveling, yes it is. You will quickly realize that those pieces of Americana that you remember from your youth do still exist. There are places in Idaho where the seventies never left. The worlds biggest frying pan is still in Kansas or close to it. And now you can beat your parents records because your car can actually travel faster on less gas. All this is contingent on the fact that you can put up with your kids and your spouse long enough to survive the journey. Yeah it’s safe to say that I wouldn’t trade any of this. What’s that saying? “Life is worth the journey…” Good feeling gone. I have to go, Jade wants to know if we are there yet.