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Deciding not to make any snaps digitally on the return trip so that I could illustrated the entries was an excellent choice. In choosing not to the snaps made were not a reiteration of what I thought or did but have become a remembrance.I stated that map-less, I was unsure what small town I was in specifically knowing that it would have been less of a problem digitally as all would be in order. With the extended wait until I could develop the film – Carol breaking her arm and school starting – I thought that it would be even rougher but with the lesser images made, there was of my memory to fill in the gaps.It seems that the outing was worth it. I am not sure how good the images are as I was photographing things that, while I didn’t mean it, scream souther. I was more in search of sense of place habitation - so steering clear of the Wal-marts and generic suburbs that one runs across – an irony with a stereotype as what can be more southern than Wal-mart and any big city has a suburb.I was hoping that I was looking for the same type of specifics as when I was wandering the North-East in Minneapolis and fixating on taverns, or the taverns in Baltimore. The conveniences when I was in Vermont anything that wasn’t a chain. I realise that it seems when one aims a camera when one isn’t on the interstate it is hard not to scream nostalgia but nevertheless, I was curious and was photographing the objects of my curiosity.The computer is to flying as the darkroom is to driving. While awaiting the particular task to be done one can surf youtube, check e-mails, update their facebook site. In the darkroom one pretty much has to concentrate on the task at hand.As the darkroom is meeting in the glim, driving is meeting on wheels needing to concentrate only so much one might as well put one’s life in order.

I also liked riding about with a camera, and while, this time having a place to go, not really having a time where I had to be there.
This wasn’t a particularly long trip, but this was one when I never really had to “make time.” The Great Trek North (and East) to Bonne Bay and Beyond had me nervous on making the ferry reservation in North Sydney, even so we risked stopping a couple of times along the way.I was relieved on how easy it was for me to stop and if my brain was working slowly, turn around to get back to a point with potential although at times I wondered if like on the rock, I could stop anywhere and walk. When there was light, I couldn’t have “made time” if I had tried.
All my geriatric cameras performed admirably, no light leaks and except for the lethargy in the cold no ruined negatives – I caught the refusal to work in the cold so one neg was blank on the trip.I don’t know if I liked black and white so much as I didn’t miss colour. 36 rolls of film to develop in a day is manageable. I think that I do like the distance that black and white implies.

What this does is open up new destinations. Forget about US12 to Minneapolis, am thinking Winnipeg, then through the lakes. Then the mythical town of Flin Flon on the Saskatchewan border, Provincial Route 2 to it terminus way up in black fly country. I head to a map to find roads that not only connect places but are the only connexion.