The Pacific North West road trip looms and I have been immersing myself in Americana to get in the mood - as if that needs any help!
The holiday officially began on Thursday with a gig from Angel Snow at Nottingham’s home of Americana, the Running Horse. Angel has an astonishing voice and also, surprisingly, does a passable Tom Waits cover … you be the judge:
A few additions for the road trip playlist methinks.
I’ve also started re-reading Desolation Angels - Jack Kerouac’s journey of self-discovery whilst spending a summer as a fire lookout on Desolation Peak in the North Cascades. I will be passing within range of this and contemplated the hike up, but the “strenuous hike if reasonably fit” characterisation was non too inviting.
We’ll see.
Maybe I will take the standard US approach of photographing from a distance. Mount Hozomeen also features heavily - almost as a character in the book, but this is deep into the mountains towards the Canada border, so unlikely to catch a glimpse.
Some last minute tweaking to the itinerary was in order today as I noticed that I had a couple of somewhat too epic driving days. So long Mount Rainier - getting good views of Mt. St. Helens takes precedence - and I’m fairly sure that I will catch a few decent views of Rainier enroute.
Ethan mentioned a petrified forest which sounded worth a look. I hadn’t spotted it while planning, but it’s absolutely on my route. I chose to take this as a good omen that the gods of road trip planning are looking favourably on the trip!
Right, time for online check-in